Working on a new collaboration is always a risk, for all parties. For me there is always the risk of trying to achieve too much when the project is so interesting.
This collaboration with Ana is relatively straightforward, we knew the budget and time frame from the start, so it should be easier to estimate the time to spend on it. But no, after our proposal had been accepted I had to keep referring to it, to make sure I was working to my own brief!
I included a drawing in the proposal for our collaboration, it was while we had initial conversations about overlapping nature of the work we do.
Expectations and assumptions about how an artist or scientist might work, unless overtly stated, can and will be misunderstood by both parties. The skills and time it takes to produce, find or resolve results and the number of people involved in producing work for publication or exhibition, they all have to be taken into consideration.
So many times I have heard 'you just have to be inspired and creative, it must be great to have no restriction'. That may be true of some artists, though I have yet to meet one! For most artists there are restrictions and limitations, often essential to actually achieve anything.
The truth is that working practices are all a combination of skills, time and resources available. It is not possible to make or research anything without knowing what materials might be available and have the skills to understand and manipulate them.
Our proposal focused on recycling and regeneration so I have gradually selected a range of yarns, fibres, wires and containers. I have owned them for many years, maybe the result of previous projects, or collected when walking on beaches or fields.
