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| Picture by Charles Shearer |
Showing posts with label Creekery #2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Creekery #2. Show all posts
Friday, August 19, 2011
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Clare Twomey
"Consciousness/Conscience is a ceramic installation that is destroyed; it is made from one of the most precious and revered materials, Bone China. 7000 hollow cast bone china tiles is a lot of making for an individual crafts person. To maintain a constant form without deviation would be taxing for the individual maker. None of the above is impossible, just not logical for this project."
"The breaking of China is usually a moment for regret, and in the case of a much-used and well-loved domestic item one of great sadness. Twomey though, is excited by the ephemeral nature of her material and takes pleasure in its fragility, giving the breaking of it the same exhilarating possibilities encountered on walking over virgin snow." (Mark Currah)
But it's the footprint element of the work I'm interested in, and I go back to Creekery to look at the footprints we made that were such a problem at the time since they disrupted the smooth green carpet that made such a great canvas for the plates. APT sculptor Victoria Rance had said when I was worrying about it, "I quite like the footprints and the patterns they make..."
I bleached out some photos of the installation process to find the footprints. But these are just reminiscent of the photos I took at Christmas in my mother's garden, where foxes, magpies, blackbirds and robins made their patterns...
Anyway, Clare Twomey is awesome. Here's a pic from Trophy, a 2006 installation at the V&A.
More on Clare Twomey here.
Creekery at RSVPLondon
I hung two photos by Charles Shearer of last year's Creekery at Deptford X 2010 and a spanking new print of Creekery #2, also taken by Charles. I also showed my little movie looped on my laptop. I was very proud to share a space with Boro, who up-cycle furniture and fashion items (gorgeous chairs here), and the rather famous Charming Baker, aka Alan, a painter and illustrator who has achieved dizzying heights of success over the past year. Other exhibitors included Hive, Union Cycle Works, JAILmake and Based Upon.
The exhibition continued on Saturday. Meanwhile, there was lots going on in Faircharm that weekend – Core Gallery, open studios at Creekside Artists and Cor Blimey Arts, and the Faircharm Fair. Also in Creekside, Cockpit Arts were open, plus ArtHub open studios and Creekside Open Part Two at APT.
At the Faircharm Fair, artists from Creekside Artists were showing among the craft artists, and I liked Paul Coombs' work in particular. It reminded me of Yee Sookyung's broken pots stuck back together again, only these little pieces refer to the human form, being broken statuettes or nick nacks.
Emathion Paul Coombs, 2010 Broken ceramic
Devastation
Creekside Open finished on 29th May. I was allowed to keep the plates in so that I could finish my documentation. However it rained solidly for several days afterwards. On 7th June it stopped and I went to view the damage. A number of dishes that had been in the water had been swept away down the Creek as far as the Ha'Penny Hatch, whilst the plates in the mud bank had fallen over. Some of the waterbound plates had become detached from the bricks that had been weighting them down, so had to be repaired.
For the medium format film photography and the time lapse movie I had planned, the whole lot had to be washed and re-installed. The whole thing was also to be removed by Saturday 11th before the private view of the second exhibition in Creekside Open. So I had three days to conquer the technicalities of time lapse photography and get Charles Shearer down with his film camera.
It turned out that the advice I had been given by Mo Hague was completely wrong for my project and the equipment I had available to me. I now had lots of batteries for my Panasonic and an intervalometer, a remote control device to set the camera to take shots at specific intervals, that fitted my FZ30.
On Thursday and Friday I finally succeeded in getting some footage, even though the weather was completely unreliable. It was so bad that I was unable to leave the camera to do its thing and had to stand in the wind and rain making sure the umbrella I'd attached to a pole next to the tripod to keep rain off the camera didn't fly off. I also managed to drop my pocket Lumix into the water and had to rescue it before the tide took it away (miraculously it dried out in front of the Rhino heater in the studio over the next five days and came back to life).
On Saturday 11th June Emma came to help clear the plates out. We also filmed that. See next post for the Creekery movie which I put together in iMovie the following week in order to show at the RSVP exhibition on 17th June.
Elevation
Mali Morris has a studio on the top floor at APT. Her view of Creekery was even more elevated than the one from the wharf wall. She kindly furnished me with a CD of photographs she'd taken from her french windows.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Creekery #2 on The Culture Show tonight
Mild excitement since I've been informed that the filming done by BBC2's Culture Show team last Friday is going to include a few seconds of Creekery #2 and it's being screened tonight.
(See it on BBC iPlayer here, and fast forward 20 minutes...)
The weather was truly awful last Wednesday and Thursday (though very good news for farmers and gardeners). It pretty much wrecked the installation, quickly covering it in mud, knocking a few plates over and carrying one or two downstream. Friday was more clement so I got down into the creek and washed them all again. It was beginning to feel like a performance piece with the old woman doing the washing up in the river...
Just as I'd finished practically totally reinstalling the piece and was coming up the ladder at around 5pm, the BBC film crew emerged outside from the gallery. Fortunately they didn't want to speak to me. They also filmed Charlotte Warne Thomas's gold leaf portaloo which was situated outside, and filmed in the gallery so they'll be featuring a couple more works housed indoors. There will probably be interviews and more action coming from Bear Space, The Old Police Station and The Agency, where they filmed later on.
Meanwhile, my buyer pulled out, but may still be interested in a photograph. Getting a large format photograph is now posing a challenge because the lowtides are at awkward times of the day this week and next.
I've also been getting helpful advice from time lapse photographer Mo Hague who is a friend of my potential buyer. The work continues...
Fortunately, I am being allowed to keep the piece in the Creek a bit longer so that we can do this documentation, even though the show finished last Sunday.
(See it on BBC iPlayer here, and fast forward 20 minutes...)
The weather was truly awful last Wednesday and Thursday (though very good news for farmers and gardeners). It pretty much wrecked the installation, quickly covering it in mud, knocking a few plates over and carrying one or two downstream. Friday was more clement so I got down into the creek and washed them all again. It was beginning to feel like a performance piece with the old woman doing the washing up in the river...
Just as I'd finished practically totally reinstalling the piece and was coming up the ladder at around 5pm, the BBC film crew emerged outside from the gallery. Fortunately they didn't want to speak to me. They also filmed Charlotte Warne Thomas's gold leaf portaloo which was situated outside, and filmed in the gallery so they'll be featuring a couple more works housed indoors. There will probably be interviews and more action coming from Bear Space, The Old Police Station and The Agency, where they filmed later on.
Meanwhile, my buyer pulled out, but may still be interested in a photograph. Getting a large format photograph is now posing a challenge because the lowtides are at awkward times of the day this week and next.
I've also been getting helpful advice from time lapse photographer Mo Hague who is a friend of my potential buyer. The work continues...
Fortunately, I am being allowed to keep the piece in the Creek a bit longer so that we can do this documentation, even though the show finished last Sunday.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Creekery #2 at Creekside Open: Day 18
Creekery #2 has now been in the Creek for eighteen days and has been open to public viewing for 8 of those. There are another 4 days to go before Creekside Open closes (May 29th).
A young collector has expressed an interest in buying the installation, but it has been very hard to arrive at a realistic price. I have taken advice from gallerist Bea de Souza (The Agency) who has made some helpful suggestions on how to present the work for the buyer that is of museum standards. A fantastic photograph of the piece is an important part of this.
Charles Shearer took some photos in the first week, and is coming again today. But here are four from his first proofings...
I have also spent some considerable time trying to make a time lapse movie of the tide going out to reveal the plates, so far without success...
The installation has been cleaned by hand three or four times since going in – after three or four days silt builds up on the plates and begins to obscure the pattern, damping down the contrast of the blue with the green. It is very tempting to leave them to become covered in mud. If I had not cleaned them, they would be white/off-grey by now with no pattern visible at all.
The problem with going in to wipe the plates clean is that muddy black footprints are left behind. After one tide, the deep footprints fill with water and soften so that after the next tide, they show up as dimples in the green carpet. Creekside Open's co-ordinator was keen to have a less dimpled mudbank and sparkling plates for when The Culture Show visit on Friday for SLAM (South London Art Map Last Fridays). On the off chance Creekery #2 might be filmed, yesterday I purchased a 30 metre garden hose and attempted to hose the plates down without leaving any footprints, but the jet wasn't strong enough to disperse the ingrained silt.
Perhaps that is Creekery #3 – the plates and Creek left to their own devices, as was inferred in my original text...
A young collector has expressed an interest in buying the installation, but it has been very hard to arrive at a realistic price. I have taken advice from gallerist Bea de Souza (The Agency) who has made some helpful suggestions on how to present the work for the buyer that is of museum standards. A fantastic photograph of the piece is an important part of this.
Charles Shearer took some photos in the first week, and is coming again today. But here are four from his first proofings...
I have also spent some considerable time trying to make a time lapse movie of the tide going out to reveal the plates, so far without success...
The installation has been cleaned by hand three or four times since going in – after three or four days silt builds up on the plates and begins to obscure the pattern, damping down the contrast of the blue with the green. It is very tempting to leave them to become covered in mud. If I had not cleaned them, they would be white/off-grey by now with no pattern visible at all.
The problem with going in to wipe the plates clean is that muddy black footprints are left behind. After one tide, the deep footprints fill with water and soften so that after the next tide, they show up as dimples in the green carpet. Creekside Open's co-ordinator was keen to have a less dimpled mudbank and sparkling plates for when The Culture Show visit on Friday for SLAM (South London Art Map Last Fridays). On the off chance Creekery #2 might be filmed, yesterday I purchased a 30 metre garden hose and attempted to hose the plates down without leaving any footprints, but the jet wasn't strong enough to disperse the ingrained silt.
Perhaps that is Creekery #3 – the plates and Creek left to their own devices, as was inferred in my original text...
Friday, May 13, 2011
Creekery #2 Installation: Day 4 : Wednesday 11 May
Charles comes to take photographs, but the weather's a bit iffy. Emma has come to help clean the plates. They have become fairly dirty over three days. However if we go down and clean them Charles will have our footprints in his pictures, so he goes down and takes some pix before we begin cleaning...
On Monday I had hung a large print in the hut. It's a blow-up of Charles's photograph of the autumn 2010 Ha'Penny Hatch installation. The Creekside co-ordinator Liz May had asked me for a print of the photo submitted and chosen by Dexter Dalwood. I got two pics blown up, not sure which was best. Liz's idea was that people who come to the show when the tide is fully in can see what it might look like when the tide is out. The new installation looks quite different from the photo, not just because it's a different location but because the mud is much, much greener at this time of year.
I'm not sure what to do about the objects already in the hut – for instance, a large plaster head of Marilyn Munroe...
When Charles has left, Emma and I take a walk up the Creek. Coming back I get another perspective...
Emma and I were just in time to grab a panini from Creekside Cafe before it closed at 4pm, and we ended the day in my studio exploring the possibilities of making a time lapse film of the tide coming in and going out...Webcam? SLR with Timer Remote Control? i-Sight on a laptop with Gawker? We were quite tickled by Pet Cam...
I'm not sure what to do about the objects already in the hut – for instance, a large plaster head of Marilyn Munroe...
A koot takes a walk through the plate garden...
...and sunny side up...
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Creekery #2 installation
Day One - Saturday 7th May
Rain was forecast, with low-tide at 10.45am, so we used this day to transport the crocks over to the APT yard and store them and equipment (waders, sticks, basket, rope) in the little hut situated on the riverwall of the APT yard. Typically, the forecast was misleading, and Saturday turned into a beautiful day.
Ten days ago, I went on a Creekside Walk and put in five plates as a test. Over this period, which had been very dry and often sunny, silt had built up on the plates and almost totally obscured the blue pattern. The mud had dried almost white like china clay.
Day Two - Sunday 8th May
Emma was a theatre carpenter in a previous life with lots of experience backstage up in the flys, and fully used to heights and steep Jacob ladders. She's first down into the Creek, ready to receive the materials...
Day Three - Monday 9th May
Low-tide is 11.45. Lisa is helping today. She says low-tide is 12.45. An experienced Thames mudlarker (and an archaeologist in a previous life) she reads the tides at London Bridge, not Woolwich as I have been taught. I have a few more pieces to add to the installation which must be fetched over from my studio. At 12.45, Lisa's on rope duty...
Today, APT is hanging the show in the gallery with the selector Dexter Dalwood. Meanwhile, down the road, Creekside Centre is holding a launch to announce its sponsorship from Thames Water and its new name, Creekside Discovery Centre. There's lots going on, including a school's walk in the Creek. At 1.15pm, we are invaded by around 30 kids and three or four teachers, led by Nick Bertrand.
Nick refers to Lisa and myself as the River People and asks me to tell the kids what I'm doing. I fail to keep their attention as I struggle to describe the project. I try to tell them how dinner plates are just mud that's been heated in a hot fire (not totally accurate!), how the project started when I found all the bits of pottery in the water, how the plate design is 220 years old and people used to throw their rubbish in the river then....I even lose the teacher's interest, but that is probably because they are more concerned with policing the children who are extremely over excited. I think I might have just shown the kids that the picture on the plate shows a Creek and a bridge and birds and trees and leave it at that.
I am watching the shadow being created by the DLR flyover. Charles Shearer is going to come down and take some photographs later in the week and I'm keen to know at what time this shadow moves.
Back up on the wharf, I survey what more needs to be done...
Around 2.30pm Lisa leaves, and I go back down to tweak a little more before the tide comes in. I'm accompanied by a pair of ducks...I find out later from Nick that these are Egyptian Geese – and although they have been seen in other parts of London, this is the FIRST EVER sighting of these geese in the Creek.
At 2.45, back on dry land, the tide is coming in fast, and the shadow has cleared the plates...
Rain was forecast, with low-tide at 10.45am, so we used this day to transport the crocks over to the APT yard and store them and equipment (waders, sticks, basket, rope) in the little hut situated on the riverwall of the APT yard. Typically, the forecast was misleading, and Saturday turned into a beautiful day.
Ten days ago, I went on a Creekside Walk and put in five plates as a test. Over this period, which had been very dry and often sunny, silt had built up on the plates and almost totally obscured the blue pattern. The mud had dried almost white like china clay.
Day Two - Sunday 8th May
Emma was a theatre carpenter in a previous life with lots of experience backstage up in the flys, and fully used to heights and steep Jacob ladders. She's first down into the Creek, ready to receive the materials...
End of Day Two...tide coming in fast at 2.15pm, some tweaking to do tomorrow...
Day Three - Monday 9th May
Low-tide is 11.45. Lisa is helping today. She says low-tide is 12.45. An experienced Thames mudlarker (and an archaeologist in a previous life) she reads the tides at London Bridge, not Woolwich as I have been taught. I have a few more pieces to add to the installation which must be fetched over from my studio. At 12.45, Lisa's on rope duty...
Today, APT is hanging the show in the gallery with the selector Dexter Dalwood. Meanwhile, down the road, Creekside Centre is holding a launch to announce its sponsorship from Thames Water and its new name, Creekside Discovery Centre. There's lots going on, including a school's walk in the Creek. At 1.15pm, we are invaded by around 30 kids and three or four teachers, led by Nick Bertrand.
Nick refers to Lisa and myself as the River People and asks me to tell the kids what I'm doing. I fail to keep their attention as I struggle to describe the project. I try to tell them how dinner plates are just mud that's been heated in a hot fire (not totally accurate!), how the project started when I found all the bits of pottery in the water, how the plate design is 220 years old and people used to throw their rubbish in the river then....I even lose the teacher's interest, but that is probably because they are more concerned with policing the children who are extremely over excited. I think I might have just shown the kids that the picture on the plate shows a Creek and a bridge and birds and trees and leave it at that.
Lisa stands guard at the onslaught of nine year olds...
Back up on the wharf, I survey what more needs to be done...
Around 2.30pm Lisa leaves, and I go back down to tweak a little more before the tide comes in. I'm accompanied by a pair of ducks...I find out later from Nick that these are Egyptian Geese – and although they have been seen in other parts of London, this is the FIRST EVER sighting of these geese in the Creek.
At 2.45, back on dry land, the tide is coming in fast, and the shadow has cleared the plates...
At 3.15pm, the tide has crept up the mudbanks and the shadow has gone...If Charles comes on Wednesday, low-tide will be around 1.45pm. If he comes on Thursday, low-tide will be 3pm, which will also be good for a shot of the entire installation with no shadows...depends on whether it's sunny or not of course.
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