Elsewhere: Messages

Messages
2020
Elsewhere, The Stove Network, Dumfries
Photo credit: Kirsten McEwan

As we all know 2020 has been a bit of a bonkers year. There have been huge challenges for us all but there have also been opportunities. One of the challenges for me (not actually covid related) has been finding the time/reason to write about my work. It's something I've really missed the past couple of years but there is, of course, a way to fix this; i.e. to do some writing. 

Messages
2020
Elsewhere, The Stove Network, Dumfries
Photo credit: Kirsten McEwan

One of the most exciting things I've been involved with this year is The Stove Network's Elsewhere project. This grew from their Homegrown project (which I was also part of with my Feathers of Hope) and is also part of their Atlas Pandemica project. 

Messages
2020
Elsewhere, The Stove Network, Dumfries
Photo credit: Kirsten McEwan

It's exciting for a number of reasons; firstly it's a really interesting project, secondly it's been a great opportunity to get involved in my local arts community and thirdly it involved actual real life happenings! In previous years that might not have been quite such a big deal but this year having the opportunity to show physical work in a physical space and to be involved in an actual event with actual people attending has been something quite extraordinary. 

Messages
2020
Elsewhere, The Stove Network, Dumfries
Photo credit: Kirsten McEwan

For my part in the Elsewhere project I was commissioned to create a piece of work that could be displayed in Dumfries town centre. I wanted to develop some of the ideas I'd started playing with during my Feathers of Hope micro commission and I wanted to look at ways of sharing our thoughts and feelings about the unprecedented times we were living in. One of the options for display was to use an empty shop window and I was really keen to explore this offer. During lock down our town centres became very different places; at once familiar yet changed and strange, an echo of so many elements of our lives this year. 

Making envelopes!

At the time I was also developing an online sketchbook making course (which is now available if you fancy making your own books) and I was making a lot of envelopes. This inspired me to come up with the idea of an installation of envelopes, combined with my drawn feathers. 

Drawing on my envelopes

I wanted to use envelopes and feathers for both practical and conceptual reasons. Envelopes are used to carry messages, to communicate ideas, thoughts, dreams, secrets and feelings. Envelope can also mean to wrap and protect and I like this dual meaning. I wanted to explore how we felt, our hopes and dreams at this strange time but I was also very aware how fragile these thoughts and dreams can be, how in need they are of protection. Similarly; the feathers represent us and our hopes and dreams, they are both delicate and strong. 

Some of my envelopes

To emphasise this duality of strength and delicacy, familiar and strange, I chose to work with tracing paper to make my envelopes. The transparent material allows us to see inside the envelopes, to see what secrets they might contain. The envelopes both protect and reveal their contents. Some of the envelopes were empty, some had feathers drawn inside them, some contained drawings of feathers and a couple contained actual feathers. 

Installation day

I love working with transparent materials, I love the delicacy and the ethereality of transparent materials. I wanted my installation to have a feeling of almost not being there, being something intangible, as our hopes and dreams often are. As much as I love them, the big downside to working with transparent materials is that being see through they're difficult to see and really difficult to photograph! Luckily for me Kirstin McEwan took some excellent phots and has kindly allowed me to use some of them.

Installing

My work was installed in an empty shop window in Dumfries town centre. I don't think I've ever enjoyed installing a piece of work so much! After months of cancellations and uncertainty it felt so exciting to be working in a space that wasn't in my house and I loved seeing people stop and watch what we were doing as the envelopes went up. It was also nerve wracking as I had an idea in my head of what it would look like but until the work goes up you never know if it's actually going to work! I was lucky to have lots of help and encouragement from Katie Anderson at The Stove and again, being able to work alongside another person was such a good feeling. The piece even made it into the local press!

My installation was just one part of the Elsewhere project and in mid November The Stove held an 'Elsewhere' event where work from the project was displayed in vennels and other spaces in Dumfries town centre over two consecutive evenings. My envelopes were hung in The Stove Cafe and I loved the way they became more and more difficult to see as the cafe windows steamed up on those cold nights. 

'Messages' installed in The Stove Cafe

Mr. Stitches and I really enjoyed exploring the town and discovering the other artworks on that cold November evening, being relatively new to the area it felt like an adventure going into tiny vennels we'd have missed otherwise. We felt that we got to know the town and it's artists a bit better and it helped us feel more a part of that community. 

Work by Simon Lidwell

This sense of community and involvement is one of the things I've enjoyed most about being part of this project. It's helped me feel connected and a part of the artistic community. Throughout the ethos has been supportive and encouraging and I hope that I will continue to be involved and part of this community. 

Seven Stories: St. Bede's School #4 Bookmaking

A stack of books and collagraph plates

Another instalment in my series of posts about Prism Arts/Cumbria Library service Seven Stories project...

Working into our book pages

Working into our book pages

Working into our book pages

Having finished all the flags for our installation I wanted to spend my last session with the class working on something they could take home. Throughout the project they've been asking if they can keep the work we've done even though they're excited about it going into the library so for a while I'd been thinking about what we could do. As we have been working on this project the children have generated a lot of supporting material, such as designs, collages and practice prints. So, I thought that making a book would be a good way of collecting all the work they've done together and giving them something they can take home and show to their family and friends. As the project is a collaboration with the library and the classes starting point was a 700 year old book in Carlisle Library there is also a nice link there too.

Taking rubbings from a collagraph plate

Working into a rubbing

Working into our book pages

As I'd hoped the session provided a good opportunity to look back over all the things we'd tried over the project and it was great to hear what they'd enjoyed and what they'd found difficult. Unfortunately the class teacher was off work but in a way this was good as it gave the pupils the opportunity to tell a different member of staff what they'd done and how. I think they were quite surprised with how much work they's actually done! As well as the collagraph prints we had collages, designs, felt samples and stencilled prints.

A medium sized dragon

A selection of pages

During the day I encouraged the pupils to work back into their pages, particularly the collagraph prints. We used pastels, watercolour pencils and coloured pencils to add colour to the prints and did some rubbings from the collagraph plates as well. Some of the pupils even made extra pages, developing the designs and ideas we'd worked on previously. I also asked them to write a little bit about the pages, what they did, how and why. Some of the pupils really got into this side of things and others not so much! Some of the books even feature glossaries, contents pages and acknowledgements. I find it very rewarding when I take an idea in and the students really run with it, developing and expanding on it.

A finished book

Finished books

A collaged page

For the construction of the books I wanted to keep it simple because I was working with the whole class so I hole-punched all the pages and got the students to choose a ribbon to thread the pages together with. By the end of the day everyone had a finished book; a record of what they'd learnt and something to show to others. I think they were pleased as they kept asking to take them home, I said they had to wait until the end of term!

Book pages

A finished book

A design page with  written explanation

I've really enjoyed working with this class and I will miss my Wednesday's with them. I was really touched as throughout the day the students kept bringing me little drawings they's done for me. Because the project is a long running one we've been able to get to know each other well and developed good relationships, this has allowed the pupils to improve not only their practical skills but their self belief as well. I've seen their skills and confidence grow and it is a really satisfying thing to know that I've been part of that. It will be great to see the work up in the library in November. Which reminds me, I had better finishing sewing all the flags together...

Page with felt sample...

...and description

Skyground: Anselm Kiefer Artists Rooms Installation

Skyground: Installation in Tullie House garden

Interpretation panel

This week another of the big projects I've been working on has reached completion. I wrote a little bit about the project a while back and thought now would be a good time to share the completed work. The project was run by Prism Arts and commissioned by Tullie House as part of their Anselm Kiefer Artists Rooms exhibition. Myself and sound and digital artist Mark Newport worked with students from James Rennie School and Beaumont College in Carlisle to create an audio visual installation in the grounds of Tullie House inspired by Kiefer's work. The work consist of three fabric banners, two of which contain LEDs and one which when triggered creates a soundscape.

Tea bag tie dye

Tea bag tie dye

Tea bag tie dye

Having started out with paper collage, frottage and pattern making on paper we moved onto working with fabrics. Just as we had prepared our papers before collaging them we also prepared our fabrics, this meant having a go at tie dye using tea bags! I'd never done this before but as one of the activities the students had really engaged with had been using tea bags to prepare paper I thought it would be an interesting experiment. One of the themes we'd been looking at was landscape and environment so it was important to use natural materials like cotton and silk.

Tea bag tie dye

I prepared the fabrics by mordanting them with salt and vinegar to help the colours from the tea bags 'stick' to the fibres. I did this at home as there was a lot of fabric to prepare and it's quite a boring process, I wanted the students to get stuck into the interesting bits. To make the tie dye patterns we tied different types of tea bags (fruit and 'normal' tea) into the fabric. We then put them in buckets of hot water and allowed them to soak for most of the day. This meant that I went home with lots of tea sodden fabric but it did smell delicious!

Tea bag tie dye

Tea bag tie dye

Tea bag tie dye

This process worked really well, although the students all thought I was a bit crazy. The tie dye created beautiful, subtle patterns and it was really interesting seeing how the two different fibres (cotton and silk) reacted differently to the dye.

Printing with our string print blocks

Printing with our string print blocks

Printing with our string print blocks

To embellish the fabrics we'd prepared we used the string print blocks we'd made, leaves and stitch to make patterns based on the work we'd done on paper. The patterns we made were inspired by the different wave shapes different sounds make, as demonstrated by Mark, and by patterns on Roman coins and artefacts which again tied the piece back to the landscape and the site of the installation.

Leaf print

Printing with white

Leaf prints

As well as the fabric pieces we also worked on circles of embossing foil to create the sensors to trigger the sounds and create the soundscape in the finished piece. We used knitting needles to transfer the designs we'd developed on paper onto the foil. Some of the circles the students created are beautiful objects in their own right.

Embossed foil sensor

Embossed foil sensor: Detail

Once the students had made their sensors and prints and embellished them with stitch we had a collection of small pieces ready to be made into complete hangings. Similarly, Mark had a collection of sounds made by the students ready to be collated into a soundscape.

Embellishing with stitch

Embellishing with stitch

Embellishing with stitch

Because no one has really done a project like this before we encountered quite a lot of technical issues along the way, not least because the work has to hang outside so needs to be Cumbrian weather proof. It took Mark and I a lot of time to put the work together and get everything working, problem solving as we went along. We have used a lot of insulating tape!

We housed the electric in Tupperware!

Connecting everything up

LEDs sewn in

The installation consists of three fabric banners, composed of the prints and fabrics the students made and the embossed foil sensors. There are two smaller banners which hang in front of the larger banner. The sensors in the smaller banners activate a series of LED lights when triggered and the sensors in the big piece activate different sounds, creating a soundscape. Sometimes the sensors are triggered by the wind or the fabric folding in on itself which adds another element to the work. The sensors are connected to the electronics using conductive thread, I really enjoyed working with this as it is a lovely material to work with and I like the challenge of making sure the circuits work but also look good and fit with the aesthetics of the piece. I used the drawings of the students to create the patterns for the circuits.

Installation view

Small banner

Small banner: Detail

Despite our best efforts we were delayed installing the piece because of the weather. We had hoped that at the end of May,beginning of June the worst we'd have to deal with was a bit of drizzle but instead we got torrential downpours and strong, gusty winds. Luckily, on the day of the launch, despite it being very cold, the rain did hold off until after the event. We're hoping to have the work up until September but given what the weather has thrown at us so far that may not happen!

Small banner: Detail

Large banner: Detail

Triggering the soundscape

The launch was a really good event, the students came down from James Rennie and there were people from Tullie House, Prism Arts and The Heathlands Project there, probably about 40 people all together. The response to the work was very positive and even better was the response of the students who had been involved, they were really proud of their work and wanted to shoe it off and tell people about it.

Small banner LEDs: Detail

Small banner: Detail

This was a really interesting project to work on and demonstrated the importance of having time to develop relationships with the people you're working with. The first few weeks were quite difficult, we were dealing with a difficult subject matter (Kiefer's work is not the most easily accessible) and the students struggled to engage with some of the concepts. After about three weeks (so three sessions) the students really started to open up, they were much more responsive to what we were doing and more willing to contribute their thoughts and opinions.

Sensor: Detail

Sensor: Detail

I believe this was partly because they'd had time to get used to the subject and partly because they'd had time to get used to and trust Mark and I. I also think that the practical work we did with them from the start really helped because whenever we were doing something the students seemed to find it easier to communicate their thoughts and ideas. I'm a big believer in thinking through making and I think our experiences with this group support this idea.

I've learnt a lot from this project and am looking forward to doing more work combining fabric and sound, I think the two work together well and can be used to create meaningful and personal site specific installations.