ARTISTS TALKING

# 20 [20 October 2008]

I can only describe how I have been feeling since Origin/Crafting Space ended yesterday as elated exhaustion. The weekend was a constant, intense flow of people, right up to the closing minute. The structure seemed to have absorbed so much human energy into its walls that it drew more and more attention as the hours passed. To think for a moment about the human desire to possess, make, give and receive objects and to reflect on the relationships they create seemed to be a potent point of departure.

 

A lot of our families came at the weekend and I think this is what made it more emotionally intense. I had to keep leaving the space to get fresh air and headspace. I also spent a lot of the time weaving or re-weaving loose ribbons and being in literal touch with the object, like a lover about to leave on a long trip. By the time Sunday, 6pm came around it became obvious that a ritual was needed to say goodbye -at least in the context of Origin. Those of the team who remained in the space – myself, Willow, Raphaella, Philip and Vijak- stood inside, put our hands over each others in the centre and thanked the space, all those who has been part of making it and sent out an intention for it to find its perfect place in the world. Then we sent this up through the open roof and began the fast and furious dismantling process.

 

I have really enjoyed the ride, the wave that these two weeks has been. The contact with so many people and the drinking in of their facial reactions and written/spoken responses.

I realise this is what I am supposed to be doing in the world and have a stronger sense of purpose as a result. As Willow and I stood in the courtyard at Somerset House watching the pavilion being rapidly dismantled, we noticed the neo-classical dome, the central point at the back of the building as you face in from the Strand. The echo of the shape of our structure –which I hadn’t noticed until that moment – made us both smile and this verse, came to mind:

 

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,

As I foretold you, were all spirits, and

Are melted into air, into thin air:

And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,

The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,

The solemn temples, the great globe itself,

Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,

And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,

Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff

As dreams are made on; and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep.

The Tempest, 4. 1

 

I leave you with an image of the piece, on Day 1 and  Day 14.

I will continue to write on the outcomes of this project as and when they arise.

# 19 [17 October 2008]

Last night we had a drinks reception for Crafting Space and were brimming over with people for most of the night. The structure is 4/5ths full and there are only spaces left to weave at foot level and round the back. It looks magical at night, it sparkles and has an ethereal quality, especially as you look through and see the outlines of people around it, reading, weaving, and talking. I am already aware of how soon it will all be over and feel a small pang of grief that it will be wrapped up like a mummy and kept in a dark space. However there is already interest in exhibiting it and I am determined to find a permanent home for it, as it is by it's very nature a public artwork which needs the eyes of the public to keep its vital energy alive.

Documentation is key to this intention, and it has certainly been well documented so far. Without it, the work will cease to exist in terms of where it can move to. The Crafts council are making a three minute film about it for their website and have had a photographer shooting Origin each week and Crafting Space too. Lili has been doing some filming in the space and has taken photos, a lot of which I have used in this blog. Last Saturday and this Sunday, a photographer David Ramkalawon , who documented the Loom exhibition at Goldsmiths, is on site and we will post up some of his images of the finished piece on the Crafts Council site. 

And that’s only visual documentation. Aside from noting down reactions to the work and having a comments book, we are going to transcribe the entire body of ribbon texts onto paper and Philip , one of the volunteers who works at the Arvon Foundation (‘a secret river in the world of literature’) is going to create a Caligramme – a transcription of all the texts that makes a visual picture-of the entire piece. Since even permanent markers are lightfast and the texts will eventually fade, it’s an important way of preserving the narrative of this essentially live work. I like the idea of it fading over time, of returning to its original state, but I would like to see this happen in public if possible, and visit it like an old friend. 

Every other person asks where they can see it next and come up with all kinds of ideas.  Yesterday, my favourite suggestion was the Reading Room at the British Library, to function as a reading/resting/reflecting space – for obvious reasons, but also the neo-classical form of the structure echoes the form of the original Reading Room there. We will see what the universe holds in store for it. I feel a bit like a mother talking about her child today, probably because I have been away for two nights and am about to go and pick up my (almost) one-year-old son, Moses. 

# 18 [16 October 2008]

We are right in the thick of things, too much to report really in 500 words. Will save my more reflective thoughts about what has come up for tomorrow. Today am sharing some transcriptions of selected ribbons together with a few images of them.

 

‘The importance of the tactile’

I received the gift of being a seeker..when I meet the giver I’ll say thankyou’

‘Golden leaves on necklace, beautiful autumn.’

‘A tiny token can relight dying embers’

‘I was given love and it made me feel’

 

Is a diamond still a diamond of you can’t see it? (Kelvin Birk jewelllery)

I like the bubble in the glass.

A handbag like a beautiful fan’

A gift from me –I like me more.’

The best gift I have ever received is time’

Elegant sheeps stomach creation’

 

‘A penis necklace made me scream’

‘I have been given sperm which made a father of my friend’

“Close your eyes and you will see better’

‘I love you physically, mentally you have destroyed me’’

 

‘Gifts are only gifts without strings’

My father gave me the gift of curiousity - to question not to accept’

‘Craft is an ancient and noble profession that is not appreciated or valued in the 21st century”

“All that is not given is lost”

 

Today’s a gift that’s why it’s called the present”.

‘Inspiring art is sweet tea warming my belly’

‘I wish I could speak like music’ (4 year old)

# 17 [13 October 2008]

The Weaver's ArmsI stayed over in London at the weekend and was waiting at a bus stop in Stoke Newington, formulating the next blog in my head when i looked up and noticed I was standing opposite a pub called the Weaver's Arms. Started thinking about randomness vs design but then the bus turned up. Looking at the kind of texts people have written this week (i wanted to transcribe some and write them here  but that will have to be tomorow's job as it got so busy at the space over the weekend and i was juggling having my family around too), I realised that enabling the use and power of touch within a work like this helps to move people on the inside in unexpected ways. A lot of people have written about gifts, both material and emotional, and it's almost shocking how much can be expressed in a 40 cm length of ribbon. Less is  more, as Willow often says. I felt so full to the brim with social interaction by sunday night, it was good to have a calm day of remote interaction (emailing) and time with my children pottering. 
I got an email from someone who had visited at the weekend and taken shots of the tables where people write their ribbons and the pen bleeds through. Lee wrote in the email:"I took a random photograph of the table top and if you look closely you can see the words 'make craft' 'wish' 'creative' and 'gift'. 
So with expressing my enjoyment of your work, I also send you the picture" (See attached photo). These tables and their random(?) traces have givene us all great pleasure and we are keeping them and treating them as artworks in themselves..

There has been a changeover today in the exhibitor's at Origin so tomorow will be like a fresh page. The structure is over 50% woven we think, it's possible we may have calculated the space just right.

# 16 [10 October 2008]

TEMPLE

Two women came into the space yesterday who I immediately sensed were Iranian. In fact one of them was and the other was Armenian, a public art consultant who has worked around these kind of projects a lot and so understood it straightaway. I showed her my press book with photos of previous work, it was a good moment of connection.

 

They sat down to write ribbons and the Iranian woman seemed to go blank as to what to write and almost gave up. We got onto the conversation of my mother, which always comes up when I meet Iranians as they of course want to know which of my parents is from there.  In explaining the loom project. I felt moved to tell them how she died (Phuket, 2004 in the Tsunami, just after Delia was born) and how her death has influenced my work. The Iranian woman asked my mother’s name – Parvin Azadeh Rieu – wrote her ribbon in Farsi, then offered it to me as  ‘to the memory of your mother, with your name next to hers’. It was all I could do not to collapse weeping in the space, it was a loaded moment of grief and realization that she is absent and would have loved this work. It is nevertheless complete and it also very much references all I got from her - the shape, form and feel of the piece have my mother’s stamp of approval, I am sure.

 

Weaving in that ribbon was a point of connection with her and also with everything unnameable I have lost through her passing in terms of my connection to her culture.

 

 

There has been an issue over how I identify myself in the context of this work. Although I have used textiles as part of my work for 7 years, I feel like I am sailing through a new sector on a crafted vessel and need to navigate very carefully. The ‘C’ word (craftsperson) or the ‘A’ word (for artist, my normal catch-all form of identification) don’t quite seem acceptable or appropriate. Neither am I a maker..So maybe I am an artist-maker? Or possibly a conceptual-artist-designer- maker–who-often-does craft-based installations.  Anyhow, apparently this debate has been raging for centuries and will continue to do so. Thoughts in an email please.

 

To get to the crux of it, Rumi said:

'I go into the Christian Church, the Jewish Synagogue and the Muslim Mosque and I see one altar"

 

It's appropriate that the closest tube to Somerset House is Temple, as people coming into the space keep referring to it with words like temple, cathedral, shrine etc and seem drawn to it, gazing up at the roof and beyond into what has been mainly blue, sunny autumn sky. 

 

The structure glistens at night and is already almost 25% woven.. 

# 15 [8 October 2008]

INCREASING PRESENCE..

‘There is an unseen presence we honour that gives gifts’ (Rumi)

 

The structure is quite rapidly transforming, generating itself into an iridescent communal poem. The diversity of text is revealing itself – from the simple and banal to the obscure and profound…

 

             People came in waves today  – large groups of arts students in the morning who immediately took to participating and were so at ease talking to us about the piece and what it brought up for them . Men whose wives went off gift shopping while they sat and participated and who found a retreat within the blue voile walls. Makers from surrounding stands taking a break to reflect, chat and read the walls which are writing themselves into existence. Children squealing with delight at the white pens that write like snow on blue ribbon and the see- through nature of the walls through which they can play hide and seek…

 

I experienced a constant charge of social interaction with all kinds of people and realised this is my favourite medium – the energies of the public engaging with the work. I love the unpredictability of how people will react to and engage with it. We have a very tuned-in team of volunteers, individuals who really get what the work is about and intuitively engage with the public as and when needed. They are from textiles, arts, anthropology and writing backgrounds – all areas this piece references.

 

My gift today was a visit from Stevie Bezencenet who was the MA Media Arts Course leader and my supervisor at Westminster 7 years ago. It was a real treat to sit and talk with her and catch up on our lives, and I realised that it was with her help that I let go of working exclusively with digital media and made the transition into installation work. She was the one who pointed me in the direction of the ‘sublime’ and the ‘poetics of space’.  Crafting Space is in fact the first project where I have not used technology at all (apart from this blog!) since 1994. And I am not missing it, because in fact the intensity of the interaction satisfies me as much as any piece of digitally networked art has done. I am enjoying this cross-breed of the handmade, the conceptual and the person-to-person interaction that can only come from having a constant mass of public brought to the work through a Fair like this. And my collaboration with Willow on the structure feels like 'a perfect symbiosis of our two mediums, one could not have existed without the other' (as she expressed it yesterday).

# 14 [7 October 2008]

OPENING UP THE EMPTY SPACE..

Last night was the Gala opening…

 

I think we all experienced moments of intense vulnerability –an awareness of people hovering on the edge of the space, interested and intrigued but unsure of their place in it and what it is for... Some of the questions I could sense and hear were – What is it? Is it free? What do we have to do, can we just watch? What will happen if I step into the blue space and commit to being inside it? And will I be at ease? Do I have anything worth contributing?

 

Once people entered and sat down we tried to strike a balance of allowing people their own rhythm but providing information and assistance where and when it felt necessary. A good testing of the water. Since it was bare apart from the roof and one poem I had written in, it was a challenging start as no-one wants to be first at the party….but somehow it began to colour itself it slowly…and there was a constant flow of people around and to the space. The handouts and Sufi poetry books seem to be a useful point of connection and transition into the ‘text’ of the piece and its meaning.

 

The location of the work inside the pavilion works really well. Tt is at the centre /back, in the spine of the pavilion, its backbone – several people described it as an oasis of calm, a counterpoint to busy, intense flow around the stands surrounding it.  Also, the contrast of a piece that is focused on process rather than product, though I am very aware we are creating an artefact that will need to find a home at some point - hopefully a public one.

 

Today, from lunchtime onwards, it started to take off, with a strong buzz of interest and the public seemed at ease with using the space to reflect, write and weave into it. The most commonly asked questions I got were – What inspired this work and what will happen to it afterwards? So, in response, I had further thoughts on how to express this:

 

It is self-contained piece of craft/artwork, which is being collectively transformed on a moment-by-moment basis by the public and us.

 

It is a weave but also a poem, homage to the beauty and personal value of objects and the role and meaning they bring to our everyday lives

 

It’s becoming clear through this that you can channel a lot of emotion and lateral thought through coveted objects -ones you choose to be in your lives, for specific reasons. You can also release a lot of emotional energy through the act of weaving, so a woven object can fulfil an individual’s desire to both connect with and articulate emotional memories generated by objects, and unite them within a common framework.

It is a bridge between craft, art and the (often unrealised) desire of the audience to make their mark in subtle but public way. 

# 13 [1 October 2008]

There are a million things to do this week and I am working through the list day by day. So much writing, calling, email communication and general list making. Everyone is bringing their part to fruition – willow, Hattie, Raphaella, Katy. I could write about these, but I prefer to quote a verse from the Tao Te Ching which is about the only thing that is calming my very over active mind right now..and has some nice echoes with the work we are about to make public.

 

Verse 4.

The Tao is like an empty bowl

Which in being used can never be filled up

Fathomless, it seems to be the origin of all things

It blunts all sharp edges,

It unties all tangles,

It harmonises all lights,

It unites the world into one whole

Hidden in the deeps,

Yet it seems to exist for ever

I do not know whose child it is

It seems to be the common ancestor of all,the father of all things.

 

 

# 12 [28 September 2008]

Seven days to go before set up. I went into the garden and came across no less than ten huge spider's webs, obstructing my path through the space...It is the season to weave.

# 11 [21 September 2008]

Am just back from an inspiring weekend course based on Joanna Macy's 'Work that reconnects' - she is a Buddhist, deep ecologist /activist/ philosopher with an expertise in 'self-organising systems'. There was a strong sense of the power of unity and interconnectedness in relation to our attitude to the earth and also to each other
I realised on the walk home through the autumn sun that this piece, once it makes its transition into the public domain on Oct 7th, will be a self-organising system. Poetically speaking,  if Crafting Space is a living being, then; the steel mesh structure is the skeleton, the ribbons are its skin, the texts are its DNA and the public is its blood, its life force.
More on self-organising systems later! The final round of ribbon writing (tools, on the fifth tier of the roof) is the work to be done. Willow and her assistant have been sewing together double wall sections and roof sections to walls with wire, to minimise the work there is to do on the set-up weekend. By the end of wednesday, when we do our final session at Willows, the structure will be complete and poised for a second life. 
www.joannamacy.net/html/deep.htm