Late Shows opens doors to exciting possibilities
And here's one door to include in your culture crawl
The Late Shows is when cultural buildings across Tyneside aim to woo new audiences by opening their doors after hours. But with so much to see in a short time, which doors to choose?
One you should include on your Saturday night itinerary offers a glimpse into the past and a vision of a more sustainable future – although a leap of the imagination is required.
That’s why an artist was sought to work with researchers from Newcastle University who are exploring the potential of mycelium, the underground root network of fungi, to be an eco-friendly alternative to conventional building materials.
It is, according to Dr Jane Scott of the BioKnit team at the university’s pioneering Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, “a bit of a wonder material” – versatile, biodegradable and a step towards construction becoming a cyclical process rather than a linear one ending in landfill.
But it was to convey the ‘wonder’ that Creative Central NCL, charged with putting cultural boosters under a Newcastle city centre zone encompassing Clayton Street and Westgate Road, commissioned an artist to work with the scientists in creating a Late Shows attraction at the Coach House, just off Charlotte Square.
It was a challenge that made Imogen Cloët’s eyes light up, perhaps like those of the stuffed Alsatian she remembers when we meet at Newcastle Arts Centre.
That was in the days when she was wholly immersed in theatre and designing the set of Noir, a memorable Northern Stage crime caper by Peter Straughan whose screenplay for Conclave recently won him an Oscar.
Eric Morton, jovial resident taxidermist at Newcastle’s Hancock Museum (now Great North Museum: Hancock), happily lent her the dog.
“We used two lights and a battery pack so its eyes lit up,” recalls Imogen with a smile.
Her vivid imagination has helped to enliven stage shows and heritage properties including Cragside, Belsay Hall and Seaton Delaval Hall, where her playful interventions are a permanent attraction.
A person you can rely on for a dash of wonderment, she recalls her immediate response to the Creative Central call-out.
“I thought, brilliant! As an artist, I get sick of working alone. I miss my theatre days of collaborating and I love the work they do at the Wellcome Trust, bringing artists and scientists together.
“It’s about learning, putting your head in a world you wouldn’t ordinarily have access to. Scientists and researchers think differently to artists so collaboration is a positive thing.”
Arriving for our chat with a copy of Entangled Life, the book by fungi expert Merlin Sheldrake, she explains: “I went off and got it because it’s a world I didn’t understand.
“I didn’t even know what mycelium was, only that it was this fungal thing. I just wanted to learn.”
From the BioKnit team comes the scientific thinking behind the Late Shows collaboration, a desire to use the Coach House interior “to scaffold the growth of a cocoon-like textile that encases living mycelium and natural fibres”.
Imogen’s role they saw as enhancing the visual impact of their creation and inviting people to reflect on how biotechnology can transform our built environment.
Imogen, who loves an old building, began researching the Coach House – “going down a rabbit hole,” as she puts it – and discovered it was linked to the hotel which occupied No. 1 Charlotte Square in Georgian and early Victorian times.
Currently it belongs to heritage architects Mawson Kerr who plan to make it their new base.
“But before that there was Blackfriars and the gardens where they grew medicinal herbs, so there’s a nice idea of healing and growing which connects with this living structure within the space,” says Imogen.
“That was a little thread I could hold on to.”
She takes me to see the Coach House which abuts the cobbled passage linking Blackfriars with Charlotte Square. I’ve walked past it many times without noticing.
She indicates the big sliding door and, set into it, the much smaller door which can be pushed open.
Imogen loves this little door. “It’s that whole Alice in Wonderland thing,” she says, alluding once more to the rabbit hole.
This is where people will enter. Possibly someone will guide them. There will definitely be a sign because she has had one professionally made, and inside there will be… well, that would be a spoiler.
But Imogen has worked with lighting designer James Froment and has created an atmospheric soundscape.
“What I’m doing is creating a journey through the building for a Late Shows audience,” she says.
“It’s a particular kind of audience, fast-flowing because people want to get round as much as they can, and not too contemplative.”
If Lewis Carroll was in Imogen’s mind, what she describes makes me think also of John Wyndham and his sci fi thrillers. But we’ll just have to wait and see.
Last word to Dr Jane Scott: “Collaborating with Imogen Cloët has been fantastic. She has really seen our work in a different way.
“I never thought of BioKnit as theatrical before but the experience on Saturday night is going to be pretty magical.”
The Late Shows starts on Friday (May 16) in the Ouseburn, from 6-10.30pm, and continues on Saturday (May 17) when the other Newcastle attractions will be open (also 6-10.30pm) along with those in Gateshead (6-10pm).
Entry is free. Check the Late Shows website for details.