After presenting my Peer Review at Fabrica and showing mock ups and photocopies for the first time beyond the home front, my thinking is clearer. I answered some of my own questions. What am I trying to say? What is important to me? What fits the space? (- and if money was no object?) The group help me answer more….Why am I doing two bodies of work (when only one is clear in my head?) I have been working with layers in recent work, is it enough to have one? – and is a photocopy enough!? The day after the review I went back, to 1992, and my own limited edition. It’s all about narrative (my life before layers)
I have been sneaking in test drives in camera shops over half term and am on the verge of a Canon. With my head in dusty B&W photography I’m waiting to hear about when they are going to clear the flues at the Engineerium-not quite the same but…
‘Step into that cage which hangs over a yawning well away up at the Goldstone Waterworks;-permit yourself to be lowered into Plutonian darkness; and at the bottom of the well you shall have a new experience. You shall not plunge into the cold bath you expect:- for your sake, the mighty engines up overhead have pumped the wells dry, so that you may undergo the strange experience of taking some lengthy walks eighty feet or more under the surface of the Earth, and may witness some novel effects of illumination.’ The Brighton Herald May 28th 1904
The officially renamed All That Mighty Heart was launched on the general public at the Phoenix Brighton Open last weekend. Framed collages and a ‘research wall’ showed found material, images, drawings and extracts from the blog illustrating how the work is developing. After a week of illness at the printers the card stand, by the work, didn’t provide the contact details and email address to take away. Best laid plans. But they are done now and ready to start spreading the word!
It has been so long since I’ve let ideas freefall and hope they land in an innovative and reasoned manner. I’ve now made enough mind maps to cover a steam engine, but ideas do come together when you have time to let them. And contrary to belief…the lengthy bus rides to school are not bereft of suitable stimulus for drawing those map strands together. I walked the quiet lane to the Waterworks Cottages (early for the bus one day!) The silence allowed me to picture the workers in their caps and boots crunching along the flinty path. Back at the Engineerium the diggers have moved in to start the new work. The silence is coming to an end. I am glad of the last few months of visualising in the stillness.
Back in the studio, between school runs and hefty preparing for Phoenix Open, I have been experimenting with ageing paper, making it, with candles, tea and lemon juice and adding decades to my images. I’m still enjoying my Rotring (even more so since Peter informed me he uses his to outline the lettering on the side of his engines.) Acting instantly on ideas without worrying about the outcome is becoming a bit easier, again with the luxury of time after last week’s frantic timetable.
