Preview: The Travellers Rest @ Shieldfield Art Works, Newcastle

Photo by Toby Lloyd & Andrew Wilson

The Travellers Rest sees Shieldfield Art Works continue its two-year Creating Fallow programme with an novel, yet familiar, new exhibition exploring rest, work and community. Created by artist duo Toby Lloyd and Andrew Wilson, the installation takes the form of a fictional public house, transforming SAW’s gallery into a space for conversation, reflection and participation.

Part-way through the Creating Fallow project, which examines rest as a form of resistance and social justice, the exhibition uses the familiar setting of a pub to encourage discussion around wellbeing, hospitality and leisure. Alongside the installation, visitors can explore a library, bar, jukebox, newspaper publication, radio broadcasts and a programme of public events, including live discussion series Broadcast Bartender.

Director Lydia Oak says, “Six years on from the Covid pandemic, we are struck by the need to accept human fragility and limitations – we are not machines, we are created to rest regularly. An integral part of the Christian faith is the knowledge that our value does not come from what or how much we do – we weren’t designed to work all the time!”.

Artists Toby Lloyd and Andrew Wilson add, “We’re really excited to explore SAW’s themes of rest and resistance within one of our public house installations.

“The Pub is a consistent theme in our collaborative practice, which we have borrowed from to create environments that blur the boundaries between participant and spectator, expert and amateur, host and guest.

“The Travellers Rest is an exciting opportunity for visitors to share and reflect on these themes of Creating Fallow from an environment that borrows from the social spaces, between work and home, that are in decline.”