Stun Collective

21 Segedunum Way, The Forum Shopping Centre, Wallsend, NE28 8JP

Open: Saturday and Sunday, 10am – 3pm and by appointment

STUN COLLECTIVE is a group of emerging female artists, based in the North-East. Using innovative and resourceful materials, they create thoughtful work through their disciplines. By hosting exhibitions, workshops and events, STUN aims to revive third spaces by encouraging playfulness. They intend to combat the lost spirit of abandoned spaces through reconnecting its local communities.

They are a collective of emerging female artists in the early stages of their career. As recent Fine Art graduates, they are hungry to create, make and develop their own artistic space. Their disciplines span widely from textile to sculpture and painting, using innovative and resourceful materials to subvert meaning within their work. They aim to establish themselves in the Newcastle art scene and submerge into local community and its history, to reflect and create thoughtful work. They strongly believe that art should be accessible and inclusive to people in all walks of life.

Their main theme to explore through a collaborate exhibition and workshops, is ‘the death of the Highstreet and its lost communities’. They aim to highlight the growing problem of abandoned shopping districts across the UK, using Wallsend as its Microcosm. Using local dialect, Fraser will incorporate Wallsend’s spoken language in rag rugs, delivering workshops to raise the expectation of traditional craft. McKay will explore forgotten spaces of Wallsend, using archival footage and photography to present work with a duality of hope and loss. Bell-Jackson aims to work with socially disadvantaged groups, through interviews and workshops, to create observational
film.

Catrin Bell-Jackson (b.2000) works between sculpture and sound, prompting feelings of uneasiness in regularity. Bell-Jackson focuses on the contrast between comfort and danger and the sinister undertones of everyday possessions.

Britney Fraser (b.1999) is a Northumberland based artist, specialising in textiles, influenced by mining heritage. Fraser explores themes of identity through handwritten dialect using Proggy mat techniques.

Kitty L M McKay (b.1999) uses plasticine to create work in an intersection between painting and sculpture. McKay explores the playfulness of forgotten leisure and the temporal nature of memory.

PUBLIC PROGRAMME

To better inform their artistic practices, they aim to hold monthly workshops to integrate themselves with the local community. They aim to communicate and create with locals to better explore their theme of the death of the high street. These will include, proggy making, plasticine painting and trauma informed making for different audiences and skill level. At the end of the residency, they will host an exhibition and art auction to encourage the exchange of art and knowledge.