Cultivate Review 2025

The Courtyard’s annual art project ‘Cultivate’ has once again graced the halls of the theatre, all with their own special meanings that we have greatly enjoyed analysing. This year’s theme of ‘forgiveness’ has been portrayed by the talented artists: Dasha Ohir, Gwenfair Gillick, Harlan Beales, Bea Bowie and the group ‘Closed House Collective’.

Dasha Ohir, our personal favourite out of this exhibition, symbolised forgiveness through their power of storytelling, personal memory and the natural world (their love of wolves and forests). This reminds us of fairytales like Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood which are stories based off of forgiveness. We think their lack of use of colour signifies the simplicity of forgiveness. We take the view that this art is significant and meaningful to the world today, because of the quote ‘just forgive yourself for who you are’. It felt as though you had a personal connection with each piece, as the messages they gave were universal.

Gwenfair Gillick, using only charcoal and oil pastels, (once again keeping a simple black and white palette) embodied the spirit of forgiveness through emotive faces. She thoroughly impressed us and captured many different approaches of forgiveness (including loyalty, time, strength and empathy). The realism in the canvases triggered emotions in us and allowed you to relate and forgive the characters yourself.

Then came the collaborative works of Harlan Beales and Bea Bowie. Harlan’s interactive modern confessional, inspired by the catholic church where sins are absolved through sound and art. Watching the movement of the sand and the erasing of messages with such ease allows you to engulf the symbolic meaning of the contraption and see how simple it is to forgive, forget and destroy. A piece of art which has taken hours can be gone in a matter of seconds.

As for Bea Bowie, her work takes a childlike perspective of carefully balanced towers of dollhouses, rocking chairs and penguins which symbolises how forgiveness is a balance between past and future. We really like this as it makes us feel nostalgic. She says ‘no objects have meaning, but all objects are given meaning by those who cherish them.’ We think this is a beautiful sentiment and links to forgiveness through letting go of the object itself and cherishing the memories

Last but not least, we have the group ‘Closed House Collective’ who presented a series of significant messages following our key theme. We were deeply moved by these messages and felt sympathy for some of the writers. As an example, the quote ‘they never said sorry’ and the deep saddening blue background really shows how lack of apology can effect a person in the long term.

In conclusion, this art project is definitely worth a visit and does an incredible job at getting you to think deeply about forgiveness and your own attitude towards it.

Edit: At the time of this review Zach Wolfe’s work wasn’t unavailable to review.

Written by Alessia and Harriett