During gilding, with Eskdale Restoration at The Old Vic, I declared it ‘an evil mistress’. Each part of the process is delicate, fine, work that requires skill, a steady hand and nerve. The priming, sizing are tempramental yet addictive – all done to bask in golden awe. Working on carved letters up a scaffold, on a noisy London Covid struck corner, with wind and sun made the job even more difficult. Evaporation, drying times, distruptions and wobble keep you super alert and physicaly fraught. The silent closeness to another person, where their breathing marks the gap between brushstrokes and their movements guiding your own, is good and revealing.
Our efforts were made more potent by the fantastic carving – the shape and skill of each letter, the words themselves – a beautfiul text and the woman they celebrated: Emma Cons. The pride and priveledge felt by being up close and personal with this made the fact we couldnt finish due to external forces even more difficult. So we’ve had to leave and the elusive awe is still unwon. In compensation Sue and I decided to add a Mahl stick and phrase from the Emma Cons plaque on nearby Leake St tunnels. How great to prime, size and gild this tool onto a wall that permits and celebrates skill, creativity and signwiriting ways. Like us, the Graf guys are drawn to words, shaped letters and gorgeous colours. So it seemed right to bring Emma and oursleves into this broad gang: The Lovers of Beauty.
Of her work The Song of Increase. Nisha said: The title for this work has been inspired by Jacqueline Freeman a biodynamic farmer and beekeeper. Jacqueline describes in her book how “The Song of Increase signals the most delightful time in the life of the hive – a times when everything in the hive is blossoming…the bees revel in fulfilling their directive to bear increase into the world.”
Unfortunately, despite the bees evolving on earth for over 12 million years they are now dying at an alarming rate. Bees are recognised as the most important livg beings on the planet, they pollinate more than 90% of our crops, most of what we consume is thanks to the pollinators; from apples, to coffee to almonds. They are vital for a healthy ecosystem and a healthy economy and yet we humans are having a detrimental effect on the survival of the bees and ultimately our own survival. The decline is being caused by the use of pesticides, loss of habitat, effects of climate change, mobile phone masts, pests; the varroa mites etc.
The flag flown alongside this work has been made by Kate Genever and features an image of a Queen Bee.
I’m happy the activity pack developed with help of Liz Dorton, Orts sewing group and Chiltern Primary School is now out with young people across HU3 Hull. A hundred, 96 page, books were gifted in a handmade bag that also contained lots of drawing and making materials. It’s aim is to offer an artful respite for vulnerable residents, during these Covid/ home-schooling times. Taking Pareidolia [eg:seeing shapes in clouds] as its theme, the pack uses very little language or instruction – instead its offers space and freedom for imagining improvising and exploration . Downloadable versions are available on the Chiltern Primary School website.
I received an ACE Covid Support Award based on an application that talked of taking stock and ready-ing myself for what’s next. I have entered into coaching with Bryony Rowntree an artful practioner based in Leeds. Her work has been fascinating and generous. Her visioning and embodied approaches reveal new ways of thinking and working and offer insights into meeting people half way. Our sessions provide a held professional space which, given the heavy emotional work I do with people and groups, now seems essential.
It also draws attention to the often questionable duty of care for freelancers as we work increasingly in the void where services are lacking – mental health to name the obvious one. Perhaps as we move forward into times where ‘health and wellbeing support’ will become even more urgent we should consider and ask how budgets can be arranged to support artist to keep ourselves well too
Consequences on zoom, face to face or as postal worksheets has enabled discussion on topics ranging from the origin of our names, the identification of magnetic north using body hair, isolation, personal trauma, roles of women and of course Covid and BLM protests. Personal, political, universal debates… We have laughed, cried, longed for and sworn. In many ways we have grown in confidence, been vulnerable, made friends, tried new things. Drawing and its outcomes have accompanied us along the way, helping our conversations, often with strangers, flow. That doesn’t mean the drawing is an add on, rather it is a serious action, or line, helping us to walk with the knowledge that we might not know where we are going.
F Matarasso [community artist/writer] would describe his role, when working alongside people, as that of a seasoned Mountain Guide – holding peoples anxieties as they climb new routes. I like this description, it recognises the risk – a mountain is not a predictable place, as well as the experience of knowing what to do with twisted ankles, fog and beautiful views. I often talk about how my work is in the process of making with others, enabling vulnerability and giving people permission. Both our approaches acknowledge and value the ‘emergent space’ and an ability to sit with not knowing.
However and importantly Consequences is as much Sarah and Ruth’s work, often known as the project managers, here they are definitely collaborators. We worked things out together, responding to what comes up and what the women involved need or want. I wonder if our collective creative thinking is also like the act of drawing – a feedback loop of idea forming and response? This approach allows for ownership beyond us 3, enabling anyone involved to see their part in the collective whole.
My practice is concerned with improvisation and care and the work to date has involved these themes at multiple levels. Improvisation can been seen in the approaches outlined above, in the drawings themselves and of course in our response as Covid hit. Care is how we’ve been with each other and with those who have participated. Its implicit in the packs and workshops offered or sent out. It’s there in the Zoom sessions as distanced people support and comfort and encourage and significantly present in the drawn and discussed responses to questions or prompts carefully submitted.
As we move in to the final phase of this project, where we will showcase online, publicly site posters and develop packs to extend the work, my ambition is to celebrate but also recognise there is much work to be done – in connecting, learning and seeing one another more across age, religion, background and culture. Consequences has enabled women in Peterborough and across the country to coalesce in and around distinct spaces, diverse questions and alternative drawing prompts. But I hope in the future its outcomes create further connection, understanding and empathy.
Sorcha Noble. Alice Pool. Charlotte Hayes Title: The Lands of the Free?
The Notice Board shines a light on current work and international artists. It aims to offer you, the audience, a provocation with its ongoing The Lands of the Free? theme. This show does that with three graduating Fine Art students from across the UK. During Covid their colleges have cancelled their final shows. A significant moment for any art student, it’s a culmination of 3+ years effort to unlearn, relearn, refine and ready yourself for the next stage. This exhibition does not pretend to replace this important point of focus, instead it offers an opportunity for these early career artists to look forward during a unique and strange time. In response to the theme they proposed:
Since Covid 19 our normal everyday lives are being put on hold but somethings have become more noticeable. We hear less cars go past our houses, less traffic, shops, and people that made up noise pollution. The birds tweets become louder to us because they are no longer being drowned out, they’re sound has a new presence in the background of our current lockdown lives. Birds, a lot of the time represent or can be a symbol for being ‘free’ or ‘freedom’. But are they really free in the urban life that humans create (pre-lockdown)? Have birds acclimatised, speaking louder because of noise pollution?
This collaborative response of flag, drawings and film asks us to reflect on our actions to deter birds and their response. The Notice Board also suggests Alice, Charlotte and Sorcha want us to consider not just the assumed freedom of wild creatures but ours too. An imagined thing maybe as we respond to current government restrictions which may or may not alter our behaviours well into the future
For Exhibition 10 The Notice Board welcomes Lincolnshire born artist and curator Alice White and Uffington resident Cecily Genever-Jones. Both have responded to a call-out to show during lockdown 1. Their work directly connects with the Notice Board’s aims and theme but also references the pandemic. Cecily imagines a new world or is it an old one currently lost? Alice amplifies languages spoken across the UK pertinent not only to Brexit but also our reliance on culturally diverse residents to keep us both serviced and alive.
Alice says: Do you speak my language? (DYSML?) loudly celebrates the many languages spoken everyday across the UK. It started as a protest against a racist sign titled’ Happy Brexit Day’ that was put up in some communal hallways on 31stJanuary 2020. The inward-looking, disheartening and polarising sign demanded that residents speak the ‘Queen’s English’ or leave. In response I have invited friends and colleagues to translate this phrase into their mother tongue or a language that they speak. I turn these translations into prints, which becomes an artwork incorporating them all. Participants are invited to share the project with a friend who speaks a language different from their own to further amplify our collective voices. So far languages include: Chinese, English, French, Greek, Italian, Polish, Spanish and Welsh. If you would like to participate in the project, please email: alicetfwhite.com
Cecily says: Peak Island is a bit like Uffington, it’s a village. But it’s above the clouds. At the bottom you can see the clouds. In the corner you look through the clouds to see the normal world. In Peak Island you don’t have to social distance, people are meeting up. These are all my friend’s houses. My house is in the middle, there is the farm and sheep and some ducks too. Some houses are true, Henry’s house has a football net. The 2 people in the picture are me and Penelope. We are best friends, we are holding hands and meeting for a chat. In Peak Island during the days we go to each other’s houses, where we run around and have fun. There is no parental guidance and you can wander where you like – that’s why it’s called The Lands of the Free. You get to eat the same food as England, but it’s all sweet. You get a midday nap of 2 hours and the night time is also the day time. The world keeps itself light. Peak Island is important. It’s like a parent in some ways, it gives you a lesson to be kind, and to be a good person. The flag I designed is Peak Islands. It shows that some of us are different but the same too – we all have feelings. The pink part shows the sameness underneath, the rest shows our difference.Cecily is aged 8 and attends Copthill School. She loves animals and her favourite thing to do is play outside with her guinea pigs and be with her friends.
I’ve been pleased to recently hear that the Artist Investigator work of last year has led to some further funding from Hull based Brignall Trust. This enables me alongside art organisation 3 Ways East and a whole host of residents and community based groups to build on our networking, strategic planning and actions. Coming at a strange time the funding however will immediately support needs relating to impacts of Covid and power the elbows of those connecting, keeping and caring for wider HU3 commnities.
Consequences – draw and discuss continues to grow on Zoom and so we’re pleased thats this will soon be added to with analogue paper based deliverable options. Pleased as what’s become apparent now more than ever is the need by participants to have a place to share their feelings, for those to be acknowledged and them to exit our bodies through the act of drawing. Drawing is obviously both an action and the outcome but here, I argue, we see the act taking greater importance than the product. I’m interested in how we communicate distinction when we share this work at some point in the future. It’s the ongoing issue of much socially based practice – where the “work” is in the doing. I continue to grapple with this problem as we look at photos of computer screens of people in rooms rather than photos of people in rooms….
In a recent doodle made while Zooming for the online Consequences chat and draw, revealed both ‘an anxiety of’ and ‘a reason to’. Working remotely has been, as we all know, something to acclimatise to. I miss the bodies, the silent languages, the riffing off each other without a digital lag. But I learn anew, which of course is never a bad thing. It does however bring the group close for laughs and deep talking of beauty spotted, colours worn and far away imagined landscapes. Isolated we maybe, but still our gatherings, like our drawing, brings complex overlapping and shared synchronicities.
