PARADISE OR PRISON
I suppose there are similar things about both islands and forts. Good and bad things depending on what’s happening to you. You can be self-contained, enclosed, remote, cut off from threats, safe. On the other hand and in other circumstances, the remoteness can become isolation; defence becomes a siege; self-containment becomes confinement. Island paradise? Or island prison?
The world’s:
largest island – Greenland (assuming that Australia is classed as a continent)
smallest island – apparently it’s Bishop Rock off the south-west of the UK.
Also apparently, according to www.didyouknow.org “In 1861, the British government set out the parameters for classifying an island. It was decided that if it was inhabited, the size was immaterial. However, if it was uninhabited, it had to be “the summer’s pasturage of at least one sheep” – which is about two acres.”
PARALLEL BLOGS
Earlier this year Sharon Haward and I (along with 10 other artists) made new work in response to the Redoubt Fortress, Eastbourne. It was a great location and I think we both loved working there. It made me smile today to read Sharon’s latest blog post about forts, bunkers and blockhouses, with her photograph of a bunker near Cap Gris Nez. We both seem to have moved on with a new common interest in our practices, each picking up a trail to these half-forgotten defences.
Perhaps we should get together and compare fort photos Sharon!
ISLANDS AND SANDCASTLES
I like islands. My father’s family were Shetlanders. When I was 11 I visited the Shetlands. I loved it there. Last year I visited the Orkneys.
I like castles and forts too.
I’d like to make some books for my show. Mostly pictures, but maybe some words. During my stay on the Isle of Wight I started listing words which seemed important.
Forts, castles, sandcastles.
None of this fits together yet. But bear with me…
NO MAN’S LAND
I’m suffering from a very familiar unease which settles on me at times. It grows from the constant churning of ideas in my mind during periods when it’s not possible to zoom in on any of them and start work. That’s where I am at the moment – in the no-man’s land of change between the end of something and the beginning of something.
While I was on the island, I was struck by the level of defences I came across – both marine and military. The Isle of Wight has always played a key role in plans for the defence of the Solent, while the island authorities wage a constant battle to defend their land from the sea.
TOWARDS TOMORROW
After 6 years working from a shared workspace at Blue Monkey Studio in Eastbourne, I’m going back to school. Everything is changing. I’m giving up my workspace, stepping down from local commitments, and focusing on my personal practice for a whole year.
These are busy weeks with my thoughts divided between several fronts. Accumulated clutter, equipment, materials all need to be transferred from Blue Monkey to a shed at the bottom of my garden. I must draw up a plan of action for my show at Quay Arts, which will happen slap bang in the middle of my MA. I’m beginning to get cold feet about the new project I’ve written for the MA, wishing I could focus more on the old mapping work which I want to show at Quay Arts.
I’ve just come back from a week in the Isle of Wight where I began to get a feel for the nature of the island. Now I need to make decisions about how much new work I can make for the show, and what direction that should take.
