JULY: Frances had been making sculptural pieces for the installation in the ‘house’ throughout June and July – I had been late starting, and was wondering what materials to use. Frances had been using heavily grogged clay which she then bisquit fired, and they ended up an earthy, dark colour. We had been discussing the transformation of eveyday objects when viewed out of the normal context and what they can communicate. By placing them in an unfamiliar setting, how do they read? A phone in the forest, a bowl that grows thorns so cannot hold anything, a plate that is disintegrating into the earth.
I decided to use beeswax and was given a bag of wax and honeycomb, so it inspired me to make the items out of this – it was so malleable and suggestive, it was hard to work it into a shape that didn’t have too many other connotations. I worked on just making some kitchen utensils and plates, etc, and worried they were too different to Frances. But when Frances and I got together with the work, they complemented each other in a surprising way – I thought the heaviness of her work would make mine look a bit flimsy, but actually they work really well as a balanced collection of objects, both with the same idea, but unique as an expression of each individual artist. I think they look as if nature has taken over in some way after an absence of humanity, or is it someone trying to make forgotten tools from nature? An uncertain state of tranformation may be the theme!
