Yesterday I had seven visitors and that was refreshing. I did thirty two grains and that’s partly because i carved during the ‘In Progress Event’ while I was talking to people.
The event was ecnouraging with several interesting conversations and comments. Between 6 and 9pm somebody counted 35 guests. Artist Madeleine Walton ([email protected]) has kindly written a review about the project:
The Canal Basin is a little known gem just outside Sheffield city centre. Here the city’s former industrial past is still tangible. Inside the Grain Warehouse on Victoria Quays huge hoppers bear testament to that past. In this cavernous space sits Silvia Champion at a workman’s bench carving huge grains out of oversized bars of soap. As you enter this architecturally stunning space the smell of the soap hits you immediately. Large bricks of coal tar soap are piled around the perimeter of the Grain Warehouse. Dominating the space these white soap bricks make their presence felt. Silvia dressed in industrial clothes sits upon a high stool and calmly whittles away at the soap. Large quantities of soap shavings are piled around her feet while she produces a white grain the size of an ostrich egg. I don’t know the thinking behind the size of the grain she carves but regardless of the reason it is quite exquisite. When Silvia has carved six soap grains she carries them to a bricked room off the main space. There are a pile of them there. I’m not sure how many. Less than a hundred but more than fifty, would be my guess. I wish these were more prominent, possibly in the main space and not hidden away. Maybe in place of the grains, the bricks of soap could be here – out of sight and out of mind. For me the act of Silvia sitting in silence and carving is enough for me. I don’t require a finished product (nice as it is). I would be happy to see this as an industrial space with Silvia whittling the soap away to nothing and the space slowly filling with shavings. But don’t take my word for anything visit yourself and take away your very own soap grain on 27th March at the closing event 6-9pm. See you there!
Artist Sally Anne Roberts (twitter happy_alice) has also sent me her thougths:
Initial entry to the venue, the performer is positioned so she is viewed from the side as she carves and processes a white soft brick material. The performance is the focus of the work, with white brick walls echoing the shape of the brick building. The carver is detached and solitary in the space, with a dedication equal to a penance or persecution in such a cold lonely venue over such a period of time.
The soft white bricks are carved, filling the air with a sweet perfume in the space. As the repetitive task unfolds the romantic ideology of the past is shattered by the execution through movement, where the fundamental objective is to process materials through manual labor. There is a sense of indifference towards the carved objects as they are carried with little care and piled together out of sight, seeming to have less value after processing.
The dedication and devotion of the performer brings the space to life, creating a space for reflection and questions our relationship between materials and processing.
Somebody else commented about the grain shape and questioned the importance of it. ‘Why soap’ undoubtly came up and I told the story of the original project. Some people suggested afterwards not to tell too much because it might devalue my choices and make the viewer stop thinking. Maybe I give away too much but I try to be open and let people into a different door. It felt right at the time.
