This week contains two studio visits to discuss Postures of Making. The first was yesterday with Dominique Rey and Polly Cruse.
This studio visit was a self imposed event; a deadline that acts as a motivation, a prompt to draw work together, finish off maquettes, clear the decks of the studio and present work in progress. It is in some ways nerve racking but also exhilarating.
Dominique, Polly and I have all known each other and worked together since we were selected to be mentees on the Commissions East Mentoring Scheme back in 2006. We instigated Satellite, an artist led group, undertaking projects and studio visits over the years; developing a trust and shorthand communication style which is supportive and productive.
I started the visit by showing work from the digital sketchbook with some elucidation. There were times when we stopped on a particular entry and the conversation expanded. During this process the enormity of project potential became apparent. There are so many possible lines of enquiry it was suggested I start to create a hierarchy of questions or areas to investigate. The digital sketchbook is working well for recording process and progress, but actually what I need is a much bigger working area to create a mind map or diagram of all the possibilities of the project to then start to select and edit together a list. This thinking through doing on a large scale works well for me; and I hope in undertaking this task the major research strands will be identified and in some way help Val and I decide: What are we trying to find out?
We also spoke of kinetic ideas, referencing the research but also in response to my articulation of the possible desired project outcomes. Polly mentioned Zoetropes (origin from the greek life and turning) in response to some forms I have been creating, and Dominique picked up on Choreography (origin from the greek dancing in unison) when I talked about some further documentation I would like to undertake. We talked of time management, psychological wellbeing, logs of my work activities, opposites and containment, context and outcomes. It was a stimulating and worthwhile visit. Predictably no answers have come to the fore, partly because the all-important mind map is yet to be created, but also because it takes time for conversations to sink in and integrate with existing ideas and ambitions. What ends up demanding my attention is currently unknown but I don’t think it will take long to come to the fore.
My thanks to Dominique and Polly for their time.
