Forward Footing Update

Jo Dacombe and I have been working on our Landscape Intervention Kits as part of our Forward Footing project. Solar dying has taken place in Jo's garden, screen printing has taken place in The Green Patch polytunnels and outside The Mollie, sewing has taken over my living room and kits have been put together in assorted locations! The original design has been simplified and the first walk has taken place, good to be making and walking - see more here and check out the Upcoming Events Page for dates of  our walks. More updates coming soon!

Size Matters

I had the great pleasure of taking part in the Sculpture Network NYB ’15 International Celebration of Sculpture in the Artspace Studios, January 25th 2015, 10.00-2.00pm. 17 countries and 44 venues around Europe and beyond participated. Participants were invited to contribute to an exhibition Size Matters? for the event and joined the celebration with picture conferencing and networking opportunities. Homemade soup, cake and a glass of wine were on offer for from our wonderful host Susan Williams MRBS. There were a wide variety of works on display and it was a lovely opportunity to meet both new and more familiar artists. You can see more by following the link

For the exhibition I remade Disappeared #43

in a new configuration

 and showed Singing Ringing

  Jo Dacombe and I created "The Measure of Things" 

and showed Half Beech

created  during our Light Walks Further Afield Residential. Jo Dacombe and I had discovered a ghost hotel. The gates were closed, the car park was empty and the grass in the hotel garden reached up over the seats, peeping through the tables. After the residential ended, we returned to create a temporary intervention - Half Beech. A magnificent copper beech tree beckoned to us and we wrapped her with orange ribbon you can see the photo set here

AirSpace Walking Encyclopaedia Exhibition

During our scoping day before the Light Walks Further Afield Residential Jo Dacombe and I discovered a ghost hotel. The gates were closed, the car park was empty and the grass in the hotel garden reached up over the seats, peeping through the tables. After the residential ended, we returned to create a temporary intervention - Half Beech. A magnificent copper beech tree beckoned to us and we wrapped her with orange ribbon you can see the photo set here

We submitted two stills as one piece - Half Beech to the AirSpace Gallery Walking Encyclopaedia Exhibition, along with our Light Walks For Dark Days film and other walking artifacts. The ever resourceful Jo Dacome delivered the work and her work in walking arts practice with Sidelong and Miles and Dacombe was highlighted by exhibition curator Glen Stoker when she was selected as one of their Walking Artists of the Day. 

My travelling wings have been a bit clipped recently but I was very keen to see the exhibition and the concurrent exhibition Paths of Variable Resistance by Tim Knowles. I got there the Saturday before the exhibition closed and here is a sample of what I saw:-

There was such a wealth of documentation about artists engaged in inspirational walking practice it felt good to be part of the creative footfall. 

The Sketchbook Project Print Exchange 2013

500 hundred printmakers, including me, signed up to take part in The Sketchbook Project Print Exchange 2013. We were asked to make an edition of twelve 7 x 5 prints on the theme The Journey Home. Each printmaker will receive 10 prints from other artists taking part. Lovely!

My print was inspired by a dérive to Whatstandwell in Derbyshire, I walked with my Undiscovered Networks collaborator, artist Jo Dacombe. We explored an area flanked by the River Derwent, the road, the railway line and out of use canal. We got lost and found, fell in love with Cromford Mill and High Peak Junction, found everything always seemed to be three miles further on, got tangled, entranced, enticed and curious! You can read about it here. On the journey home our minds were full of what we had seen, what we would do next and would eventually lead to our return to stage two train interventions along the Robin Hood Line - The Ticket Exchange. It was an intriguing day and I wanted to make a print that revisited that memory. 

The print is a monochrome linocut printed on vintage Zoffany wallpaper in muted tones and sprigged with wildflowers. Parts of the pattern peep through the cut marks. The wallpaper was then stitched to 300gm Somerset paper and is called 'River, Road, Rail, Canal'. They are winging their way to Brooklyn now and I wonder what will come back to me as the exchange part of the project. There was a fee to take part but I love the spirit of generosity that informs this Print Exchange.

A Glimpse of Miles & Dacombe Back in Derbyshire

An excellent if chilly, grey day spent with Jo Dacombe in Derbyshire making temporary installations on the station platforms at  at Whatstandwell and Langwith Whaley Thorns.

The images are drawings on postcard sized acrylic sheet and were made from the images we took during The Ticket Exchange and in response to the replies we got in out Mailbox after the event.

A full account of the day will appear here soon!