WHAT IS #PORTISFIELD?
Picture
Hamish Young RWA MRSS with his installation ‘FIELD’ | Image by Alan Harrison Photography

WHEN #PORTISFIELD TOOK PLACE:
SATURDAY 23rd SEPTEMBER &
SUNDAY 24th SEPTEMBER, 2023.
WHERE #PORTISFIELD TOOK PLACE:
THE FOLK HALL, 95 HIGH STREET,
PORTISHEAD, BS20 6PR.

​FIELD was a site-specific sculpture, an art installation, and a community participation event by artist Hamish Young RWA MRSS, that took place during ARTPORT2023 - Portishead Arts Festival - over the course of the 23rd and 24th September 2023.

Visitors were invited to take part in this unique community art event by visiting and experiencing the installation, then choosing a shell to take away with them.
Each shell was accompanied by a certificate of authenticity stamped #PORTISFIELD. The hashtag serves to distinguish the Portishead FIELD from other Field works by Hamish Young; and to distinguish this particular installation from any future site-specific FIELD installations. The #portisfield shells and certificates are unique to Portishead.

⭐️ So what happens next? ⭐️

#PORTISFIELD • WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

The #PORTISFIELD hashtag is a way for us to find out what happened to the installation shells after they left the main sculpture field. It is a way to keep the individuals connected to the whole.
​
If you visited FIELD, took a shell - or didn’t; stayed an hour - or just a minute; we would love to hear from you.

On this page you will find ways in which you can reconnect with the installation experience, and share your experiences, thoughts, feelings, memories, acts of creativity - and the location of your shell.

YOU CAN:
1. SOCIAL MEDIA
• Share pictures and comments on social media, tagging your posts #Portisfield. We will track the hashtag and collect these posts together and share them.
2. BLOG
• You can also share your thoughts and experiences on the #PORTISFIELD blog page, in the comments, where we hope there will be the opportunity to share, connect with and respond to others’ thought and experiences too.
#Portisfield Community Blog
3. EXPLORE #PORTISFIELD via the EDUCATION PACK
• If you are an educator or work with community groups in any way, you may wish to make use of the free Education Pack written by the artist which accompanies the installation. Download the PDF from the icon on the right.
If you would like to receive a package of shells to accompany any project work, please contact the artist directly here to discuss your requirements.
4. SHARE YOUR STORIES
• If you’d like to share a longer version of your experience, feelings, memories or emotions triggered, you can use this form, and we will add it to the archive. Please indicate if you wish to remain anonymous, or prefer that your submission is not published. You do not have to provide your name or contact details to complete and submit the form.

    My #PORTISFIELD 

FREE
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE PACK

This pack is intended for use by educators. It provides background information about Hamish Young and the making of Field as well as outlining some themes, discussion prompts and learning activities.
These activities could form part of an existing project. They are suitable for the Key Stage 2 and Key stage 3 curriculum and can also be integrated in delivering the GCSE and A level curriculum.

ABOUT
​FIELD | HAMISH YOUNG RWA MRSS
​A UNIQUE, COMMUNITY ART EVENT IS COMING TO PORTISHEAD

​ArtPort is delighted to present FIELD by artist HAMISH YOUNG: a unique, participatory art installation created for and within the community of Portishead.
FIELD by artist Hamish Young is a specially commissioned artwork created from 27,000 hand-cast plaster shells, moulded from shells collected from around the south west coastline. In this work, each shell represents a local resident - each of the 27,000 people who call Portishead ‘home’.
The installation will be housed in The Folk Hall, an accessible community space in the heart of Portishead High Street.
Hamish and ArtPort invite everyone to come together and be a part of this organic art installation. Whether you live in Portishead, or are visiting our wonderful festival, there is a shell for you to choose and take away with you to a different place, a new home. The gradual erosion of the sculpture field will be documented in a time-lapse film and you will become a part of the story.
This is art for everyone. Come and connect.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ARTIST HAMISH YOUNG |
​Click on the image below to watch our specially commissioned short film.
HAMISH YOUNG RWA MRSS
Hamish Young is a highly regarded artist who has chosen to make his home with his family in Portishead. His work is an exploration of his life and history. Adopted as a baby, the concepts of home, belonging, connection and the sense of ‘being in between’ are central to both his life and work. The act of collecting shells or stones from a beach resonates with his childhood experiences of being removed from one place and brought to another. Hamish describes Portishead as “the first place I’ve ever really put down roots and made connections.”

For more insight, watch our ARTSTORIES short film in which Young speaks about his life experiences and their impact on his work in greater depth.

BIOGRAPHY

HAMISH YOUNG RWA MRSS Hamish Young (b. 1972 Rotherham, UK) studied sculpture at the Royal College of Art. He became a Royal West of England Academician in 2021 and a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors in 2022.
His work is held in the Victoria & Albert Museum, Royal West of England Academy and private collections. He is an artist, author and educator.
Young’s work has been exhibited at Royal West of England Academy, Royal Academy of Arts, Saatchi Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum. His work is regularly selected in prize exhibitions including the Wells Art Contemporary Installations, New Light Prize, ING Discerning Eye, Trinity Wharf Drawing Prize. He was the winner of the Visual Arts Open in 2019 and awarded first prize for three dimensional work at Wales Contemporary in 2022.

Young’s work is autoethnographic, concerned with formalising ‘in between’ spaces that manifest in various ways including crossing the boundary of sculpture and drawing, objects or materials being
removed from one place and placed in another, and subject matter of physical spaces that are between states. Through allusions his work triggers metaphors and personal associations.
Visit Artist Hamish Young’s website: