Scaup, Installation and Future Plans

Woolhampton Gravel Pit today, in the
early spring sunshine.

A drake Scaup was out on the water, among the Tufted Ducks;
normally a maritime duck but inland for the winter.
(click here to see one!)

As a pair of Buzzards soared above the pit, giving their plaintive canyon cry, I was thinking about my work on the Installation Space on Tuesday.

• 42 images on paper; comprising photographs of work, proof prints, by-products, test-strips and relics, (all authored by me) were numbered one to forty-two on the reverse side.
• a random sequence of the integers one to forty-two was generated using random.org
•   the images were nailed to the wall according to that random sequence. Each piece separated from the next by a sheet of A3 cartridge paper.

• Visitors (enticed by free sweets and lollipops) were asked to write on the paper any comments about the relationship between the images on either side of it.

At least thirty-six students and technicians visited the installation. Almost all of them wrote a few comments – some wrote many comments.

Although there was no intentional relationship between the images (except that I had made them all and therefore they probably reflect something of my own sensibility), people began to see connections, seeking patterns and meaning in the random arrangement.  In some cases people saw themes and motifs that I had not been conscious of before. 

I spent several hours on Thursday and Friday typing up all the comments in various fonts to give them a dynamic equivalence to the original handwritten text. There are (naturally) 41 sheets of comments. Here is an example of one of the sheets the exercise produced:

31 ß à 4

H a r e (Hidden)

Sense of

Story/happening                                              

                                                         storm

                                                                      wind

                                                                    sparrows

                                                                  bees

                                                                cows

                                                               weeds

                                                            ants

            horizon

         they seem to be different

frames of the same film

Walk

narrative

         landscape            both from

                                                      photocopies

noise

movement

ecosystem

The next step - and one which will take a lot of time, planning and energy, is to seek 41 fellow art students who will each be asked to make a piece of work in response to a pair of these descriptors. I am excited by the thought of working with people in this way. 

A pair of Skylark were chirruping in a meadow near the gravel pit. The first I've seen this year (my inner-anorak clocked this up as the 80th species of 2013 - I really must get down to the coast for some waders soon!)

The land is completely waterlogged. The path is underwater in places. This is a serious situation for farmers; many have been unable to get onto their land to work it for many weeks. Livestock farmers unable to put their animals out to grass and unable to afford to feed them indoors throughout the winter; many are going bust, giving up, driven to despair. It is a sorry situation.