Things are appearing in my workspace now. The exhibition is starting to have a physical presence rather than just existing in my head. Plinths have been built, although being me, they weren’t a simple ‘four sides and a top’ plinth. They are ‘four sides, a top with a hole in to see the screen, a door and a little shelf for the media player, and some ledges for the screen to rest on, plinth’. And my technician Cathal Elliot has built 9 of them for me.
My last blog on here was called ‘Asking for help’ and was about when I had a Review bursary from A-n to work with people to learn new skills to realise new work at the Bluecoat last year. Looking back on that time I think the lesson of ‘Asking for help’ has really helped with the realisation of this project. Before that I would soldier on, trying to do everything myself, but working with others who can do certain things more effiiciently and effectively than me certainly has its benefits. It has also helped to have the arts council funding behind me so that I can ask for help and pay others to do the work that I need to.
Sophie Tickle has been to film the footage I need for the work ‘Displaced persons’, that was fun working with a dancer and looking at physical movement and how that ties in with my drawing and intervention practice.
The publication is now at proofing stage, so that is starting to feel physical too.
And today my Dad has been helping me out – we’ve pasted huge sheets of cartridge paper onto the semi-circular boards – the studio now looks as though we have tables covered with crisp white tablecloths. And he’s helping me by filling the holes in my plinths ready for them to be sanded and painted.
It’s all go, although at times it has felt a bit like a project management job (which is something that I do) arranging for different people to come and help, materials and equipment to arrive on time along with actually producing the content of the works. That makes me a little worried that I’m not giving enough time to the content, but that happens in my head in the gaps between all of these things I suppose.
Got to go, photoshop is probably ready for me to start putting a piece of work together.
Whoa! where did that week go? I just checked when I last posted and it was a whole week ago. Since then I’ve edited the footage of the New Mills work with my friend and editor Gareth where we worked out how I can make my video mosaic piece and how to edit together the performance footage from Sophie and I working together.
I’ve met the designer at the local authority (who I incidently went to foundation course with) and she has been working on the design of the publication that will go with the exhibition. I’ve had to gather my thoughts onto paper along with all the other information and images for that, so that has taken me away from the making for periods during the week.
I’ve been to the one of the wonderful Fablabs that are around the country – centres for people to turn up and make and fabricate exciting projects. I went to the one at Ellesmere Port over the other side of the Mersey, they’ve been open since October and have facilities for laser cutting, 3D printing, electronics and a huge CNC machine. That’s the machine I needed to cut out huge semi circles from 18mm MDF to create the base for the work ‘Displaced Persons’ I’ve got to get them joined together to make circles and then covered on one surface in cartridge paper before I can create the stamped drawing on top of it.
And today I’ve had my technician who helped me to install me work at the Bluecoat last year working here in the Widnes space. He’s building me plinths that will have a monitor screen recessed into the top where the video mosaic will play. They’re looking pretty smart.
But there’s still loads to get done and I’m at the stage of ‘oh **** there’s not going to be enough hours in the day’.
But there will. There has to be.
Two weeks in, three weeks until install.
Today I’ve spent another day working with dancer Sophie Tickle. We’ve been playing with hand gestures that convey a sense of displacement and with gestures that create a refuge. Thinking about how this can interact with mark making using stamps, how to document this and what it looks like when projected.
After a morning playing with the gestures in response to a list of words, we’ve narrowed the repetoire of movements down to four different types and worked out ways that they should interact on the projected surface. I just need to source someone to film the actions now – it’s going to need some good lighting and a better camera than the compact one that we used today. If I can get that sorted, we reconvene in a week!
Thursday was an exciting day. I invited dancer Sophie Tickle to come and work with me on the development of my ‘Migrate’ work. It’s previous incarnation is a performative piece that I created at the Drawing Exhibition in Castlefield Gallery back in February. That work comprised a projected line mapping a route of migration where I repetitively stamped increasing numbers and arrows backwards and forwards within that flow. Following the production of the work I felt that it lacked choreography, and that the link between the projection, the performative action and the finished work was not strong enough.
I’ve collaborated with Sophie during a networking session in St Helens – a visual artist was randomly assigned a non-visual artist to work with for 4 hours in a local library – and I found it interesting to see how my work crossed over with the practice of a dancer. I’ve wanted to do this for years, but just never had the reason to.
So, on Thursday I asked Sophie to respond to the migration subject matter as she would if she were creating a dance piece. We each created gestures responding to synonyms of the word ‘displace’. The difference between Sophie’s actions that used a wide range of expressive body movements and my own, limited, isolated movement was an interesting counterpoint.
We went on to string these gestures together, and it was interesting to think of timing, variables in speed and dynamics of movement and how this can accentuate and abstract a starting point.
Thinking about the different types of movement led onto a discussion about characterisation – the different parts of my work being different characters (the projection, the logical numbering stamp and the performer)
We have all day on Monday together again when we will integrate video, projection, stamping and performance and see what happens.
Week 2 in the project space and I’ve got an assembly line for making the resin houses in place. I’ve worked out the problems with the bubbles and learnt not to mix resin in a polystyrene cup (it melts). I can make 20 houses a day, I’ve not worked out if that is enough yet, but I aim to know by the end of this week.
Some practical things to work out this week. How big to make things, how does the projector in the gallery fill the space. Will the time lapse work. What screens can I get for the work from the budget. What can I get from working with a performer. What will my publication look like. What do I want the video screens underneath the houses to do?
I think I’m also at the stage of worrying is the work going to be good enough. It feels like new ground in each piece of work, which is daunting, but I also feel as though I’m not pushing it far enough. In the end I can only make what I make by the opening of the show, still doesn’t help the little demons whirring away in the background though.
