Free-for-All
Venue • The Old Post Office • BA1 1BA • click for map
Opening night • Fri 23 May • 6pm until late
Open 11am to 6pm daily • 24 May to 7 June 2025
NB: the deadline has passed, we are no longer inviting submissions
Reimagining Our Common Wealth
Does “free-for-all” mean a chaotic deregulated unraveling of order and structure? Or, does it mean inclusion, access, responsibility and voluntary cooperation?
This mixed-media exhibition will connect histories of resistance to land enclosure and privatisation, with open-source creators who challenge patenting and copyright law through the digital commons.
We invite artists, makers, and digital commoners to submit work and shape an exhibition that:
builds a community of like-minded artist-activists.
challenges and changes dominant narratives about our “common wealth.”
embraces environmental responsibility in theory and practice.
celebrates the public domain as a space for collective creativity and shared knowledge.
highlights the vital role of art and artists in a world ready for change.
This could include:
Traditional media
Installations
Performance
Digital art.
Short films.
3D-printed and digitally fabricated works.
Together, let’s explore how art can inspire, disrupt, and contribute.
Curators Theo Weywood (l) and Deborah Weymont (r)
Curators Theo Weywood (l) and Deborah Weymont (r)
Curated by Deborah Weymont and Theo Weywood
Mother and son artists Deborah Weymont and Theo Weywood are exploring the commonalities in their own art practices and how to situate them within the wider discourse they occupy. Working in different ways with similar themes they hope to bring an intergenerational dynamism to the curation process and exhibition.
Deborah is a retired special education teacher and art therapist. She has made art all her life and has exhibited regularly in group shows and open studios in Bristol.
Deborah works with ‘wild clay’ dug from common land and land enclosed by the crown, church and landed aristocracy. She digs surface clay and uses it to make natural pigments, pastels clay bodies and glazes. She then make artefacts which invite us to see the world differently and tell new stories about our ‘green and pleasant land’.
Instagram: @deborahweymont
Website: www.deborahweymont.com
Theo is a creative technologist and designer who has worked on research projects exploring innovative, digitally fabricated affordable housing and has designed sustainable, inclusive playgrounds through the Green Play Project. His artwork draws on a Brutalist, Constructivist, and New Tendencies aesthetic, aiming to engage and activate the viewer. Themes of nostalgia for municipal ambition and optimism for community resilience run through his work.
Through his art practice, Theo explores ideas and methodologies at the intersections of design, architecture, and digital manufacturing. He is deeply committed to the concept of the commons, viewing it as a hopeful and practical framework for addressing contemporary challenges.
Instagram: @theoweywood