Artangel present four short films by artist and write Abi Palmer in which she recreates the seasons at home for her two cats.

The films form part of the World Weather Network, a new alliance of artists and writers reporting on their local weather from 28 countries across the world.

Artangel presents Abi Palmer Invents the Weather, a new series of four short films by artist and writer Abi Palmer. Made over the course of a year during the COVID-19 pandemic, the films are set in the artist’s south London apartment and star her two indoor cats, Lola-Lola and Cha-U-Kao.

The first film in the series, titled Rain, premiered in early March 2023 on Artangel’s website: www.artangel.org.uk/abipalmer

Conscious that her cats would never experience the outside world, Palmer began a process of recreating the outdoors for them. Taking a crucial feature from each season, she broke down the elements into four boxes using sensory found objects from local woodlands to reinvent the experience of autumn rain, winter fog, spring sunlight and summer heat. The processes Palmer used to convey each season ranged from literal: the fermentation and distillation of natural materials to recreate the smell of rain; to figurative: Palmer performed the role of the sun by using a disco ball and stitching moss together into a wire mesh surface.

Each film documents Palmer’s meditative process of collecting fragments of nature and assembling the boxes. As she engages with the cats through movement and sensory interaction, the boxes become their primary play and performance space for the films.

The accompanying voiceover, written and narrated by Palmer, is a love letter to her cats and the climate, and explores the tensions between what we can and can’t control. The resulting films are a playful meditation on disability, climate, and life that can’t talk back.

For more information and to watch the first film: www.artangel.org.uk/abipalmer

Abi Palmer

Abi Palmer is an artist and writer. Key work includes Sanatorium (Penned in the Margins, 2020) - a fragmented memoir, jumping between luxury thermal pool, and blue inflatable bathtub; and Crip Casino - an interactive gambling arcade parodying the wellness industry and institutionalised spaces. It has been exhibited at Tate Modern, Somerset House, Wellcome Collection and Collective Edinburgh. She has also been commissioned by Wysing Arts Centre, BBC Radio, Vice News, Wellcome, the Guardian and Shape Arts. In 2021 she was a recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s ‘Awards for Artists.’ Sanatorium was shortlisted for the Barbellion Prize.

Abi Palmer Invents the Weather is part of the World Weather Network, a ground-breaking new alliance of artists and writers initiated by Artangel and 27 cultural organisations around the world.

In response to the global climate emergency, the World Weather Network is formed of ‘weather stations’ located across the world in oceans, deserts, mountains, farmland, rainforests, observatories, lighthouses and cities. Until 21 June 2023, artists and writers will share ‘weather reports’ in the form of observations, stories, images and imaginings about their local weather and our shared climate, creating an archipelago of voices and viewpoints on a new global platform. Climate scientists, environmentalists and communities will participate in a wide-ranging programme of special events held in each location and online through the platform.

For more information, visit: www.worldweathernetwork.org

About Artangel

Artangel produces and presents extraordinary art in unexpected places across London, the UK, and beyond. For over thirty years, Artangel has generated some of the most widely discussed art of recent times, including prominent large-scale projects with artists who have become household names in the UK, including the likes of Jeremy Deller, Roger Hiorns, Michael Landy, Steve McQueen and Rachel Whiteread.

Recent Artangel projects include Taryn Simon’s An Occupation of Loss, Evan Roth’s Red Lines, Jonathan Glazer’s short film STRASBOURG 1518, made for the BBC, Steve McQueen’s Year 3, in collaboration with Tate Britain and A New Direction, and Elizabeth Price’s SLOW DANS, Oscar Murillo’s Frequencies and Afterness on Orford Ness, Suffolk

Artangel is generously supported using public funding by Arts Council England, and by the private patronage of The Artangel International Circle, Special Angels, Guardian Angels, and The Company of Angels.