A slice of Lime

Sick leave followed by holiday postponed my first meeting with C, the Modern Matron of the Gynaecology ward, but it finally happened yesterday. I was a bit nervous, not quite knowing what she was expecting or whether she would understand my sort of art. Brian at Lime said he had just mentioned me to her, so that wasn’t much help! In the end I decided to just meet her as human being, not a potential commissioner.

When I arrived, C was busy so I hovered in the doorway, not sure whether to go into her office, but once she was finished, her welcome was warm and friendly. She remembered that I was interested in miscarriage and still birth so I told her a bit about my work, and then asked about hers.

C is in charge of two gynaecology wards which cover issues around the first 20 weeks of pregnancy, as well as gynaecological diseases. After 20 weeks, pregnant women move on to obstetrics, which looks after them up to the birth. On the gynaecology ward they deal with terminations, miscarriage and fertility problems. What a potent mixture! The women are all treated in the same ward, and I asked if that is ever a problem. She said no, that the women keep to themselves and are usually in and out before they can form connections with each other.

I was interested in what C said about the staff’s experience. They may be dealing with a termination one minute and a miscarriage the next. This can be very emotionally draining, and the staff’s individual experience can add to the mix.

I told C that my work is not usually the sort of thing you can hang on a wall, and that I work a lot with feelings and emotion. I was able to tell her about my background in counselling. She seemed open to me spending some time on the wards, and seeing what happens. I’ve asked for a few days shadowing staff, to get a sense of what goes on there, maybe followed by some one to one conversations, and that’s already been ok’d by her boss.

I thought about putting off the shadowing for a while, since I have the Flood installation and Flood Walk this week, and Tern Collective are in the middle of proposals, but the sooner I get started, the less time I’ll have to worry about it, so I’ve offered a couple of days next week!

‘Flood’ is almost ready to go now. The knitted piece that will clad the tree was supposed to be ready for a test installation today, but the bank holiday weekend and a problem with the knitting machine mean that Jane hasn’t been able to finish it. We’ve rescheduled for Thursday. It is a shame we weren’t able to do it today, the bright sunshine would have been great for photographs. I might take some of the samples down to the site this afternoon and get a few detail shots. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this good weather continues for the rest of the week. Once the piece is installed we run the risk of it being vandalised, so it may not survive long enough for us to get good images on a sunny day.

The flood map now has two design choices, and we just need to get together and make the final decision. Making the map won’t take long – I have everything ready and will do colour photocopies to hand out to people who come on the flood walk.

In the meantime, my longer term collaboration with Jacqueline Wylie and Jude Macpherson is getting exciting. We got a rejection this week for our last proposal and should have been disappointed, but we weren’t. We’d already wavered about whether the proposal had been made to the right venue, so there was a bit of relief.

Our last meeting was full of energy. We started planning a new project, called ‘Manchester Time Piece’ and have a couple of applications underway to develop it. It already has it’s own twitter feed @McrTimePiece, and there will be a blog.

As for Lime-related work, I have a meeting next week with someone from Manchester Royal Infirmary to explore some ideas. I’m not sure how to approach the meeting. The contact came via Brian, Lime’s director. I might have a chance to speak to him before the meeting, but that depends on his diary.

I was back at Rogue Studios last week for an opening and put my head through the door of my studio there. I miss it, but it is impractical to try and work in both places, so will grit my teeth and get back to Lime.

One week into the Lime residency and I’m appreciating it more and more. It has none of the usual disadvantages of a studio, it is warm, tidy and well maintained. And I have access to a computer, printer, scanner and photocopier, which I’ve never had in a studio before. They are real time-savers. There are usually people around to chat to over a cup of peppermint tea, but they are also at work, so they don’t offer too much distraction. And the lovely weather of the last few days has made it such a pleasure to look out onto the garden.

The burglar alarm is less intimidating since I set it off on Friday! I’ve done the worst now, so am less worried about it.

I also feel a sense of accountability, which is good for my focus. No-one from Lime is judging me, or looking at my output, but I am aware that there is an unspoken… probably not expectation, but definitely interest. The combination of dropping some work hours, the excitement of this new start, and a looming deadline mean I have got a lot done over this last week.

I’m working on the map for the Flood project, and am really enjoying getting stuck into sampling different possibilities. Today will be spent at the Local Studies Unit, doing research, and then back in the studio later in the week to carry on drawing.

Lime is based in an old mansion in a leafy and once exclusive suburb, now occupied mostly by student residences, run-down multiple occupancy housing and the odd consulate building or embassy. An odd mixture, and with a strange atmosphere. Not threatening at all, but somehow bristling with its history. The setting is lovely, rambling gardens looked after by clients of another service in the same building. I have fantasies of lying on the grass in the summer – but I know myself, and will probably be inside working and missing the sunshine! I’m not very good at relaxing.

We artists have 24 hour access to the building, even though most of the staff will only be there in working hours. I tried to go in yesterday evening, but was scared of setting off the burglar alarm, and gave up. Today I will ask about it again and make sure I feel confident. The longer evenings make working late much more attractive.

I don’t yet know what I am going to do with my time here, but I am currently working on two projects, an installation for the Chorlton Arts Festival in May and an on-going project called ‘107 garments’ which I’ve started up again in the last few weeks. I also have ideas about things that could relate more closely to Lime’s work, and will be exploring them too. For now, I’m just getting used to the studio move, getting to know the other artists, and thinking about what I need in the space to make it work for me.