I loaded the table with materials collected from the landscape and they responded in different ways: making sculpture, drawing, taking photographs, involving the scale model figures.
such a lot came through this session: building structures , manipulating scale with the materials & the model figures, exploring narrative, drawing with twigs, exploring textures, manipulating materials, borrowing ideas from each other.
The Young Ambassadors group spent a weekend at the Coldwell Centre, between Widdop and Trawden, working with myself on art, Andrew on writing and Gavin on archaeology.
Cronologically- Gavin did a walk at Ilkley Moor to look at the cup & ring stones, the traces of a settlement and to talk about the people who lived there 4,000 years ago. I led some artmaking at The Bridestones physically engaging with the rocks and making their mark with clay, paper and ink. Andrew led a writing workshop at the centre , thinking about responding imaginatively to place. Then I wrapped up with another workshop in the centre, bringing ideas together with materials in an exploratory but more controlled way. These are some images at The Bridestones, separate post for back at the centre
the group out – it was glorious up there: cold but not freezing, extremely windy and bright. I prompted and they responded in whatever way they wanted:
making small scale sculptural interventions,
trying to take rubbings of the surfaces of the rocks- difficult in the wind
and , going with the wind as a “drawing tool”- dropping ink on the largest piece of paper they felt they could handle- and letting the wind blow it out , helped a little by scratching with heather…..
I’m interested in the idea of glaciers sculpting the land, carving their way through valleys, the debris they leave behind them. The limestone at The Hushings was left by a glacier that had slithered, (meandered?) its way down from N. Yorkshire.
Glaciers are so immense, so beautiful and and carry that mix of creative/destructive inherent with all forces of nature and natural processes.
I would like to explore possibilities with ice, and think that as winter sets in , the potential for working with freezing water will become more real. For now though , I am looking at casting sections of the rocks in different materials- ice, jelly perhaps, plaster, resin- glass would be good.
I have pressed small lumps of Baildon Moor clay into the cracks and crevices that have been created between rocks, the splits and fissures that mark all these beautiful rocks, formed by water collecting, freezing, expanding, driving sections of rock apart.Others are bigger in size than this- but just to give an idea:
These lumps are waiting to be fired – I may then create a 3D mould to enable liquid casting – resin or ice? These final casts will be a shrunken versions of their formerselves,as the firing process shrinks the clay, but that may be an interesting development?
This was my second visit to make work- today we focussed on a better understanding of the materials, the weather- it was a kind of intermediary before we go outdoors the next time I see them.
We decided to take all the materials outside onto the grass, where they could even slide down the small hill, on the plastic sheet I put down. I had water in variuos containers to echo streams, waterfalls (!), rain, drizzle, mist…
We listened to a cd of wind to get the focus on the outdoor/weather theme. Then we went out- then it started to rain! It got worse and became very difficult to manage. Julias idea of putting the plastic over our heads creating a shelter was great as we could hear and see the rain above our heads.
This worked and would have been better if we could have held it up , interacted with the students and took photos at the same time! Even with an almost 1:1 ratio , we still could have handled more staff!
We caved in and carried on at the table!
Good work with the paints , splashing the heather with paint on, scratching with the heather, sliding with the moss, holding & wrapping the small rocks with paper, hiding behind the bracken, waving it around, spraying a water mist (fake rain!), rocking a branch across, shaking the grit in plant pots.
We can build on all of this when we go out to the moors.
Plastic sheet will be essential- not only to shelter under and listen to sounds but to create a parade like atmosphere as we walk along with it trailing over our heads. We’ll take long paper as well, to raw on , wheel over, make sound with , wrap rocks in, do rubbings, drop and throw materials and objects onto…..
When the workmen were building Widdop Reservoir, Lower Gorple & Walshaw Dean, wooden housing (also described as a shanty town) was built for the workmen and theirfamilies. It became known as “Navvyopolis”, the site was opened around 1871. Contemporary reports described it as
3 rows of one-storey wooden houses. Each house is occupied by one family, and each may take up to 8 lodgers. Peat is used as fuel. No dogs may be kept. Many houses own chickens and one or more pigs. The Tommy Shop sells food and household goods
Around 1872, a reading room was built. This was later used as a school-room, and Sunday services were held in the room. Later, a day school [for children] and a night school [for the men] was set up.
I think it sounds amazing- Remeniscent of the Western films I grew up with – John Wayne, Bette Davis, homesteads, horses, guns, cruelty, hard work, saloons, dodgy mines, steam trains, hangings, death
A lot of the above has echoes in the social history of this landscape- there are some photos and elevation drawings of the bridge(s) and tracks bilt for the steam railway that brought building materials up to the reservoir sites. IU remember seeing these years ago in The Packhorse pub. I have tried to get more info about Navvyopolis .
I’ll start collecting tumbleweed material.
With no camera- the sketch book had the advantage.
I saw patterns and weathered erosions in the rocks that i hadn’t noticed before. I took some time to study this rock- drawing & making rubbings . The gouged surface (vertical as you look at it) had the appearance of an aerial view of a landscape like The Grand Canyon (or am I just obsessed & deluded!), where there is a system of steep sided interconnected valleys framed by the cliffs with a relatively flat landscape on the top.
ok you do have to use your imagination a bit to see The Grand Canyon- I think you had to have been there! I will go back and make something of this but here is a drawing showing how I’ve attempted to describe the contours, convex & concave, as if this were a minute landscape.
I didn’t try very hard , invention played a consciuos role here- this isn’t science, there were no measurements. Its visual mapping and interpretation- a record of how I saw this object that had suggestions of a hard landscape gouged out of its surface.
How was it formed? I need to get hold of a geologist……
Anyway , I also used drawing in the traditional, objective, realistic fashion , trying to capture something of these beautiful rock giants.
I had no camera
but I had my phone and sketch book and it was really good to slow down & take a bit of time looking at things in more detail through drawing.
I had some mud from Withens Clough and quickly made a camel. This was difficult : without armatures for the legs (a camels’ legs are spindly so you can’t sit the body easily on the top of them- the skeleton is really important when building a camel!). Tired of making it stand I just laid it down on the rock next to the pool- I like this –it looks dead! From exhaustion or poisoned, the suns piercing rays- giving this image a surreal, slightly sci-fi, quality.
Not very clear- the camel looks a bit slug like but there is something to take forwards here.
I had a top tip from the Watershed’s archaeologist , Gavin Edwards, that there was clay to be found on Baildon Moor. I need clay from a genuine Watershed source because clay from elsewhere, “outsider” clay, just feels wrong. Having set the agenda for the use of “locally sourced” material: for discussion on identity, belonging, relationship of object and people to place etc I am overjoyed to discover there is clay to be dug, transferred from one part to another….So armed with a trowel and a map, I set off, feeling self consciously like a geo thief. Though with my letter of permission in my back pocket just in case……
Baildon Moor. Sure enough the ground was heavy with soft , sticky , golden (yellow ochre? ) clay, almost pure in parts. It gave up its position in the earth with a struggle, fighting the trowel (unfortunately a builders trowel not the gardening variety). I came away with what I thought was a small rucksackfull , but later realised much of my haul was peppered with stones and the clay itself was really quite precious.
Well, this clay is destined for the other side of The Watershed area- I ought to roll it all the way back , collecting stones and debris along the way – that would mirror the journey of a glacier more accurately- but I have a car- and anyway , that performance has been done, a few years ago, with someone rolling themselves through the streets of South London (sorry I can’t remember who/why/when- I’ll do some research)!
I’ve been up to The Bridestones a couple of times this week and finally managed to populate the stones….
I am interested in looking at the relationship between us and this vast landscape which can frame our presence , and can also dominate and overpower us. Manipulation of scale is one of the tools I use. By placing these tiny , painted figures I take a step towards seizing back an element of control – again these are just sketches, the sun wasnt as bright as the other day , when i only had my phone, so consequently the shadows are less dramatic, the relationship with The Grand Canyon more tenuous as the rock gets flattened.
The figures look intentionally unreal to add to the surreal at work in this landscape- bringing together elements of the domestic, the absurd, the metaphysical. I see these images as trials- the grouping of the figures can be worked at , there needs to be many more of them with some in the foreground. I also want to bring the weather into the images more- looking forward to some dark , aggressive looking skies as winter sets in, hoping for those harsh yellow & slate grey backdrops that come when the sun and the rain compete for attention.
I have been introduced to The Cactus House at Cliffe Castle Museum and there’s no going back!
Wonderful – seductive space complementing its inhabitants- a collection of huge, ferociuos looking and widly differing cactus specimens! Spikes everywhere, that actually look more like talons- they are spectacular.
Having gone there to look at the possibilty of using the walls to put work up, my attention gravitated to the landscape created by the beds they grow in. Via a discussion with Mel (head of gardens) about the security of the work, what might get stolen or vandalised, I then began to think about installing work on the plants themselves- the branches and lateral trunks. The spaces imbetween the spikes resonate with some of my ideas for the WLP-this natural, hostile environment being taken on as a positive space. the scale of the spines also may work well here, perhaps in conjunction with laminated photographic sections- setting up a theatricality, possibly occupied by the painted, model scale figures? Here are some images of the Cactus House at Cliffe Castle, inside
a beautiful , large prickly pear
detail- this is where Id like to make & install some pieces
looking through the window from the outside- a view I’d like to take as a starting point for some of the work-
They’re not a pretty plants are they? The way Mel was talking about them intrigued me, like they got out of control sometimes: they have to be rigourously cut back or they grow too tall, too fat and break the glass on their way out. He made it sound like they do this overnight, when you turn your back on them they break through the roof glass and wreck the place.
This idea of rampant nature being held in place by a combination of us and the physical structures we place around them, reminds me of a couple of pieces I’ve made recently – one for an exhibition based around architecture and the city at Collyer Bristow Gallery , London. My piece involved constructing a sculpture in perspex & ply around a plant. the sculpture has an architectural influence , the plant is a peace lilly, chosen for its air cleansing “good” properties (the gallery is situated within the offices of a legal practise) – throughout the exhibition the lily grew through the sculpture towards the light source , hindered or facilitated by constructed elements en route.
detail
also a piece made for a sculpture garden at The South Square Gallery, Bradford. I made a scaled model in perspex, of my house in London. We were just about to leave this house to come and live back up North (I grew up about 5 miles away from the gallery). So this piece is , as a lot of my work, heavy with thoughts on belonging, identity in relation to place, control and loss. I planted the sculpture up. It wasnt terribly successful- I hadnt anticipated the length of time it would be outside and the structure fell apart a bit- but otherwise a very successful piece for my “transition”.
detail – the plants did grow up the stairs and out of the velux windows in the roof!
