ARTISTS TALKING

# 16 [1 July 2009]

LAST DAY OF "WET"

28.06.09

Today is the last day of WET and I have been invigilating, which is a tough job because it is a very beautiful sunny day out there.  It’s been fairly quiet, and this seems to happen with most exhibitions of this nature; the private view is packed and vibrant, and the rest of the week is incredibly quiet.  My view is that most people within our art-world circle will come to the private view if they are planning to see the exhibition.

My work seems to go by relatively unnoticed – this is either because it is not that spectacular or that it is so well integrated into the fabric of the architecture.  I’ll go with the latter as I think a bright red line splitting the exhibition space in two is quite a striking thing.  This tends to be the way with all of my work, particularly those pieces that have a strong relationship with the space that surrounds them.  A number of people will overlook it, but those who do see it are rewarded with knowing that they have seen more.  I wonder if I should do anything about this, or if it would change my practice?  Perhaps I need to change the mechanisms that surround my work instead?

I’ll be taking the work down tonight, and I always feel a sense of relief as I do this.  Relief that we did it, pulled it off – but I also get closure and can move onto the next project…

Ah ha, some people have spotted my line!  They are walking along it, tracing it.  I like that.  She looks quite pleased with herself!

As i was saying, i'm ready to move onto the next thing now, which is the Art Week in Finland.  I have really enjoyed working with the other Artists, our conversations and the challenges surrounding WET, and exhibiting in the STEW Gallery space.

# 15 [21 June 2009]

PHEW! I've done it! Exhibition is up, work is installed, i just need to write something intelligent about it now.

Private View is tomorrow night (6 - 8pm) Join the Facebook Event page:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=118458195929...

# 14 [19 June 2009]

Its 10.00pm; 12 hours until we begin installing WET.  I still don't know what im installing, im very anxious but assure myself that this is completely normal for me.  It doesn't help.

In between various "outreach" activities at work, i dyed my worsted fabric with madder in the Textile Workshop.  I quite like natural dyes, there's a recipe but it doesn't need following too tightly.  Madder really stinks. i found it quite hard to work with as it steamed away, and that was only a bucket worth of madder - imagine how smelly the Textile Dye industry probably was.  I took the bucket back to my studio and its still soaking, so i should have a really deep red by tomorrow.  

This evening i have been tracing the locations of Textile Mills and Workshops in Norwich  from the 19th Century, i made a map and this proves that the River Wensum was central in the Textile Industry.  I feel the map is necessary as it offers the viewer a clue into my research, but i don't like how i have drawn it - i will redo it in the morning.

I don't expect that i will do much installing tomorrow, mostly sitting, watching and thinking about what i will display to evidence this research - and i feel that it needs to look like research.  My work will happen on Saturday night as i process the days thoughts, and realise them on Sunday during installation.

Looking forward to seeing everyone else tomorrow, and seeing their resolved interpretations of "WET".

# 13 [18 June 2009]

- The worsted is soaking in an alum mordant, tomorrow i will soak it in madder to make it red.

- i've bought some trestle table legs as am interested in displaying some "research" or "process" work - as this has formed the bulk of my investigation

- And i've decided that i want to do some drawings

- private view is in 3 days time

# 12 [16 June 2009]

UNDERSTANDING PROCESS

I have never ventured into natural dye techniques before, but luckily i work at an Art College where there are people who can help me during my lunch break...!

Natural dye reacts most effectively when applied to natural fabrics, and by looking at the sample book in the workshop, wool and silk fabrics achieve the deepness of red that i am hoping to get from my raw madder.  The workshop has a worsted that i will use, and this ties into a lot of my research around the yarns and fabrics that were used for the Norwich Shawls.  The dye needs a mordant to fix it into the fabric, we have hard water in Norwich and this is why madder took to the fabric so well here during the peak of the Textile Industry.  This can be enhanced by adding copper, aluminium or iron to the water - we tried a few samples today and they all came out very differently.  I think that i will go with aluminium as this produces a scarlet red whereas copper is rusty and iron is plum in colour.  

I need to check the sizes of my pieces before we start dyeing on a big scale later in the week.  As with all my previous projects, it is the process which i am finding most engaging right now.  i don't know where it will take me, but im excited by its potential.

# 11 [14 June 2009]

Here is the info for our exhibition:

WET at the STEW Gallery

40 Fishergate, Norwich, NR3 1SL

a colletcitve exhibition of new works from twelve artists.

Mark Scott Wood, 
Laura Harwood, 
Juliet Hayward, 
Helen Otter, 
Samantha Epps, 
Diane Archer, 
Sara Ross, 
Hayley Hare, 
Jo Mills, 
Elizabeth Plumb, 
Tim Mellors, 
Christina Sabberton

open daily from June 22-28
11am– 6pm MON - SUN

PRIVATE VIEW 6-8pm Monday June 22

WITH ACCUSTIC MUSIC from Angela Wood and Jim Musgrave

# 10 [13 June 2009]

Things that have occupied today's thoughts:

1) My madder has arrived.  i have some sachets of very fine rusty coloured powder and some rawer woody sachets too.  i have no idea how to dye the fabric (or what sort of fabric i should dye), so i will speak to the Print Technicians at college on Monday and hopefully do some samples in the evening.

2) Norwich Shawls - and their size - relation to the scale of the human body.

3) Having work on opposite sides of the gallery, adjacent to the River Wensum, in the direction of trade.

4) The textile pieces by Blinky Palermo (i saw a retrospective in Dusseldorf about a year and a half ago and they have stayed in my mind ever since, existing somewhere in between conceptual/minimal art and textiles)

# 9 [11 June 2009]

At lunch time, i found just the kind of book that i had been looking for; "Norwich Since 1550".  I read the chapter on the Textile Industry this evening, its quite confusing, mostly because there is lots of to'ing and throwing between merchants and weavers and spinners and farmers, and there are a number of highs and lows within the trade across several centuries.  There are an awful lot of numbers and dates to understand as well, these could form an element of the final piece.

After speaking to the Print Technician at College today and looking at some of his natural dye samples, i ordered some madder from the internet - i hope it comes in time for the show as i would like to grasp an understanding of the dye process and the colours that can be achieved. 

I can sense that the final piece is becoming closer, but i still don't know what it could be.

# 8 [10 June 2009]

MEETING no.3

The Playhouse, 6pm - 7.30pm 

Seven of the 12 Artists were present at this meeting.  We took it in turns to do a "show and tell" about our work, research and experiments to the rest of the group. Everyone was supportive and honest, interested to hear each others' opinions.  I really enjoyed hearing the others talk about their work, its nice to be in that kind of situation again and i have missed it since finishing the MA. 

My work has a close aesthetic relationship to Laura's, and for a while now i have been keen for our work to be exhibited in the same space.  The difference would be that Laura seems to be material-led and i am process-led, but our outcomes are often concerned with the same ideas or themes. (surface / architecture / construction)

I was worried that i was behind on my preparation for the show, but i explained my research for the theme of "wet" and ideas for where in the space the work could be positioned.  I always worry that i haven't "made" anything, when others can produce samples or sketches - despite knowing it, i have trouble accepting that i do not initially "make" anything.  I must remember that i spend 95% of the time researching and then right at the end produce the final piece.  

After visiting the STEW Gallery this afternoon, i have decided to make the work within an old "fire escape" area in the space, you can see that this thoroughfare had previously been taped off on the floor (STEWs previous life was as a Handbag Factory), This space is in line with the river and echo's the shape of it - it is the right space for this work. (see yellow section on image map).  I will not use the entire space, rather have assemblages or drawings along it, mimicking the layout of the textile mills along the River Wensum.  I am also very keen to use madder, so will further look into how this could happen.

12 Days until the opening.

# 7 [8 June 2009]

NORWICH TEXTILES:

exchange / transition / transaction

textiles are portable, they can be carried, and are carriers themselves

interrogating boundaries - transformation, translation, travel, currency, exchange, communication, flows, value

threads of memory.  traces.  remembering the history of a building or site

trans = moving / across

river / bridge / crossover