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Welcome to my blog, come follow my thoughts and work in progress.
December 2011
Usually
when you
don't see any activity on a blog you think nothing is going
on. However the inactivity on this site has been due to so much
going on and not
enough time to write about it!
It has
been a really
busy time. From the Revealing Ashford
project of Can't See the Woods for the
trees
in May, and the Revealing
the International – Sky
Dance in July, it
was straight onto the BTCV commission for the Trees of Life
book. The book made from green oak harvested earlier this year, is a living, moving and growing entity. It has a life of it's own, with it's maturing natural characteristics: the insect holes, humps, dips, knots and splits have been embraced and included. It will over time continue to physically move to find it's own equilibrium with it's environment. The book will be held by BTCV at the Singleton Environment Centre in Ashford.
Other news:
'till the cows come home project is being cited as best practice model by the Centre for Accessible Environments, an information charity providing guidance on access to the built environment for disabled and older people www.cae.org.uk They are currently working on a European Commission funded project (‘Training tools for accessible towns’) to create online training resources and educate planners and architects on accessibility. They will be featuring ‘till the cows come home’ as good practice case study of a creative installation which reflects community space and assists orientation.
And Thought Exchange is being featured in a series of talks and essays entitled Text in Art, 1476 – 2012 by Karl Musson happening in the new year.
With christmas approaching, here's to a more paced new year!
April 2011
Plans are well underway now for Revealing Ashford project and information for how to get involved will be coming out shortly as will the publicity materials. It will be great to get businesses and residents involved in making their own trees and adding them to the ever growing "woodland" that will be populating the town. I am making some large scale drawings to add to the woodland myself for host sites. I am working with charcoal as the medium for many of them, itself a product of the woodland, I not only like the marks it makes but also the references it draws. I have managed to source some Fabriano recycled paper in large rolls, and these are perfect for what I need. Many of the drawings are large and that way I can create them to fit the sites and the trees I am depicting.I have also just picked up the wood to begin to create the Kent Heritage Trees book covers. It's local oak and so beautiful, it almost doesn't need me to do anything to it, the graining and marks of tree growth are incredible, I shall have to think carefully how this is treated to ensure I capture what is already there and incorporate as much of that into the work itself. The studio is now full of the lovely smell of fresh wood, slowly seasoning.
March 2011
I think this year is to be the year of wood, sounds strange I know, but all the projects that I am now working on have a connection to wood in some way. The Kent Heritage Trees project is getting well underway, the creative workshops have all been planned and news of those will be out shortly. I am awaiting delivery of the wood for the book covers and I can't wait to get started on that part of the project.
This month brings news of two new projects for Revealing Ashford: 'Can't see the woods for the trees' and 'Sky Dance'. Revealing Ashford is a new initiative which is looking to create positive change in the local arts scene and bring about significant developments on programming of the arts, to encourage artists and arts organisations to take to the streets, open up locations for work to be seen and experienced. I created the new projects with this in mind and coupled with the origins of Ashford's name, which historically was "Essetesford", which is believed to mean "ash trees growing near a ford". 'Can't see the woods for the trees' will be a town wide installation that grows and evolves, with representations of trees appearing as if overnight as the work invites the woodland to repopulate the town once more.
Sky Dance, taking insirpiration from its backdrop of the final installation of 'Can't see the woods for the trees', will be an exciting collaborative and dynamic work, encouraging experimentation and joint choreography by an international dance collective. Promoting European links, with representatives from Paris, Lille, Brussels, Ashford and London creating a site specific performance especially for Ashford.
I can envisage some very busy months ahead!
February 2011
My how time flies. The past months have been filled with rest, revival and news that a new project will start the year: Trees of Life. Trees of Life is for BTCV's Kent Heritage Tree Project . I have designed a series of creative projects to develop the awareness and involvement of the public in the Kent Heritage Tree Project and its aims of promoting, protecting and conserving heritage trees. The work will involve facilitating a series of creative workshops as well as creating a handcrafted book, which will hold the records of the most significant heritage trees from across the county. I am busy working on its form, which includes designing it's decorated wooden front and back covers and how the spine and binding mechanism will work best. I am really looking forward to getting my hands on the wood and begin work in the studio again.
September 2010 - Shared Space
Shared
Space was about exactly that,
sharing
space. Ashford is becoming well known for its new road scheme that
opens up the space for both pedestrians and traffice to use, each
negotiating its path with the other.It has won many awards for the
space for its design.
I used this concept and investigated some of its possibilities in response to the lack of venues and opportunities there appear to be to engage with contemporary art around the town. The concepts works perfectly, use what there is, a building site hoarding, the church (shortly to become a shared space itself), the library, a gallery and the shared road space itself along Elwick Road.
Shared Space became the title of Ashford's Art & Architecture Festival, the works each in their own way took this concept. However, the finale was a truly exciting piece of work, a dance performance using shared road space and interacting with it, literally. The performers each negoitiating their pathway with the drivers using the space. The work broke many boundaries, I'm sure it must be the first of its kind.
For those who witnessed the performances, it was described as the best thing seen in Kent this year! Truly amazing, awesome and brilliant! The photographs provide a window into what were three amazing performances and I'm so proud to have been able to facilitate the work being produced and performed see www.shared-space.org.uk
August 2010 - Disappointing news arrives and Shared Space begins
I had eagerly awaited the outcome of my funding bid but unfortunately was not successful, that was a blow, particularly for the potential of the work I could see was just waiting to be brought into the world. But like many disappointments, you pick yourself up and get on with it. Curating and being Lead Artist for the 5th Ashford Art & Architecture Festival took up much of the summer and I was able to touch upon some of the work I had hoped to produce or at least create the environment for which eased the disappointment.
July 2010 - Material Led Exploration
Having
for so long worked with
conceptual visual art, (and sound of late), I looked for some
experimentation with materials as an alternative and relaxing creative
journey and I began to explore material led work. I have always enjoyed
seeing where a particular material can go and what I could make it do,
it gives me freedom from the rules I present myself with when creating
site specific public realm work with its multiple references to site,
material and concept, and the making of tightly managed work.
With material led work, as it says, the material takes over, where can I take it, and where can it take me?
I have been using silver plated wire as a material and the results of these explorations has turned into a type of unconscious drawing, much in the same way as the Surrealists and their automatic writing. I allow the material to have its freedom and work with what it tells me, the results turn into 3D drawings as the wire becomes the drawn line creating a multitude of shapes.
Silver wire has principally been used for jewellery making and I am exploring this connection, taking inspiration from both jewellery and the human form. I shape these drawings to fit around the body in various ways like a cast structure and have come to look at them as a cross between drawing and sculpture. So far they have been modest in size, but I can see the potential of scale too. I have choosen to call them body sculptures, I believe that describes the form well, you could argue that the work is body adornment and therefore jewellery and it can work as such too, but to me, it has its basis in sculpture and drawing and therefore art. From these modest sculptures, there are more fantastical objects that are waiting to be created which will open up an incredible journey for me. I just wish I had more time to spend in the studio exploring .....
May 2010 - Creating the environment
The past 2 months have been filled more by creating the environment for my work to exist rather than creating the actual work. It appears that paperwork and meetings have taken over for a while and I'm eager to actually get on and make.
My approach for the last 3 years has been to create work locally, it is a choice, not to travel too far and to make work for an area I have some knowledge and understanding of. I so often begin my research by understanding the origins of a site, studying its historical context providing me with a richer base for me to create my work. The historical context coupled with an understanding of what a site is aspiring to be also feeds into my work.
These past few months have been spent helping to create the local Borough's Arts Vision and Arts manifesto, my input along with other local artists, helping to put words to the type of environment and action that will provide, open up and invite more creative activity in our local area.
I have also been writing an ACE funding bid which is intrinsically linked with creating the right environment for artist to work, to consistently create quality artistic interventions in the area. I don't find that writing and the type of explanations required easy, I am principally a visual artist, I see, hear and feel things, the written word comes into my work quiet often as it has been labelled Live literature in the past, but I found writing the bid quiet exhausting, it drained my energy and my creativity, and I'm only just recovering from that.
I shall now turn my attentions elsewhere, to experiment, to engage the creative brain, and await the outcome and decision on my funding bid. So watch this space, the work I wish to create is about that, its about space, shared space …. so keep an eye on shared space.
March 2010 - The Diner
The invitation came out for artists of all disciplines to respond to the concept of a thumb cinema - a flipbook animation. What a combination, books and filmic movement. The idea captured my imagination and the concept of ‘The Diner' was born.
It took a while to plan how I was going to get the idea across, I started working with published books which gave a great tension between the existing dialogue and the newly introduced movement, some great ideas were explored but copyright came up as an issue and a question in my mind as I was using fairly modern printed materials.
Finally after a few experiments I hit on the idea. I would use my own bookmaking skills and create the whole thing. Rather than working with blank pages I felt the extra layer of dialogue that came about with existing text worked well, so I created a short story, which set the scene for the introduction of the animated movement. An anonymous diner enters a restaurant and looks to choose his meal from the wide menu on offer, only to find the menu disappears before his eyes through the activities of another diner, eating your words takes on new meaning!
After some planning and working out how many pages would be needed for the animation to work, and experimenting with paper quality. The work was composed on the computer and printed out. I then added the animation sequence on each individual page by hand. This created a series of A5 single leaf pages which I formed into a book block and added a soft cover to allow the book to flip easily. It was then all bound together using a form of Japanese binding which worked really well with the flip action, keeping the spine tight. The finished piece was successful in being selected for daunmankino – thumbcinema at the bookartbookshop, Pitfield Street , London held during March. The Diner short video
February 2010 - A tear to the eye
I have received a Seed Grant from East Kent Live Lit for a work I have been wanting to create for over a year now. Its great when an idea can come out of my head and start to become a reality. But now the real work begins.
Ideas can come thick and fast and sometimes I cannot hold on to them as they skip through my mind. I love connecting snippets of ideas until a fully formed coherent concept appears, but this is not where I can earn a living, it is in the actualisation of the idea that my potential earnings are. So, putting aside the pleasure of creating a new idea, I start to pen my action plan.
The tasks in hand need a different outlook, the left hand side of the brain needs to function, organised logic and management kicks in - find other funding, find venues, inviting contributions, editing, research and develop the methods for presenting the work, the list goes on.
I'm at the beginning, the whole road is yet to be travelled. But watch out for a postcard or two from the journey, I'm sure there will be some delightful stops along the way.
January 2010 - About what I am
When you state you are an artist, many people ask whether you paint, this appears to be the only discipline attached to the label of artist. Well no, I don't normally paint, however I can and I do, when the work requires it.
I used to debate what label I should give myself. It took 2 years to decide that I was a conceptual artist, working across art forms with the idea being at the centre of my work and the material form being fluid around it. I was comfortable and happy about that label and used it to describe myself since. Then one of my works (Thought Exchange) attracted the description of being Live Literature - I mused about this for some time. I fought against it, justifying that the concept came from my conceptual art so it was not Live Literature. Then I thought, what is the purpose of a label - it helps others to understand what you do - it helps you to describe what you do. Since then I have accepted the label of Live Lit too, I do both.
Now I am entering a new phase for a new decade, I have so far looked to narrow my focus, honing in on public art and social engagement, now I'm opening up again. I'm bringing in my other interests into my work. I'm passionate about recycling and I've been researching upcycling and have decided to walk this path too. Initially this will take the form of jewellery - so am I now a jeweller or a designer?
At the same time I'm working on a flip book animation (albeit using an existing book, so that could be classed as recycling/upcycling) so what does that say about what I do and what label should that become? I don't know. I can turn my creativity in many directions, I pick up new skills, I think creatively, I see potential and inspiration in so many things, so what am I? A creative? It sounds unfinished as though there should be another word attached to the end. The label creative does not seem to adequately describe my multi faceted practice.
I shall continue to see if I can find a new label. You see words and definitions are important to me too. Perhaps I need to create a new label for myself that I feel has the right connotations, that perhaps does not currently exist. Conceptual Creative, maybe that will do for a while.
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