I've just been trawling through my iPhoto library uploading pictures and realised there was something I had missed writing about – 'Grace's House'.
I came across Grace's house when out walking with my partner some months ago half a mile from Carn Galva. Its an old tumble down granite one room 'house' that probably I have since found out dates back to the 17th century. What fascinates me about it though is what I came across inside – three pairs of old child sized iron bunk beds!
Steven my mentor asked me what it was that drew me to them… something I've been wondering on… revisiting some missing childhood place, feeling connected to something, recreating story, creating memory? Perhaps creating self… not sure, something to keep wondering on.
Anyway I spent three/four hours up there the other day drawing and taking photographs, in that space where you become so absorbed in what you are doing that you don't notice how cold you are until you stop. I became fascinated by ideas of uncovering story and started playing out the role of archaeologist, the most insignificant pieces of rubbish became embued with significance as I recorded my 'finds'.
What is quite strange is that the more I research, the more I come across about this tiny home. But no where, not in accounts of its grade 2 listed status or recent writings about the history of the hamlet does it ever mention the bunkbeds. Why are they there, where did they come from…. stories of evacuees come to mind, I do know that until comparatively recently it had a 'replacement' tin roof… Something for my enquiries…
As I write I am wondering at the relationship between the unearthing of my stories and the stories of the beds, with the wider story of a landscape that tends to be defined more by what it was, than by what it is to become. It is now part of the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site, ESA, SSSI, AONB etc etc. Where does living tradition in a contemporary world find a voice amongst the initialled designations and picture postcard images?
A bit of a mixed week… lots of ideas earlier in the week which are all scribbled down so they don't get lost.
I've pushed ahead with the background research… I've been trawling through 19th century census results and apportionments in the Cornish Studies Library. That was a really strange experience as they are all on microfiche, something I haven't used for over 20 years.
Also been in the National Trust office playing around with Map Info, a GIS mapping programme they use for landscape based work-planning and trawling through their Intranet looking at strategies etc… This project is very much about working within relationships whether that be conversations with tenant farmers and wardens, or the wider working of the organisation. Interested in layers and layering… layers of history and pre-history and also interested in using the tools that the Trust uses in its day-to-day work within the making process.
Reading what I've just written I am wondering why I started by saying its been a mixed week… probably the effect of going down with a cold! The week was overshadowed by ongoing discussions around a relationship central to the project – it looked as if we were just going round in circles. But tonight I heard that the problems were due to nothing more than a misunderstanding and are resolved! Great as it now means I am going to be able to push on with the real research, meeting people, developing relationships, listening and seeing where it goes…
So Re-Connections then… Sounds good! Its that getting started thing, the blank canvas. But now its a blank screen with an even more unknown audience.
This blog has come about as a result of putting together a proposal to the Arts Council G4A to develop my practice… with particular reference to a residency I have developed with the National Trust in West Penwith: The Bosigran Project.
On one level this blog is about the development of the Bosigran Project, on another and perhaps more fundamentally it is about the development of my practice.
Firstly a bit about the Bosigran Project, then I can put it to one side and focus on my practice (if it is possible to make such a divide…).
Bosigran is an area of land sitting on a shelf above the sea under the harsh granite shrewn moorlands of West Penwith, dominated by Carn Galva (protector in Cornish). So if you take a trip west down the A30 as far as you can go without getting your feet wet, well you'll be close by. It is a magical landscape with layers of history going back to Early Neolithic times c. 3800BC when Galva was probably an ancient Tor Enclosure, the most westerly of a chain of Tor Enclosures covering Cornwall that acted as a central point of exchange for the area.
The residency involves developing context specific work – working in the space of conversation, becoming as deeply embedded in the layers of socio-cultural history/contemporaenity as possible; a process of research and engagement that will result in a fortnight of site specific work in September based in and around Bosigran. Aware of the possibilities to extend this into a much wider project involving other artists and creating a real sense of critical dialogue around the project, we are looking for funding to commission a small group of other artists to work on the project leading to an ALIAS Seminar at the end of the fortnight… and have set up Bosigran Arts an artist-led group to this end.
So that is it for the project management bit, the over view etc … now to put the focus clearly back on that part of Re-Connections that is around the development of my own practice. I am absolutely determined that what ever the pulls of funding applications etc, I am going to use this funded(!!) time to take my work somewhere its not been before, and this blog is going to be a process alongside mentoring that will help keep that on track. So you'll not hear much more about Bosigran Arts, about funding or any of that side of the project but you will hear about my own practice and the role that working collaboratively plays in it. This is a promise to myself. Please, anyone reading this, call me on it if I depart into the realms of project management!
