This week marks the end of the Fakenham Arts Festival 2025. I am sad about this as I feel it has brought a definitely buzzy feel to the town over the last few weeks. This might be because people have actually been going out of their way to look at the art in windows of the 60 or so retailers who have participated, or it might be because my door is open and both Shane and I have unusual works of art displayed in our windows which have occasioned a lot of comment.
Shane in the Fakenham Gallery and Framers upstairs, has been hosting an exhibition entitled ‘Censored’ in which the works of art had either been banned or galleries had refused to display them. It comes with a content warning. I personally loved the exhibition, but there were certainly a lot of mixed views on it, as well as some confused tourists who were looking for landscapes of Norfolk rather than the edgy works currently on display. The exhibition includes several works by Terri Broughton, a local artist, who was also kind enough to lend me one of her works to display in my window. This piece is entitled ‘Entangled’ and I chose it because both the figures depicted are wearing rather beautifully knitted gas masks, the originals of which are also on display in the window. Terri’s description of the work is as follows:
“Entangled weaves together the languages of folklore, craft, and performance to explore the complexities of identity and relationship.Two masked figures sit in staged stillness, yet the true story lies in the hands, where a third, hidden presence is revealed.Knitted masks evoke both disguise and ritual, blurring the line between protection and performance. Like threads in a tapestry, their stories are bound together, concealing as much as they reveal.“
It has been fascinating to hear people’s response to this piece. Some are disgusted by it, some have stood in front of it for quite a while and had thoughtful discussions, one person was so outraged that she came and shouted at poor Mandy about it (I was not in at the time). The thing that stood out most to me, however, was the person who walked on saying: ‘That’s the purpose of art, isnt it? To make you think’. I have to say, I agree. In the end, whether people like it or not, if they have stopped for a minute and thought about something that is not their everyday lives and problems, then something has been achieved.
I cannot for the life of me link this blog to knitting or crochet, other than to reference the knitted gas masks. But I do have to say that for a wonderful four weeks it has felt as though Fakenham was a little bit more exciting and fun, and I hope that we will be having another Arts Festival again next year. It’s not all over, by the way. The Festival culminates in a big exhibition on Sunday 24 August in the Fakenham Community Centre which includes a range of media from local artists. Furthermore, Active Fakenham, who organised the Arts Festival, have also set up a Made in Norfolk Film Festival in September/October. I am looking forward to it.