I went to the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair yesterday, at Victoria Baths Manchester. This event was very different from the ceramic fairs that I have attended recently. There was a wide range of exhibitors in terms of types of craft, and a wide range of experience and skill on display.
There was a ceramicist called Beverley Somerville who made thrown pots. Whilst at MMU, she had visited the derelict London Road Fire Station in Manchester. Here she met and talked to former residents who had lived in the flats on site, and others who had been regular visitors. She collected soot from the fireplace of one of the homes, and mixed it with clay, which she then threw on the wheel.
This subject matter was close to my practice 2 work, a landmark building in Manchester city centre, home to firefighters and their families, and full of history. Somerville explained how the materials tied her work to the location.
Conveying a sense of place
The conversation made me think about how a sense of people and place is conveyed, and how other artists have done this.
Somerville has added local materials, as has Deniol Williams, Adam Buick. Annemarie Piscaer and Iris de Kievith make Smogware, pots glazed using particulate matter from traffic pollution.
Michelle Bianco uses carved texture inspired by local rocks and trees. Anne Marie Jacobs use water etching, inspired by aerial photos of the landscape.
Raewyn Harrison incorporates artefacts found during mudlarking excursions. Victoria Scotchie also creates abstract sculptural work based on artefacts.
Phillip Hardaker or Grayson Perry incorporating decals, images, and text.
Using imprints of texture like Haptic Tacit at the BCB used imprints of texture.
Rachel Whiteread used negative space.
Colour and/or pattern.
I am sure this quick list is not exhaustive, however I do need to sharpen up my concept and clarify my learning agreement further. Some of the possibilities above are not really aligned with my interests, or indeed practical for me. However I need to give this more thought.
My interests
I am interested in changes in the urban environment over time, both in the architecture and in the streets and pathways. I can see these changes in places people gathered, registry offices, hospitals, churches, parks, galleries, places of education, libraries and dance halls. Places that have many stories attached, embedded in the history of the community and area. I am also interested in the changing streetmaps of the city, the places where people walked on a daily basis, and the pathways that they followed.
Making
I also need to consider this in terms of what I want to make. I want to make sculptural forms. I am a little uneasy about slabs leading me towards a more geometric, regular form. Which is more architecture and less pathways. Perhaps I need to go more modernist/brutalist in terms of architecture. Perhaps I need to explore pathways more. That was where I started with Stand and Deliver. I will try to get more clarity on this during this untutored semester. I am a bit worried that I cannot hear my own voice, any more as I try to please my tutors.
A note on living in a city -
I had a conversation with Kath Stevens after the GNCCF. She said that she did not feel comfortable in Manchester. Rory, Kath and I walked from Victoria Baths to the Whitworth Gallery, past the Contact Theatre and Saint Marys, and I cant remember seeing anything happen that might have made her uncomfortable. I have never taken this exact walk before, but I felt completely at ease. I didn't discuss this with her more, as she was feeling uncomfortable, but she said Barrow was very different.
There is something about being in a city that I love, it is something I take for granted, in a sort of subconscious way. I am surprised when people on my course don't like being in Manchester, or are frightened of what might happen there. I would be interested to understand what it is that is so commonplace and comfortable to me about being in the city centre that I am struggling to actually name it. Something that is having a different effect on people who do not live there. Is it the crowds, the noise, the size of the place, the possibility of getting lost? What do I accept, or embrace, about being in a city.
Comments