AUDIENCE, COLLABORATION AND DEVELOPMENT
When I did a performance lab with Janine Antoni in 2006, (Lore and Other Convergences) she got us to write a letter to our audience for the piece we were making together. I really like this practice and have used it a few times to get in tune with my work and those I am making it for. As a precursor to this am thinking about my general intentions for the work and how it lands with the public;
My intentions are for this installation to be a social space – a space which is easy to access but which facilitates a degree of reflection on the visitors wider experience of Origin. A space which holds an artwork which intrigues and invites people to participate and return over the two week period, to want to see how it progresses and feel a certain sense of attachment to it. Am going to write that letter over the coming weeks to help clarify the questions I wish to ask of the public in the making of the work.
I had forgotten how many elements there are to consider and decide apon with this kind of piece and also the joy of working with other people who really know their stuff.
I am working with Hattie Spice (runs Spicelumb, an event production company in London and I know her from growing up in Tunbridge Wells) on the design, build and install of the stand for the piece. This feels good as she is very creative and experienced in this kind of project and with that comes dealing with a lot of technical issues (ground plans, risk assessments, electrics etc) which lifts a load from my shoulders. I have in the past been very bogged down with the production and admin of my own work. There is stuff to work on for this part of the project, but I am planning to have most of my part of the really techie stuff handed over by the 21st July so I can concentrate on the content and aesthetics of the work.
I am also working with Willow Winston, an old friend and extraordinary artist who mentored me and helped me design the chamber space for The Loom Project in 2005. We have collaborated before that ( her- book art, me- film). We had a synchronous moment when I called her to outline this project and ask her to work on it ; I mentioned the structure being circular / dome–like and she had the exact image in her head. As if whispered by angels. And already, as with the loom chamber, magical esoteric numbers are coming from her experiments on the structure (she is a master mathematician / geometrist as well as deeply esoteric in her approach to work), which will be made of steel mesh, painted, bound with wire and woven through with ribbons.
