The Leonora Carrington Centenary Symposium will celebrate and bring into discussion the work and legacy of Lancastrian-born Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington (1917-2011).  This timely event forms part of the existing body of research and creative practice that has already emanated from across departments at Edge Hill University, including Film Scholarship (Professor Roger Shannon), Creative Writing (Professor Ailsa Cox), and Dance Performance and Choreography (James Hewison and Michelle Man). We now call upon artists and scholars from a range of disciplines to share research and creative practice that explores Carrington’s work as an artist, a theatre and film collaborator, and writer. 

 Acknowledging recent scholarly interest in Carrington’s life and work (Dawn Ades, Susan Alberth, Chloe Aridjis, Catriona McAra, Ara Merjian, Joanna Moorhead, Marina Warner) this event wishes to extend the legacy of this British-Mexican artist who gained a stellar reputation in her adopted country, whilst remaining arguably “one of Britain’s finest - and neglected - surrealists” (James, 1975). Carrington was reluctant to analyse her artwork, insisting, “I warn you I refuse to be an object”. In light of this, when mapping Carrington’s legacy, we approach this task through a lens of give and return that the artist musingly offers in her 1965 Jezzamathatics, “I was decubing the root of a Hyperbollick Symposium...when the latent metamorphosis blurted the great unexpected shriek into something between a squeak and a smile. IT GAVE, so to speak, in order to return.”

 The Leonora Carrington Centenary Symposium seeks to offer a space for discussion, engagement and debate, and invites proposals in a range of modes and formats including but not limited to: fifteen minute unpublished papers, lecture demonstrations, round tables, provocations, practice-led and performative interventions that explore, question and enable new ways of thinking of Leonora Carrington’s legacy. Themes may relate to, but are not limited to:

• Leonora Carrington’s legacy and the Lancashire gothic
• Metamorphosis and transformation in the work of Leonora Carrington
• Visual and literary narratives in the work of Leonora Carrington
• Leonora Carrington and the cinematic
• Leonora Carrington and the short story
• Carrington landscapes – the fantastical, the quotidian, the mythical
• ‘Carringtonesque’ hybridizations of human/fauna, human/vegetable
• Translation and embodiment of Leonora Carrington in performance
• Women and Surrealism
• Europe in Mexico, émigré artists 

Deadline for the submission of proposals/abstracts: 22nd March 2017

Notification of acceptance: 30th March  2017

Notification of registration will be released shortly.

Proposals should be submitted as a word document to Michelle Man manm@edgehill.ac.uk and include the following:

Name(s) of contributor(s)

Email addresses of all contributors

Title of proposal

Indication of presentation type

Abstract/Outline proposal (250 words max)

Brief biography (150 words max)

Indication of any technical or space requirements. Please note due to the nature of the event we are not able to offer technical support for full-scale performances.