I have to say I am not complaining about the extended summer, even though my project space gets really really hot in the afternoons and it becomes impossible to work in there! It has been a luxury to have such a big space and it has been perfect for my Stitched Time project. As with all projects, the initial concept has been exactly that – a starting point. I am building up to a show at Limbo in Margate in November which is much closer than it feels.
In connection with that I am calling for zine contributions so please email me for more info if you are interested. The themes are [art]work, [hand]work, stitching and threads, time and also women’s roles in/at work, which covers quite a lot really.
Apart from that, I am, as always, busy with work for DAD. Joanna and I gave a talk recently as part of the Folkestone curated Fringe events and the question came up about balancing studio practice and DAD work. One tends to see the two things as binary opposites although we try to see our practices as integrated – I sometimes talk about different modes of production – but there are so many competing demands on one’s time so that it is not just about juggling studio practice and other forms of practice but about juggling everything including walking the dog, all the stuff that needs doing in the house, family commitments, attending events, going out to see stuff, dealing with the accountant, filing papers, updating the website and other online platforms ….. phew…
…. hence today’s post.
I have to say I am not complaining about the extended summer, even though my project space gets really really hot in the afternoons and it becomes impossible to work in there! It has been a luxury to have such a big space and it has been perfect for my Stitched Time project. As with all projects, the initial concept has been exactly that – a starting point. I am building up to a show at Limbo in Margate in November which is much closer than it feels.
In connection with that I am calling for zine contributions so please email me for more info if you are interested. The themes are [art]work, [hand]work, stitching and threads, time and also women’s roles in/at work, which covers quite a lot really.
Apart from that, I am, as always, busy with work for DAD. Joanna and I gave a talk recently as part of the Folkestone curated Fringe events and the question came up about balancing studio practice and DAD work. One tends to see the two things as binary opposites although we try to see our practices as integrated – I sometimes talk about different modes of production – but there are so many competing demands on one’s time so that it is not just about juggling studio practice and other forms of practice but about juggling everything including walking the dog, all the stuff that needs doing in the house, family commitments, attending events, going out to see stuff, dealing with the accountant, filing papers, updating the website and other online platforms ….. phew…
…. hence today’s post.
I am going to try and take things more slowly in August and spend some time with the various members of my family. Having said that, this week has been pretty busy with meetings and admin of one sort or another.
I have just sent out my third newsletter with an announcement of Arts Council funding for my project Stitched Time which has its own dedicated blog. Initially I thought it was going to be a project about collaboration but actually it is much more about the nature of work and I am getting quite excited by the prospect of starting a PhD in sociology, once I have written a proposal and got it through that is. So nothing on the horizon till 2015.
Time for an update!
New Dover Arts Development projects aside, I’ve just handed over 3 mono prints for an exhibition at a new gallery run by artist friend Gillan Westgate: the Mayor’s Parlour Gallery in Bow Road. Being asked to make some prints spurred me on and I’ve been trying out mono printing for the past month. Just when I think I’ve got the hang of things though, it all seems to go wrong again! The good thing about that is that it keeps me experimenting.
I have work in the Pop Up Shop in Chatham at the moment too – a reconfiguration of “There are no words” which I showed in Manchester in March as part of Wobudong, a group show with artists Julie Brixley Williams, Sue Gough, Jayne Lloyd and Catherine Wynne Paton, organised by Jayne Lloyd.
“The exhibition brought together works that are influenced by the actions, traces and aesthetics of handwriting or its ephemera – the lines and grids that guide it. ….
And I have been making some single-sheet folded books, some of which I made as part of my participation in Whitstable Satellite 2014 and for the Public Zine Library at the Whitstable Biennale and the zine library at Georges House Gallery in Folkestone.
The Thread, paper, cloth collaboration with Rosie James is developing and has set off collaborations of its own, as well as triggering a new collaborative project, “Stitched time”, which I will be starting in the second half of this month. All of which has got me thinking about the nature of collaborative production and the potential for PhD research.
Back blogging after a break! I have been really busy, showing work, giving a talk in Germany and organising workshops.
I really must thank Ruth Geldard for her great piece capturing the feeling of the artist-to-artist workshop I organised recently with Rosie James. I hesitate to say “led” because the idea is that these workshops are non-tutor led and are about making stuff in a peer-to-peer environment.
Actually, less about making stuff and more about playing, something I did again in a Dover Arts Development Spontaneous Creativity workshop yesterday. The first edition of this workshop took place last year and, like this year, was very much driven by DAD co-director Joanna Jones.
I did a “spontaneous drawing” on a long piece of Chinese paper, as I listened to and watched the improvised music and movement that was going on around me. Ruth mentioned anxiety of the social kind in her blog – my feeling was more like panic initially at the thought of singing, playing an instrument or feigning dance: the very thought of it brought back the horrors of eurythmics at school, failed ballet classes, inadequate violin playing and awful singing. Maybe next year I will try and expunge those memories, but this time, doing an “unplanned” drawing was my way of being spontaneous and of playing.
As Francois (workshop leader) said, it’s not that we should permanently lead a life of play, rather that playing is important for learning, as much for adults as it is for children. Through play we can make and deepen connections with people we know as well as those we don’t. The workshop gave everyone permission to play, something that we don’t always allow time for, although I think artists do allow themselves to play, but maybe not enough always. There is an intimate link between play, creativity and discovering something new.
Play also nurtures trust: an unexpected outcome of the workshop was a collaborative painting – Joanna started it and others just added to it without being explicitly invited to do so. How often do we let anyone add marks to our work? Challenge our authorship or belief in the authenticity of our own work?
