doing. action. verb. l’herbe.

I’m waiting on getting some alkathene, often used in the frame for poly tunnels along with heat shrink wrap plastic to get the light projecting into a dark space version of Bathe in ignorance to its next phase.

 

Richard Taylor recently suggested recording my reading out the 257 words to see how it transforms them. I read and recorded, but as soon as I started reading I had the thought that it’d be easier to follow the words if I had an autocue  (and not create paper flapping noises when going from sheet to sheet)

 

I felt the next step was filming the reading, so I’ve put the words onto a teleprompter app and have filmed the autocue rolling words and my voice reading them out.  www.vimeo.com/133382018

 

I’m being very matter of fact and not doing a great deal of reflecting here , I have a horrible habit of allowing reflection and possibilities discovered through it sending me off in too many directions and my overall effort being watered down.  Now I’m going off to contextualise and then to a local tool workshop tomorrow to source alkathene (with luck).

I now have my bundle of scratch cards back from Ludlow.

I am in a long term planning and preparation stages (it’s all taking ages) for my Bathe in Ignorance and Magna carta projects – am waiting on equipment and all sorts to get them further along, so I’m on a spontaneous working days yesterday and today and back to the nitty gritty details Thu and Fri.  Planned and spontaneous working I now am thinking ‘fast and slow art’ – fast for me being painting and slow being the projects that need many practical elements to come together to work, but that often come from those spontaneous sessions.

Started yesterday working on a 20x20cm wooden frame and now have moved on to working on an opened out cardboard box in circles, that then formed into a Loganberry, then sent me delving into my scratch cards – I was sure the UK National lottery had fruit themed ones, but no, it Bejewelled that looks a little like fruit machines.  Just now printing out fruit machine fruit images to work back into the loosely started painting.

Went on a family evening stroll last night and one of the images here shows the discarded scratch cards found in just 45minutes walking, it adds up to £27 and I found two scratch card designs I haven’t found before– the half a long strip ‘Million RICH’ with a black background and circle motiv in the centre, with wedge 7, 8 etc visible (likely a £10 card) and the purple and blue and pink £1 game store Cash match.

Once I started collecting scratch cards (few months ago), after simply putting them in the bin from outside my front door at first, I now see them whenever I go out, no matter what I’m up to.

The juicy vectoy images of fruit on fruit machines is iconic of small (yet repeated) loss on fruit machines and other starter gambling.  I try to avoid tv late at night, but when I do watch, I am horrified by the glamorous portrayal of online gambling as it is clearly very different to the actual experience.  I am drawn to scratch cards with the thought of the frame of mind people are in when scratching to see if they have won. They way the scratching away has been done in hope.  What, beyond or through the money, are they wanting and needing?

I’ll end with a poem by Martin Evans (poet taking part in The little museum of Ludlow) – his website : http://www.hiraethog.cymru/

Scratching the void

Three hundred million
Lucky Sevens printed.
Four foot wide rolls
tall as a company
a hundred and sixty strong.

John’s last pound
bought a number three from the shop
that had been two feet deep
on roll ninety one.

Outside, guarding,
a dog with its catch
hope fell to the pavement
with each fingernailed scratch
futile scrapings
to get at those numbers below.
An artwork of despair at
this milking parlour for
the hopeless.

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Gathering quite a prestigious rejection letter and email pile now. Who else can I get a ‘no’ from?

On an even more positive note, my Bathe piece of work is reaching the point where I have to make it full size again, so I am sourcing materials to put it together, and this time bigger than previously made. The week has been dedicated to getting this figured out.

Went to see ‘in audible: The Baroque Cello Project’ yesterday at The Chape

l in Abergavenny and I went into it knowing next to nothing about the project and just observed and listened. This project features cellist Sion Dafydd Dawson from Cardiff and classically trained Laura Moy, curated by Leona JOnes . See

After my initial hesitation (there was a life drawing class on usually) to enter, I found myself in a large caverous chapel space, with Sion sat at the cello and playing in response to Laura’s dropping, clapping together and creatively moving the wooden shavings and offcuts from the making of the baroque cello being played. It is an intriguing installation, first performed in Cardiff Queen’s arcade in an empty shop. Observing the performance, which is not something that comes across at all via video and your device of choice, the distraction of the everyday world stills, while being confronted by a serene, connected performance which responds to the soundscape of the particular place and time.

Glad I made the effort to get there and that my curiosity won out!

The little museum of Ludlow is on its last day, but I don’t think that’s the end. Today’s performance involves getting loaned items back to people.

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The little video I did back in April projecting a word through pinpricks onto a wall.

I’m now back to considering the words I’m using to project. So I came by the words I’m using by photocopying a few pages of The New shorter oxford English dictionary at my local library, which has 3767 pages. I chose to look at the page numbers relating to the Fibonacci sequence of numbers and so this was pages: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, 1597 and 2584. Limiting the scope of the parts of the dictionary I’m looking at means the task is manageable. Using the Fibonacci sequence means there are a lot of small numbers and therefore many pages of words beginning with ‘a’, this is unintentional but doesn’t matter as I am simply trying to highlight the words I don’t understand yet out of a limited number of pages, 17 in this selection.
In trying out this idea with black sheeting I had the photocopied sheets from the dictionary and highlighted words and chose words to pick out in pin pricks fairly at random, but was more inclined to include interesting words – from their shape, what I initially thought they meant and from their definition. I consider this to be a suitable way to choose words to use.

I’m thinking I should get all the definitions of the 255 words onto a document, but on considering it, it is the dullest thing I could now do with this exciting work.
The exciting bit is the words into light. Why? The projection of the words onto skin and surfaces is almost magical. Low-fi light play. In a time of digital and laser, what place does my simple light-play occupy?

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My first photos (on iPad) are of how the museum looked when I arrived. All brass pieces.   A brass plug and chain found by Daisy and retrieved from a skip plus a brass lamp stand, which just stands up within the cabinet so it appears to be touching the padlock on the shelf above.

Over 50 items now.

I’m going to label any items I log today with the Fibonacci sequence of numbers, starting with the 9th which is 34 (our conventional numbering system was hijacked by Martin who proceeded from Daisy’s number 32 to 3.1415, 1729, 1.618, 714969 then I joined in with 5022996, 5151, √-1 (though I put √-2… Someone has taken a disliking to my 2 and changed it!), 111, 3839, 0.414, 198, 0.39, 984, 1101,?, 999, 0, some of these are Daisy, some Martin.  I followed his shaking up the number system, sometimes using his suggestions of interesting numbers and at others using something on the object to direct the number allocated.

11.24am received the comment ‘you look happy in your work’ – I was in the midst of re-arranging and discovering new acquisitions.

I have arranged the display once today and taken my time over it – especially the (mostly) china fragments found by Ecce in her garden.  It feels very soothing in the methodical nature of arranging them. I was just getting them out of the tub to see what was there and had arranged them by colour without thinking and decided to display them in this way.

In my own work I am at a sticking point where to get things moving requires form filling, sourcing further photographs, getting photos ready to print and finding an inkjet printer to borrow.  Arranging objects, especially the 188 fragments is especially appealing.

Just spoken to a lady who said the pregnancy testing kit might be explained by the fact that Tesco’s sell 2 for £2.50 and the two tests are in one packet.

I had a wander around Ludlow at lunchtime and got another key from Timpson’s and once back at the museum set to sketching the fragments of china.