July 2021: Working together…...
Joy and Gill felt the need to spend a concentrated time working together, and a date came in July when Gill was able to host a workshop session at her house/studio. There was only time for a 4 hour, working afternoon at this stage, but this was a good starting point from which to develop thoughts about Mud and Thread applying to undertake a residency together in the future.
Having set an informal structure for the workshop, the first thing was to lay work out on a table together - work they had been doing towards the collaboration and any individual work they felt was relevant. It is easy to fall into a practice of ‘thinking through’ ideas when the interactions between artists are online or through email. Having the work together like this proved to be invaluable, as things could be moved about; new relationships made between objects and samples; and the full sensuous nature of textures, colours and structures explored intuitively. Continual discussion about thoughts, interpretations and intentions was helping to develop a feel for shared authorship.
A second stage of the workshop was to undertake some practical work, and, as it was possible to use Gill’s clay studio, a choice of working with the raw somerset clay was made. Putting both artists into an ‘unknown situation’, was a means of letting go of any defensive feelings about skills - allowing the fun of the situation to take over and create different possibilities. ( In the Clayhill Arts podcast of the ‘Mesh, Loop and Line’ residency, artists Ismini Samanidou, Jessie Higginson and Katie Bunnell expand on this, saying they found ideas that surfaced during their time working together, continued to flourish for a long time after the residency. https://clayhillarts.co.uk/podcast/)
Engagement 6 :
Before the workshop the following image of fungi was used to stimulate ideas to be worked through drawing.
During the workshop Gill and Joy made simple pots using coiling and pinching methods and the local somerset clay that was dug from Gill’s garden. This ‘slow making’ enabled a continual flow of thoughts and conversation. An important focus was on how materials of textiles and ceramics can practically join together.? - what holes, lugs, links, strappings etc are needed to connect the hard and soft materials ?
Gill: ‘The fungi image was a further impetus for exploring the ideas of symbiosis and relationships as a natural metaphor relating to growth. I am drawn to repeat patterns – although this is most commonly expressed in terms of surface pattern, which is where my 2D work naturally goes ( see drawings from fungi photo) I feel there can be a natural movement into 3D by using repeat elements to build into a form . Viewing the range of work laid out, the combination of materials and textures affected me deeply. It is so important to have the experience of playing with materials and objects so that we have a familiarity with each other’s work. I began making combination objects, putting things together intuitively that allowed me to let go of more formal and traditional ceramic forms. Finding unexpected combinations resonating together in this way gives a continual spark to curiosity. The combination forms worked well placed together in groupings, again building on the ideas of symbiotic relationships. ( The notion of ‘holobiont’ as communities of symbiotic organisms seems to relate here. Margulis L, Fester R (1991). Symbiosis as a Source of Evolutionary Innovation: Speciation and Morphogenesis. MIT Press.)
Through discussing what was actually there, how things were made and what we were seeing, I gained a better understanding of how Joy likes to work. It was a revelation to me to realise that Joy is much more interested in the stitching and texture making side of textiles than in weaving, which I had assumed she was using. It is good to feel we are really getting to know each other in ways that I don’t think is possible with only online and remote working.’
Joy: Coming together to collate the pieces of work that we have been producing independently of each other, the serendipity of finding so much common ground always fills me with a sense of pleasure and excitement, knowing we are like minded in our approach but able to spur each other on in unexpected directions. It may be a small remark that sparks a thought or idea and triggers so many possibilities. We laid out our test pieces and how they related to each other. Having worked from the same photo of fungi on a tree, the idea of emergence is still very much in our vocabulary and I enjoyed a long overdue afternoon with watercolours, picking out colour, form and texture from the image. While at Gill’s we worked with her harvested clay. It was much stickier than conventional clay I have used before and seemed to have less structure, making it more difficult for me as a novice, to control any form. The resulting vessel and conversation about how to incorporate textiles led to discussions about stitch and weave. Also, without knowing how I was going to continue with these clay forms, and how to integrate textiles and sittich into them later was quite a challenge - predicting and guessing was the only way and based on the experiments we have already done.
Responding to my watercolours, I thought of ways to create fungal brackets in textiles and how they could combine with ceramics. Some of the results are gathered sheer silk organza and gathered pouches in different materials that can be manipulated, beaded and stacked. I kept the colours neutral to keep further development more focussed on form.
Our combined working practice continues to grow. We are finding a pace that allows for the free flow of ideas and the practicalities and restrictions of our working practices. Long term visions are starting to form and we continue to question and challenge the concept of collaboration