Growth and Connections - Some Thoughts

Snibston Visit One - Part Two

Growth and nourishment are vital to life and creativity

Cabbages growing outside Barber-Swindells 

When studying English at school we had to read a story, The Wharf by Walter De La Mare which has often come back to me in later life, particularly when seeing vegetation (plants or weeds) sprouting out of the most unlikely places. In the story a young mother is sent to a farm to convalesce, it sounds as though she has had a breakdown, her nerves are in a very fragile state and the world has become a terrifying place. She hasn't been sleeping, her appetite has vanished, she can't connect with the joy and brightness of her own child. This is the only quotation I could find for the story

"Confronting her, farther down the wharf, and moored to it by a thick rope, floated on the river a huge and empty barge. There was a wrapped figure stooping there, where the sweeps jut out, as if in profound Sleep. And above the barge, on the wharf itself, lay a vague irregular mass of what had apparently come out of the barge. It was at the spectacle of the mere shape of this foul mass, it seemed, that she had begun to be afraid. It would have horrified her even if she had been alone in the solitude of the wharf"

From what I recall, the "foul mass" is a large pile of horse manure and it seems to conjure up all of her fears about mortality and death. I can't remember the entire plot but what stayed with me most vividly was her reinterpretation of the spoil heap towards the end of the story. With the arrival of spring she notices that flowers (weeds?) are starting to grow on top of the heap and the Farmer explains the part  the manure plays in the cycle of life and fertility. She is able to look at the world differently, she is able to go home and resume her life.

Things decay but out of decay new life is possible.

I was struck by the message on the front of the crumbling milk float

As part of his Residency Paul Conneally created a piece called Three Jars of Coal Dust Jelly as part of his Spoilheap Harvest which again made me think of this quotation, particularly relevant today

"The art of our necessities is strange,

That can make vile things precious."

King Lear, Act 3, Scene 2

 Walking round the scrap yard at Snibston it was

possible to identify much poignancy, beauty in decay. 

How can I use this to create something new?

Possibly by making connections 

between the literal and the abstract

Site intervention - Judo Belts - Steve Swindells

You Can't Make an Omelette Without Breaking Eggs

Snibston CPD - First Visit - Part 1

I saw this poster whilst exploring and thought "Well, could it be me, where do I start?" I had written a brief, I was awarded a CPD Bursary, I'm one of 10 artists and all of us have the opportunity to think about Snibston, it's collections, the power of transformation and how we might apply it to the site. 

My mentors are Claire Barber and Steve Swindells who are working on their own large scale project Mining Couture and I made my first visit to see them in their working space on site on the 9th of October. I felt like I was taking a step into the unknown, I was both nervous and excited, what would I see, what would it be like, what would we discuss? I had the thread of an idea, a line of enquiry, but what was expected of me and where might it lead? 

Claire and Steve were immediately welcoming, full of ideas, information, enquiry and fun. They were very generous with their time and after some general discussion (and coffee) they began to unpick my idea. I had begun from a very literal standpoint - I had a word in mind - Shift - which appealed because it had a multiplicity of meanings, all of which connected to Snibston, mining, work, fashion, history and place........and then Steve said that what he found interesting about the word was that in might mean a movement in a new or different direction......and he was absolutely right. So anything I had arrived with in my head, would, during this thinking time, move, shift about, change, transform. Intriguing.

Claire then talked about a methodology they had used in their work together, inspired by watching her own young son, which they would like to share with me. They often used making omelettes as a starting point, the way that the egg changed from liquid to solid and became, in effect, a material, they found fascinating. 

It also had resonances with their exploration of the site, inside the museum there was a milk float, in a beautiful state of preservation but outside, in a tucked away corner near to their workspace was another 

milk float,which was exposed to the elements, gently corroding away. The colour of the peeling layers of paint reminded them of curdling of dairy products and the state changing nature of egg becoming omelette. They had been working with the omelettes earlier that day, but had one egg left and wondered if I would like to come out to the space near the decaying milk float to take part in this experiment in making. 

A small gas ring was placed on a panel that had been part of the milk float, there was a slight wind which made the small flame burn quite fiercely, the white and the yolk shifted round the pan, finding their own levels. There are times when new approaches or ways of thinking comes as a rush of fresh air.

Colours, forms and connections started to appear, 

as my eyes moved between the contents of the pan 

and the surface of the panel.

Steve recorded the omelette and I recorded Steve. Whilst filming he talked about having recently re-landscaped his garden, planting a tree and burying an omelette under it. 

I told Steve and Claire about the birth of my brother, a home birth with a love struck midwife in attendance,     

  

how my Dad had buried the afterbirth in the garden and how in Jamaica the umbilical cord is planted    

under a seedling so that the tree would "belong" to that child when the two were grown. 

Eggs are a poignant metaphor for life, 

creation, beginnings and thoughts

 about what comes first...........

Snibston CPD Bursary

On the 23rd of September I attended a fascinating series of presentations at Snibston Discovery Centre by artists involved in Transform. It was an opportunity to see the outcomes of the first four Residencies 

• Geoff Broadway: LifeCycle – Future and Dreams
• Jo Dacombe: Snibston Myth Maps Project
• Brendan Jackson: Unearthing Stories
• Paul Conneally: Spoil Heap Harvest

and to hear from the artist pairings Claire Barber / Steve Swindells, Andy McKeown / Peter Walker and Shanaz Gulzar / Steve Manthorp, the day was hosted by the project's lead artist Maurice Maguire. Apart from seeing and hearing about inspiring projects, it was also an opportunity for the artists in the audience to meet with one or more of the pairings and to start to formulate ideas that might lead to securing a Transform CPD Bursary.

Each artist pairing had much to offer and were working in ways that interested me so, as usual, I found it hard to choose, I did manage to have a conversation with each couple and a mad dash around part of the Discovery Centre as well.

Not only are there many traces of the site's industrial heritage but there is also a fabulous Fashion Collection with garments made, sold or worn in Leicestershire. Although I don't have a body built for fashion, I've always had a passion for it, so this collection was an added bonus. 

It also helped me formulate an idea for my Bursary proposal and I'm delighted to say that my application was successful. I will be spending some time with Claire Barber and Steve Swindells during their Mining Couture Residency, will have access (within reason) to artefacts in the collections and a chance to explore my idea further. This will be research rather than making, but who knows where it might lead me!

Return to Silver Clay

There is something about Norfolk that is totally magical, some people love hills and dramatic landscapes, I quite like an even landscape, and the sense of having a foot in both camps, close to the sea and nestled within the countryside.

In the brief summer that arrived early during the Easter holidays we were able to get away for a week. I had some time to explore Holkham Hall again, there’s so much to see and the restoration of the Walled Garden is an exciting project

Very relaxed deer

Grapes from the previous summer

In the quiet afternoons I was able to do a bit of doodling

 the walled garden belonging to the cottage we stayed in

From the bedroom window there was a view of a sun-soaked graveyard, 
 
often visited by pheasants and a hooting owl. There were walks through salt marshes and along cliff tops. 
There was space to think about future projects. 

Charlie, my whippet, had a few safe spaces to run in, there’s nothing quite like seeing a long dog at full stretch. I love his capacity for joy and would love his ability to run!

The small green below St Margaret’s Church in Cley in a great running spot for Charlie

Later in the year I decided to use some of these dreamy, doodly thoughts 

to make another set of silver pieces.

They are made from a clay which is transformed through firing
becoming silver which can be hallmarked if so desired

You can see the complete set here

Do allow yourself to be tempted and help me to get back to Norfolk sometime in the future! Use the Discount Code AUTUMNTREAT11 at the checkout for free postage till November.