It floats and drifts on Broadwater lake in an environment designed by Capability Brown it has been described as ‘majestic’ and like an ‘electron spinning around’…
Wow! I am so pleased with this project and what I have learned so far, I have had to problem solve all along the way, finding new materials and sources when what I had planned to use was no longer available, finding an anchor, finding enough rope, learning how to tie an anchor knot, getting the form to change shape by soaking it in the lake and rolling it around on the grass virtually ‘zorbing’ on it! Volunteers helping and getting equipment, rowing in a boat whilst making adjustments, discovering muscles I didn’t know I had, making a raft and finding ways to stabilize the raft with an uneven form on top – putting more air in the form of empty 4 pint milk bottles strung under the raft once out on the lake, as the rain had pelted down and soaked the base of the sculpture …and I could go on and on.
One of the many exciting things I have learned from making this giant oak form is that I have a new reference framework which encompasses so many potential ideas I already have and might develop. I have to thank mentor Judith Alder for her perceptive questioning and listening skills for this!
What became apparent making the form was the dependency between the form and the anchor and what was in between. This is something I want to pursue in more work, since my mum died recently I have been thinking a lot about what lies unseen under the ground and a sense of re composting below. I am working in an exhibition of trees (De La Warr Pavilion) where tree houses are the subject of a beautiful book to assist with audience engagement, they fascinate me as they are anchored through the roots of the tree and then reach the sky where the tree house dweller can go and experience another ‘state of being’ transcending our earthly world. We can dream, reflect be whoever we want to be in this world of possibility – our vision has been raised we have a new perspective. I love the idea they are our original architecture, pillars reaching into the sky.
So I think I have made a significant leap with my work where I understand a visual framework of reference particular to my own practice, not borrowed or appropriated, an anchor which is more resilient than just aesthetic or observation it gives me something to bite on and gives me a path to follow.
What I want to do now is take some time exploring this through using new materials. I have done a short course in metal with Andrew Revell and this was really fun, I would like to get some new skills under my belt using London Sculpture Workshop to give me confidence and again some stronger resilience to challenges and problems I will definitely keep encountering as I work intuitively in new spaces maybe still on water and with new materials.
