Atmospheric Forces is a new art-work by Sheila and artist Sue Palmer, currently in development.

The piece is imagined as a performance that takes place around a long table, with audience free to move about, as materials and objects are placed on, around and under the table, alongside sound, film and spoken text. The art-work will unfold into an event, with a series of inputs from other connected perspectives including scientists, historians, designers, artists and writers.

As artists, Sheila & Sue’s work is shaped by the journey they take as they create the work - through the research, conversations and exchange with people and materials along the way. Conceived as a sister piece to Common Salt - a show and tell work about empire, nature and memory - this new work builds on their practice and enquiry.

Atmospheric Forces: minerals, air, atmospherics, species, cars, colonialism, human-nature relationships, rocks, geology, the passing of time, lifeforces.

Atmospheric Forces is being made through a series of week-long residencies in four locations: UAL Wimbledon College of Arts (School of Performance and CCW Research), Somerset Earth Sciences Centre, University of Reading’s Department of Film, Theatre & Television in partnership with South Street Arts and RADAR/LUArts in Loughborough.

Once the four making residencies are completed by the end of the summer, Sheila and Sue will return to share the finished work at events in Somerset, Reading and Loughborough from November 2024 onwards.

The project is supported by Arts Council England, UAL: Wimbledon College of Art & RADAR/LU Arts.

Atmospheric Forces – origins and beginnings

The initial development of Atmospheric Forces began in 2020 through University of Reading’s ‘Work in Progress’ – a joint project between Reading’s Department of Film, Theatre & Television and South Street Arts, funded by Arts Council England. Atmospheric Forces is the second in the Elemental quartet of works in development by Sheila.

Impacted by the Covid pandemic from 2020 to 2021, the residency development took place largely online. In their research, Sheila and Sue connected with academics and researchers in Meteorology, Architecture and Design at Reading, and curated an online public event in June 2020. The artists invited guest speakers to respond to the question ‘Atmospheric Forces – what does this mean to you?’ as well as presenting their own research:

Jane Trowell – Art educator, curator and environmental justice activist, who works with arts-activist research organisation Platform London (UK)

Deepa Bhasthi – Writer and Farmer (India)

Andrew Charlton-Perez – Associate Professor in the Department of Meteorology, University of Reading (UK)

Harshavardhan Bhat – PhD Researcher with the Monsoon Assemblages project at the University of Westminster (India)

Marlene Creates – Environmental artist artist working with the boreal forest, climate and weathering in a 6-acre patch of old-growth Boreal forest on the island of Newfoundland, the ancestral unceded homelands of the Mi’kmaq and Beothuk (Canada).

Ollie Douglas – Curator of MERL Collections, University of Reading (UK)

A work in progress was then shared in October 2021 around the campus at Reading, including the MERL, for students and staff, continuing to open up the themes of nature, colonialism, memory and connectivity.