Sheds and working places

Fair Trade Material Matters is installed at Shed and a Half Gallery, in London. The web site is relaunched, a really significant step for the work it is able to grow without me, an entity in it's own right. Being involved with developing the site I have considered it more as an exhibition space, more than just an information hub. This has made the process seem visual and physical. The sheds at Shed and a Half have taken on the character of the work as a whole, comments already about the atmosphere being calm and spacious, while still full of work
I like the way people respond to the invitation to draw their self portrait, there have been some very strong, unexpected reactions to the process.
There will be a mid show event, so if you are looking at this before June 5th 2009 get in touch to find out more!

Walks and conversations

Developing a work pattern and walks with Liz.
Salt Trails website published conversations about land and places. We chose Hapisburgh - pronounced Haze-br-e as our first practice walk with participants. Dramatic and unsettling, difficult to comprehend what it might be like to live there.

Again links with people and places, the ones that amaze me are the ones who are already so busy and knowledgeable and have given the ideas and work so much respect. It is very special to share walks and conversations with them.
Littleport Field Theatre and Landline Arts are also exploring ways to express the significant and meaningful sense of places which make them special to communities. Values of property and people are so different on the coast, especially a moving and unstable one. like the East Anglian one. Coming across a Ringed Plover's nest on the beach was also very moving. How delicate and 'on the edge' is that existence!

Spring 2009

I am aware that I have been too pre-occupied with cultivating and maintaining the garden and allotment, as always I get far too over focused. This may be because there has been no rain for three weeks, but before that it was because I want to re-establish my relationship with growing food as well as providing a better environment for the cultivated plants to grow in.
I saw the willow structure made earlier in the year in Ely today, it is developing happily, with only a few straggling parts not showing new shoots. It was good to see it in use by small children

I feel as though the crossing paths are making links and bridges between people and places which I have not been relaxed enough to do previously, working more locally is sometimes harder. But now is the right time for me.
I have also had time at Welney Wildfowl Centre one of the first places I used willow and made a large structure, so this year I have been restoring the shape of the Swan Shelter, now eight years old. The sound of bees all over the willow flowers was quite overwhelming, especially as there is such bad news internationally about bees dying of mysterious disease.

FACT

Being visiting artist at Fact, Foundation for Arts and Creative Technologies, Liverpool for a few days, was busy, inspiring, thought provoking and provided me with a place to see responses to Waterways maps as they happened.

I always had the idea that they would extend my walking relationships. Conversations with audience, visitors and participants in workshop sessions revealed the power maps have to aid conversation and relationships between people and places. I will now be able to develop the work further and more effectively.
For more images see GaiiaL@tE project

Haddenham

Installing exhibition with Landline Arts, at Haddenham Gallery
Gave me the chance to hang Waterway maps in a different way and response from other artists was very affirming. From general visitors it seemed to be they were somewhat mystified. The venue is not one for 'Slow' art perhaps and as always I am learning that the relationship between the work and the host is crucial.
It was a good place to move the shelter from Holt, especially as it snowed and gave it new character. Inland it is a different being.

Crossing pathways: materials, people and places

A new phase in Slow Making, a new relationship to work with. Accepted for Salthouse 09, I am working with Liz McGowan on Salt Trails. A joy to be thinking about this work with the knowledge that I will not be building or creating a structure, no materials to be manipulated. Quite strange to be in a place time where I feel that this is a good way to work. Salt Trails will be a series of conversations and walks along the North Norfolk coast. A piece I have been weaving in the studio will also come to conclusion this year. Originally made to help my thought processes when I started to think about Slow Making, it is also used in an animation by Tim Drake.
I think the nature of this year will be reflective and Slow, but who knows what people and places my path will cross and what will be made from them.

New Year, a slow start

Creatively this year has started slowly, each step taken with a bit more time and consideration. Is it age, or is it just that I don't want to be rushed into making decisions?

Marmalade has been a real marker for the start of this year, even more this time because I was away when the Seville Oranges were available last year. One of the few seasonal fruits remaining it serves as a marker, like a punctuation, or breath in the over abundance of food.

While taking time preparing the fruit I became aware of the relationship between this activity and Slow Making, So here are some images of the process. Unfortunately you can't smell the wonderful overpowering citrus fumes or hear the family conversations, which seem to be integral to making enough marmalade to stack on the shelves and supply friends and family for the year. Not quite the same conversations, but similar each year, drawing people and places together. The colours, the reflections, the tactile elements. Sticky, hot and sweet. So much a part of childhood and yet so much my decision to continue the activity. Making this seasonal produce helped clarify thoughts about planned Slow Making conversations and how they might develop this year.
It really is a sign of the new year, the reminder that the sun and warm seasons will bring colour, fruit and food once more.

Working with trees

A two day workshop in Ely, with the guys from East Cambridgeshire District Council who maintain the trees to make a living willow structure in the form of a giant eel trap. It was a delight to do this, they had an understanding of the land, the plants and their surroundings. Including the people who come and chat or just watch the work being done.

There are three varieties of willow used for the structure, traditional osier willow, Goat willow which is a hedgerow native and Salix Gracilistyla Melanostachys, a beautiful pussy willow.
I look forward to seeing it used by all ages in the Cherry Hill Park for several years.

Moving

The beacon structure will move from Holt Country Park soon, to go to Haddenham Gallery, Cambridgeshire. But this does not mean it will lose relationship with the North Norfolk coast, in fact I have only just received this from Jerry Seaborn. Thank you to all who are still sending messages, for generosity in sharing your pictures and memories of Light-Lines.
The long gap since my last posting has been because I have been involved in conversations, going back to growing and using willow and vegetables, back to the physical and reviewing my use of online research and making.
I always feel as though the year closes now and for most living things in the UK climate it is a time of death or sleep; waiting to renew, so it is good to know that we will enjoy long days and sunshine again next year! Look out for dates when I will be leading workshops and walks next year under the title of 'Weaving a Walk'

A new place for Light-Lines

My last visit to Light-Lines last week was to move it to a new site. It was a strange experience and I found the disruption surrisingly disturbing; visitors have continued to add elements and decorations. It really did become a local landmark, I met visitors who have been regularly during the two months and those who were coming across it for the first time. All asked why it should be removed, although having some reservations I am sure that it is not a good thing to leave it. Part of the message of Light-Lines is that nothing is permanent in the landscape, especially on this moving coast.

The work is now installed at Holt Country Park, thanks to help from site Ranger Rob Goodfiffe. This is a very different venue, the scale and atmosphere of it's surroundings change the feel of the work. I am not sure how long it will stay for, probably until it has a new coastal site somewhere on the Wash, this site has different environmental issues to highlight. The management and species grown here have changed over generations, as always none are permanent. Areas that have been woodland, growing trees for commercial practices, are now being planned for open meadow land.

In addition I found this on You-Tube, it is from someone who visited Light Lines at Salthouse Beach. Great to hear how it was used by so many people. If you have five minutes to see and hear two short stories go here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b89sNv127RU