I am hard at work now finishing off work for the 'Recycled by Design' project. The group show starts on 20 September at the Guildford House Gallery and my solo element goes from 16 September at the Lightbox (my home-from-home). I have just begun to be able to relax into the work again after all the competing bits of this and other projects. Sometimes you have to turn off the editorial / organizing voice in your mind and just work things out through doing them. It is a huge relief to find that it's possible to do this even though the deadlines are hanging over me. I am very happy to be involved in all the things that I am involved in but it can get rather stressful. I'd better confess here that I am involved in another project or two straight after this one. This year has been more like a fun-fair ride than a calm meander through things; although I think I described it as 'free-fall or flying' at one point.
Yesterday evening was the launch of 'Contemporary Art in the Surrey Landscape' which spotlights various art projects through Surrey and for which I had made an installation in the courtyard of the Lightbox Gallery. The launch went well, I think and it was good to see what everyone had been working on. Some of the individual projects will have their own openings over the next few weeks throughout August and September. There were speeches and thanks, the odd glass of wine and a chance to meet the other artists. Jonathan Parsons (one of the artists featured in the project and also arc coordinator based at Aspex) talked to me about some positive developments for networking locally.
The last few days leading up to the launch had been good for me. I enjoyed installing the work at the Lightbox. It was good to see everyone again and they were all really helpful. It was also good to be working in a public place because all the other trails of 'Storytrees' had been installed through woodland. Although eventually they get seen by people it isn't necessarily when one is there oneself. I enjoyed seeing people reading the stories and talking about them.
Because of the funding situation the stories I had used for this installation had had to be drawn from my own research rather than direct contact with people. It would have been great to gather them in the same way as I had with the rest of the 'Storytree' project however I was really happy to have had the opportunity to do this installation. The stories I chose were partly from the oral history museum at the Lightbox which has a great collection of anecdotal descriptions of Woking in the recent past. I concentrated on ones about the landscape and how it was used; to play on, for crops, for industry and combined these with excerpts from the Domesday Book about the manors of Woking and the Woking Hundreds. The last set of texts I used were lists of plants found even today in the area.
I have been in France for a few days and came back to a rather busy time straight away. Over the weekend I ran some workshops at the Riverhouse Barn in Walton, Surrey. This is the base for the Robert Phillips Gallery where the current show is 'Breaking the Mould', an international exhibition, curated by Hillary Sussum, of artists who work using paper. The exhibition is a really interesting survey of different approaches to the medium and I was pleased to be asked to run the course. I enjoyed the weekend very much, meeting a lovely group of people who responded to the materials and processes with enthusiasm and by making some wonderful work. www.riverhousebarn.co.uk/
The last couple of days have been filled with preparations for Wednesday when I am making a temporary installation of 'Storytrees' in the courtyard of the Lightbox Gallery for the launch of 'Contemporary Art in the Surrey Landscape'.
I have been having a busy few days. I have been working on some pieces related to my last project, 'Papertrails', more of that on my other blog but I have also been taking advantage of the end of my workshops at Woking to get out a bit and see some other people's work too which I have really enjoyed. On Tuesday I had a trip to Brighton for a couple of good meetings and I also went to Judith and Roz's discussion about their 'Breaking Ground' project and its development through 'Outside In'. It was good to meet them again and interesting to see the fruit of their collaboration. Their space was filled with beautiful books and evocative images and lists of words. There is an interesting structure to their project with distinct episodes or chapters which can respond to what has gone before. All the visitors were involved in the discussion and had to bring a 'gift' from the outside to the project and before we left had to make something from stuff from the worktable in the project room. I made a small posy of daisies. It was a good event filled with interesting ideas mapping connections and marking exchanges.
The last workshop went well. Everyone finished what they needed to finish and much paper-making was done. We also looked round the work from the Surrey Open which is showing at the gallery. At the end of this phase of the project it is good to be looking forward to the next bit. I still have to discuss a few things about the final show with Michael Regan and will be having a meeting on Friday.
On Monday evening I went to the Jerwood Space to see the 'Contemporary Makers' show there and to listen to a talk with ceramicist, Edmund de Waal and choreographer and dancer Siobhan Davies. This was a wonderful evening and I came away really inspired. The exhibition itself is the new initiative of the Jerwood foundation to support and promote applied arts. The artists; Gary Breeze, Sara Brennan, Lin Cheung, Drummond Masterton, Deirdre Nelson, Nicholas Rena and Clare Twomey were selected and asked to make some work responding to the theme of 'touch'. Edmund de Waal one of the selectors, described this as being a way of bringing 'seven artists from a diverse range of disciplines into dialogue with each other.'
The talk between Edmund de Waal and Siobhan Davies examined the differences and similarities between their own work and their approaches to their work. Both concluded that they were as concerned with the gaps, pauses and spaces as with what happens in-between.
