Film screening and Q&A, Norman Anderson and Ian Nesbitt
Watch together the film screening of ‘Not only can I not draw a dog, I don’t know what a dog is’ through Facebook Live. A collaboration by artist and filmmaker Ian Nesbitt and Norman. The film explores the 3-way relationship between Norman, his artwork, and this new part of his psyche.
Norman Anderson has been many things, but being an artist and a quaker are the things most important to him at this stage of his life. Having discovered both during a spell in prison, on his release he moved to Bamford Quaker Community in the Peak District and completed an MA in fine art in Sheffield.
In summer 2018 Norman suffered a serious stroke. Having lost many powers of language and speech, he has had to renegotiate his relationship with the world, with the support of a speech therapist. Months passed and eventually Norman was able to return to the studio and think about making some work. At this point, an extraordinary thing happened. As he began to paint, Norman found himself uttering incantations in a language he didn’t understand, in his words a ‘new and ancient language bubbling up from inside’.
Ian Nesbitt, Artist’s Bio:
Ian Nesbitt is an artist, filmmaker and activist, interested in creating spaces for exchange that go beyond the everyday. His film practice focuses on exploring identity and community through making work collaboratively, often using chance interactions to open up personal and shared terrains.
Before the COVID-19 lockdown in the UK began. Ian was to be shortly setting out on a 220 mile pilgrimage on foot. This would be a symbolic act of protest, a pilgrimage for peace, and a plea for a common future. After his project, ‘New Ways’ had to stop before it could even begin, Ian has been re-formulating his thoughts and energy into a remote public collaboration, ‘THE FUTURE IS..’. Still motivated by the necessity of ‘New Ways’, Ian still intendeds to collect and share acts towards visions of a positive future society. Fuelled out of the precarious political climates, Ian believes ‘To challenge the politics of isolation, we need tactics for togetherness’. Bringing people together is a primary incentive for much of Ian’s work. Encouraging society to look through ‘one lens’ to a positive future for ourselves and the planet.
