For many people who grew up among greenhouses, Making an Honest Living will be like a step back into the past.
Both Emma and James grew up surrounded by the growing industry. Emma is originally from Guernsey but has lived in Scotland for the last 12 years.
‘The exhibition was borne while I was working at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh. I was invigilating an exhibition by Alberta Whittle and the theme was identity, history and family. So this led me to think of my own family history,’ said Emma.
‘My great uncle, Michael “Mick” Bourgaize, was a grower and set up the Strawberry Farm with Rodney Brouard. He also had a hedge veg stall along the coast road near Crabby Jacks and later he had a greenhouse at Hougue du Pommier.’
James studied fine art at Liverpool and his current work investigates the island’s vinery heritage and ‘ghost-like’ greenhouses that shaped generations.
‘My granddad, Dave Kail, grew freesias and all sorts of veg,’ he said.
‘I remember picking peas when I was younger. His nursery was called Santa Maura on Rue des Crabbes, St Saviour’s.’
Emma founded the Gsy Art Hub in 2014 and a year later, along with other like-minded local creatives, co-founded the Guernsey Art Network and became co-founder and director of the Skipton Art Festival.
GAN celebrated its 10th anniversary last year with an exhibition at Chamber of Commerce and Emma submitted a screenprint, Escape to Nature, which featured in the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition.
‘James is a member of GAN and he was telling Russ Fossey [Guernsey Arts’ head of arts development] that he was working on a project about the growing industry and Russ got in touch with me. So it was Guernsey Arts that brought us together. It’s certainly a meeting of minds. We work well together.’
Looking around the gallery, you can see how much hard work has gone into the exhibition.
Either side of the entrance there are huge photos of a greenhouse.
‘In 2010 I took a photo of the Freesia Centre when it was still up and running. James has also taken a photo of the centre from the same spot. It is now abandoned and overgrown. The photos are blown up to life-size so you can imagine stepping into the greenhouse.’
To make it even more immersive, Emma has sourced the ‘smell’ of a greenhouse which she has housed in a box.
‘Sarah Breton helped me,’ said Emma. ‘She is involved with Edible Guernsey, which helps people who want to get into growing. The scent was sourced online. I hope it takes people back, especially those who worked in greenhouses.’
Artworks from both artists feature in the exhibition.
One of Emma’s, Honest Strawberries, is an interactive installation and a homage to her great uncle Mick’s West Coast strawberry hedge veg stall.
James has several installations and also a large mixed media painting.
‘I worked on ideas of greenhouses and growing for my GCSE and became interested again when I came back from uni,’ explained James. ‘I’d already written my brochure on hedge veg. Originally I wanted to exhibit in an actual greenhouse.
‘The piece is called Morning Rise, which was a breed of freesia my granddad grew. It has pieces of glass from a greenhouse and waste I’ve found in greenhouses, bits and bobs from the growing days, such as a shipping label. Fragments for people to put together and make up their own narrative.’
Youngsters can also pick up The Mini-Veg Scavenger Hunt at the exhibition. It comes in a small activity book and nature directory.
‘There are five mini-veg boxes around St Peter Port – at the Guille-Alles Library, Guernsey Museum and Art Galleries, The George Crossan Gallery and the Priaulx Library – and you collect letters from these, scramble the letters to make a five-letter word, then bring the book up to the museum to collect a garden-themed prize,’ explained Emma.
And if you plan on visiting, make sure you have £3 to put into the honesty box and buy James’ The Happy-Go-Hedge-Veg, his brochure of photography, interviews and writings about the art of hedge-veging around the island.
‘Through The Greenhouse Gallery, Guernsey Arts has always encouraged the development of artists and provided support with exhibitions,’ said Louise Le Pelley, Guernsey Arts partnerships development executive. ‘We hope this exhibition, created by such brilliant home-grown talent, inspires a new generation of artists.’
‘James and I started working online together last October and we met for the first time this week,’ said Emma. ‘I couldn’t have a better collaborator. Maybe we’ll work together again and take the exhibition to a real greenhouse sometime in the near future.’
Making An Honest Living by Emma Griffin and James Kail is at The Greenhouse Gallery, Candie until Sunday 14 June. Open 10am to 5pm daily. Normal admission applies.
