Another session in the market square yesterday evening as part of the Town Council’s Jubilee event. Pom pom making to the broadcast of the Queen’s jubilee concert on Dover’s Big Screen. Started to get cold by 10pm but fortunately had woken up the winter boots from their spring/summer resting place.
Braved the rain today running a workshop as part of the Big Lunch in Dover making pom poms for DAD’s “Olympic Arch” project. Was good fun as well as slightly chaotic when 66 French schoolchildren all wanted to take part at once. I now have backache from standing nearly all afternoon.
Just back from a holiday in Devon and keen to get back to work. Went to the studio and am really energised – was good to have a drawing on the go so that I could get stuck in straight away. I am experimenting with applying paint to the back of the paper as well – I want to see what happens when it curls over.
Drove up from Devon to the FaB opening in Bath and unexpectedly saw a CSM classmate there too, as well as work by regular a-n blogger Rob Turner.
Clare Smith's mixed English/Chinese heritage informs her perspective on issues of identity and categorisation. Her nomadic childhood and early adulthood have meant a somewhat ambivalent relationship to place, reinforced by the sense of ambiguity that comes from her mixed identity. Smith works with drawing, print media, collage and moving image to investigate this ambivalence, with references to craft, the importance of labour and the handmade. Through her choice of materials and approaches, she creates work which attempts to create a sense of unity, an interpretation of Homi Bhabha's "Third Space" - seen as a space in which different parts can come together to challenge dominant ideas of wholeness. Collaboration is part of Smith’s practice and she is also co-founder of Dover Arts Development (DAD) together with painter, Joanna Jones. This involves working with many different artists, curation, organisation, event management, creating networks across East Kent and influencing the public realm in Dover. Clare works from a studio in Dover. She has an MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins and has exhibited nationally and internationally.
