On the 10th of June my mother died, nothing is the same as it was before. There is a huge hole in my heart. January found me fresh from a collaboration with Lucy May Schofield which resulted in the large site specific collaborative work Islay Land being installed in the newly constructed Port Ellen Whisky Distillery on the beautiful island of Islay. I became inspired to reflect upon the scale of my work and consider working larger. Also the pervasive beauty of Islay and the refined attention to detail in Lucy’s creative process set the ground for further collaborative working in 2025. Mid January marked the completion of a dynamic sculptural study into the morphing of the Dandelion Dispore, a phenomenon recently discovered by the Biological Form and Function Lab, based at Imperial Collage London, and lead by my collaborator on this project Naomi Nakayama. The concept was to make an art object which would be used as a puppet/tool for use in teaching, my preoccupation was to feel and so express the specific soul/character of this seed in a physical object. The handover of the art work took place in the department of bioengineering at Imperial College, London. Hui-Ti Lin who I consulted with in the creation of the responsive dragonfly study Dragonfly-Imago of 2019 and who initially introduced me to Naomi, was also present at this event. I believe that the artist and the scientist are in many ways the “same person” with so much in common in terms of methodology, practical process and approach/desire to uncover and discover. On the 19th January I visited Tate Modern and found Tank 2 gallery completely empty, unattended and open, quite by chance I had with me the small artwork “Impossible Hope”, this I placed in the centre of this vast circular space and spent the next hour discussing this sculptural expression of the transmission of hopefulness to people who entered and when asked if I was the artist answering in a definitive “yes”. The month ended with me sharing free-form creative ideas at Rose Bruford with MA Lighting students. For me art is as important and significant where ever it takes place and for who. I had been volunteering with a group of over 65 year olds in Hackney for some months and delivered a series of hands-on sock puppetry classes, the joy I feel when working creatively with others is indescribable. I loved how on the second day many participants had become very motivated to create another puppet due to how popular the sock puppets had been with their grandchildren. The involvement which I have with the community at Heart n Soul truly feeds my whole being, in March I was fortunate to share ideas around stop motion animation with participants to the weekly Allsorts community gathering in Eltham, South London. Co facilitated with Emma Mason and with such an inspiring and brilliant team we couldn’t help but create the most surreal and marvellous short film this technique has probably witnessed. The resulting animation called Foxes Bulldog Fridge (a sink without taps) about a local environmental disaster even features Justin Bieber and Rex from the Power Rangers. In April I travelled to Northumbria beginning again to work with Lucy May Schofield on a second collaborative sculptural work. The thoughts of this being immersed in ideas of place in the broadest sense. Each physical part is connected in such a way as to allow freedom of moving so that they may remain free even in their connection. This project was supported by Ingrid Pollard who I was able to catch up with on my visits to Lucy’s Northumbrian Studio. In July the resultant art work Cazimi was shown in the group exhibition Paperwork at Hub Gallery, Sleaford. May found me unpack my solo performance Suitcase Circus for a season at the Puppet Theatre Barge. This floating 85 seat theatre is the breathing heart of a true creative community and I loved being here and giving a show which has been close to 30 years in the making. I rekindled my passion for the odd-sock ringmaster Wobulous Discombobulous and his cast of the world’s most talented objects and found such warmth and appreciation from the audiences along the way. My wonderful studio opened its doors for the E17 Art Trail in June. I love to open my studio and find the place where I make work is an ideal environment for discussing this work’s creation as well as the perfect situation to hold in depth conversations about the ideas surrounding my art, life and anything at al! I begin to discuss the design and fabrication of a miraculous snake for the Shakespeare’s Globe 2024 production of Anthony and Cleopatra. The idea they want is on the fringes of the impossible, I decide that I can make it happen even though the time limit is so tight. I go deep into how snakes move and obsess over ways that this action can be precipitated by simply a shift in the holding movements of the actor. I search for ways in which the mechanical snake can seemly defy gravity, rising up to hiss at cleopatra, this takes me to metatron’s cube and helictical compression and twisting structures. This project offers the brilliant opportunity to use a 3D printer which has sat in the studio idyll for many months after it was gifted to me by my upstairs neighbour. Prototyping is integral to my creative process, the freedom to explore failures on the path to success allows for important deviations from a projected path meaning that ground which would otherwise not be discovered can be explored. The most valuable resource inside my creative process is time and if this is lacking the risk is that a result will be another prototype seeking time to become mature. This is where we found ourselves and although I was proud to have a thing which I made on the stage of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, the mechanical asp Cleopatra held in this production was indeed shown to be a prototype. It was not until many weeks after the August premiere performance that I could find the time in the studio to take this idea through a couple more prototype phases and get close to achieving the miraculous actions we wished for. A lesson here I learn again over and over. In early September I began to work with my close friend the painter and dancer Luka Vardiashvili at Wayne McGregor Studio in Hackney Wick. Luka was being supported by WMS through their Free Space Programme in the development of a multi disciplinary piece. I had recently acquired the use of a lovely Olympus om-1 analogue 35mm camera and a Mamiya RB67 medium format film camera with these and my digital Canon I became drawn to using slow shutter speeds. Rather than to document I am using the camera to draw with the actual real-time dynamic of the event. Most often another dancer has been present in the studio working with Luka and when this is the case the distinction between each individual body is in itself blurred so aligning with the preoccupation I have in the collective existence of the individual so in this respect I view the work I am undertaking with Luka as preparatory sketches for future art work utilising these as observations in a collective blending over time and space. As in my studio practice I am drawn to the use of machines and tools to communicate with materials and substance. In the case of the camera this is the material/substance of space/time. I remain fascinated by the ghostly blur created through the exposure of a figure in movement and the distinction of an analogue space/time blur to a digital space/time blur, the lack of blu in the smart phone photography is of interest to me as a mark of the potential presence of image augmentation through AI generated imagery. In late September I also began to explore this methodology with the camera at the monthly Rambert Dance Playground meet ups where there are large groups of dancers working in ensemble and I can further experiment with the blending of individuals through movement and slow shutter speed into a dynamic collective body. All of these photographic experiments result in multiple still images surrounding a period of movement. I am experimenting with these forming stop motion animations as well as being a series of still photographs displayed as such. The physical photographs feel like bi products of the actual work which is the process of working this aligns with my non materialist views on art in general and the priority given to the information contained through a method of working creatively instead of the physical thing which is manifested through the creative methodology. In October I began a project with Rose Bruford Design For Performance students exploring traditional and contemporary puppetry methodology applied within motion capture and 3D modelling technologies. My view is that puppetry is consistently at the cutting edge of technological innovation despite often seemingly being archaic. Although ancient, puppetry is at the heart of all our creation of alternate physical/digital bodies to travel in, see from and experience through. For the last quarter of the year I was invited to co lecture the Thinking About Ideas module within the BA Creative Industries course at Kingston University School of Art. Working in close conversation with the module leader and friend Rina Atienza my role was to utilise my experience as a deep communicator with objects and to inspire students to physicalise their creative thinking and ideas within the world around us. This translation of contemporary electronic communication into simple and playful physicalities was an exciting and popular dimension to this course.
November found me again perform Suitcase Circus on the wonderful little stage of the Puppet Theatre Barge, this time moored in Richmond. I also lead a few sessions with Turtlekey Arts Key Club, an art and social club for young people on the autism spectrum, at the Lyric Hammersmith. I guided the creation of large cardboard figures with wings and worked through ensemble performance techniques. The feeling I get in facilitating these sessions is indescribable and I am looking forward to again working with Turtlekey Arts in 2025. My studio practice of drawing, making and sharing ideas with others continues to grow from strength to strength with me wishing to experience my art practice and its creation together in conversation with others here in a welcoming and shared creative space.
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