Engaging Pembroke

The development of the Old Press / Mill Lane site by Pembroke College has created a dynamic new city quarter, as well as providing additional accommodation for the College, publicly accessible gardens, and exhibition and performance spaces. For this inaugural exhibition, Cambridge-based artists Xinyi Bi, Rebecca Ilett, and Idit Nathan were invited to respond to the brief of ‘bringing Pembroke College’s site, spaces, history, and communities into dialogue with the work of contemporary artists.’

Their imaginative responses create new insights into the work and fabric of the College and its collections, and invite audiences to consider anew both familiar and revelatory aspects of Pembroke life.

The exhibition is open from 10.00-16.00 Tuesday-Sunday, 17 September – 15 October 2023.

Xinyi Bi

Xinyi Bi is an illustrator and designer based in Cambridge. With a BA (Hons) in Visual Communication Design from the China Academy of Art, she has gained recognition in the publishing and editorial industries, working on diverse projects. Currently pursuing a master’s degree in Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art, her work reflects a narrative and metaphorical style infused with a unique perspective and personal experiences. Rooted in her childhood spent amidst nature, Xinyi’s illustrations evoke a deep connection to the world around us, drawing on her boundless imagination and a passionate dedication to creating impactful art.

In her contribution to the exhibition, Xinyi Bi embarks on a creative journey inspired by the rich tapestry of Pembroke’s history, architecture, and natural surroundings. Through a series of five paintings, she endeavours to capture the college’s distinctive spirit from various vantage points, weaving together a visual narrative that resonates with viewers both familiar with and new to Pembroke’s spaces.

Each painting holds significance. The Auditorium symbolizes Pembroke’s evolution, blending old and new. The Old Court represents tradition within change. The Library embodies intellectual growth and community. The Chapel, depicted at night with Martlets, pays homage to its architecture and history, aligning with the college’s emblem. The Garden with its surroundings celebrates the harmony between nature and people. In these paintings, Xinyi vividly conveys Pembroke’s character, showcasing its spaces, history, and community.

Rebecca Ilett

Rebecca studied BA (Hons) in Sculpture at Sunderland University and later retrained as a jeweller at Cambridge Regional College. She completed an MA by Project in 2019 at the London Metropolitan University, where she studied Tools and Making. She has exhibited in the UK and internationally in Milan, Barcelona and Beijing and was shortlisted for the John Ruskin Prize in 2017. She will be exhibiting at Goldsmiths Fair 2023.

Rebecca describes her work as small-scale wearable sculpture, which reflects her Fine Art background and experimental approach to materials. Often working with precious metals, she uses a range of traditional jewellery-making techniques and materials to describe a narrative. She is inspired by stories, toys, automata, elements of engineering and humour, often recreating and reworking favourite and memorable family possessions. She makes all the elements of the work herself and often includes ceramics, wood, and brush bristles.

The small-scale sculptures representing the Chapel and Library reflect Rebecca’s interest in the maps and architects’ drawings from the Library archive. Altering the scale of the buildings allows the viewer to re-examine the relationship between human and architectural scale. In the environment of Pembroke, people moving through the space are dominated by the historic and impressive built environment embellished with carved birds and figures in plaster, wood and stone, offering evidence of history and its inhabitants.

For the exhibition, the viewer towers over the miniature buildings as they move around the display case that contains these, absorbing the detail of some of the features of the buildings and perhaps remembering the experience of interacting with the actual space. The sculpture is not a replica but a collection of pieces containing memorable features reimagined by the artist on the journey of researching the project.

Idit Nathan

Idit Nathan is a conceptual artist. Her work includes interactive installations, live events, games, audio-visual works, walks, and artist’s books. Using optics, scale, and perspective in playful ways, her work encourages audiences to respond to contemporary dilemmas both as actors with free will and as actors in an historical context. Her artworks have been widely exhibited in the UK and abroad. 

Idit also works collaboratively with the artist Helen Stratford on the ongoing project Play Anywhere Now or Never. The pair have presented work with leading UK public organisations such as Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the National Theatre, METAL and major institutions such as the Wellcome Collection. Until recently Idit was an associate lecturer at Central St. Martin’s College, where she also completed a practice-based PhD entitled Art of Play in Zones of Conflict – the Case of Israel Palestine. 

Idit’s work for this exhibition, Feeling the Way (Inkjet on plywood and Braille signage), was inspired by a walk through Pembroke College on an unusually hot summer day. That day, the heat exaggerated the scents in the air; light and shadow were more pronounced. Permission had been given for the artists to touch some of the College’s collection of artworks, furniture, and architecture. It was an invitation to take time to engage not only with the meaning of the place but also its history, its materiality. 

This prompted Idit to re-imagine the walk in retrospect via a series of word pairs. These words – mnemonic traces – were then obscured by the artist as an invitation to spectators (via a combination of visual play and touch) to take time themselves and allow the words to surface and make sense. An integral part of Feeling the Way are the Braille signs reminding everyone, both sighted and non-sighted, to interact afresh with the world around us.

The curators, Rosalind Polly Blakesley and Simon Learmount, would like to thank the artists for responding so creatively to the brief for this exhibition: David Wright and Grace Thorne from Commissioning Projects for their deft management; and the Pembroke Librarian, Genny Grim, and Archivist, Lizzy Ennion-Smith, for their expert assistance in facilitating the artists' research.

Photographs: Artwork, The Chapel, in progress. Photographer: Rebecca Ilett