Judith Alder – Finding Her Way
Part 2
This current investigative project has evolved from earlier work she began as an artist in residence for Watch This Space at Phoenix Studios, Brighton in 2005. Four artists were chosen to set up their workspaces in the open studio so people could come and watch ‘the creative process’. Judith’s method of investigation and documentation was highly suitable for this project. She set up 10 large boards and made a series of mind maps detailing both her practical and thought processes as she worked. She began to extend the maps from the boards onto the floor of the studio corridor and hall by means of trails of blue dots, yellow dashes, green stripes; when she encountered a radiator, a step, some other feature of this indoor land, she numbered it, found a way round it. She draped cloth over some objects to create strange moors and hills. A series of tracks lead round and through the space. She took photos of these small indoor landscapes and produced long folded sheets, half-map, half-book. Visitors followed the tracks she had laid out, they studied the work-boards, used the white stick and blacked-out spectacles that Judith had borrowed from the local Blind Association. How did blind people find their way? Might we learn different even fuller ways to find our way in the world using their tools?
Shortly after this residency Judith won an Art Plus Award for a proposal to develop ideas for a public art project “A Sense of Direction”. She began 8 months’ work researching ideas for the project, working with groups from the Eastbourne Blind Society and the RNIB. She documented the process and produced maps, photographs and drawings.
To be continued
