Aug 2021 Summer time release of ideas …….
August brought a slower pace to the collaborative work, with family holidays becoming important and both Gill and Joy having other commitments on their time. The one pressing thing this month was to sort out the submission to the ‘Somerset Reacquainted -’ Community’ Exhibition at the Brewhouse, Taunton in September. This is to be the first time exhibiting the collaborative work as a journey through explorations of ideas and materials, rather than showing what appear to be finished, resolved pieces.
Together Gill and Joy examined all work done, including material experiments, drawings, inspirational photos and joint pieces. This gave a rough timeline. The space to exhibit, being part of a larger exhibition of SAW members, was going to be limited and measurements were laid out on a table with tape. It was obvious that tight editing was needed; cutting out meanderings down side issues, and creating a strong focus of development for the viewer to follow.
Two things stood out that would help to bring unity and create a flow of movement along the timeline. One is to go with a main colour scheme that was relevant to the natural colouring of found clay and foraged/repurposed textile materials: terracotta, light brown, ochre type colouring with some additions of muted green. The second is to create labels from the inspirational word list that is being used for ongoing starting points. These labels are to help viewers engage with ideas examined through the experimental work.
First steps at laying out work with tape, and configuring labels.
The available space is not going to allow for inspirational photographs or larger drawings to be shown alongside the 3D work. This has set up thoughts about different ways of evidencing the collaborative practice, some of which will be suitable for making the sense of explorative play more accessible. Working in a range of media and formats will help to deepen ideas, extend relationships to a variety of creative work, and also mean that wider opportunities for exhibiting the Mud and Thread work will be possible in the future. This led into the ‘Engagement’ task for August and September ( together as holiday months), which calls for an intuitive outpouring of ideas in a compact 2D format
Engagement 7: Create a small sketchbook about your developing ideas using a concertina format - both artists are working in a Seawhite,’ pocket size concertina sketchbook’ size 17.5x9cms. The advantage of this size is that it can be more easily displayed than larger A3 sheets and books. The concertina format allows for working on both sides which can then be opened out and stood up for viewing. Gill and Joy felt this to be an enjoyable holiday task and that releasing a flow of ideas across the pages, through drawing/collage/print etc, would be valuable research at this stage.
Joy:
Laying out the results of our collaborative journey, preparing for the exhibition made me realise how far we have come and how we have inspired and influenced each others’ working practice. The words we have used to elicit response have been a valuable tool. Our materials have led each of us to interpret texture, movement and form in new ways. We both have a distinct style of work and to witness the symbiotic relationship and happenstance coming into play has been exciting to see.
There have been ideas and gestures that have been put to one side and others that excite us both so that we are keen to continue to develop. There have been diversions and explorations of combinations to add value to each expression. The interaction between materials isn’t always successful and there can be no forcing of outcome - we can see instinctively when there is a meaningful dialogue between composite parts and also when there isn’t.
The question of a true collaboration continues to be asked and at this point it is a continuing dialogue between us and our practices, discussing and communicating shared goals, being inspired by and responding to agreed images, words and thoughts. Exhibiting our progress gives the opportunity to reflect, assess where we have got to so far and invite feedback.
This leads onto the August sketchbook which has been an opportunity to consolidate and visualise my thought processes and jot down ideas. I haven’t used a concertina sketchbook before and as always with a new pristine book, the first mark making is the most difficult. So, not starting at the beginning, I plunged in halfway though with a black and gold pen, revisiting my first inspirational shape of leaves and doodling a pattern. The rest quickly followed as I collaged, painted and drew seed pods, fungus, mycelium, cut up photocopies and attached samples of stitch.
As I journeyed through and started the reverse side, I became aware of the elements being represented as well as the chosen words. Water, air, fire and earth felt relevant as both our materials are grounded in them. So I tried to include them by using loose colour washes over the pages, to anchor my images.
This feels like a marker point in our collaboration; we are remaining true to our own personal identity but absorbing and responding to each other's materials and influences. As work emerges from the process I feel we are nearing the point of growth in ambition, scale and truly collaborative work.
Gill: There is something both exciting and intimidating about a new sketchbook. To me, the concertina format relates to work I have done in animation – thinking about movement, how ideas flow from one into another, a line of changing thought process. So I made a start by brushing a watercolour wash across the pages; letting the brown/terracotta/ochre colours flow into each other and forming a connecting link through the work. An initial quick burst of activity led into more careful thought about what I actually wanted to get out of this change in media – from 2D to 3D, from clay to paper, from modelling to drawing?
Two things seemed to be important: I wanted to use the time to really observe some of the natural and found objects I was using to impress and decorate the clay. Really understanding what I was working with would help me to create rhythms and patterns, contrasts and relationships in future work. I also wanted to use this opportunity to develop design ideas for the composite structures we have recently been making. We came to these structures (such as ‘journey bottles’ and composite pots), through intuitive making with materials. A good follow-on step now was to use drawing/collage etc. as a quick way to work through a range of compositions, to see how things like texture, colour and shape might fit well together.
For the first side of the sketchbook I made rubbings of natural textures ( bark, twigs, leaves, grass) that I have been using to impress the clay, and stuck them in. Over the top I made carefully observed pencil drawings of objects I have collected over the months of the collaboration, such as particular stones, shells, lichen, twigs, different types of fir cones and seed carriers. I moved on to think about the ways we had explored patterns of growth. This work took me a very long time, but I feel it was a useful period of study. Unfortunately, it did mean that I had only completed half of the sketchbook when ‘Mud and Thread’ had an opportunity to show the work in a ‘Somerset Reacquainted’ exhibition called ‘Community’ (The Brewhouse Theatre and Arts Centre, Taunton). The second side of design work, then, is waiting to be done.
