At this stage of the project I can almost bring you up to date with where we are now. I find the detail of editing video quite a painful process as it is so incredibly detailed and repetitive, each minute of film being watched over and over and over again, tweaking tiny moments here and there. This is the longest piece of work I have ever made on video, 14 min long, and found the hardest practical issue to deal with (this will make any sense to anyone that doesn’t use editing software I’m afraid) was keeping the timeline of the film, the music, sound and speech etc all within visibility in its entirety on screen at one time (probably something much more accomplished professional could do easily). In a sense it’s a little like a painting where you need to stand back now and then and view the work in its entirety to ensure balance amongst the different elements you’re working with. I find this much more difficult with a longer piece of video work, something I hadn’t anticipated.
Moving on from actually making the film, myself and the other two artists involved are constantly working on connections, promotion and opportunities to negotiate touring exhibitions. On top of this there is the online activity to keep up, catalogue to design, writers involved and posters and publicity to be dealt with. Interspersed amongst council meetings, symposiums we’ve attended and the general more mundane work of the project we have had a couple of really inspiring interactions with people along the way.
Getting some academic writing to underpin the project has always been a goal and in addition to Richard Osgood’s much appreciated contribution (senior archaeologist for the MoD) we were lucky enough to have a day set aside to explore the context and work with Ewan Clayton, professor at Sunderland University. Ewan Clayton shares a historical past with Prudence Maltby in that both their families were once members of the Guild of craftsmen on Ditchling Common,
http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/faculty-of-arts-brighto…
founded by Eric Gill (of Gill Sans), indeed Ewan was the last member to join. In addition to touring the world lecturing on the art of calligraphy, Ewan also has a close relationship with drawing and contributes to the teaching at the Prince’s Drawing school in London. As Prudence Maltby’s practice has become centred around drawing this is where Ewan has become involved in the project.
We shared a fabulous day with Ewan, he reminiscing with Pru over the unique lifestyle they all shared as Guild members. An experimental art colony based on a heady mix of creativity, religion and rudimentary living it’s philosophy is engraved on the stone plaque which is all that remains of the Guild, now housed in Cheltenham Museum. It reads,
‘Men rich in virtue studying beautifulness living in peace in their houses’ .
Later on in the month we had the pleasure of meeting up with Dr Alison Hems, who will be speaking at the opening of our exhibition in Salisbury on 30 August. Alison is head of Heritage and applied history at Bath spa and has a particular overlap in her interests with contemporary art and particularly memory as the ’fourth dimension’ of landscape. As Cicatrix is a project which explores land shaped and scarred by history, Alison could see many instances were the project could be used as a catalyst to draw various departments in history, art, curating and film etc together and we had a really enjoyable afternoon exploring these possibilities which, if all goes to plan, we will begin to shape into a pilot collaboration in the Autumn.
While all this was going on of course I am also developing my own work outside of the now finished video as AA2A resident artist at Solent Uni in Southampton, while also keeping participatory workshops and teaching bubbling along in an attempt to keep our head above water financially. No matter what funding is gained however it seems that each project will inevitably run into many more hours than anticipated.
I hope this gives you an idea of the detail and time involved in putting together a touring exhibition such as this. Not only has this year been absolutely exhausting but I am continuing to learn at every point and if I ever survive to undertake a similar project myself in the future I will be much more clued up when applying for funding as to the exact expense the whole thing entails.
