Fair Trade decisions

I have decided on Fair Trade Art as a title for my exchange in Moscow, with the agreement of the Fair Trade Foundation This has provided a good starting point, drawn self portraits are the rate of exchange.
The image shows one of the students at UEA's Bangers and Mash Fair Trade Fair doing her self portrait for Fair Trade Art. Plans for both Moscow 'kiosk' are still developing. I am modelling the idea in a variety of places and it was encouraging and exciting to hear and feel poeples reactions at this event.

The climate in Moscow during February will not allow for holding a market event outside at the Biennale, or rather I will not be able to cope with temperatures less than -20c In a way this will prove more challenging; to get the Art world really involved with an
I had a rubber stamp made to 'validate' portraits for the project, this has proved to be a really effective way of making a community of artists. Seen on the left with ink pad, the ink colour is exactly the same as Woad; to some extent chance. In addition I have started a collection of labels from the blankets used, which also seem to be generally the same blue. ANy significance of all these facts may come to light at a later date.

I had not seen them but I am told Jake & Dinos Chapman were selling drawings of people at Freize Art, made on the spot portraits at £3000 or £4000 each; this is strange as I had the idea about fair trade art confirmed by Freize, without seeing them.

The next image is of me stitching on recycled blankets with woad dyed yarn, I use carbon copies to work from, the originals are retained by the artist/participants and Traditionally a quilt has three layers; the layers of this quilt will be online for all to access information about the artists and, within reason, any web-sites they are involved with. Making and feeling, manipulating materials are what I need to do, slow making helps the thinking process, helps me to understand the world. It is like the Hare Brain Tortoise Mind book by Guy Claxton, 'when you come away from a problem it becomes clearer'.

I am planning to model Fair Trade Art at galleries and coffee shops in the New Year - dates and venues will be put online as soon as I have them confirmed.

Pace, balance and rhythm

Working with trees, maintaining fedges, hedges and hedgerows -and yes there is a difference - makes me conscious of how I always work in the long term. Short term projects don't really have any attraction and have no relation to the natural world. The original fedge on the allotment is now 10 years old, the hedgerow is I think 16 years old and has so much wildlife in residence and the Goat willow fedge is now in its fourth winter. Images here of first summer, 2003 and just taken this week, this years growth is about 5 metres long and I have had to take more off so that the base is not stressed in the strong winds.

Sustainable practice has so many meanings and implications, as with most things it is whatever presents itself as urgent that human individuals consider the most important. This varies so widely - depending on life circumstance and cultural position.

In conversations with other artists over the last year - how to find a balance between energies, needs of family and time allowed to make work.

I have found myself watching and remembering my own struggle to find the balance, desperately wanting to 'be an artist' but torn by the emotional need to be a mother(never mind the social expectations) and the lack of financial and physical resources which affected my ability to make considered choices. It was more a question of how to deal with what presented itself, how to adapt it to some sort of advantage!

In the short term it seemed impossible, but now, in hindsight all those skills I gained have enabled me to work with so many people with different world views and experiences.

I have also realised that I am almost incabable of working or thinking in the short term, doing anything that is in isolation whether it is writing, planting, weaving, or 'just' making a pair of shoes for a new baby Thomas I always think in the context of past and future. The shoes were made from leather and wool that I was given from Frances Frosts' house clearance, Thomas would have been her third great grandson. The 'pattern' was the same one that I used over and over for our children, shoes are design to be first shoes - with a leather sole strong enough to learn to walk in but soft enough to be like walking in bare feet.

Reading a blog reviewing and commenting on Nicolas Bouuriaud 'Realtional Aesthetics'in terms of Theological and Christian world view, this has to bee seen as a subjective position, I have no knowledge of the contribution to the Blog in question but have found it an interesting develpment of Community and relationship, extending the relational activity, art and family charechteristics.

creative involvement

Making work that is public and includes the actions of others, like the Field Theatre Group in Littleport, where I led the initiative for a community walk to define green spaces, is a trading of skills and inclusion of others creativity. This is ongoing work and will be built on when funding is available, about the 'spaces in between' and green corridors' which are essential to sustianable and healthy communities.

In making an application to the British Council I have become much more objective about the process. I may or may not receive support but it has made me able to do more of the process independently, and efficiently. Plans for creating a place or time in Moscow will be transfered to Fair Trade events in Norwich and Liverpool if funds are not available, work with people is transferable so long as they are not taken advantage of or manipulated.

Drawing together people and places is very much like the action of drawing together yarn for a warp, there are places where it tangles and is difficult to work with, and places where it runs smoothly unexpectedly. Planning does not always allow for chance opportunities - make mistakes into a positive part of the design process

Trading

I went to Freize Art in Regents Park, London, a strange experience - so much expectation and money it felt more like a fashion event. The exchange of ideas and concepts into hard cash - a strange market and one that the artists do not seem to benefit greatly from, other than gaining their reputation trhough association with gallery owners and dealers.
With ideas of Fair Trade and planning for next years events during Fair Trade fortnight this yet again strengethened my aim to make and promote the action of making that is not resource wasteful, either for maker or buyer.
There is no image for this entry, which is indicative of the amount of reading I am doing. Beginning to get itchy fingers, wanting to make for the sake of making is not a good reason to create anything!

trading places tracing lines

This Image is of Conni Blom in a studio space in moscow - a very strange experience - one of many and one that I still don't really inderstand the significance of. I took the photo and didn't see him in it until I had enlarged the image two weeks later, in the computer.

I think this is where my idea about an exchange of self portraits started, but perhaps this was so subconscious that I am trying to do something artists wont want to.

The exchange of images and ideas that has been going on as part of the Passion for the Real started me thinking about Fair Trade in Art, we have been very trusting and generous to each other. Is this is because of the innate desire artists seem to have to share their work and want approval, response and affrimation that their ideas convey something more than just self interest?

I have been going into galleries, studios and cafes in UK to both exchange and collect work, self protraits mainly, to be included in the Fair Trade Art Project. This has produced intersting responses form all contributors and thos who don't want to contribute. I have had to both justify and think through the idea in detail, which should mean it is refined and more relevant to more people.

Until I had selected this portion of the image I had not seen the link to the icon shapes already there as well - how much subconscious is at work all the time.

New Language

The previous entry had a strange combination of fonts - somehow I couldn't resolve this or ran out of energy, I apologise if this affected your reading of the blog.

This is another image of the workshop I ran at the Dascha, with Conni Blom moving the whole 'page'.

I have been reading work by Nicolas Bourriaud, 'Relational Aesthetics' and 'Post Production' which is explaining the actions that I do and which Janette is doing with communities in LIverpool. The work is 'to consider interhuman exchange an aesthetic object in and of iteslf' except that our work is not purely about human exchange but about the living world, the non-human inhabitants as well the human.
I read Bourriaud in French to start with - simply because that is how I came across it first of all. I found it very strange to read it in English, there were some discrepancies between the original and the translation so I tried to do my own, but some phrases just could not be put into English. Somehow that is an expression of what I am doing in my work. There are gaps in both in the expression and the understanding, but this is not negative - just a different way to see and understand the world.

Russia, language and perception

Working in Russia, at Academicka Dascha with students and researchers from Germany, Sweden, Russia, America, Canada; including people who had been refugees from Kurdistan and Rumania; provided more insights into working with visual art. The isolation from familiar signs, alphabet, words and sounds made this so evident, as though I had been given this opportunity to try out my ideas.When I say 'given' it was not free!

As a research project into the learning process and use of facilities by visual artists outside an academic institute, there was an overemphasis on words and discussion, not enough use or value put on the visual. Even among a group of practicing artists, many left handed, dyslexic and able to use 3Dimensions really effectively the accepted practice seems to be that discussion and writing is more valuable and effective for the working world.

We had spent several days discussing, listening and reading complex work and ideas; as a visual artist using tactile materials I really felt the need to make a work, to feel and see the physical actions of others. I made the action to help my own understanding of the work requires, to see and fell the actions and understanding of others involved in expressing the physical world.
The central stone signifies our goal to make a joint exhbition, as a newly formed group with no real link; the small pile of stones surrounding it signifies the artists, writers and curators involved. I asked them to place a stone at a distance to show how close they felt to resolving ideas and understainding of the goal. I encouraged them to make theplavccing of the stone a personal experience, and to take a stone away with them to remind them of the people involved and the task.

I was touched by how alll participants took this action very seriously. One in particular moved the whole blanket/page. I understood this to mean that he thoguht our focus was off centre, it also showed a respect for the aim of the work.
Using simple materials, recycled blanket as the 'page' to draw on and pebbles collected from the gardens all participants could express themselves without prior knowledge and skills.
I feel as though this is a significant piece of work - it happened after so many days of walking, thinking and watching the environment - including people and their interactions. I know I will use it again, with all kinds of people and places.
I asked some of the academics in the group what they thought they had seen - even asking it seemed a bit strange, they each took their time and came back to me with really considered replies. I had responses like - 'it seemed a significant statement, participants wanted to make their sdtatements. The process is amazingly inclusive' another said 'I think it is significant that you have made a piece of work withthe group, allowing an opportunity for the group to work together visually'

I have deliberately not put names to the statements, if they are published somwhere else I will ask for more formal responses and include all acknowledgements there.

New focus

A long gap in posting for the blog has been either beacuase of writing other work, or because of travelling and making away from access to computer and internet. This proved to be a release in some ways, my thinking and I guess others, is that it is essential to life!

For MA exhibition at NSAD I made maps of waterways. The action of stitching, the repetitive, monotonous process was a relief, and again I experienced the overlap in thinking and making. The making seemed to clarify my thinking, to resolve ideas and enable me to express for a questioning audience.
The physical manipulation from conventional OS maps into a combination of textile craft and and art installation highlighted the overlap in my thinking, which previously I have not found easy to express.
While making I was also thinking about travelling to Russia and of meeting and working with a whole group of new people. The combination of familiar and unkown, was that why I had chosen such a repetitive process?

standing back

I have had time away, attending the RANE conference and working with Janette Porter at Boscastle.
The work was in response to the floods in 2004, Janette's hard work meant that we made new work and updated Lateexchange
I am continuing to spin and walk, spin and walk, confirming the links between sites in my mind as well as physically.
Recently heard that I have been given a place to go Russia in September through Norwich School of Art and Design, this is a somwhat unexpected extension of my MA and will extend the scope of my work and L@tE even more.
I realise that I spend much of my time reading and thinking - standing back from the physical action of making. I am beginning to have some withdrawl symptoms - picking up grasses and fibres to reconnect with material and manipulation. I am aware that I do not want to make things for the sake of it - more things are just distracting to an understanding of sustainable practices and use of resources.
Being away has meant that my allotment is neglected and not productive - how to make it sustainable without being there is going to an ongoing problem this year and may mean re-thinking how I use it.

words and understanding

Re-covering, re-forming, sustaining, im-plying, sampling - how words and thoughts change depending on context. As I wrote I realised that these words have so many layers of implication - depending on where you say them. Context is everything. A discussion with Tim Drake, illustrator and beat box artist, emphasised this. We talked for some time using the same words while completely mis-understanding each other's meaning!
Sustainable acitivities are the same - so easily misunderstood, or used to mean different things depending on personal needs and situation.If I have enough money to live, then I can consider world resources in a different light.

It is only possible to work in one space at a time, either mentally ar physically, but should always be possible to imagine other places and empathise with different situations. Through the use of textile materials and skills I am able to relate to places and people who never share the same world view and experiences.

Planning for winter, again out of season thoughts. Probably because the weather is currently dry and about 32 degrees - 90 something in farenhiet.
So far this year the allotment has been neglected and we won't have much produce, but is being transformed to be easier to manage; fruit cage and wires for training beans and sweet peas up in the future. Lots of woodchips as ground cover for the willows and fruit trees, alongside this the willows can be pruned to encourage more attractive and weaving varieties to survive. Taking out an old and neglected hedgerow - which is now mostly ivy and has killed off at least three elder trees - we have found rubbish from previous allotment holders including dustbins and parts of old bikes. I am using some of the ivy to make hedgerow containers, combined with white willlow it's a great contrast of colour and texture.
The allotment is an important area of work - not only for food but as studio and thinking space. I am sure this will become more obvious over the next few years. Relating to community and environment it has the potential for practicing Social Sculpture, as much a learning space as place for exhibition, making and archiving of work;

extending practice

I am beginning to realise that I find new work situations are a combination of stimulating and terrifying, the adrenalin is only useful of planning and structure is in place. This has brought me back to thinking about the structure of my overall practice - how everything is related to spinning, twisting, combining threads together. I could not express this in words until I had made a model of my thought pattern, in an atttempt to do this I made the model seen in this image as part of a piece of writing at Norwich School of Art and Design in 2005.
Next week I will be spending time working away at RANE Artful Ecologies Conference Falmouth, with Janette. Time to plan future projects for L@tE and for creating and reviewing. As always I will take my spindle - either a form of security or just continuity of practice - only time will tell.

Time out

I needed time out to make and do physical work without doing the over analytical. There has to be a balance. Handling material and relating to people and place has to be a part of my work.
I go out walking to relate to the scale of the places & physical effect of environment on my body before sitting in the studio again. I listen to and relate to people to find out whether my ideas and images convey any sense.

There is a piece about footprints & traces currently on the loom that has been there too long - not sure it will work but it does need to be finished rather than discarded. I may leave it deliberately unfinished to be part of the series 'Dancing with your Shadow'
I still have the shadow element in my mind - making work to show just the shadow - how will that work? When displaying the sampler of sacking it worked best as the shadow - the implication being that the work is finished and audience can only see a trace. I have some work to do on this & will be playing with the ideas over the next few months, so images to follow.

If you have read this far, please comment - it's what this blog is meant to be for. I would like to hear reactions.

Exposing surface and depth

After all that wrapping and binding I felt a bit restricted, the same way as people say they are about all the legislations relating to land ownership and agriculture. Maybe that is why I started to uncover and unwrap the branches I did not want to use for exhbition, the bark is being used for other projects, currently sitting in a tin bath and going dark blue-black with the iron dye tho so nothing is wasted. The cut branches will be used as well, nothing is left unused.

I found myself expressing a thought that I had not heard before, about the unfinished expressing something of the sustainable, the living and continuing. Is this really a cop-out for not finishing things or did it happen because that is my instinctive approach. How do you do instinctive once you have verbalised and analysed it? More reading and considering other practitioners approaches to work does not always provide the information that supports or justifies ones own; not that I need justification - but being aware of others exploring similar fileds is reassuring.

Working outside, alongside the river and at the allotment I have again been looking at the earth. I am more and more tempted to use it, draw with it in some form. That is what 'exposing surface and depth' is all about, not sure where this thought is going, not doubt some images will follow when I am more certain of the ground!

Photos by Tim Frost

responses

In presenting work this week I am aware that I have left out some crucial information, as I am sure happens when writing this. If there are ommissions such as acknowledgeing authors of work I apologise here, and will endeavour to include them in future.
These should have been included in the last posting. Shelley Sacks Greenmuseum and David Haley Greenmuseum
Thinking in terms of spinning and combining fibres, using it as a metaphor for almost everything, has reinforced my understanding of environmental/ecological/social networks and structures. I am sure it not just a coincidence, everything does appear to have relationship and affect on everything else if you have time to research it. Working in the physical environment this becomes more and more obvious; people who work the land are sensitive to these relationships. Artists who listen to their insticts have the same sensitivities.

Making into thinking into more making

Manipulating, making and working through ideas always creates new thoughts and ideas. How do people who don't make find new ideas? I cannot imagine how this works without a physical process.
It is even more evident that children shold not be forced to do everything in 2 Dimensions - their learning should not be restricted to such a narrow thought processes.
The spiritual and instinctive elements of humans living with the world, with creation, with environment is far more creative than most adults have been conditioned to understand.

This quote 'A Personal statement of ecological arts practice' from David Haley

Ecology: the study of organisms in relation to one another and to their surroundings, derived from the Greek word, oikos, meaning house, or dwelling

Art: rt from an Indo-Aryan noun/adjective of the Rg Veda, meaning the dynamic process by which the whole cosmos continues to be created - virtuously

Eco-art ‘…the most moral act of all is the making of space for life to move onward’. – Robert Pirsig, Lila: an inquiry in to morals.

At the moment I cannot do better - but David's way of making lists and defining structures is a bit too male and clinical for me, I am more inclined to be in closer agreement with Shelley Sacks when she refers to 'soul-making' reather than David's 'moral' angle

Redefining the ‘aesthetic’ as ‘enlivened being’ reveals the aesthetic as an ecological life process, and ‘art’ to be an expanded practice that includes non-material processes and relates to all spheres of activity. Such works are, therefore, as much to do with consciousness work, soul-making and personal transformative work as they are to do with social process and natural environmental concerns.

Combining willow and words - spinning a yarn

As always the plans and ideas I had for presenting work would take at least twice as long as the time I have allowed - how does that happen?
Wrapping my trees with the ribbon of words - which by the way is what I would like to have been able to make -I felt as if the trees were becoming an expression of the communities I have worked with. They are sensitive to and aware of environmental activity and know about the negative effects of agro-chemicalsand other pollutants, but always appear to be bound up in paperwork and 'the way it has to be done': the implication is that it is someone elses job to sort it out.

This action was very intense, in spite of doing it entirely alone - the photo was taken by Tim I could not have done this alone - but I had made and unmade the action several times before he arrived.
My ideas about joining comunities and relating the making to waterwways and river tributaries may not work in the physical, it will be intersting to see and hear readctions to this work, it will be going to several places over the summer.

I have not yet found the words I want to 'perform' but am looking out for some. I find these things arrive at the right time to be used.

growing thoughts

Combining willow and words, thoughts bound inside and round the growing process.as I prepared the willow for cutting I began to think through all the time I have spent on the allotment working ropund the trees as they grow. I have been there in all weathers, watched birds and animals using them for shelter and found refuge myself when I needed to from intrusion or disturbance.

Climbing and manipulating the upper branches, finding out the flexible from the fragile - this is after all the salix fragilis - very appropriate to work with when thinking about my ecological footprint.

The smell of the willow hgas a calming effect on me, I know it contains salicitic acid - used in aspirin: but I have also been told it is used by homeopaths as a remedy for seperation anxiety and bereavement as well as resentments. I wonder how much I have absorbed while working with it, breathing in the atmosphere and through the skin it must have some effect.

The pace of work is different when working with natural and growing forms, I am sure it has a positive effect on me, it is impossible to force a tree to grow faster so what is the point of trying!
Perhaps I should be more conscious of the time frame of 'growing' ideas and producing words. The link between hand writing and thinking, as opposed to writing with a keyboard and being able to make infinite changes so fast that I cannot imagine must affect the way I am forced to think.
By the way I still like writing by hand, and do so in my 'sketch book' far more than drawing now. It feels like the same process at the moment, I never used to write anything!

Spinning, winding and drawing

Today has been strange, working from very early morning on ideas and struggling a bit with making paper tape. It could still be a great idea that goes disastrously wrong!
I have now made the paper yarn...all sorts of double meanings to take from this! It looks ok, a bit uneven and if I had time would try and have it printed on ribbon. Winding it on to the cones was tedious & I began to doubt my sanity. In a similar way to hand spinning, it could be seen as completely unnecessary.
Now the task is to combine this with the tree - or part of the tree. I think I have been avoiding this, it feels like a very final decision. When the elements are put together it is commitment - but then I have no choice now, there is no time to make anything else. Perhaps that is why I use trees and sother slow processes, the final stage is delayed!

While putting the tape onto the cones I found myself reading the words in a different way - they seemed to take on different meaning because of how they were positioned. The juxtapositions with unconnected sentences was like positioning different fibres and colours.

Trees, time and planning

Having taken the tree down this week-end I feel very strange - it went from being a great idea to being what could be a problem.
I had to think through how to transport the tree when cut down - always a bit of an anticlimax having to be practical!
In the end it is in 2 main parts, with other pieces available to use - I don't like the feeling the cut in half has given me - It is a bit like cutting the last 9 years of growing in half and making it worth less - I have not planned anything this long before and think perhaps ther is a way of doing it better.
I had intended to put something into the blog yesterday - but on looking at it again decided there were things I did not want to release yet - if at all. A good lesson in reviewing before publishing.
The next step in making this piece is to combine the tree with process of spinning - using words as well as actual spinning with drop spindle.
The growth habit of the tree is very like the fen rivers - somehow I wuld like to reference this as well, but as always trying to include too many oblique references.
Todays' real task is to wind strips of printed words onto bobbins or cones - depends which works best. images to follow

allotment winter 2000

This image is of the allotment in winter 2000 when the willow was stll young and skeletal.
I liked the idea of putting an out of season image in - the temperature here is about 29 degrees.
I will put images of the tree I am cutting down today in later

allotment winter 2002

Allotment and textile thoughts

Still learning about how to put in the information as I want it to appear - sorry to those who are used to blogging etc.
Please remember that all materials, writing and images put on to this Blog remain the copyright of Jane Frost. Remeber to ask appropriate permissions for reproducing, copying etc. I am a member of DACS - Design and Artists Copyright Society, any queries about copyright should go to them.
I have recently been having the experience of dreaming very specific and detailed dreams about work tasks and development ideas. I know one other person who has had this experience, it seems that in dreaming information that I was not aware knowing comes to the foreground and becomes a conscious activity. Perhaps this is the only way of finding this information - stress and preocupation must affect how I think.
Yesterday at Norwich Art School after having an idea (which had started after a dream) I drafted a piece of work with another student - images to come after the event! The conversation was as if I had dreamed the whole thing - it seemed to be in place already. There is potential - as always - for disaster, but on the other hand it could be really forceful.
I am taking a tree down today that I have been growing for about 8 years. It is a was part of my first attempts at using willows tpo work with when recovering from ME. I have been growing it like giant spun yarn, twisting it round each season but allwing it to take it's own form most of the time. I had not connected the fact that the allotment started around the same time as the thoughts about 'Living at the Edge' L@tE.
In the last few days news about L@tE and www.Lateexchange.com has started to snowball, we seem to be at the place we were aiming for - it has been hard work for the alst few years. Somehow taking the tree and making that a part of my work now has significance and feels the right time. I know, logically, it could happen next year, or even much further on; but emotion and instinct seems to be a strong element in the making process and I think is either intuitive or reflective practice - it certainly feels that way.
Working with the tree this morning in preparation to cut it down there have a lot of feelings and discoveries that I would not have become conscious of without manipulating the tree and other parts of the allotment. It is a place I associate with feeling stronger and fitter - my physical body is very involved with the action of working there & it is a very real studio space for me. I have recognised a relationship with my body and the developing wildlife; I am conscious of working alongside and sharing the space. there is an real element of negotiation in using the land. I have to get rid of some plants - weeds when they are in the wrong place & threaten to strangle or overwhelm the plants I want to work with. On the other hand I leave areas for wildlife to nest and shelter in where I don't really control the growth at all, in the winter I cut back and clear pathways. It is a way of defining the space, drawing a line round it, more than making it mine.
Reading Tim Ingold's work 'The perception of the environment' essays in livelihood, dwelling and skill has been like a confirmation of my work activity. I have not verbally analysed working on the allotment as a textile activity until recently, but have always known that is what it is - so taking the willow down and making it into a piece of spun yarn with text is a real conclusion. I have repeated myself I'm sure - sorry if you have read all this & wondered why. Sometimes repetition is like weaving - more of the same is not always unecessary! The opposite also applies, more words do not always mean better meaning or understanding....

Galerija Balen April 2006

This may appear to be working backward or rather randomly, but I have been collating notes from the last 4 or 5 months as a lot of it relates to doing a piece of work about 'site body text'. This in turn has made me analyse how to express my reasons for starting work on L@tE
One of my recurring themes is to use my art as an expression of environment or 'place'. Reading John Inges book 'A Christian Theology of Place' has confirmed many of my own ideas about why we/society has become so disconnected from reality and able to ignore the effects of our existance on the other living beings that surround us.
The images here are from Slavonski Brod, Croatia in March/April where I worked as artist in residence and had an exhbition at Galerija Balen
The title of my exhbition was 'weaving a walk' and my aim was to explore the feeling of being at the edge of a country border which was a war zone only 10 years ago. I had not been aware of the effects on wildlife that war would have. Combining action of walking with
The workshops addressed this partly through and partly through encouraging participants to become conscious of their shared environment - both natural and man-made.
I had the experience of hearing my second nightingale of the year, this time in a bombed out and abandoned house. I managed to record about 2 minutes and when I discover whether it is possible I will include it here!

I was very encouraged by the response to this work. I felt a strong affinity with those who participated and who came to the exhibition. I deliberately did not have written explanation of the work; there was too much potential for mis-translations and misunderstandings in this context. This desicion was confirmed when several viewers of the exhbition expressed an emotional and empathetic response to 'such new and expressive work' For more information about the residency see translocal

The gallery image shows finished work, some I brought from UK and some was constructed on site using local materials.
Most significant for me wqas the mud from the River Sava; I found it great material to draw with.
I filled small sandbags & constructed a narrow, fragile warp round the walls which was used by workshop participants to weave their finds into.

I was told that the fragility of the warp and materials ued spoke clearly of 'Fragile Earth'
I used the gallery space as studio, had time to sit, look and be still which became part of the work. It was a contemplative space and I used that.
It was the first time I have been very conscious of including time as an element in my work

responses : Wheatfen Broad

I am catching up with the Blog - putting in stuff that has been waiting to go in while working out how to make it. It has been a bit like preparing a warp, or spinning yarn in preperation for making the work.
This is why the dates are out of sinc at the moment

responses:Wheatfen Broad May 2006
Working at Wheatfen Broad, Norfolk, I collected the comments from MA Textile & Culture students and staff, their experiences and impressions of first visitng the place.
These were written by them on labels using my own made pastels from dried and baked clay collected from Wicken Fen UK and Barisol Bangladesh.
Hung across a dyke on nettle fibre yarn, still water with reflections; next to growing nettles. The labels became somehow more significant in their reflections. An unexpected 'reading' including the water.
I would like to have left these in place but it is a reserve where this would have needed more planning and consultaion, maybe another time.
I enjoyed working in the rain and cold, it was quiet in the morning, birds, insects and animals protect themsleves form wet. In the afdternoon I heard deer, cuckoo and saw cock pheasants fighting, blue tits, wren and blackbirds nesting and protecting their territory.
How does it affect the work having these subjective and physical experiences in making it? I'm not sure it does for the veiwer, but I do know I would feel very isolated and alien without these feelings.

Wensum yarn, drawing fibres and streams together
May 2006
I had the same experience working next to the Wensum, at Lyng. Working with Janette Porter on collaborative practice, we had very different responses to the place because of our complementary work practices. The place gave us each a sense of travel, journey and pace. The river there is fresh and young with a lot of wildlife, it was as if we tresapassed on a territory we had no right to, birds and frogs were our audience.
Considering where the work is in time or place and who the audience is has been a preoccupation recently. I want to make work for a gallery - but is that the same work that is made in context? Is the record the work or the action? I am beginning to resolve some of these questions, and become more certain of how to answer challenges.

Sutton Bridge Lincolnshire

I walked near Sutton Bridge, Lincolnsire I was looking at the man made river and swing bridge which was opened while I was there. It is an extraordinary place, with a history of engineering, fariming, wildife and travel.
I spun some simple wool yarn and made a construction to express the joining of places.
The best image seemed to be when I held the drop spindle in line with the waterway and warp sticks.
It is like a sketch book image, perhaps becosue of the potential. I like unfinished work - it allows for imagination and implies ongoing, sustainable practice.