Had a really good mentoring session today with Steven. Useful initially in that it gave me something to pull things together for, to stand back from what I'm doing – I printed, photocopied bits of stuff I've been working on and pinned them up. Surprised myself in that it kinds of makes sense…!
Reinforced for me the importance/validity of that visual musing process or furrowing the soil as Steven puts in… and I could add in at times leaving it fallow… or 'set aside'… Discussed a fair bit around the need not to 'top load' it… to be confident in myself with my practice… that it is critically framed, it is political – can actually just get on with it, do the musing bit, do the play, the research – cos the rest is there and will come through.
Covered stuff around research-led practice, socially engaged/relational practice… role as artist working as agent within the system, as discursive agent within society… artist as conduit, tipping heirarchies up side down…
All good stuff. Now got an MA application to write. Followed by weekend – I have four children… don't need to say much more!!!
A mid winter day up on the top of Galva, far removed from the hint of Spring we've been used to. Spending an hour or so up there taking photos and drawing, it is easy to see why people who lived up there in Early Neolithic times moved down to lower ground when the climate changed – will we adapt so readily?
Having spent so long poring over archaeological surveys it was really good to just spend some time up there in an absorbed creative space, pacing the ground, exploring, imagining myself into the tor enclosure. I had forgotten just how rugged it is up there amongst the granite boulders on top of the carn – the google earth images flatten it. You really get a sense of how the enclosure would have been laid out for habitation and of the almost inpenetrable granite defenses to the north and south, and the sight lines reaching across Mounts Bay to the Lizard on the south and the Atlantic a mile to the north. Exhilerating.
Layers & networks… connections across time & (s)p(l)aces…
Playing around in my head, researching, some really good conversations with other artists… but also beginning to play with materials, drawing, layering with photoshop, lots of beginnings – bit like a rabbit down a warren at the moment, could go anywhere!
Started to look at Postmodern Geographies: Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory (Edward Soja). Also planning the ALIAS seminar with Andy, thinking about the curating but also the practicalities, like having fun. It should be a good weekend (19th – 21st September) – watch this space!
Off to the top of Galva now to try & work out the archaeology and yes, do some drawing!
Had a really important meeting today which sorted out lots of outstanding issues around working space and practicalities. I'm going to be based in an old cowshed! It will create issues around damp (used to that in West Cornwall..) but somehow it all feels part of working off site and I am excited, but also feeling apprehensive as it means I really have to get on with things… Doubts (the self doubting variety) keep trying to creep in, but increasingly now a days I can see them coming, see them for what they are, sift out the useful bits of learning, of development and leave the rest, put them gently to one side. Long may it last!
I am going to hold on to the sense of excitement and opportunity… and the incredible setting to work in. I just can not describe how breathtakingly beautiful Bosigran was today, drenched in sunshine facing the sea.
I've just been trawling through my iPhoto library uploading pictures and realised there was something I had missed writing about – 'Grace's House'.
I came across Grace's house when out walking with my partner some months ago half a mile from Carn Galva. Its an old tumble down granite one room 'house' that probably I have since found out dates back to the 17th century. What fascinates me about it though is what I came across inside – three pairs of old child sized iron bunk beds!
Steven my mentor asked me what it was that drew me to them… something I've been wondering on… revisiting some missing childhood place, feeling connected to something, recreating story, creating memory? Perhaps creating self… not sure, something to keep wondering on.
Anyway I spent three/four hours up there the other day drawing and taking photographs, in that space where you become so absorbed in what you are doing that you don't notice how cold you are until you stop. I became fascinated by ideas of uncovering story and started playing out the role of archaeologist, the most insignificant pieces of rubbish became embued with significance as I recorded my 'finds'.
What is quite strange is that the more I research, the more I come across about this tiny home. But no where, not in accounts of its grade 2 listed status or recent writings about the history of the hamlet does it ever mention the bunkbeds. Why are they there, where did they come from…. stories of evacuees come to mind, I do know that until comparatively recently it had a 'replacement' tin roof… Something for my enquiries…
As I write I am wondering at the relationship between the unearthing of my stories and the stories of the beds, with the wider story of a landscape that tends to be defined more by what it was, than by what it is to become. It is now part of the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site, ESA, SSSI, AONB etc etc. Where does living tradition in a contemporary world find a voice amongst the initialled designations and picture postcard images?
