things lost and found, remembered and reinvented...

Eva Sajovic and myself went to meet Danielle Arnaud to discuss Unearthing, a recent project at Tate Modern and Stave Hill Ecological Park, and the possibility of showing work at her gallery.

As we talked about the potential future exhibition, I displayed the pit fired London clay objects we produced, together with others found on the Thames river bed, into small collections. Hard it was to distinguish one group from the other - their origin, history, use and meaning was being rewritten as we handled these. This seemed a fertile starting point as we planned to show this body of work and others in a new context. More about this in posts to come. Enjoy the images as you make your own mind as to what these objects are, and what inspired them...

making clay slip (Unearthing project instructible)

allow plastic clay to completely dry - see previous post for making it

add water and soda ash and start stirring

sieve through fine mesh, add dispex and stir some more

slip made!

pour slip into casting mould

job done

... and fired - orange is the locally sourced London clay

Spatial Justice (Unearthing project / Tate Exchange)

warming up

displaying unearthed collections

Eva laying out the beach combed bounty

found objects

more found objects and inspiration for tea trollety dancers

modelled dancing score

another modelled dancing score

Tanztheater Adrian Look (TAL) and tea trolley moves

modelling a move - finger dance

modelling another move (TAL)

spatial justice in action - tea trolley dancing

spatial justice in action - Tanztheater Adrian Look

Rebecca and Eva introducing speakers 
Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos and Yoriko Otomo

mud to mud (Unearthing project / Walton-on-the-Naze)

I’ve started collecting London clay for Unearthing, a collaborative project with The People’s Bureau at Tate Modern and Stave Hill Ecological Park – see also previous posts.

A few months back we collected clay from the river bed near London Bridge. On this occaskion I collected some in a purer form on the beach at Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex. The Naze is a gorgeous and very unstable landscape, eroded by tidal waters which expose red crag and London clay, that is then reclaimed by the sea.

While collecting small lumps of clay strewn around the beach we came across bricks, yellow in colour, looking like traditional London brick. We also came across wall made from misshapen bricks, most probably rejects from a local brickery. The bricks were being washed out to sea, a 50+ million year old cycle was being looped - clay, shaped into bricks, fired, then becoming clay again... Ecology in action!

I walked back to the studio to process the clay and felt like a complete vandal when I started grating it in order to dry it. We soaked it, sieved it and dried it again, this time on a plaster bat to make plastic clay. 

Once the clay has been modelled, fired and pieces installed, I’ll simply have to walk back to the beach and throw the work in the water... I'm not one to get in the way of nature doing it's thing!

time to talk (Unearthing Project / Tate Exchange)

Here they are, images of the pilot event of Unearthing at Tate Modern on January 25^th, a collaboration between myself and The People’s Bureau in partnership with Tate Modern and Stave Hill Ecological Park.

Strangers holding hands while plaster, then dental alginate - safer apparently, health and safety gone mad if you ask me! - is poured into them. For the time it took for the plaster/alginate to set, these couples were committed to each other and engaged in conversation, prompted by short text read to them addressing issues around regeneration and foundation of the city. The cast were kept as mementoes of these conversations, together with notes written by the participants in response to the converstaions and activity.

the Matisse model

Seeing the Matisse cut-outs at Tate Modern was such an inspiration! I instantly got over stimulated and could hardly look at the works for wanting to get back to my studio and make my own collages. As a  result I now have a very sketchy memory of the show!

As it happens, I didn't get back to my studio that day to make a start on my own collages, but instead considered using the collage technique as an activity for one of the Meet me at the Albany Tuesday sessions. I knew that my friend, collaborator and colleague at Entelechy Arts, Zoe Gilmour had tried and tested collage with painted paper cut-outs at one of her own workshops, which encouraged me to pursue this for the planned activity.

My plan was to work large scale. With brushes and rollers attached to wooden sticks, participants painted paper on the floor while listening to live music, courtesy of pianist Arthur Lea and double bass player Ben Hazelton (Spitz Jazz Collective).  This worked a treat! Accompanied by the musicians, people danced and sang around the paper as they painted. Others cut the painted paper and, under their direction, I pinned them to a hanging fabric screen creating a large temporary mural.  A photographer from Arts Council England came to record the activity and if I get hold of some of these shots, I'll upload them on post here later. Too busy as usual to take any pictures myself.

What I enjoyed the most (apart from splashing paint around freely, which is always such a joy!) was to see how the act of painting became dance and movement, solo or in some kind of group formation. The idea of choreographing making is something I have been thinking a lot about recently, as I have been involved in choreographing dances for David Littler’s YanTan Tethera project and exhibition. I am now currently developing a fourth and final dance for the show to be performed on September 25^th at Cecil Sharp House. More about this later. Meanwhile, merci Matisse!