Fantastic day on Saturday running the DAD symposium except for the fact that my husband fell down the stairs and smashed his wrist while I was out being sheepdog and getting everyone on the bus to go up to the Western Heights for the tour that started the day off. It meant I was on the phone alot and the poor man couldn’t get hold of me. When I rang him he was already on his way to A&E with my dad – tried Kent & Canterbury first but they don’t have full A&E so he ended up at the William Harvey where he was kept in for an op the next day.
Talk about conflict of interests.
In between getting him cups of tea and other things, I have been in the studio doing some more grid paintngs or drawings. The grid seems a natural place to go after the patchwork quilt I made for The Voyagers project.
Despite having a very sore neck I have been back in the studio. Working on paper with ink and trying new forays into painting or rather drawings on wooden panels.
My work is often about pushing myself to the limit – quite literally; physically I will exhaust myself when working on a project and pain is almost always involved in the process of making work.
Another thing that struck me in conversation yesterday with Joanna about the collective pieces made for The Voyagers was that it allowed me to deal with emotional content in a way that is ok for me to handle. Making something together with other people is also a lovely way of being with others and I find I can be as quiet or as chatty as I like in that situation.
The Boat quilt I made for The Voyagers was the first textile piece I’ve ever really done and the folded boats, though, in my head, more easily doable came out much better than I thought. Through the whole project I was worried that the idea would be more beautiful than the installation. My other worry was whether anyone would actually take part; in the end about 90 people did.
I wanted to try and explore the idea of shared making, to some extent relinquishing control so that the making process was meaningful for participants and their individuality was present in the final piece.
I did learn too that I need a good team around me to help install and that lots of hand sewing is excruciating so if I do a hand stitched piece again I must give myself more time.
I went to the last talk in a series of lectures on the bronze age boat find and one thing struck me in particular in relation to my piece and the linking of personal histories to the historical objects in the museum. It is possible that something like a tsunami event divided Britain from the continent and this would have created refugees, some going to France and some staying in Britain. Families would inevitably have been split. The suggestion is that what drove boat travel to the continent would not just have been trade but a wish to see members of one’s family, now on the other side of the water.
So now I am back in the studio drawing but also thinking of the next collaborative project I might do.
Philippe sent me some lovely photos of the installation of his video piece http://www.dadonline.eu/node/429.
And I’ve posted a few images here that I like from the set up. There’s a collection of images on my website too under images which for some reason is underlined. Have to go back and change that. http://www.studio308ltd.co.uk/Clare_Smith.html
Probably happened when I decided to call that section images rather than works.
And I’m chuffed that The Voyagers is featured on the MA Fine Art site of the University for the Creative Arts. http://ucama.co.uk/news/alumins-work-launched-in-d…
I feel like bits of me are scattered all over the web.
I am moving into a new studio soon – should be in there in a couple of weeks time. I’m really excited as it is beautiful and spacious and light. I need to move fairly quickly as I have a show coming up in November, Nerve racking but exciting.
