Both of our exhibiting artists will be giving tours of their exhibitions as part of the Festival of Ideas in Cambridge:

Tim Oelman

’52 Days to Timbuktu: Tapestry and Mud Cloth Inspired by Mali and Morocco’

Saturday 25 October from 1:00pm – 2:00pm, meet in the Alison Richard Building Atrium

Tim Oelman is a tapestry and bogolan (mud cloth) artist who uses hand woven tapestry and mud cloth to explore sign and symbol, drawing on a diversity of sources, including pre-classical European roots and modern African cultures. His guided tour will refer to the cultural identities seen in Moroccan Berber rug making and Malian bogolan. Tim studied art at the City Lit, London, and at London Metropolitan University (MA 2003).

Mohammed Djazmi

‘Social Commentary’

Saturday 25 October from 2:30pm – 3:30pm, meet in the Alison Richard Building Atrium

Mohammed Djazmi was born in the north-eastern Iranian town of Bojnourd in 1948 and grew up under the tutelage of his father, who was a well-known local painter. He studied at The College of Decorative Arts Tehran (now Tehran Art University), where he became interested in the techniques of various masters such as Cezanne, Monet and Dali. The social and political atmosphere in Iranian Universities at the time made Djazmi realise that although he could do what we wanted, he could not say what we thought. He began to base his drawings on social and political themes, inspired by the effects of these contrasting so-called “ freedoms” in the faces and actions of those around him. Later Djazmi travelled extensively throughout Iran in search of different forms of art and crafts that depicted the rural way of life, which also had a significant influence on his paintings. In 1984 he moved to Britain where he has lived since, working as a fulltime artist.