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Art lovers usually bypass the Cornish town of Bodmin as they head to the more obvious delights of seaside galleries in places such as St Ives and Newlyn.
But an eclectic festival called Flamm – Cornish/Kernewek for flame or spark – is bringing contemporary art to the hinterland of the peninsula this weekend. Highlights range from a clay sculpture of jackdaws, a reference to the local legend of the Bodmin jail inmate Rose Wright, imprisoned after supposedly training birds to steal coins, to a sound installation on a railway platform featuring an eerie conversation between two train workers.
Images inspired by objects from the town’s military museum are appearing in unexpected places and a bright pink “walking sculpture” is being paraded around the streets.
Professional artists and curators from across Cornwall and farther afield have teamed up with keen amateurs of all ages to turn the town into an art destination.
Fin Irwin, one of the organisers, said although Bodmin had a long and rich history it was not usually associated with art and culture: “The ethos of the festival is to create high-quality contemporary work and open it up to the kind of audience that might not usually seek it out.”
Parts of Bodmin are deprived, a far cry from places such as nearby Padstow, Polzeath and Rock where beachside holiday homes sell for millions. Irwin said art and culture could be a catalyst for social change: “When you bring people together, you create a shared community and a shared sense of purpose and belonging.
“When you’ve got pride in a place, that’s when change happens and you can kind of see economic and wellbeing and social growth starting to happen.”
Pieces from the Liverpool Biennial 2025, the UK’s largest free festival of contemporary art, are being shown in Bodmin. Counterpoints Arts, which seeks to create a more compassionate society through culture, is among the organisations taking part.
The artist Katie Etheridge has been working with the Bodmin youth organisation KBSK. They have produced a “walking sculpture” in magenta pink called Re:Rooted. “It’s about navigation and how you connect to the place that you live or work or play,” Etheridge said.
It has turned out to be an apt time given that Storm Goretti uprooted thousands of trees across Cornwall in January. “You were suddenly seeing all these roots everywhere that were usually hidden under the ground,” said Etheridge.
Another project Etheridge and KBSK have undertaken is producing an alternative map of Bodmin, showing places that young people cherish, such as a fried chicken shop, a tyre swing, and a clock tower rendezvous point.
“Their landmarks are not what you’d find on your normal tourist maps,” said Etheridge, adding that the festival was making people reassess their town. “At the end of a mapping session, one of the girls, said: ‘It’s when you look at a map of Bodmin that you realise how much we’ve got.’”
Rachael Jones, an artist and film-maker, has been partnering with Bodmin Keep, the town’s military museum. It is closed for repairs so Jones has blown up images of some of the most interesting artefacts, which will be dotted around the town.
She said: “It’s a way of bringing the collection out into the open for the public to see when they can’t access the objects themselves.”
Objects Jones is focusing on include a teddy bear carried by an American soldier during the second world war, and bullet casings carved by service personnel into tiny pieces of art.
Jones said Bodmin had turned out to be an exciting place to create art. “It hasn’t had a lot of love over the years but there are things happening in the town. For there to be a bit more of a spotlight on Bodmin feels special.”
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Flamm takes place in Bodmin on Saturday 28 February and Sunday 1 March.
