Sound On!
I spent January making this piece, entitled ‘That’s My Bird’, my entry for the Summer Exhibition open call at the Royal Academy. The theme this year is Dialogue and this is a piece about my regular commune with the large pond at the end of my road.
About six months ago I decided to start every other day with a stroll around the pond before getting on with work. I have been thinking about animism and Shintoism and felt a regular connection with nature would deepen my understanding of it. I like nature and I know it’s out there but in the past I have definitely taken it for granted.
Walking briskly, this walk takes about 10/15 minutes, not a very thorough submergence. However, my mother introduced me to the bird spotting app, Merlin. It’s a mixture of Duolingo for birdsong and the old Eye Spy books. It’s changed my life! Now I t takes me a good half an hour to get around the pond. I know where I’m most likely to see a goldcrest or a wren. I know where to wait for a thrush to sing and Merlin told me I’d heard a kingfisher and a dunnock, but I haven’t seen them yet. I do feel a lot more connected to this tiny bit of nature and I listen out for birdsong wherever I go. The app has a way to log the birds you’ve seen/heard and the button to log them is labelled ‘That’s my bird’ so that is the title of this piece.
I enjoy making objects that do something, but with whistles especially, it’s tricky to display them in a gallery setting. Hopefully this box gets over that problem and allows viewers to interact with the piece. It contains elements of my morning walk and was inspired by the Japanese Shinto tomb figures called haniwa and the Fisher Price activity centre, a popular cot accessory in the 1970’s.
Fingers crossed 🤞
As ever, thank you @grahamcarlow for the fabulous film and pictures x
#royalacademy #summerexhibition
Lots of characterful whistles were made @star_communitypotterycic yesterday, and I had the best time, teaching in my neighbourhood pottery! Teaching people from my own community was so good, and I’m always surprised when actual friends turn up. Having local heroes Mo and @ruthgbaker on hand with advice and the best selection of top notch biscuits was a comfort. And we had the added bonus of Dom, a member of @belverband , to demonstrate to full capacity of a simple whistle. Astonishing!
I have recently been introduced to The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain & Ireland, a website that you can search to find Romanesque sculpture near you! I’ve been putting together Google maps of Norman churches in various counties that I’m interested in visiting and, of course in Sussex. I’ve put a link to CRSBI in my Linktree and hopefully, one day I’ll be able to share some maps.
Yesterday @recycling_sarah and I went on a field trip to three churches within a 40 minute radius. I never knew we had such splendid examples of Norman sculpture so close to home! The first two at Old Shoreham (St Nicolas) and Steyning (St Andrew & St Cuthman), were close to the river Adur, which was once an important trading route, with ports in both sites. Both churches were given to French abbeys during the conquest, and this accounts for the use of Caen stone for their construction. They really are very grand churches with superb carvings. We missed out on the other important Norman church in Shoreham-by -Sea, St Mary de Haura, so we’ll be back.
Lastly we visited St John the Baptist at Clayton and enjoyed the doom frescos (very hard to photograph). They were painted by monks from nearby Lewes Priory and were part of a series. It makes me weep to think of what Lewes Priory must have been like and its demolition during the reformation, although I hear rumours that @fonadmento_scherzo_ have submitted plans to rebuild it…
Oops, picture 18 belongs to Steyning church, not Clayton.
#romanesque
Yesterday I visited a terrific and thought provoking exhibition of work by two friends @abigailnorris000 and @isobelxsmith at the Marine Workshops in Newhaven.
This is how the show is described:
Shhh... is a new exhibition by sculptors Abigail Norris and Isobel Smith, collaborating across two years of weekly meetings-listening, witnessing, and allowing strangeness, otherness, and fear to surface in one another’s work. Working across sculpture, drawing, performance, and installation, to see how autonomy and intimacy coexist, and how two distinct practices can resonate without merging.
The work, beautifully presented, was, to me, very clearly a conversation between the artists, and one where I’d have loved to have been a fly on the wall. The absence of shame and the presence of permission allows for such a refreshing account of what it can be like to be a woman. Don’t miss it!!
The exhibition runs until 31st May, Thursdays - Saturdays 10 - 4 and Sundays 10 - 3
We are delighted to announce our Spring Lecture this year is by Lewes artist, designer & maker Emma Carlow!
Come and find our more about Emma's practice and recent projects
Saturday 23rd May
Paddock Art Studios, Lewes
£5 on the door or free to Paddock members
I’m running a whistle making workshop on my home turf! Mo, from the Star Pottery in Lewes @star_communitypotterycichas has kindly invited me to teach in his domain. I have been coming to Mo‘s for years (see my pre-lockdown haircut in photo 5), usually when I’ve decided to make something that requires tuition and handholding. It will seem very strange to be at the helm of Mo’s ship! If you fancy learning how to make a whistle, do join us in this, much loved, Lewes pottery. The workshop takes place on Saturday, 16th of May from 10 - 1. You’ll find a link in my profile.
Thank you to everyone who visited‘Jamboree’, a show of work by me and Tamaki Iwao (@tamarocktree ) @meiklejohngallery . Yesterday we dismantled the exhibition and packed up the remaining work, ready for her to take back to Japan today.
Tamaki is an artist that I met last year in Japan. This month she came to stay with me and wondered if there might be an opportunity to show her work during her visit here. Claire, who owns the gallery, very kindly agreed to host a pop-up before she opens her next show, ‘Spring’ later this month. I think it’s fair to say that Tamaki’s work is very joyful, and this inspired me to respond accordingly with my work.
It has been such a pleasure to have Tamaki to stay. I think I’ve probably exhausted her. During her time here she has had a show, attended Corn Dolly Club, translated many Japanese passages in books and leaflets that I picked up in Japan, and made costumes for a friend’s dance piece. She swears that she will return, I hope so!
Thank you so much to everyone who came to see ‘Jamboree’, a show of work by me and Tamaki Iwao ( @tamarocktree ) last night. We made the most of the last rays of sunshine before the traditional Easter holiday downpour today.
A big thank you to Claire @meiklejohngallery for looking after us and keeping a cool head while speedily handing out red dots to customers desperate to own one of Tamaki’s delightful wire people.
The gallery is open today from 11 - 4 and Tamaki and I will be in there tomorrow from 11 till 4 if you’d like to come and say hello.
The show runs Wednesday - Saturday, 11-4 until 11 April.
Any of the good pictures here are, of course taken by @grahamcarlow
