http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 Land art project Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:40:02 +0000 a-n rss generator a-n The Artists Information Company and contributors edit@a-n.co.uk technical@a-n.co.uk http://www.a-n.co.uk/img/logo.gif http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 We have had some great applications. Going through them has been a lot of work but worth it, there are some real gems. So far we have invited Rona Smith, a sculptor and installation artist and Peter Watkins, a photographer. Discussing their ideas is very exciting. We are also talking to a few other artists, watch this space ...... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 We have also been contacted by a documentary film maker, Tamara Erde, who is interested in filming a sculptor, which is an exciting idea. Her showreel is great. She is going to come and work with one of the artists which adds a new dimension to the project. More details to come ...... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 Our third artist is Stefan Rohner, a Swiss sculptor and installation artist. He will probably be bringing a friend, Bruno Steiger, who is also a sculptor. Stefan's idea is to work with shadows, recreating the shadow on the ground from stones. Each artist has given us an idea of what they would like to create, but it is difficult for them to formulate these without viewing the site. So it will be exciting to see how their ideas change and develop in response to the land. Our first artist, Peter Watkins, will be coming on the 10th October. He is a photographer working with light and darkness (lighting projected onto trees, grass ...). The idea is to create photographs of an element of the landscape and then exhibit these images in the landscape. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 By Peter Watkins - Artist-in-Residence   When driving the 660 miles, the twelve-and-a-half hours, and what seems like, and almost is, the entire length of France, its incredible how you see. (Tyres ceaselessly rolling over toll-standard tarmac, service stations, watchful mullets, exchange students, dependable good tasting coffee, more tarmac, travel-tired eyes, broken English, a conversation about swans between two impossibly European men, the taste of yellow, insects accumulating, temperature rising, increasingly picturesque views from urinal windows, tarmac, toll booths, tickets, the colour orange, then darkness and headlights).   I’ve travelled to the south of France to visit Jonathan and Helen Moss to partake in their Atelier artists’ residency scheme. Over the coming two weeks I’ll be working on a permanent site-specific installation, a light and sound performance, as well as various painted-projections in the surrounding Pyrenees. This blog will be updated regularly and will look to give some insight into my time here and how the residency unfolds. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 My first weekend has been spent exploring. Jonathan his son and I drove to a nearby former holding camp where thousands were sent to Auschwitz pre-ww2; this place has been the source of much inspiration for Jonathan in recent years. We drove through various small villages, mountain passes, then flat Mediterranean planes and reached the beach where Jonathan informed me we would grab a drink and build sandcastles. Not so! The café where once excellent tuna steaks were grilled has all but vanished. Signs of summer diminished and autumn rapidly gaining momentum. Sandcastles completed.   The landscape is peppered with colour. Hues of orange and yellow are scattered within the surrounding expanses of green foliage. Winding empty roads lead to small villages and towns with no more than a dozen cars parked at any given time. A bridge named l’escargot (The Snail). It literally curls up within itself. (If you can’t think straight in a place like this there’s no hope).   The landscape changes daily. A recent frost has accelerated the seasons’ exchange and the leaves from trees are yellowing and falling. I’ve spent the past three nights projecting on one such tree adjacent to my chalet. I’ve been photographing it nightly, each time projecting light and painting the tree differently. It’s strange for me to spend so much time with one subject. In the past I’ve searched and found the right area of woodland, or a hanging branch, or flower, and photographed it (so simple sounding). After the act of lighting and documenting, the subject is forgotten. It blends back into the blanket of neighbouring trees as if nothing had taken place. The only record being a figurative representation of something that could well have taken place anywhere.   I have until Wednesday to complete photographing this tree. We’ll drive the two-and-a-half hours to Toulouse and spend a day waiting (somewhat) nervously for the piles of slides to be developed. Then over the course of two hours, the two hours that local businesses require for lunch, I’ll select the best suited slide for scanning: Then more waiting. The resulting photograph will then be used for the installation.   Saturday has been determined as the performance evening. The trees are shedding quicker than expected so the date has been brought forward almost a week. A friend of Jonathan and Helen’s has miraculously composed a piece of music in response to the images on my website. I’ve never met the man, never spoken with or emailed him, but on the afternoon that Helen wrote asking whether I could use a piece of pre-recorded sound to accompany the performance, he laid down a full thirty minutes of music. Incredible that there are people like him, so willing and genuinely excited to collaborate with a total stranger. There should be more like him! ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 Thursday Jonathan and I drove to Toulouse. I’d completed photographing the tree on Wednesday evening and had stacks of refrigerated slide film ready for processing. After a somewhat difficult and tedious first encounter with the printers we waited for several hours in a nearby café—a day of people watching, coffee drinking, and somewhat anxious waiting (on my part at least). By the afternoon we found ourselves standing face to face with solemn technicians and colourful slide film in abundance. Limited time was such that a quick decision needed to be made over which image to use for the installation and for scanning; something that I never enjoy doing in fear of ultimately making the wrong decision.   Decision made, further waiting, acknowledging nods from locals, dusk drive home. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 The weather became less predictable as the week went on with rain forecast and delayed finally reaching us on Friday night through Saturday. The performance was set to be compromised and I started to wonder whether anyone would even make it to the evening.   By late afternoon the rain subsided and I began setting up for the performance. This was the first time I’d ever showcased my lighting techniques to a live audience, so the task was a little daunting. I’ve always acknowledged the performative aspects of my work and seen potential in removing the medium of photography from the viewers’ experience. But lighting for a photograph and for people is so totally different.   Löis Laplace’s music was a fantastic addition to the evening—a blind collaboration that somehow just worked. At 0730, as dark began to settle, I began illuminating the surrounding landscape out the window from the mezzanine of my chalet. The window was small and further dwarfed by my projector half leaning out of the available opening. I began to hear voices, laughter, friends chatting, and strangers meeting. People had obviously arrived but I had no idea how many, or what their reactions might be. After a good two hours I had finished lighting live, and set up a slideshow of the evenings performance.   Once again, I’m grateful to Löis for creating music specially for the occasion, and to the people who braved the cold and stayed longer than was necessary to be polite. It seemed the evening was a success and people seemed genuinely enthusiastic about the evening’s entertainment. Maybe this is the start of something different for me.  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 My final days in the Pyrenees were spent finishing my installation. In my original communication with Jonathan and Helen I had discussed many different ideas that might convince them and me to take on this project. The idea that got both sides most excited was to create an installation that could be permanently exhibited on the land surrounding the chalet. I intended to light and photograph an area of land, which would be determined when I arrived, building a frame for the resulting image. The frame would need to withstand the turbulent winters experienced in that part of the world, so it would need to be weatherproofed, whilst remaining aesthetically appealing. My idea was for the resulting image to be installed at the exact spot at which it was photographed. This idea was intended to engage the viewer with a view that remained, and an ephemeral one, that had been documented and presented in contrast to the present. In this way my work takes on a less anonymous guise; no longer plucked out from an unknown and forgotten location, the image stands directly in front of its subject, its inspiration if you like. The viewer is encouraged to look for change and similarity between both views and is allowed to see the transformation that took place with a more informed perspective. The image therefore speaks of change, of aesthetic appreciation for both the scene and its image, and like every photograph, the past.   Nothing much changed from those original thoughts; therefore the result was not overly surprising. I completed the piece the evening before I left France, and therefore I was unable to spend some time with it and really access how successful it was. My own niggling insecurities about the image are most likely influenced by my need to move on and produce something new, something detached from the work I have been doing for the past two years. What the image does represent for me is a more positive outlook. It’s as enthusiastically bright as it is dark. And although the colours are bright, and the contrast between light and dark still shine through, it’s a somewhat quieter image to my previous work. For me, it’s a piece for contemplation, and hopefully this is partly what it will represent for those who will now live with it.   I’d like to thank Jonathan and Helen and their two children Louis and Emilie for inviting me into their little corner of the world and sharing the experiences of the past weeks, and to all those I met along the way that made this experience memorable and worthwhile.   —Peter Watkins ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 Our next artist in this residency programme is Rona Smith, a London-based sculptor and installation artist. We are very pleased to have Rona on this residency. She has just completed a window commission for Lumen United Reformed Church in Bloomsbury. More information can be found on her website: www.ronasmith.co.uk Her proposed title for the piece she is creating is "Timelines". Rona will be contributing to this blog over the next few weeks and we will be documenting the evolution of her project in photos and video.  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 Day 1Drawing back the curtains of my chalet window I blink at the luminous white landscape in front of me. Whilst delighted at the beauty of the scene (worthy of even the most ostentatious Christmas card) my plans to work on the ground seem somewhat threatened. This is my first morning in St Louis, about an hour’s drive from Perpignan on the edge of the French Pyrenees. I will be staying here for a two week residency working in the surrounding land.Rather than spend the morning crunching around willing the snow to melt, I explore the area a little with Jonathan who lives and works here from his studio. I have purposefully arrived without materials, looking to use what is already here. I am keen to work with some of the striking red earth that makes up large areas of the local landscape. Jonathan and I begin the day by driving a short distance to collect some samples of its various shades, ranging from rhubarb crumble to Australian outback. I want to embed this earth into the grassy land surrounding the chalet for a time-based work which I anticipate changing slowly with the weather over the coming months and hopefully years. Details of this will follow.We visit the pretty Rennes-le-Château where we examine a plethora of literature based on some lengthy speculations about hidden local treasure. It is very attractive to believe that this is a place rich in mystery, esoteria and secret societies as many excited historians would have you believe. It is equally conceivable however that thin rumours based on the acquired wealth of a certain 19th century priest have blown quite out of proportion and led to the various colourful claims that have been made concerning Templar Knights and the Holy Grail. Perhaps your level of sympathy with authors such as Dan Brown will decide!On arrival back at the chalet the land is transformed by the sun. As quickly as the snow arrived, it has now vanished like a receding tide. I select a wide patch of turf to work with. Due to some regular nocturnal visitors this is largely based on how mole infested the grass has become over the last month or so. The smoothest area, which I spend the rest of the afternoon mowing, is just between the road and the chalet.Helen and Jonathan have a truly wonderful home and workspace here. There are purple headed peaks in the distance, my breeze-blocked Hackney Wick studio is miles away and the silence is delicious.Rona Smith... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 Day 2This morning I have a local herd of sheep for company. They efficiently finish off yesterday’s mowing job by chomping sagely through the grass.I am planning to cut a series of narrow channels into the ground and fill them with red soil that I am collecting from the surrounding hills. The channels will be of varying depths: the first being six or so inches, the second slightly shallower and so on until the grass is barely disturbed. I anticipate the deeper, more substantial channels of earth to remain intact and in place for the longest.My intention is to create a slowly evolving time-based piece in which one by one the lines of earth are dislodged, degraded or blown away according to their depth. I have chosen to keep the formation of these lines very simple, in part because the undulating ground itself provides organic curves and irregular shapes, but also because the straighter and cleaner these channels are now, the more noticeable the changes will be over the coming year.The shed behind the chalet is home to a wealth of garden tools, most of them familiar, a couple distinctly medieval looking. One grizzly item in the corner looks like an experiment in primitive dentistry. Whether you are clawing, scooping or gouging there is something appropriate to be found here. I begin on the ground with a miniature, serrated saw that resembles a bread knife: it barely dents the surface. Reminding myself that I am not cutting into the springy bed of a Victoria sponge but a semi-frozen patch of land at 600m altitude in the middle of winter, I abandon this characterful although largely useless tool and opt for a trusty spade instead, sharpened with a flint. Within a couple of hours the four layers I was wearing are in a heap next to me, several colonies of worms have been invaded and a fair start has been made.Jonathan and I go to collect a batch of earth. It is not until we are about to exit the car that Jonathan casually informs me hunting is permitted here at the weekends and those shrill whistles we can hear getting louder by the second are a call to the hounds. I rapidly shovel up soil whilst imaginary bullets zip past my ears and comfort myself with the notion that dying for one’s artistic endeavours is horribly clichéd and therefore cant possibly happen in real life. Rona Smith ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 Day 3The morning frost melts rapidly under a glorious, cloudless sky. My string line has left a paper-thin frost free stencil across the grass which I follow with the spade. Tonight I will set this up purposefully for the following morning. The day is spent measuring, aligning and digging. I have begun with the deepest trench, it is hard work but satisfying and I am glad of the exercise. I discover that after cutting down with a spade, strips of earth can be peeled out of the ground like great caterpillars.A local shepherdess who I met briefly the other day leads her sheep into the neighbouring field and pauses to ask me what Im doing. I rack my brains for remnants of GCSE French and begin by telling her I’m an artist - as if that explains everything. I manage to muster up a few comments concerning ‘la terre rouge’ and coupled with some meaningful hand gestures she seems satisfied, if a little bemused. By the end of the day I have dug two and a half trenches and half filled one of them. If I knew I was going to be spending the 1st of December in a vest top I would have brought my bikini.Importantly for me, this project is a new one. Whilst it naturally relates to ongoing themes in my work, for example organic processes, evidence of passing time and responses to minimalism, this is my first installation piece to be completed outside and to respond to the elements in such a way.I am interested in the faith that is required of the viewer when seeing this work after it has just been completed: for the first few months, the red lines in the ground will all appear identical and it is only until they begin to change and degrade that it becomes apparent they are of varying dimensions. The dramatic difference between the structure of the lines happens underground and initially out of sight.Rona Smith ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 Day 5Jonathan and I head out in the car on another soil collection trip. The road winds through the rising and falling land in a charmingly indecisive manner. The views of the hills are lovely and we snap photos from the car window. We arrive at our destination and hastily shovel soil into shopping bags lest the authorities catch us digging up the landscape. I hadn’t realised quite how much earth I was going to need until I observed the rapidly growing mountain of original soil that I’d turfed out from my trenches.Back at the chalet. another curious local stops by to enquire after my apparently pointless activities. I explain what Im doing, not really giving much away due to my limited vocabulary. He looks at me with a quizzical expression then asks tentatively, ‘c’est tout?’ Yep that’s all! There’s an almost apologetic note in my voice, and regretting that I am unable to conjure up some sort of elaborate gazebo to appease him, I busy myself with the trowel.Whilst the current cold weather slows me down a little, I am working at a steady pace and I think I may be finished by the weekend. This will leave me a few days to experiment with some other materials. I discuss with Jonathan an idea I have had inspired by a passage in the novel I am reading, Love In The Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Set in a cholera ravaged Carribean island, the protagonist describes the family’s typical stone water filter that fail to purify drinking water and stop the spread of disease. There is a fair amount of sandstone in the area. I would like to experiment with the possibilities of ‘filtering’ or channelling water through slabs of the stone. It remains to be seen however whether this is possible or at all practical. Rona Smith... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 Day 6Today’s drizzle makes the going soggy. My channels are getting much shallower now so whilst I am having to snap the grass roots rather than dig then all up in one clump, the work feel like less of a challenge as there is less excess soil to be removed.I discuss with Jonathan and Helen the practicalities of working with sandstone. Jonathan calls a geologist friend of his to ask his opinion. We are considering chipping a well into the top of a rock so a reservoir of water collects and then seeps through. I wonder, however, if it would evaporate before it even got a couple of inches down. It turns out that the stone in this area is so hard that a diamond drill bit would be needed to cut into the stone, and even then it is likely to split. This sounds all too familiar: for a previous project I decided I was quite capable of drilling holes into some sheets of glass with a diamond bit rather than pay to have it done professionally. After several days work all I had to show for my efforts was a large pile of smashed sheets and tears of frustration! An amusing conversation follows, suggesting various inelegant ways in which the project could manifest successfully and I realise there is a danger of the work turning into something not far off from a science experiment, especially since the idea is in such an elementary stage, without clear intention.  Just before sunset, mist coats the hills in cobweb-like drapes and I spend some time trudging about with my camera shooting a bathtub sheepdip in the field behind the chalet.Rona Smith... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 Day 8Nearly seven trenches dug and filled: I’m getting there! Despite the repetitive nature of my task, it is certainly satisfying to watch the piece grow at such a rate. In contrast, it is quite alarming to watch the heap of earthen chunks that are being dislodged grow ever larger. I have been thinking during the week about the possibilities for this turf. I have considered leaving it where it stands as part of the work, to show evidence of what has happened, although I dont think this is really necessary. Perhaps it should be arranged into a new formation, to reflect the sense of ongoing process that is here in the work. The excess from one task becomes the object of the second, and so on.  Jonathan shows me a great book about Mario Giaccomelli, an Italian photographer who documented rural life in Puglia and other regions of Italy. He created a series of black and white photographs of ploughed fields, taken from above. Some of these he has intervened with himself and created swirling scours in the land, others are as he found them. The linear markings in these fields are similar to those I am making here. I wonder how they wil compare in some months time.  The highlight of today has to be the extraordinary sight of what I think is a sparrowhawk swoop down and snatch a small bird from the air just yards from my face. I hear the rapid beating of wings and look up just in time to witness the catch. A triumphant screech, and the magnificent bird is off into the hills. Fantastic.  At the end of the day I have a wander across the meadow at the back of the chalet to enjoy a moody (and chilly) sunset. After talking with Helen, Jonathan and Sam, another artist who works in this part of the world, it is encouraging to see that it is possible to work successfully as an artist and live in a rural, relatively isolated community, a combination that I had never imagined to be very realistic. My hopes of getting away from the city certainly seem more achieveable than they did ten days ago.Rona Smith... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 Day 11Today is our final trip to the quarry to collect red earth. It seems the perpetual shovelling of soil into fluorescent shopping bags has come to an end, a task that neither Jonathan or I are likely to miss. On our way back we pass by ploughed fields where crops have just been sown. The lines and colours are all too familiar. Back at the chalet there is more tearing clumps of earth from the ground and more hurling them onto the by now monumental pile. It is very easy to get lost in your thoughts up here. I marvel at the fact that I have had face-to-face conversations of any substance with only two people for ten days. This is fairly remarkable for me as I live and work in London where even the studio is a sociable place, what with people dropping round to procrastinate and drink tea under the thin guise of discussing work.In the evening, I go with Helen and Jonathan to a birthday dinner at their local friend Rudy’s. Rudy is a wonderfully charismatic German philosopher with an extremely long dinner table. All the twenty odd guests have brought their own dish and course after course of fish terrine, quiches, salads, pies and a colossal prune flan arrive at the table. I am bursting at the seams after half way through the lovely meal. It’s great to put faces to names and meet some of my current neighbours in St Louis, all of whom are very welcoming and will stop by to see the installation.  Rona Smith... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 Day 12 Drizzle, damp, mud, numb toes..and it’s finished. A horse in the neighbouring field surveys me stoically as I make the finishing touches to the last and shallowest line of soil which I have pressed on top of the grass without digging up any of the roots. Stenciling the outline with a couple of roof tiles, this has been the most delicate and painstaking part of the process and also the most ephemeral. My last long-term project, a public art installation at Lumen United Reformed Church in London, was constructed for me by art fabricators. It is a change therefore to be back making the work myself, directly responsible and in control of its visual outcome -  the gruelling labour of a "real artist", as many (including my driving instructor) would believe! Rona Smith ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 Day 13I awake to a light smattering of snow across my installation and a much thicker coating covering the surrounding hills. I am relieved to have braved the rain and completed the installation yesterday. I enjoy trudging about with my camera, the snow seems to have melted in the red channels leaving them stark against the white. Since my work on the land has come to an end, the day is spent in Carcassonne with Jonathan and Helen and their two children Louis and Emilie. Carcassonne is a beautiful city inside a castle with a fairytale feel to it. The wind whips round the winding alleyways and we spot Santa several times as he diligently makes circuits around the streets with a bag of chocolates.   I am tempted to describe these photos as images of the final piece, Timelines. It would be more appropriate however to describe them as photos of the 'beginning' of the work since the piece will be forever changing. The lines will become increasingly unsettled and unruly starting with the shallow sliver of soil across the grass and ending with the deepest inlay at the far end of the lawn. Rona Smith... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811 Day 14My short time spent here has been framed by snowfall either side. It seems rather apt that the patch of land on which I am working should begin and end in the same state - an undulating carpet of white. A few photos snapped and then the stunning hour long drive through the mountains back to Perpignan. Jonathan will document the changing state of the piece over the months with photographs. It is a great thought to know that I am leaving something behind which will evolve in my absence.I want to thank Jonathan and Helen for having faith in my work, for their fantastic support and help with this project and for making me feel so welcome. Rona Smith ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/467811