now picture this...

Pictured here are a few props and materials used at Entelechy Arts movement workshop in October at Siobhan Davies Dance Studios. The event was part of Human-Nature, a program of exhibitions and events exploring the interdependent relationship between people and plants.

The score for the workshop was inspired Christian Kerrigan’s exhibition at the studios which considered how a work might reflect, develop and respond to the passing of time and the seasons.  You’ll notice there are a few usual suspect as far as materials and instruments go from previous posts on this blog, but the leaves on this occasion were very much  to do with Christian’s installation throughout the building.

I’ve included 'before' and 'after' shots, resisting to use Ros Chesher’s photos taken during the workshop itself. You’ll just have to picture this dance studio with some 50 participants in it, all interacting with these props as sounds and music are being played. It's up to you to imagine how that bundle of ripped paper came to be...

As it happens, another one of these movement workshops is planned for the Museum of Garden History next Monday.  Read up here on a previous Entelechy Arts event at the museum for more info.

nothing can ever be the same again...

repetition is transformative

More thoughts on Sharing Making Moving, Independent Dance’s summer intensive at Siobhan Davies Studios – see also previous post.

actions can remain the same
but intention changes everything

undoing is one way of making

making is moving

movement is change

all making is improvised

through movement we are in touch with the absolute
- Colin McLean (on Buddhist prayer wheels)

confessions of a hoarder

As I am unpacking materials and objects used during Independent Dance’s intensive workshops Sharing Making Moving at Siobhan Davies Studios last well, I have also started unpacking some of the ideas and questions prompted by the these.

One is the question of how sustainable can my practice be given I have a studio full to the brim with stuff and yet I keep producing more things (see website and dailymades) while also bringing in fresh supplies of materials to work with from regular foraging excursions?  I own up to it, I have a big problem on my hands: I accumulate stuff at an alarming rate without being able to throw anything away.

Working with Dancers last week, I’ve realised one thing I love about dance is its economy; the body is the material and steps, routine, choreographic sequences need only be stored in one’s head.  In this lies the answer to my problem I reckon.

One of the participants made a record of what she had made by dancing her object as means of sketching it.  How could these movements describe accurately anything about the making of her object I thought, the physicality of its materials, its outer appearance?  How could the same thing be made again from a simple set of movements?

Myriam said her movements were instructions on how to work with the materials.  Her interest when making was to have the materials balance and the shape of the final outcome was of secondary importance to her.  The way she moved described this task.  As for the exact object being made again from her ‘danced’ instructions, she was not worried about that.  Why do anything twice anyway, what would be the point of this she told me.

So here is the answer to my problem: rather than keep all that I make, I should record what I produce as a set of instructions.  These could be rehearsed and memorised, or written down as task cards, or both.  Each time an object is made, it will be like making it for the first time.  It’ll be an exercise in improvisation rather than repetition. Performing the instructions might be a good substitute for the object of course, but that is a whole other question…

Object probably don’t matter in the end, ideas do, and ideas are meaningless without actions.  Content and meaning for me reveals itself through process, and this means moving as well as making. All going well, my next blog (written from a newly spacious studio, of course) will be titled ‘confessions of a dancer’.

spinning up and down
ending with a leap

walking piece

I’ve worked myself up into a state of excited anticipation sending out a group email recently with details of Matthias Sperling’s Walking Piece, which I’m performing at Siobhan Davies Studios as part of the Footfall event tomorrow.  Walking Piece is an installation performance where a diverse group of performers come together to create a single-file loop that continuously circumnavigates the building, passing through a score of playful performative tasks along the way.

I got involved in the project for various reasons.  I was intrigued by its title. Walking is such an ordinary thing, most of us do it, usually without thinking about it. But when you do start thinking about it, it does become rather extraordinary. Walking is not just about moving, it is also about thinking, making a connection with place and site, and also communicating in a social context.

The other reason for getting involved is I recently created a site specific installation at the studios.  A group of three dancers walked up and down the staircase using the metal framework as a device to weave on (click here of details and see previous posts on this blog). I also used the outdoor staircase during the project, so the parallels with Matthias’ piece intrigued me. I am interested in the performance of craft, site responsive approaches to making and developing work and participation, so was curious to get an insight into his way of working. 

Ready Steady Stitch (bobbin lace) #3
Siobhan Davies Studios architectural plan for
staircase, thread & pins on foam

It’s my first time doing anything of this kind.  I did take off all my clothes for one of Spencer Tunick’s human installation a few years back, accompanied by 1000 other people, but it hardly compares.  It’s also been a while since I’ve taken a dance class. After 10+ rehearsals, Walking Piece does feel very familiar.  However, each time we’ve run through it at rehearsal, it feels like it is being reinvented.  This comes from having to perform tasks rather than remember sequences of actions and movements as we walk through the building. The meaning is in the moment, acting in the present rather than re enacting the past. It is a live exchange between the building, the performers and the audience, and I very much look forward to the ‘reinvention’ of the work happening tomorrow.  Performing Walking Piece throughout the day will be like performing it for the first time again, and again, and again…

This is a radical approach for a maker, and I love it!  It resonates with my own practice where I consider the process as much as product, and prompt social interaction through making rather than simply looking at art.  In Walking Piece, the social dimension of the work is essential.  The tasks become meaningless without interaction from others and become almost impossible to perform.

It’s been fascinating to see Matthias at work, and see how he has shaped the piece over the few weeks of rehearsals, responding to how we performed the tasks and then tweaking his instructions to us on what our intentions might be when performing these.  Much food for thought…  I’ve truly taken my head as well as my feet for a walk, and gained trim legs in the process!

Desire Line #3, 2011
jute twine
site specific installation piece in Fermynwoods, 2011

launch at last

I can hardly believe it’s over a month already since the launch of Practical Basketry Techniques. I meant to post images here right after the event; blogger’s block or being really busy, I can’t really say why I’m so late doing this, but here they are at last.

The installation at the launch included outcomes of projects in the book displayed amongst a number of other ready made and customised baskets, some of them previously installed at the Hybrid Basketry project at Origin. The display aimed to illustrate the wide range of materials and techniques introduced in the book, as well as its re-use and recycling ethos. One of the aims with the publication was to take basketry ‘out of the countryside’ and make it relevant to an urban context, while also appealing to a broad readership of artists, designers, makers and non makers. You might not have a garden or be able to source willow locally, but inspired by projects in the book, you’ll seize the opportunity to use green waste collected by a neighbour, or hack into discarded objects for materials to weave with.

Twined and coiled hedgerow baskets using bindweed, buddleya, dogwood and grasses.

On the night of the launch, I was thrilled to see people come early (even if it was just to get their free copy of the book!), and from then on we had a table full of people making in the meeting room at Siobhan Davies Studios. Sadly we got no pictures of this, everyone being too busy plaiting at the time.

Thanks to Davida Saunders from A&C Black and Katy Bevan from the Crafts Council for introducing the book, Ranbing Gong for leading the plaiting workshop, Siobhan Davies Studios for hosting the event, as well as all of you who made it to the launch, it was a wonderful evening.

Plaited constructions using banana fibre, newspaper and edition of Crafts Magazine (top), 'Broken China' basket included in plaiting chapter of Practical Basketry Techniques (bottom).

Hacked IKEA lampshades using grasses, yarn and coffee stirrers (top), Penny Pot included in twining chapter of Practical Basketry Techniques (middle), lampshade using wire and crystals included in interlacing chapter of Practical Basketry Techniques (bottom).

Gathering baskets included in stake and strand chapter of Practical Basketry Techniques with paper strip interlaced construction and balloon (top image).

lost in translation

What a difference a couple of days make. Co-facilitating a workshop with Entelechy Arts over the weekend completely shed new light on my scheduled discussion with Dr Trish Lyons and dance artist Laura Glaser at Siobhan Davies Studios the previous Friday. Then we had talked about issues relating to language, interpretation and translation when developing Stairwell Suite, the main exhibit in my current show at the studios.

In order to weave the stairwell and perform Stairwell Suite, the

information and instructions on lacemaking and needlecraft imparted to the dancers needed translating, and a new terminology developed. The crossing of two lines for example would not adequately be described as a turn or a cross, as with bobbin lace, but as a handshake between two dancers, with either the back of the hand or palm facing each other.

Stairwell Suite was the result of a negotiation between space, material and the dancers, but in hindsight, the development of the work was made harder by focusing too much on making and materials, and not enough on the social context of the piece and interaction between the dancers. While my own understanding and memory of the piece is closely connected to the making, theirs relates to the embodiment of choreographed sequences in space and time. It was always my intention to use the collaboration to allow the choreography room for deconstruction and reinvention of some basic elements of stitching and weaving, but technique at times did get in the way. Memo to myself, I should practice more what I preach!

This was highlighted during the Entelechy workshop at the weekend. Working with balls of yarn and a large tangle of threads, the workshop allowed participants to engage in an unprecious and spontaneous way. Rebecca Swift, Entelechy Arts’s creative producer summed it up well: “the materials created a theatrical space for our imagination, feelings and projections. Somewhere everyone recognised the pile of tangled of string, and immediately knew what to do with it.”

I’ll let the images below speak for themselves. Click here for film and comments by David Slater at Entelechy Arts. Meanwhile, I’m off to sign up for a much needed movement improvisation class.

brico-basket

Back from the lowlands where I was installing work for the MK Award held at Re:Rotterdam and I’m juggling various things: the performance and talk at the Siobhan Davies Dance Studios this coming Friday, a talk and installation at the Cuming Museum for Eva Sajovic’s and Sarah Butler’s event for the conclusion of their Home from Home project on Thursday, a workshop with Entelechy Arts, and the launch of my book Practical Basketry Techniques also at the Siobhan Davies Dance Studios on Friday February 24th.

I still have a good number of baskets to weave before the launch event (yikes!), but I know where I’m heading with this. I’m working on a design of a basket that combines all of the 6 weaving techniques introduced in the book. Without giving too much away, here’s a sneak preview of what these baskets might look like.

There won’t be a exact plan for the design before I start making these. Most of the design will happen in the weaving, and that's the beauty of basketry. I’ll be taking baskets apart to add to them, combining handmade with ready made elements, improvising all along as a bricoleur-weaver. Can’t wait to make and see them displayed at the launch.

Come and see them for yourselves, and remember, the first 5 people to arrive will get a free copy of the book, so come early!