The Bluecoat, Liverpool’s centre for contemporary art, has commissioned artist Jade de Montserrat to create a series of water colour paintings, to feature on a new range of merchandise, including a reusable cup and premium postcard collection, available to buy from the Bluecoat shop.
In this brand new collection, de Montserrat was inspired by the Bluecoat garden as a site of calm and restoration, reflecting on the often overlooked histories of gardens and the gardeners who tend and care for these important spaces of relaxation.
The reusable cup features a beautiful wrap-around artwork, is made in the UK from recycled plastic, free from BPA (Bisphenol-A) and fully recyclable, and comes with a spill proof and standard lid. Visitors using the de Montserrat cup in the Bluecoat café will also receive a 25p discount on drinks. The set of 6 A5 premium art postcards includes six individual artworks on recycled card stock. The cup is £15 and the postcard set is £12.
De Montserrat is a research-led writer and artist, and works through performance, drawing, painting, film, installation, sculpture, print and text. Concerned with challenging structures of care in institutions and with the intersection of gender, race, class, and colonialism, often in the context of life in rural communities, she makes artworks that explore the vulnerability of bodies, the importance of recording and preserving history, and the tactile and sensory qualities of language.
The Bluecoat first worked with de Montserrat in 2018 when she undertook a research residency, before hosting a solo exhibition, Instituting Care, in the Bluecoat gallery from November 2018 - March 2019. The exhibition featured large scale charcoal drawings across the gallery walls, consisting of quotations and responses to key texts on decolonisation and decolonising knowledge by writers such as Frantz Fanon, Audre Lorde and Stuart Hall. Montserrat’s drawings also featured fragments of text by local and international artists and addressed vital questions about art education and how we value creativity. After the success of Instituting Care, the Bluecoat was eager to work with de Montserrat once more, this time, bringing audiences the opportunity to take home a unique piece of art from the Bluecoat’s newly launched shop.
On choosing de Montserrat’s work for a new collection, the Bluecoat’s Senior Curator Adam Lewis-Smythe said:
"Jade’s commitment to environmental responsibility is a real inspiration. She makes incredibly careful decisions about materials and their environmental impact. Since her ground-breaking solo exhibition at the Bluecoat, she has even gone on to launch her own brand of responsibly sourced charcoal, Soul of Fire. She was a perfect artist to work with to design a reusable cup to cut down on single-use waste. Her celebration of Bluecoat’s garden and its long history as a site of rest and care brings back fond memories of Jade taking time to discuss her ideas during her 2018 research residency over coffee in the garden with local artists, staff and audiences."
De Montserrat was inspired by the Bluecoat’s garden as a city centre oasis and haven for biodiversity. The Bluecoat Garden is one of few green spaces left in the city centre, and provides visitors with a much needed place to relax and enjoy nature.
The Bluecoat’s shop is available online and in person, and was part of a project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. This collaboration with de Montserrat is the first of many artist commissions planned for the shop, which celebrates the Bluecoat’s heritage, and the many artists the charity has worked with since becoming an arts centre, the first in the UK, in 1927. The Bluecoat is getting ready to celebrate its centenary as an arts centre in 2027.
From the Shop
Bluecoat x Jade de Montserrat - Art Postcard set
