"Coronation Street meets Last of the Summer Wine": Bedwyr William creates festival work with Macclesfield yogi

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

Sunday mornings in Macclesfield have improved the flexibility of Bedwyr Williams, whose new film, Flexure, will premiere at a Georgian chapel for the town's Barnaby Festival

A technologically challenged hypnotist becomes hooked on his own self-hypnosis tapes. Entering another time and space, he weaves through the landmarks of the Cheshire town of Macclesfield, then meets a local yoga teacher. And then, says Bedwyr Williams, the hypnotist takes on the form of another character, becoming “extra supple – almost like an instant yogi.”

“The hypnotherapist receives complaints from his clients that the sound quality of his cassettes isn’t good,” the artist explains of Flexure, his commission for Macclesfield’s Barnaby Festival 2016, for which he adopted the occasional sun salutation alongside Andrew Wrenn, the teacher who is the subject of the film. “He starts to improve this through computer equipment and, in the process, he gets a bit hooked on them.

“His work is interrupted by a nuisance neighbour, who shouts crazy things at him like ‘cream cracker’ which he hears as it travels down their shared chimney.”

Inspired by the local Jodrell Bank Observatory and the foothills of the Peak District, the festival has chosen a theme of space this time, with Professor Brian Cox and a series of intergalactic art commissions on the bill. Williams has been here before: his installation, The Starry Messenger, explored a fascination with amateur astronomers when it premiered at the 2013 Venice Biennale.

“I didn’t want to make a sequel to The Starry Messenger,” says Williams, who instead pinned his surrealist focus on inner space. “We are living in an age of mindfulness and anxiety and it seemed appropriate to explore that.

“I came about it through the idea of a hypnotherapist. The video will be like watching a hypnotherapy video.”

Williams says he was attracted to Macclesfield because of “the badge it had of being the least cultural place in the UK in 2004.”

“It’s got the post-industrial feel of Manchester, but rural too,” he thinks. “It’s kind of like Coronation Street meets Last of the Summer Wine. I remember the Macc Lads from when I was a teenager, but I had never been here.”

He contacted Wrenn after discovering the hirsute yogi on the internet. “He has this Californian look about him but when you speak to him this soft Macclesfield accent comes out. He is a totally at ease in front of the camera.

“He dresses in a certain way and practices yoga and meditation all over the world. I love that he travels. He is both local and global.”

The Starry Messenger lives on through a pale ale made by a local microbrewery for the festival, for which Williams has designed the pump clip. He is one of four lead artists taking part, alongside kinetic large-scale specialist Liliane Lijn, Spanish image-maker Hondartza Fraga and Edinburgh-based sculptor and photographer Hannah Imlach.

A series of eight Arts Council England-backed works have also been commissioned, and Flexure will be exhibited at the Barbican’s Curve Gallery in a solo exhibition later this year.

• Barnaby Festival runs June 17-26. Visit barnabyfestival.org.uk and follow the festival on Twitter @BarnabyFestival and Facebook.

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Three festivals to see this summer

Chichester Cathedral Flower Festival, Sussex
As well as viewing over 80 stunning floral arrangements in the Cathedral displaying over 50,000 blooms, visitors can enjoy the Festival and plant markets, enjoy live music and relax in the surroundings of the Cathedral. June 2-4 2016.

Museum After Hours: Friday Fringe Takeover, National Museum of Scotland
Part of Edinburgh Fringe, these guest-curated events explore the museum after hours across three exhilarating nights, each with hand-picked performers, music, comedy, bars and entry to the major exhibition Celts, organised with the British Museum. August 12, 19 and 26 2016.

Midsummer Watch Parade, Chester
Chester's famous Midsummer Watch first took place in 1498. Still today dragons angels and devils make an annual appearance on the city streets. Join one of the oldest and most colourful parades in Britain. June 18-19 2016.

Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art554414-bedwyr-williams-yoga-barnaby-festival-macclesfield