5/ BUILDING A COLLABORATIVE PARTNERSHIP: A DAY IN THE STUDIO (part 3)
Following a well-earned lunch break, we resumed work, adding some contrastingly soft wool fibre into the spaces within the frame. Returning to the predominantly yellow, free standing structure that we had worked on earlier, we followed the colour theme, adding cellophane to the top. Not sure quite what to add next, I encouraged Linda to choose from the selection of materials on the tactile table. She decided to glue some of the blue rubber rectangles to the front of the structure, cutting more of the same shape from a sheet of the thin rubber. Her inspired choice of colour worked well, set against the yellow background. Siobhan suggested that Linda might have chosen to cut this shape because the one’s that she had chosen earlier had been a similar shape. If there had been a selection of different pre-cut shapes it would have been interesting to see which shape Linda would have chosen to cut herself.
There was a good sense of energy in the studio as the sculptures were taking form, with Linda and I working alongside each other, at times standing back to admire our collaborative efforts. During this process and throughout the day we had avoided assuming different tasks, e.g. one of us cutting and one sticking. There was a continued interchange, which helped to maintain a flowing ‘conversation’ with the materials. Siobhan, having removed herself from the creative process up until now, began to join in a little more, giving the final stages a sense of celebration.
With the day drawing to a close it felt like a good time to move the artwork outside, to see how a change of environment might influence the process of collaboration. We sandwiched the ringed frame within a large metal drying rack outside to discover, to our delight, that if we dropped materials through the square layers, they would tumble to the ground. After a little encouragement, Linda obviously enjoyed throwing the wool into the frame, finishing the day off weaving materials in and around the large square structure. It had felt like a lovely way to round off the day, with smiles all round, having both enjoyed the freedom and spontaneity of our collaborative journey together.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/121986263@N05/sets/72157643251975133/
