Yesterday I had seven visitors and that was refreshing. I did thirty two grains and that’s partly because i carved during the ‘In Progress Event’ while I was talking to people.
The event was ecnouraging with several interesting conversations and comments. Between 6 and 9pm somebody counted 35 guests. Artist Madeleine Walton ([email protected]) has kindly written a review about the project:
The Canal Basin is a little known gem just outside Sheffield city centre. Here the city’s former industrial past is still tangible. Inside the Grain Warehouse on Victoria Quays huge hoppers bear testament to that past. In this cavernous space sits Silvia Champion at a workman’s bench carving huge grains out of oversized bars of soap. As you enter this architecturally stunning space the smell of the soap hits you immediately. Large bricks of coal tar soap are piled around the perimeter of the Grain Warehouse. Dominating the space these white soap bricks make their presence felt. Silvia dressed in industrial clothes sits upon a high stool and calmly whittles away at the soap. Large quantities of soap shavings are piled around her feet while she produces a white grain the size of an ostrich egg. I don’t know the thinking behind the size of the grain she carves but regardless of the reason it is quite exquisite. When Silvia has carved six soap grains she carries them to a bricked room off the main space. There are a pile of them there. I’m not sure how many. Less than a hundred but more than fifty, would be my guess. I wish these were more prominent, possibly in the main space and not hidden away. Maybe in place of the grains, the bricks of soap could be here – out of sight and out of mind. For me the act of Silvia sitting in silence and carving is enough for me. I don’t require a finished product (nice as it is). I would be happy to see this as an industrial space with Silvia whittling the soap away to nothing and the space slowly filling with shavings. But don’t take my word for anything visit yourself and take away your very own soap grain on 27th March at the closing event 6-9pm. See you there!
Artist Sally Anne Roberts (twitter happy_alice) has also sent me her thougths:
Initial entry to the venue, the performer is positioned so she is viewed from the side as she carves and processes a white soft brick material. The performance is the focus of the work, with white brick walls echoing the shape of the brick building. The carver is detached and solitary in the space, with a dedication equal to a penance or persecution in such a cold lonely venue over such a period of time.
The soft white bricks are carved, filling the air with a sweet perfume in the space. As the repetitive task unfolds the romantic ideology of the past is shattered by the execution through movement, where the fundamental objective is to process materials through manual labor. There is a sense of indifference towards the carved objects as they are carried with little care and piled together out of sight, seeming to have less value after processing.
The dedication and devotion of the performer brings the space to life, creating a space for reflection and questions our relationship between materials and processing.
Somebody else commented about the grain shape and questioned the importance of it. ‘Why soap’ undoubtly came up and I told the story of the original project. Some people suggested afterwards not to tell too much because it might devalue my choices and make the viewer stop thinking. Maybe I give away too much but I try to be open and let people into a different door. It felt right at the time.
Managed 19 grains today, get a bit obsessed with the numbers. It was great to have the MA crit group from Sheffield Hallam down to have a look and get some feedback/questions.
“Do you need to carve the grain, why not just the shavings?”
“Why did you position yourself the way you did facing the whole of the space?”
“Could you make the sound of shaving the soap more dominant?”
“Why did you make walls out of the soap bricks and positioned them the way you did?”
“What happens with the soap after the project?”
“What’s the significance of working on your own?”
“Carving trolley and chair work really well.”
etc.
I’ll copy feedback from my comment book into my blog when I get a minute.
Sally Ann was my assistant all day today and made some useful observations.
Tomorrow night is my event and I’m very curious who is going to come. I hope some people will join me. Bought drinks and nibbles.
Had a really nice surprise at the Leeds International Book Fair last weekend. I participated as part of MA Fine Art Sheffield Hallam Uni with my book ‘To and From Grain Warehouse Sheffield’, my Word Worlds and a couple more books I’ve made recently.
There, I met Susan Kruse, an artist based in Birmingham, who commented on my blog. I couldn’t believe this wonderful coincidence!
Today it was snowing again with temperature -2. I was ok though and didn’t feel too cold, surprisingly. My assisstangs Sally and Madeleine coped well too; I hope they weren’t just polite. I carved 15 grains. Fran came in the morning to document again. The light was lovely today when through the snowy background streamed the sun into the space. Fran commented that’s the first time she’s seen the sun coming into the space.
There was a group of six people visiting but they were more interested in the space, made some postive sounds regarding my work though.
I’m hoping some of the MA Crit group are coming down tomorrow to give me some feedback. Will see.
Day five. First thing the photographer from the Sheffield Telegraph came to to take pics for article that will be out next Thursday. Can’t wait to read and see it.
Only had one visitor today, my friend Katie Hilton. She left me a very positive comment in my comment book, thanks Katie!
Have decided that I’ll talk to poeple when I’m there on my own, when assistant has popped out. Can’t bare feeling people’s need and wish to find things out and trying to talk to me and I have to ignore them. Most of the time there will be somebody with me anyway.
My goal was to carve 15 grains today and I did 14 :-( I want to get up to carving 20 in five hours by next week. It’s possible, I’m sure.
Weather forecast for next week is below 0 that will feel like -9. I’m more sorry for my assistants as they are suffering for somebody elses art and doing it to support me. Will bring them some treats.
I’m still enjoying being in the space massively!!!
Tomorrow I’m off to Leeds International Book Fair with my peers. I finished my books ‘To and From Grain Warehouse Sheffield’ last night. They along with my word balls, a Sheffield concertina book and my 12x12x12 book will be presented there.
Day four. I carved fourteen grains today. I’m on a mission to get quicker to carve as many of the soap bricks as possible. Don’t think I’ll manage to do all of them, but it is about the process and it is good if some of them stay in their original shape in the space.
The first visitor today I only heard talking to Lizzy my assistant today. He was an artist too and talked about some recent projects. I think he lives on a canal boat, I recognised his voice. The second visitor was a guy that works in one of the offices in the Canal basin and has done for 15 years. He stayed for a while chatting to us (I just had my lunch so I could chat too) about Sheffield, its architecture, etc. he also took a few flyers for his colleagues inteh office. Then there was this man watching me through the window for absolutely ages, I could feel his eyes but didn’t look up. Then there was a cyclist coming in taking some images and video footagea and had a good look around. Later came a young woman who lives near by and asked if she could have some flyers for where she lived. She said she would come again.
I had a two hour break in the middle as it is thursday and I went to the 1819 cafe at Victoria Quays. I wanted to talk to that man who runs one of the businesses here and I know he visited and I didn’t talk to him. I asked him how that was for him. I got the impression he was dissapointed and felt ignored. He did. Now I’ve decided that when the assistants nip out and somebody comes in and talks to me I will talk, but when the assistant is with me I wont.
A not to where I have distributed my flyers:
Site Gallery, University Art department (AGC), Showroom Cinema, Hilton Hotel, Travelodge, Cafe 1819, Sandwich shop and I gave them to lots of people I thought might be interested.
Somebody sent me a blog comment which i really enjoyed receiving. It feels encouraging when you know somebody is reading your blog. Thanks I will add some images to my blog tomorrow.
