Wanderings

SAND CASTS AND SKYBOATS

I’ve been thinking about whether it might be possible to make some sort of sand structures linked to my ideas about defence, attack and erosion. I’ve been tryng (pretty unsuccessfully so far) to make some sand-cast sandcastles. I’ll keep trying.

Exciting though to see the details of the show on the Quay Arts website, and to receive the first proof of the promotional postcard.

http://www.quayarts.org/event.aspx?id=2975

FRIDAY

It feels like it’s been a good couple of weeks. A productive day in the studio has ended with 4 pieces of work going out of the studio and into the house – to be lived with for a while so I can see how I feel about them. They might be finished.

I can feel things starting to fall into place a bit – always a relief. Some more finishing off tomorrow, and then onto the next piece of work.

I’ve got a huge amount of material which I’ve never resolved and I’m beginning to enjoy reviewing it. I’ve moved on since I first produced these ideas and seem to have much more idea now about what they could become. It’s been quite a journey.

ATTACK AND DEFEND

I suppose it all began with Stephen Turner’s Seafort project which I followed in 2006 (http://www.seafort.org/) and then my project last year at The Redoubt Fortress in Eastbourne. Whatever the beginning, I have developed a fascination with unused or abandoned military buildings – something about their function of defence and attack – keeping a force out, and yet keeping another force in. And the solitariness that that somehow involves, heightened of course by the subsequent abandonment of these fortifications. I was interested then, on my visit to the Isle of Wight last year, to discover that the island is peppered with crumbling forts and batteries all around its coast, built as defences against possible invasion from the sea.

Other defences are obvious too all around the island’s coast. These ones are also crumbling in places, but continually repaired, replaced, upgraded and reinforced in order to defend the land in a war of attrition against the ongoing attack by the sea itself, which constantly threatens to wear away and eat into the edges of the land.

I’ve been able to focus on making some new work for Quay Arts this week and with only 9 weeks before the show opens have been planning how best to use the limited time which I have available.

Reading back over my blog posts from last summer I’m amazed to see how my ideas have remained constant.

I want to make some more cast landscapes and have been re-photographing the ones which I made some time ago. I’m pleased with the results and am wondering how best to present the casts in the Isle of Wight. I’m going to show the photographs at Blue Monkey Studio’s OUTPOST exhibition next week.

COUNTING DOWN

With just over four months until my show opens at Quay Arts, I have got a timetable mapped out in my mind for getting the work ready. I need to be organised because my MA at Wimbledon is demanding and there is not much leeway for other things.

The work I want to show at Quay Arts has been accumulating over four years or so, but some of it is still unfinished, or exists only as a set of preparatory pieces which need to be refined or completed. Meanwhile, my MA work has developed in a different direction, though I can see links forming which may mean that the two will meet – I’d like that.

I had to submit a few words and an image for the Quay Arts brochure this week: “Wanderings (and other things) – From the epic to the everyday Judith’s work embarks on a voyage of discovery, exploring landscape, environment and location, using maps and markers, tracks and trails, drawing, photography, and sculpture. Through her work Judith tries to make sense of our place in the world and our complex relationship with it.” How difficult it is to try to sum up 4 years work in 40 words!