returningtothefuture

Last week saw me returning to Louth to develop work based on a piece of public artwork I created with Laurence Edwards 22 years ago – it was great to revisit the pieces that have obviously been valued and looked after by the community – it was as if I left them yesterday rather than 22 years ago. The original work set out to create a moment of stillness and reflection, whilst celebrating something that we cannot see. The pieces were used as a catalyst to help us explore our imagination, we looked at how art enables us to engage in the world, to see potential in the seemingly mundane and celebrate what we value through creative thinking. Working with 90 pupils from St. Michael’s Church of England Primary School in Louth over 2 days we generated lots of questions and answers alongside sculptures, books, and drawings. Now I’m in the process of designing a book. Everyone gets a copy. Spent time in Sheffield and Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Really good to see old favorite's at YSP, the Hepworth’s and Moore’s alongside the awesome Hirst’s and the gloriously lowkey disturbing work by Lindsey Mendick. Also managed to see the awesome Seizure by Roger Hiorns.

instructivepaperfolding

An instructive day at Kings, a puppetry workshop, working as part of synthetic anatomy, animating, and infusing life into inanimate sheets of paper run by Alicia Britt. Lots to think about and potentially some things to incorporate into my own workshop toolbox. If you have several lifetimes, or maybe a couple of days, there is an extraordinary show at the newly reopened Raven Row gallery – called People make Television its hours of TV from the 70s where in a modern-day short-lived experiment into public ownership of open door broadcasting the BBC provided access to cameras and the skills to make programs. All you had to do was to have an idea with a community focused issue and complete a form. Its an astounding repository, a snapshot of the 70s  in all its darkness. On the way home dropped into Big Women at Firstsite, an eclectic exhibition/collection of art made by women, the private view was solid, and it was great to meet so many familiar faces. Being in Colchester was an opportunity to check up on a large public artwork I created for Distillery Pond. Its always odd to return to former work but it was great to see that it was as I had last left it. The words cut into the stone resonated and the shape reflecting what was once there. It stands as an object that has almost lost its connection to its formation but still has purpose. Onto screens - You People – funny in parts - a return to form for Eddie Murphy, but it is what it is. The Fabelmans – awesome and so clever, a gloriously celebratory film about the making of films that explores film making. The Vow – did they run out of money at the end? The Locksmith – so many inevitable scenarios. All the bright places – just so sad. Empire of Light – gentle yet forceful.

Disceautdiscede

A weekend of a ‘road trip’ back to Lincolnshire to see some places located deep in the recesses of my memory. First off Louth to see 3 life-sized bronze figures and floor text panels that I collaborated with laurence edwards to create 20 years ago. The work celebrated the fact that the meridian line passes through the town, one of the few habituated places on the planet. The work looked fantastic, like the day it was made and sited. The idea was that a male figure outside a church had got hold of the line, as it emerged from the ground, the tangled text line was confusing as it goes back to into the ground. It emerges outside the library where a second male figure holds a fractured line, it can be found going into another building. A third figure, a woman holds a perfect circle outside a school and understands the concept. The conceptual line was made physical by placing steel text in the street, emerging from shops and buildings only to disappear back into the city scape. The work also involved working with local media to generate the text which was cut into the line, alongside workshops in schools and the generation of a one-off book and exhibition for the library. It was commissioned by Louth Town Council and Commissions East. I can recommend the coffee at the Masons Arms, which has changed greatly in the 20 years since I was last there, microphone in hand giving a speech to the people of Louth! Lincoln itself was celebrating the imp with some totally glorious ‘statues’ what a time to pick to go. Lincoln has changed so much, locating my past was negotiated through recognising existing buildings, even if their function had changed. The cathedral is such a magnificent building, despite the £9:00 admission fee and it had not changed, the imp still in its place. I enjoyed seeing the motto above the door at the building which was where I worked at the art school Disce aut discede – learn or get out. My old house in Sturton by Stow seemed neater and the sun helped to make it and its surroundings quite beautiful. Out to the coast, via Horncastle, where every building seemed to be a second hand one 30 years ago. Anderby Creek and Chapel St Leonards.  What to say, what was an isolated empty space of contemplation now has 3 interventions to help you engage with nature, “to make it more interesting”. To say these are some of the most ill-conceived objects known to mankind is an understatement. A sound thing to enable you to hear the wind, in theory. An inaccessible cloud ‘bar’ watching device that consisted of a cluttered platform area of generic concrete clouds where you looked at clouds through mirrors, which in fact just reflected each other as the mirrors were so close together. What had happened was that a device to enable you to see clouds had made the whole exercise less accessible – genius, just add some very poor bird/text metal plaques and you have all the issues of why public art should not exist. Finally, just down the coast a lookout tower so badly designed that it actually blocks out the view when you climb the yes poorly accessible stairs …………. Oh dear, ill conceived is not strong enough to describe this travesty. At least the beach huts were worth seeing.

spacetothink

 

The winter annual leave is a fabulous space to get lost in - not really knowing what time or day it is or even what your role is in this world can be liberating - this space is rare and it enables thoughts to flood in and interesting connections to be made in a practice usually taken up with lists of stuff to do. started to work on some ideas around shibori, connecting it with smocking and general stitch and bookmaking techniques processes including stab binding - we shall see when this work hits the dye baths next week. and then there are the films - old man with a gun - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2837574/ - beautiful and moving. searching - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7668870/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 - clever and sustainable. the favourite - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5083738/ - lavishly disturbing - what was that glorious soundtrack? yardi - looked and sounded good but the script...the spy who dumped me - just not funny enough. bird box - the premise was just annoying. meanwhile my latest obsession is Google Earth on my phone - in a whimsical moment I set out to look at the public art I have made to see if it exists - some of the work is too small to see or obscured by trees or I just haven't found it at the moment but here are some examples.

pastpresentfuturemadness

what is society? what is insanity? and if a person transgresses societies moral structures does that make them insane? 22 July prompts some of these questions https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7280898/ this conundrum leads to all kinds of questioning about where we are now. I had a meeting in Diss the other day to talk face to face about OCA and managed to walk past a piece of public work I created for a space just outside Morrisons on the main road going through the town - it still looks good. Meanwhile I've been randomly walking past Southwold lighthouse for 28 years and on Sunday I went up - wonderful. The view is obviously fabulous when you look out over the marshes, out to sea and the bays either side. When you look down on the town It's all about being nosey - you are in peoples back gardens - it's  a must see. https://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/lighthouse-visitor-centres/southwold-lighthouse-visitors-centre  On Netflix the ending of Maniac was fairly traumatic with the C pill leading us deeper into what it is to be human. Leave no Trace is a beautiful film which in oblique ways gives us a lenses on the modern world https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3892172/?ref_=rvi_tt  Eighth Grade gives an insight into the ways screens engage with a thirteen year old but maybe that angst was always there....  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7014006/ Doris Salcedo at White Cube is intriguing but unsure if it's interesting. The latest hot ones is a stunner with Tenacious D sweating it out over the wings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2zqiX6yL3I

responsibilityandrespect

work on the structures for Goldlay Square progresses - the choices are now finding locations within the plan - I love the action of positioning - working within the digital space - moving something not yet made within a space that does not exist which will impact on people's lives - notions of responsibility and respect are running high today.

steelbooksaregogogo

A wonderfully creative day in Chelmsford yesterday - starting out with a site visit to test out the full-size model of the proposed sculpture. Envisioning is an interesting activity and a designer has to have lots - the site has its buildings 'foot printed' with most of the 2nd floors built so you can get begin to get a real feel for the site -  the spaces within, between and around the buildings. I was pleased that the scale of the proposed pieces appear to 'work'. But by getting onto the site the idea of the pieces unfolding up and around the buildings became an obvious development.

Part two was a meeting to discuss the initial ideas and to iron out any issues that came to light within the build, design, installation and placing of the work. It's a kind of pre-mortem - I love the idea of working within 'negative space' of possibilities - not in the negative sense but in a positive anticipating problem way - working with the possible by carving away what is not 'right'. The meeting went well and it looks as if I will get to make 'giant' steel books structures and 'scatter' them over the site - sooooooo excited......

sizeisall

a morning of thinking about scale whilst admiring a sample for the Goldlay Square work. The overall scale of the pieces in relation to the pattern is interesting to consider and has been highlighted after getting a piece of steel plasma cut. Really pleased with the sample, it has a sense of flow and all the connections that I have been inspired by are embedded within the work.

cuttingcardandstickingart

starting next to a pool and continuing in my studio the thinking around Goldlay Square is becoming focused - there is still a lot of flexibility in the choice and the proposed construction will enable the making to be creative up to the last moment

growthgrowngrowingcontainer

Working on the background research for Goldlay Sq in Chelmsford. Continuing the idea of information and communication whilst making connections with the history of the site.  This has taken two more paths. In the process of the space becoming a place it was the site of an allotment. I have been thinking about the material contained within plant matter. Looking at cell structures and the process of growth. Words such as storage, connections, food and seed are spinning around my head. This is a fairly underlying concept and is at the root of the idea of existence and evolution - this has taken me into the world of Ernst Haeckel. Information and embedded knowledge has thrown up numbers, patterns and sacred geometry. On the other hand the library storage facility and the idea of book have resurfaced. I started to build and draw book structures whilst thinking about the question - What does information look like? The book as an image standing in for knowledge, a container of information, documented and disseminating. To disseminate is to "spread abroad as though sowing seed. The two ideas mesh and point to fundamentals - the building blocks of the material around us.

Goldlaygardensbecomesasquare

I have a new job. It's a great project working with Commission Projects http://www.commissionprojects.co.uk/ on a new housing development for Essex County Council on the site of the former Essex County Council Libraries Headquarters and storage facility in Chelmsford.  The site has an intriguing history which I am just starting to uncover. My first foray into the archives has thrown up a link to a Mercury Press on the site around 1930-40 which has provided a strand of research. It was also a space of 'knowledge storage' for all you psycho geography people out there. Books ordered in, held there before being disseminated within Essex library service. This flow of stories is another strand, thinking about words and how we use them. Finally walking around the site, the work is beginning and seeing the buildings rising from the ground one connects to the making process. The plans have mirrored formats within the design and the process of building involves moulds so an inside and outside or negative and positive. I'm interested in how this relates to the idea of the puzzle and how good public art makes you think but you can also ignore it until one day you engage. The work begins here......