All Saints West Dulwich, South East London
September 2014- November 2015.
437 days with a palette of 8 materials, transformed by the liturgical year.
The church building has a powerful presence and underwent its own Phoenix-like transformation by fire in the year 2000.
My interest in the innate processes of materials seemed to naturally mirror that of the building and I proposed bringing a palette of materials that would ‘travel’ alongside the Community during the cycle of the year and be transformed by it.
"An important part of my practice is collaborative-making by ‘Expressive Instruction’, such as sending a blacksmith a poem commissioning a “hook to hold everything up”.
This type of responsive work with local crafts-people, performers, schools and the community has been a powerful aspect of the Residency."
The project commenced with a poem being sent to a local blacksmith and was complete when the black steel bowl, now rusted in water from the Effra, was turned golden on All Saints Day 2015.
The Watching Loft Residency is a featured case study on the Art + Christianity website. https://www.artandchristianity.org/all-saints-west-dulwich
Effra Bowl. The bowl was filled with River Effra water which evaporated during the course of two months; this is the result.
Use, re-use and transformation of a palette of eight (7+1) materials.
A ‘poetic instruction’ was sent to a local blacksmith inviting him to forge a hook. He came with his son to present it on the first Sunday of the residency at an event entitled ‘Offering’ in which the palette was offered and placed in the Watching Loft studio. The hook was used in installations throughout the residency.
ADVENT: Waymaker
200 feet of rope stretched diagonally along the full length of the church.
even this… a response to an icon of Eve using the hem torn off the linen sheet. It was sent to a seamstress together with a poem; this is the result. It was installed on Candlemass on the 1st February, 2015.
Pour OUT was installed for the festival of Pentecost. Part of the linen sheet was torn into a narrow strip over 70 feet long which was suspended from the chancel roof. A powerful industrial fan was installed in one of the galleries and provided movement as well as a sound-piece forte installation. The accompanying text was adhered to the glass entrance doors.
The palette of materials. Wheat, wood-ash, River Effra water, galvanised bucket, rope, forged hook, steel bowl.
EFFRA: TOWARDS STILLNESS. Sara Mark, September 2014.
I drew the first bucket of water from a tributary of the River Effra and watched it become still.
The Brisons Veor Residency 25 April - 9 May 2015
Situated at Cape Cornwall on the Penrith Peninsular where the Atlantic currents divide.
The work developed the 'Moreveren' project (2013). I visited the site of several infamous shipwrecks with an acrylic mirror and steel comb.
A series of digital photographs were produced.
Porthleven, Cornwall (17-27 May 2013)
A prize winner of the Porthleven Prize the residency offered the opportunity to collaborate with a group of four other artists and the local community. The residency was followed by three exhibitions in Porthleven, Bristol and Bath.
The work was made in collaboration with the Porthleven Metalworks Ltd., a local glass-blower and a fisherman.
'Morveren': an outdoor installation moored out at sea,
'Morveren's Window' : a laser-cut window text-piece and
'Three Vessels': blown-glass bottles to hold Cornish holywell water.
Driftwood Studios, Kwelera. South Africa
July 17-12 August 2017
“I came to listen to the Spirit of the Place. What emerged was both wonderful and humbling.”
The garden evolved over the course of three and a half weeks and is now used by the local community for workshops and meditation.
A diary of the residency can be found on my blog pages.
I commissioned a pair of dowsing rods and asked the ‘Place’ what it wanted.
Many of the materials and objects had been scattered around the site for years, waiting to find their place in the world.
The work is dedicated to the memory of George Kockott (d. 2019) who trusted the process.
Driftwood Studios, East London. South Africa
July 17-12 August 2017
“I came to listen to the Spirit of the Place. What emerged was both wonderful and humbling.”
A diary of the residency can be found on my blog pages.
