A FEW THOUGHTS
13.10.09
It’s been almost two weeks since I was in France. Coming back to England has felt a little frantic and I have been a little panicked as of late (mainly due to monetary matters), however I have decided to throw it up to the Gods.
In terms of my artwork I have been questioning my practice a lot. What is it about? Why am I doing this? What is it for? What purpose does it have? The list goes on. Over the past few years I have been committed to this notion of trace, in particular the human trace ie, what humans leave behind. Usually the human presence is not necessary but sometimes it is. Working with the Madame Noel butchers in France gave me real food for thought. I couldn’t help but marvel at their skill, precision and expertise. Before I had travelled to France I had become increasingly interested by lace, an age- old craft and skill. I took classes for eight weeks during the spring before I relocated to Nottingham. One would think that finding a similar class in Nottingham would be super easy however it is proving to be a little troublesome. I visited Wollaton Hall at the weekend and came across some quite beautiful lace machines in the Industrial Museum. I had read that the council were planning to close the museum as they are £44,000 short this year. This seems a small sum and I hope they can raise the money to keep this little gem open. I carried on with my quest yesterday – to find a lace class/ teacher so I decided to visit the Lace Centre in Nottingham to enquire about classes. Alas it was closed and it looked as though the building had not been open for some time. I do hope that my suspicions are not true.
The Butchers shop in Sacy-le-Petit is also due to close this December so now the inhabitants can no longer pop in to purchase their meat. Not enough customers I suppose. Instead the Noel family will drive around in their truck selling the meat via transport.
Although at first glance the butchers and lace seem to have no connection, while talking with a friend last night we managed to put the two together. Both these skills are almost dying out as a replacement for something bigger, better and more contemporary.
Maybe the absence and presence of people, objects, skills and things can still continue in my work but from a different angle or viewpoint. It is a little depressing that the drawings I have laboured over for the past few years have little/ no significance now. Maybe this will change or maybe it will not and I can come to accept this.
