Anya Beaumont is an artist based in north London. This blog is about a site specific paper based project she is undertaking at the artsdepot in North Finchley in conjunction with the Big Draw. This requires her to source paper that would otherwise be recycled from local residents and transform it into a sculptural relief, using a street map of Barnet, shadow projection and a very sharp craft knife!
It is now the time to bring this blog to a close. The Private View has been and gone, the work is installed and on display for the forseeable future and I have finally managed to get an image of the entire work – front on.
It has been a fascinating project. The almost obsessive behaviour needed for the collecting, layering and cutting has been somehow cathartic – a release from the dear frustrations of raising small children. To have realised this project from inception to conclusion is an achievement and one that only some space and time after installation has allowed me to recognise.
I am very grateful to all those who supported me in this, Alice Lobb from artsdepot, Coppetts Wood Primary School, The East Finchley Archer and the Libraries of Barnet Borough. Many thanks also to my kind friends who routed out bits of paper for it too.
For those who care to visit the work- Paper Trail (100,000 Cuts) is available to view on Level 3, artsdepot, Tally Ho Corner, 5 Nether St, LONDON N12 0GA. artsdepot is open to the public everyday 10:00 – 4:30 (except some bank holidays).
Well – with relief I must say – I have finished the work. Having spent a truly manic last few weeks completing the third section, I have this morning delivered the work at artsdepot ready for installation on Thursday.
The third section was originally going to be about mapping social networks and how the traditional paper based map was beginning to become obsolete due to GPS. It has in fact become about something else.
Whilst working on this project the government announced its spending cuts and as a result it is known that several libraries in Barnet borough will close and that local government funding is being withdrawn for the artsdepot. One of my main sources for the paper I have used has been from the libraries in Barnet and I have visited many of them at a time when their futures are vulnerable. Talking to the invariably helpful librarians has shown how uncertain everyone feels about it and also how unsure of what the criteria will be to keep any particular library safe from closure.
Demonstrations, whole schools enrolling and other strategies are being employed but the facts are some of these highly valued hubs will go.
In response to these uncertain times the work is still about the future, but rather than being about different forms of mapping it is about the places which have enabled its creation. The first layer is made up primarily of the routes to each of the library locations. The subsequent shadows are made up from paper from the libraries. Onto some of this I have printed articles about the demonstrations and the proposed local government policies. It has a rather more chaotic feel than the two sections I made before – this is down to processes I employ – but I feel this suits the subject well; that of disruption and the unknown. 100,000 cuts…
The Big Draw at the artsdepot has been and gone and all in all it was a good experience. After some initial technical problems installing the work it was a successful and very busy day. Dozens of children visited the space and drew in relation to the shadows that had been cast on the floor, I have kept some of these to work with – others went home with the children.
I am happy to say that the work is going to be installed at artsdepot when complete for a minimum of six months. I still have the third section to complete which is going to be based around notions of mapping in the future, considering the increasing use of GPS and the inevitable decline of paper maps. I went to Queen Elizabeths Boys School in Barnet to talk to them about the project, and from that discussion the idea of mapping social networks arose. This has led me to think about using a current map of the Borough to track the places I have visited and the people I have approached in relation to the developing work and the artsdepot and then start to link them using nodes and vectors. This will hopefully produce an open-looking network which is defined by the boundary line of the borough, and an interesting object from which to build up the final section of the work.
Giving myself a short break from this project – enough time to regain feeling in my cutting/index finger perhaps. One piece installed at Middlesex University along with the work of other artists in residence, Gaea Todd, Katharine Dowson, Gabriella Sancis and Cornelia O’Donovan.
Open studios went well – if a little quiet due to engineering works on the tube. I had some very positive feedback on the work – the map initially draws people in as they can’t resist trying to read it, next they start to try to decipher what is actually on the paper that has been used. Observing this engagement is pleasing as it suggests that the work suits it’s intention.
i have been hard at work on the second section which seems to have claimed its own form – being almost comet like. I’m not entirely sure if this is a good thing or not. I temporarily installed both pieces together in the studio to see how they relate to each other. After the Big Draw the plan is to work them together to form a continuous relief. I definitely want to make a third form (always my intention) but need some time to work out how that is going to develop. I have an idea that it needs to do with the future of the area, something to do with renewable energy and young people/ children’s visions of how it might be. I am speaking to QE Boys next week and also to a range of Fine Art students at Middlesex University in the next week or two so perhaps so ideas may come from those meetings.
Any thoughts anyone?
The second section is well under way now. This is just as well as it is being installed for the Big Draw in less than a months time and I have to be back at Middlesex University to resume my residency next week. I have temporarily installed the first section in the studio in Tottenham. We have Open Studios this weekend and it’ll be good to get some feedback on it.
On doing a bit of research on the history of the Barnet area I discovered that an early cartographer John Norden used to live in Hendon House . He produced maps of London in the 1600’s. (It still amazes me at the ease the internet allows you to find things out.) I have printed out (onto donated paper) some images of his maps for use in the work and I am hopeful that the historical theme of the second section is being made clear. I have decided to use a variety of paper within it though as it strikes me that to only use paper with historical detail on it is either going to be too limiting in terms of resources or too contrived if I have to print out too much. Enough now – I’d better get on with the making and photographs of the second section to put up here..
Anya Beaumont is a sculptor who works in a variety of media recently focusing on recycled HDPE plastic. Her work is often site responsive and increasingly concerned with the natural world. She often explores the boundaries between drawing, painting and sculpture. Beaumont received her masters in Fine Art Theory and Practice from Middlesex University with Distinction in 2004 and was an artist in residence there from 2009 -2011. Currently artist in residence at Pound Arts, Wiltshire and Lecturer at Bristol School of Art.
