Just about to head back down to the ponds after a few days away from the art coal face! A couple of weeks ago I spent a really valuable few days experimenting with materials, making a silicon mould and casting hundreds of tiny wax houses. A good day was also spent towing clumps of weed around / attacking Julia’s trees (thankfully under the guidance of an ex-forester). Both allowed a clear view right up the long pond on which I’m working.
Was great to find that when the houses are suspended above the surface of the water, you can see a carpet of red from the other end of the pond. Not sure how the changing water levels will sit with my piece, but that’s one of the challenges of a new, outdoor environment… Also thought the next door farmers were about to bury the railway hut in a mound of plastic-wrapped hay, but all is well…!
I have decided to use this opportunity to ‘blog’ as a way of recording the process of making & installing ‘rain harvester’ and to record the way in which the three different elements of the work catch and channel the water into the reservoir tubes set within my pond.
With the concept and design thought through months ago I am now in the throws of collecting materials and tools needed around me, searching for missing items, testing out construction ideas & methods and making endless lists in a bid to avoid the inevitable tendency to panic with only 3 weeks to the opening, even with 20yrs experience!
Today was my first chance to launch three of my grass islands on the pond. I
knew they’d float because I’d tested them at home but I hadn’t realise how
deep the water was. This made positioning the islands rather frightening,
the mud was sucking at my waders and made movement difficult. I hadn’t
appreciated the density of the water-weed which also impeded the movement of
both myself and the islands. I’m wondering how this lack of movement will
effect the drawings I make because the process of mark-making will be linked
with the movement of the islands. Maybe things will become clearer when I
launch all fifteen islands on the pond.
Hello my name is Cynthia Morrison-Bell, the curator of the Flow exhibition. This time last summer, I sat down with the artists and we discussed the idea of an exhibition set on this series of freshwater ponds. It has taken a whole year to get this exhibition funded and organised, but at last we’re getting ready to install the work… Full of trepidation, anticipation and excitement we’re going to start putting some of the work on the water….Will the artworks sink and disappear? Will they float and do what the artists want them to do?!
I’m having a major issue with bubblewrap, can I really use it to depict cyanobacterial mats? I’ve been stuffing the bubbles with shredded blue/green plastic bags and sometimes I feel the scale and effect is just right - and using recycled materials is good - other times I find myself thinking: plastic floating on ponds…. not good.
