Leonora Oppenheim

‘What’s Mine is Yours’, @no6bruton , December 2024. Holding up the trees. Experiments in form. An offering. #no6bruton #artinstallation #residency #projection #photography #drawing #community #participation #landscape #biodiversity #ecology #ecosystem #movement #prayer

‘What’s Mine Is Yours’ @no6bruton , December 2024 The joy of inviting my neighbours and friends to draw with me was a wonderful antidote to the often isolating feeling of making work as an artist. It was also an opportunity to let go of control, which works against my instincts but nevertheless is a theme that comes up again and again in my work. The element of chance is vital to keeping some energy in the creative process alive and kicking. After the first day of a free-for-all resulted in a wall of snowmen - seasonally charming, but kinda off piste - I introduced some rules. Only blue shades, responding to the projected image on the wall. These two simple caveats helped create a distinctive, magical atmosphere. I love this series of images of different people joining in. It was messy, fun, experimental. And most importantly, created new connections between me and my work and me and my community. Underneath the dynamic of co-creation, not entirely explicit, was an exploration of loss in our ecosystems and the impact we have on the non-human world around us. Writing and rewriting the story of the landscape, constantly erasing, obliterating, drawing over ourselves. An endless cycle of destruction and creation. Huge thanks to: @aliviles for the opportunity @gfsmithpapers for paper sponsorship @sara__mellone @zerlinaalchemy for installation support @danielhirschmann @chris_roberts_72 @anthony.dickens @bathspaphoto for the loan of their projectors 🙌🙌🙌 #no6bruton #artinstallation #residency #projection #photography #drawing #community #participation #landscape #biodiversity #ecology #ecosystem

Worlding worlds @no6bruton . Thinking of Donna Haraway’s ‘Staying With The Trouble’ as I try various tentacular ways of making a new world inside the gallery. Collaborating with the image and the people who are coming to draw with me. Making kin with the human and non-human. The trees, the photograph, the paper, the coloured pens, the drawers and the drawing, the light, the dark, the lens, the screen, the projection. It’s a bit messy and a lot experimental. There are beautiful moments emerging from the constellating elements. Evolving into a blue colour palette while getting multiple projections and the camera obscura working yesterday were joyful moments of discovery. Love the palimpsest of mark-making and footprints that’s building up on the floor, like geological layers. By appointment this week. Open again 20th, 21st, 22nd December. Do come make this world with me. As Haraway writes… “It matters what matters we use to think other matters with; it matters what stories we tell to tell other stories with; it matters what knots knot knots, what thoughts think thoughts, what descriptions describe descriptions, what ties tie ties. It matters what stories make worlds, what worlds make stories.“ ‘What’s Mine Is Yours’ 10-23 December, 2024. #Bruton #Somerset #art #installation #participatory #drawing #projection #cameraobscura #landscape #community #DonnaHaraway #stayingwiththetrouble

Delighted to have opened my collaborative drawing installation today @no6bruton . ‘What’s Mine is Yours’ is on 10-23 December 2024. Thanks to Ali Viles for the invitation and to all the people who came to draw with me today and in the following days. It’s a beautiful thing to witness people get activated by mark making and creating new little worlds along side my photographs. The conjunction of the two mediums is so enlivening. If you’re in the neighbourhood please drop in to join me in this contemplation on loving and losing landscapes. Each day the slate is wiped clean and we begin again with new marks and new meanings. Extra special thanks to @gfsmithpapers / @rkburtco for their generous sponsorship of this event with their beautiful papers. Alongside many drawings contributed by the community, I have chosen just one photographic image of mine to respond to in a variety of ways. Large scale window banners - edition of 3 A1 archival print - edition of 5 A2 posters - edition of 20 A3 posters - unlimited edition Please contact me for pricing. #Bruton #Somerset #art #installation #drawing #photography #landscape #community #collaboration

“I open the front door to be greeted by a blast of cool air and the darkness outside. I take a breath, psych myself up and step out into the early morning. I have my camera bag slung over one shoulder, a bag of neon fabric slung over the other shoulder, and my camera tripod in my hand. I’m heading for the unknown. At this early hour, all I know is that I’m looking for an adventure. I want to discover something. I want to connect with a new sensation. There is no one about, and I’m amazed at myself, that my curiosity is greater than my fear.“ My new website has an essays page. This makes me happy. It makes me want to write more! This is an essay I wrote last year about my art practice in Somerset. Sometimes, things/thoughts/theories need to marinate in the vault for a while. It’s called “Performing to no one and yet with everything.” A good summation of what it’s felt like to work with my camera in the fields. This week I’m taking the fields inside to @no6bruton for an immersive experience that doesn’t require getting up at 5am! I’m posting the essay with a photo series in which I tried to capture a glimpse of my process. Shot on the eve of my birthday, 3 years ago. July 3rd 2021. /essays

*internal monologue* “You know what you need to do just before creating your installation @no6bruton ?!” “Uhhhh lots of things. The to-do list is long!” “Yeah, I was thinking you need to design yourself a new website.” “Ha!” Typical of my brain to pile more stuff on top of a very big pile of stuff. Luckily, it’s the fastest one I’ve ever done. ⬜️ don’t really need more advertising do they?! But they do make it SUPER easy, so I’m grateful. Bish, bash, bosh! I’m enjoying my new homepage collage and the ‘about’ page looks snazzy too. Whaddya reckon? Deep thanks to the wonderful champion, dear @cerihand for this generous testimonial about my work 🙏💙

You’re invited to join an immersive creative evening of rethinking our relationship with the land @atthechapel in Bruton, Somerset. Loving & Losing Landscapes. 11th December 2024, 7-9pm - book at the link in my bio. I’m delighted @nelsoncamilla , @lottescottartist Jemma Foster @wildalchemylab are joining me for a conversation about our respective creative collaborations with nature. Together our practices span: sculpture, drawing, photography, filmmaking, augmented reality, writing, print, and performance. In this time of environmental crisis, we are four artists working not to objectify or idealise the rural idyll, but to highlight and give voice to the complexity of vulnerability and intimacy that intertwines humans and landscape. I’ve curated this event in conjunction with my upcoming drawing installation ‘What’s Mine is Yours’ on show at @no6bruton , 10-23 December 2024. If you’re in the Bruton ‘hood, please come and join us 🤗🎨🌿 Image credits: 1: At The Chapel event poster 2. Leonora Oppenheim’s ‘What Mine is Yours’ drawing installation 3. Camilla Nelson’s ‘Landscape Transcriptions’ by Tom Goodwin 4. Jemma Foster @wildalchemylab Astro-Botanical Guide 5. Lotte Scott, charcoal making by @davewattsphotography

It’s been a year of quiet focus for me, learning and training in various modalities, but I’m delighted to say I’m sliding in under the wire of 2024 with a drawing installation @no6bruton . Please come and join me for this contemplation on loving and losing landscapes. It’s a community event where you’re invited to draw alongside me in the space, in response to images I’ve taken in the local landscape over the last few years - all are welcome! Since I arrived in Somerset, 5 years ago, I’ve been mulling over the question of how I can get closer to nature. There is something endlessly seductive in this question and endlessly frustrating. How can I get closer to something I’m already inextricably intertwined with? Am I really just trying to get closer to myself?! In my photographs, drawings, and performances I’m trying to capture that ephemeral moment of intimacy and vulnerability that I experience in the outdoors. How do we hold on to something that is constantly changing?! I’ll be drawing in @no6bruton 10-4pm 13/14/15 and 20/21/22 December. Come say hi 👋👋👋 #LEOonpaper #Bruton #Somerset #landscape #performance #drawing #community #collaboration

WARNING: Test For Air, June 17th, 2023. A year ago today the neon spirits of @shatwellfarm came alive and it was a real thrill. Thanks again for the joy of making it happen... Dramaturg: Mary Ann Hushlak Curator: @kendra.matchett Guides: @ashaylarge , Florence Caidan, @tylermooreheadlondon Flagpoles: @eventflaghire Photography: @davewattsphotography Production: @zerlinaalchemy This week, I have the pleasure of sharing this work with the kids at the Avanti School in Frome, together with @carotill who’s spearheaded their incredible two week children-led arts festival 🎉🎉🎉 We’ll be making another flag-led procession to celebrate their community 🫶🫶🫶 @avantiartsfest #embodiedpractice #somerset #landscape #performance #participation #fieldexpedition #walking #artofattention #artseducation

Dreaming in green, June 2024. #embodiedpractice #walking #processing #experimenting #somerset #shinrinyoku

Breaking out, breaking in, breaking down, breaking through? Today’s mood. Something needs to change. Personally. Collectively. Moving my body to feel my way forwards in the dark. ‘I entered blindly’ photographic series, September 2021. #embodiedpractice #movementtherapy #bodyasaresearchtool #aprocessofbecoming

Dancing with the Hunter’s moon. Look up, open wide, turn a circle. Catch the fleeting light on a shimmering surface. Look down, slink into the shadows, edge along the path. - a score for a pas de deux with time. #embodiedpractice #fullmoondrawings #amarvellousnightforamoondance