New Creatives: Exhibition Guide

Hello, and thank you for visiting the New Creatives exhibition. You can find more information about the artists and artworks below, and please ask our friendly volunteers if you have any questions. For more details on opening times, click here.

  • New Creatives is a training and mentorship programme that is helping to kick start the careers of four emerging artists in Calderdale.

    During a six-month paid placement, the artists have the opportunity to earn, learn and create at the same time. They gain valuable skills and mentoring tailored to their practise and are supported in developing a new cultural activity that will engage and inspire the people of Calderdale to be more creative in their everyday lives.

    With the support of Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council’s Culture Grants, New Creatives seeks to address some of the challenges and barriers that exist in the cultural sector by empowering the next generation of visual artists underrepresented by the cultural sector.

  • About Adelle A’asante

    Adelle A'asante, a lived-experience storyteller, hails from a long lineage of West African Griots. She focuses on the sacred art of storytelling as a tool for social change and justice. Adelle is currently emerging as a New Creative in Calderdale, using her artistic practice to illuminate forgotten narratives of marginalised communities, aiming to foster empathy and inspire social transformation. Through the New Creatives traineeship, she aspires to grow as a visual artist, contributing to Halifax's vibrant art landscape, and advocating for fair and sustainable practices in her project exploring cocoa as a pedagogy, an art medium, an embodied absence of the past, and as the Cocoa Artist.

  • About Rachel Rea

    Rachel comes from a costume, textile and theatre designer based in West Yorkshire. Her current work investigates mediums that engage audiences in a sensory way that is perceived using light, textiles and three dimensional forms that make the physical attributes of an installation. The work can be tactile, visual and atmospheric, and with the choice of topics in the work that she makes and collaborates in, these techniques are effective in communicating some pressing concerns of our time: ‘waste and consumption of plastic products and the devastation of vital ecological systems by climate change’.

    Rachel’s artistic practice is a dynamic exploration of material communication, circularity, and the intricate interplay between the human-made and the natural world. Grounded in an appreciation for the multifaceted systems of existence, she often delves into themes of biomimicry, drawing inspiration from nature while integrating closed-loop systems into her creative process.

    Approaching each project with a spirit of openness and co-creation, Rachel allows materials to guide her, fostering unexpected discoveries in mediums such as textile, sculpture, and light. Working with waste materials, she challenges conventional notions of wastefulness, creatively repurposing forms to engage audiences through STEAM-based methods and interactive elements that invite community participation.

Afe Bi Yε Esan - Adelle A’asante

  • Afe Bi Yε Esan, 'The Year of Great Misfortune', is an immersive multi-sensory installation by the visionary artist and lived experience storyteller Adelle A'asante. This groundbreaking exhibition transcends traditional art boundaries, inviting participants to delve deep into the heart of cocoa farming communities in Ghana. Through a fusion of sacred oral storytelling and innovative installation art, A'asante masterfully intertwines the lived experiences of cocoa farmers with the ever-changing climate they navigate.

    Each element of Afe Bi Yε Esan is meticulously crafted to transport visitors into the fabric of cocoa farming life. From the cocoa sacks, bearing traceability numbers connecting to specific villages, to the remnants of traditional Batakari fabrics, every detail serves to illuminate the dreams, hopes, and aspirations of these resilient communities.

    Step into the gallery space and be enveloped by the aroma of cocoa leaves and dried pods, igniting your senses, and drawing you into the narrative. Through sight, taste, smell, and touch, participants are immersed in the complex web of emotions surrounding the cocoa industry, from the bitter realities to the sweet moments of resilience and hope.

    Afe Bi Yε Esan is more than just an exhibition—it's a journey of awareness, empathy, and ultimately, repair. By confronting the challenges faced by cocoa farmers, visitors are compelled to confront their own role in the story and emerge with a renewed commitment to positive change.

    Afe Bi Yε Esan is part of Chocolate Has a Name, a longer project and pioneering initiative integrating cocoa processing and its value addition into the curriculum for children in cocoa farming regions across West Africa. As an ongoing and life affirming work, there will be numerous chapters to the narrative with each instalment being part of the broader Chocolate Has a Name project.

  • 1. The Guardian's Hands

    A collaborative work of Adelle A'asante and the tribe of Africaniwa, primarily composed of individuals with diverse lived and living experiences across the cocoa value web. The focal point of the installation is a larger-than-life representation of a cocoa farmer's hands cradling a cocoa pod. The piece challenges the conventional notions of cocoa sustainability by prompting nuanced discussions around the health, wealth, and wellbeing of cocoa farmers, their families, communities, and countries at large. Made from various materials including handwoven batakari fabric and African-inspired wax prints known as Afe Bi Yε Esan.

    2. Photograph

    Golden ripe cocoa pod with intricate details marked by sap.

    3. Photograph

    Farmer drying cocoa beans, removing stalks.

    4. Photograph

    Water lilies on the farm.

    5. Photograph

    Cocoa sack and cloth hanging on the line against a mud house.

    6. Photograph

    Gathered old dried pods.

    7. Photograph

    Flowering cocoa branch.

    8. Photograph

    Grasshopper on a cocoa tree stem.

    9. Photograph

    Ripened pawpaw eaten by birds and continued eating by flies.

    10. Photograph

    Flowering on a cocoa tree branch.

    11. Photograph

    Dried cocoa pod on the ground with a hole in it.

    12. Photograph

    Agama lizard on the cocoa plant.

    13. Photograph

    Cocoa sacks.

    14. Photograph

    Three unripe pods on the branch: the cocoa trilogy.

    15. Photograph

    Mud house serving as storage unit for cocoa beans.

    16. Photograph

    Cocoa affected by black pod disease.

    17. Photograph

    Cocoa sack and cloth hanging on the line against a mud house.

    18. Necklace

    Glass beaded necklace with cocoa beans at the end.

    19. Earrings

    Cocoa beans and golden ornament drop earrings.

    20. Bracelet

    Cocoa beans and golden ornaments bracelet.

    21. Necklace

    Adinkra symbol three-tiered pendant brass necklace.

    22. Coins

    20 pesewas Ghanaian coin in a coin display.

    23. Baskets

    Farm baskets made from palm fronds.

    24. Machete

    Wooden carved machete.

    25. Dry Cocoa Pods

    Gathered dry cocoa pods, whole and broken pieces.

    26. Dried Cocoa Leaves

    Dried cocoa leaves offering a sensory invitation to explore and reflect.

    27. Cocoa Beans and Nibs

    Cocoa beans and nibs in an earthenware and a grinder.

    28. Beans and Coins

    Wooden bowl with beans and some 20 pesewas coins.

    29. Hat

    Handwoven hat with wide brim.

    30. Basket

    Handwoven storage basket.

    31. Flower Pot

    Handwoven flower pot.

    32. Handwoven Fan

    Extra-large handwoven fan.

    33. Hat

    Handwoven wide-brim hat as protection from the sun worn by farmers.

    34. Cocoa Nibs

    Egg holder containing cocoa nibs.

    35. Drying Mat

    Handwoven mini drying mat.

    36. Beans and Carved Pod

    Metallic Earth bowl with beans and a wooden carved open cocoa pod.

    37. Handwoven fans

    A display of handwoven fans.

    38. Cocoa Beans, Husk and Nibs

    Framed and displayed cocoa beans, cocoa husk, and cocoa nibs.

    39. Afe Bi Yε Esan

    9 pieces of African-inspired wax print of different colors, hanging from the ceiling. This fabric, when introduced to West Africa, was named ‘Afe Bi Yε Esan’ by the natives, meaning ‘the year of great misfortune’. It has long been symbolic of rites of passage associated with death or misfortune. In recent times, the Ghanaian president has been seen wearing this fabric to give the State of the Nation address during the COVID-19 pandemic era.

    40. Afe Bi Yε Esan

    2 pieces of African-inspired wax print of different colors. This fabric, when introduced to West Africa, was named 'Afe Bi Yε Esan', meaning 'The Year of Great Misfortune'. It has long been symbolic of rites of passage associated with death or misfortune. In recent times, the Ghanaian president has been seen wearing this fabric to give the State of the Nation address during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    41. The Wells of Reparations

    Behind the veil with five other woven raffia mats, the Nsubura cloth, and mylar sheet offer an invitation to reflect, along with 12 pieces of cocoa sack each bearing the mark ‘produce of Ghana’ laid on the floor.

    42. Display of cocoa beans, cocoa husk, cocoa lips, and cocoa butter

    A sensory invitation for visitors to explore.

    43. A table with cocoa sacks

    A table with cocoa sacks offering invitations for visitors to make the climate pledge, reshaping the narrative of cocoa sustainability from ‘bean to bar’ to ‘cultivator to consumer’.

Radix - Rachel Rea

  • Radix is an interactive and participatory exhibition created by Rachel Rea and exploring themes around plant sciences, from microbial and visual stimuli to germinating and growing living plants. Through learning more about the complexities of the world beneath our feet, the exhibition explores the pivotal role played by soil health to each stage of our lives and the ongoing climate emergency.

    Radix shows us root systems as a material and a bio fabric that the artist will continue to develop and manipulate as this research-led project continues. Rachel Rea is revealing the unseen world of full civilisations and organisms in the ground that we know so little about but inform our health and each stage of our lives.

    The exhibition acts as an introduction to scientific subjects in a visually stunning and accessible way for visitors. Through a range of engagement activities, visitors will be invited to explore hitherto unknown worlds beneath the ground. Join us to explore using microscopes to look at the microbial world through to examining the health of plants as they respond to the world around us, and embark on a symbiotic and rewarding experience.

  • 44. Wall Photographs 1-4

    A collaboration between Rachel Rea and Dr Paul Know , these images look at a cell and its behaviour when coming together to act as messengers for specific plants to behave the way they are programmed to do.

    45. Wall Photographs 4-10

    A collaboration between Rachel Rea and Dr Catriona Walker, these specific images look at what the cells after they have collected together which run a risk of becoming deformed, this process is called Terminal Differentiation, a term that can be analogised to cancer.

    46. Interactive wall: a contemplative and sensory experience.

    A projection of never-ending root systems that can be built and built upon that welcomes everyone from all ages to make their own roots. This is to communicate how little we may understand and the importance of what is under our feet, paving way into the importance of how connected we truly are.

    47. Archive

    Have a look through this wonderful mechanism yourself and dive deep into a historical human perspective. With thanks to Andy Tootell who donated this archive and his grandfather’s microscope.

    48. Interactive desk

    An experience imitating processes that a plant scientist would go through to understand how much we depend on plants, especially the health and quality for what we need as humans to survive. Take a look at everything on the desk including modern microscopes, showing the advancement of how technology has come over a century.

    49. Research wall

    Continuing our story of plants to the research wall, this phallic structure is smaller than a grain of sand and is called a Meristem. This part of the plant contains multiplying replicating cells that actively extend the plant into the physical seen world that we look at outside of the soil.

    50. Recycled Key Keg Barrels

    Recycled key keg barrels, which are industrial waste from the beer industry that are not reused in this country. Processed, cut down and then sculpted with heat manipulation. Using propagated Cheese plants, Monstera Deliciosa. By the end of the exhibition we will see how roots will mould around these clear unusual creations.

    51. Draw What You See

    Take part in this interactive 'draw what you see' using an overhead projector, light box and digital microscope.

    52. Banners

    These colourful creations are digitally printed onto sustainably managed wood material called ECOvero, a company that makes biodegradable material for clothworkers. This weave is like silk to touch and the print itself is using non-toxic inks.