http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Festial Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:01:01 +0100 a-n rss generator a-n The Artists Information Company and contributors edit@a-n.co.uk technical@a-n.co.uk http://sites.a-n.co.uk/img/logo.gif http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 I'm preparing for my first feast day in St Andrew's church, Wood Dalling. Before that, I think a small launch party will be in order after all the work that's gone into planning the project and securing Grants for the Arts funding. I'm thinking medieval sweetmeats and ale. Oh yes, definitely ale. By the end of the year's residency I expect to know St Andrews' interior and exterior intimately - I might even have given individual names to the highly vocal ducks (and moorhens) who inhabit the large pond in front of the church. Not to mention the barn owl who seems to live somewhere round the back. Already, Trevor and I cycle up to the church quite frequently and wander, breathing in the dust that dances in the sunlight; the cobwebs strung from pew to pew that festoon the poppyheads; significant moments in countless lives absorbed by the stone, flint, plaster and wood and continuously exhaled - a gentle exhalation.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 I've noticed that contemporary art often seems to highlight gritty urban themes, while rurally-based work seems to fall into a few well-worn areas like agriculture/science, nature/culture or botany/sex. I guess one of my aims for Festial is to do something different. I hope it will no less challenging or shocking than the grittiest urban art. But I'd also like it to be spare and thoughtful. Not dry or remote, not a historical re-enactment, not a worthy-but-predictable 'heritage' project. Can I do it? Watch this space!One of the hazards of the journey will be the uncertainty I feel over how to handle the religious side of things. I hope I will discover how medieval Christianity and paganism interact and/or conflict with each other - and that will inevitably involve an exploration of my own views, beliefs, hopes and fears as much as an exploration of anything which might be objectified as being outside of the self.Religion is still a difficult area, I know. Even in this secular society. Even after Tracey Emin's jaw-dropping lack of compromise, after Damien Hirst's cut-up animals, after Jake and Dinos Chapman's vision of hell, after that enormous portrait of Myra Hindley created from the handprints of children.In 2005 I made an installation for the annual open application contemporary art exhibition at Salthouse Church in Norfolk. Hinting at the links between the Bronze Age barrow cemetery on the adjacent Salthouse Heath and the medieval church, I collected plant material and made 'incense', which I scattered in and around a censer which I placed on a pillowcase. In medieval times, incense would have been burned routinely in that very church. But when the vicar came round to vet the work (yes, the vicar, even though the church was to all intents and purposes a contemporary gallery for the duration), he baulked at the title incense. The work was allowed to stay, but was retitled rite, and the list of materials had to speak for itself.I've shown the churchwardens examples of my previous work and they are happy to let me go ahead with the project. In fact, they seem keen. But do they really know what they are letting themselves in for? What if there are boundaries that I unwittingly transgress and then end up fuming that it is just 'ridiculous' (if only to myself and my long-suffering partner!) if the church people don't like it?... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 John Mirk's Festial is an early fifteenth century collection of sermons for the major saints and festivals of the church year, for use by priests who were not learned or ambitious enough to find sermon materials for themselves. These sermons rely heavily on legends, exempla and popular tales.Festial was a runaway bestseller and went through multiple editions.With my project, I'm opening myself up to possibilities. I'm going to be hanging around in the church, fully receptive to interaction with the spirits of medieval people who might have enjoyed these down-to-earth sermons with their somewhat humorous, bawdy and gory dimensions.In fact, to mark the start of the project (in advance of the celebratory imbibing of ale mentioned in a previous post, that is!) I intend to make a kind of vigil in the church. Just sitting there in meditation, being present to the space, without feeling I should be recording things or taking photographs or making anything. Just seeing what happens: something will.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 It's exactly a week now until my first mentoring session with Katie Walton, artistic programme manager for BCA in Bedford. My Arts Council proposal included a programme of mentoring for the year of my residency to help me shift my practice up a metaphorical gear or two. So Katie will be giving me advice on marketing/promotion  and getting the work out there. And Jo Clemence, gallery co-ordinator for the Babylon Gallery in Ely will be giving me critical feedback on work produced during Festial. I'm excited about this and anxious to make the most of the opportunity, but at the same time it's somewhat nerve-wracking, especially the 'critical feedback' bit!At the moment the whole thing is gloriously fuzzy and abstract and full of potential. I don't need to know what I'm going to make in response to the site: that's the whole idea!! BUT .... what if there's nothing to offer Jo to criticise? What if there is, and she has to gently tell me I'm wasting my time (and worse still, hers)? I don't like the sound of either of these scenarios. But I know that the sort of work I do always involves risks of this kind.Anyway, more positively, I'm looking ahead to my first date in the medieval calendar. Or make that three dates, as it's Rogationtide — the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Ascension Day. Now, this really was a time of feasting, fun and letting your hair down in medieval times (not to mention sending those pesky demons flying over the boundary into the neighbouring parishes!) In my excellent resource on these matters 'The Stripping of the Altars' by Eamon Duffy, the entry drinkings in the index refers the reader straight back to the information about Rogationtide!! But more on all that later. For now, I'll just say that Trevor and I spent a lovely sunny Easter Sunday afternoon cycling around Wood Dalling investigating some of the places where you cross over the parish boundary ...Oh yes, I've just realised I haven't yet mentioned quite an important feature of the project. I'm going to be keeping medieval time, instead of today's calendar. In pre-Reformation days, the Julian calendar was still in use, but adjustments made in the name of accuracy mean that we are now 13 days ahead. So, for example, St Andrew's Day is 30 November, but to experience it at the same time of year as medieval people did, I will have to keep it on 13 December.  Wood Dalling church is called St Andrew's and I've discovered that churches were actually named after saints' days rather than after the saints themselves — a subtle distinction.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 I know others have commented that it would be nice if a feedback mechanism could be built into this blogging thing. And I too find myself wondering whether anyone is actually out there apart from the bloggers themselves! So, I now have an email address specifically for Festial — and I’d be happy to receive comments. Also, there’s now a Festial page on the World Tree website I share with my partner, and this will develop into a full project website when there’s a bit more to fill it with. It will be a means of showing work as it's made and I envisage it as a medium in its own right. My Grants for the Arts funding will enable me to buy a webcam …. But first — perhaps tomorrow — the vigil. festial[at]world-tree[dot]co[dot]ukhttp://www.world-tree.co.uk/festial.html ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 I decided to wait until next week for the vigil. This feels like a real luxury: to choose a day myself rather than being tied to a medieval feast date! When first thinking about Festial, I planned to spend a day in Wood Dalling church each month, and of course I would choose a nice sunny day for it (medieval churches don't have central heating!). But now the idea of working with the actual feast dates has evolved it feels good to this rigorous conceptualist (too rigorous for my own good sometimes, believe me!) to have to take each day as it comes, no matter how inclement the weather.But the vigil is different. The project proper hasn't started yet, and the vigil is just a way of trying to be open to whatever might be present - and I expect it to be a two-way process.www.world-tree.co.uk/festial.htmlfestial[at]world-tree[dot]co[dot]uk... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Yesterday - another Sunday afternoon bike ride around Wood Dalling, stopping off at the church of course. This is a big village! Not that there are many houses, but they lie in little hamlets: 'Red Pits', 'Foundry Hill', 'Crabgate' and 'Norton Corner'. These are probably very old settlements. What they share is the sight of St Andrew's tower. In fact the parish boundary is like the rim of a wheel, with the church as the hub.Last Sunday when we were out on the bikes, two seemingly identical black and white horses suddenly came into sight. A man and a woman, both hatless and with flowing hair, were riding bareback side-by-side across a field from the direction of a wood. Somehow an almost otherworldly vision - you felt they might disappear into mist.Anyway, this week we saw the couple again; the woman was tending a gypsy caravan and they had wood sculpture for sale by the road. Wonder whether they and the other inhabitants of Wood Dalling will be interested in Festial? The church congregation is probably tiny so I'll need to find another way of letting local people know about the project. festial[at]world-tree[dot]co[dot]ukwww.world-tree.co.uk/festial.html... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Today seemed like a good day for the vigil. Well, I say 'vigil' but it was never going to compete with the kind of thing medieval people did. It's recorded that parishes had to find money to supply beer and bread and fire for the people who kept watch from Good Friday to Easter Sunday each year. But I was pleased to realise that as the date of Easter varies (the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox; um ... how pagan is that?!) my vigil surely must have coincided with some of the medieval Easter Vigils.In fact, I spent some of the time wandering around in the church taking photographs. Although I've been there lots of times with Trevor, it was actually the first time I'd been there alone. I found I could think there (and more to the point was getting ideas), which is good to know as I'll be spending time alone in the church when Festial begins 'for real'.It was a lovely sunny afternoon and I started by walking around the graveyard, accompanied by a cacophony of cooing woodpigeons, loudly declaiming ducks and the constant 'caw caw' of rooks in their adjacent treetop rookopolis.But inside, the church was COLD! Although it felt good to give myself time to listen to the mysteriously unidentifiable empty-church sounds and to watch the sunlight and shadows shifting, half an hour of sitting still was enough. I'm a bit worried - will I be hardy enough to spend extended periods of time 'just being there' in January??... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Spent the day in Cambridge yesterday and met with Katie, my mentor. I've realised how good it is to talk over aspects of the project and especially to be reassured that there really is something there that is worth sharing with an audience.One thing Katie was keen on was that I spread the word amongst the inhabitants of Wood Dalling - something I was musing over in this blog a couple of days ago. As she says, if you're making contemporary art in an area where it may be little experienced, understood or appreciated, you almost owe it to contemporary artists as a community (however that may be defined!) to make the most of an opportunity like this. And on a practical note, it might just help to avoid embarrassment when I'm caught doing what will probably seem to be very strange things - it's ok, she's an artist!... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 A local pottery is interested in becoming involved in Festial by supplying mugs and jugs, based on medieval originals, for the oft-mentioned ale! This is good news and will be great both from practical and promotional points of view. I've never done this kind of seeking-sponsorship thing before - the idea just came to me when I was washing up a mug and suddenly thought of contacting the pottery that had made it. It's a place up on the North Norfolk coast that attracts a lot of visitors so it will be great if the potters are interested in making info about my work available to people who visit their premises. Another development is that I've started making work in the church. Wood Dalling church has 51 amazing wooden poppyheads (yes, I counted!) on the ends of the pews, all ideosyncratic and individual, and I'm going to make each of them a fitted cover from white bedsheets and pillowcases. This is a large undertaking! I experimented yesterday with making a pattern for one of them, and it worked, so, hey, only 50 more to make. Except that, as Trevor pointed out, although every one is different, some of them are similar enough so that they could share the pattern for their cover. Duh - why didn't I think of that?! Phew, that will cut the workload down substantially. The idea is to have a piece of work ready for our exhibition in early-mid June in Norwich. Slash07 will show the work of the eight artists in the artists' group that Trevor and I belong to. Coincidentally, it is to be held in a church - one that's hired out as a gallery - St Margaret's, St Benedict's Street, Norwich.festial[at]world-tree[dot]co[dot]ukhttp://www.world-tree.co.uk/festial.html ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Well, the potters must be working away like mad as they've kindly promised me that the mugs, jugs and even a couple of bowls for medieval munchies will be ready for May 2. That's fantastic, and really helps me to feel Festial moving towards reality.At the same time, I've made a sobering - if fascinating - discovery. Back in the church for another poppyhead pattern-making sesh on Sunday afternoon it soon became apparent that these covers must be figure-hugging, so to speak, to have the impact I'm after - and that, in all honesty, no two of them are actually that closely alike! So it's back to the prospect of 51 individual 'fittings'. This realisation effectively rules out the possibility of having the piece ready for slash07, given that we'll be away on the Isle of Eigg for over two weeks of that time and that I really need to prioritise the planning of my Rogationtide event at the end of May. Oh yes, and did I mention the need to continue to earn money? Trevor and I work in editing and publishing, and I teach A level art, albeit only once a week.The plan now is to work on my poppyheads as an ongoing part of the project, and to get some work together in the wake of Rogationtide for slash07. The fact that this plan gives me only just over a week to make enough work to fill my part of the exhibition space is something I'll put to the back of my mind for now...... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 It’s strange feeling that nothing much is happening on the project when the days are slipping away. Other priorities have to be dealt with and yet there is still clearly so much to do. Last night I sat down and listed everything I could think of that needs to be addressed before Rogationtide. It filled an A3 sheet. This is now sellotaped to a kitchen cupboard where I will see it every time I reach for the muesli or a tin of tomatoes. Will this help, I wonder?  The problem lies in the fact that we are going to Eigg for over two weeks, with only a day between our return and the three-day performance/installation for Rogationtide. This means I have to have all materials and equipment in place before our departure – and forward-planning is not a big feature of the way I naturally work. And the launch takes place on the evening of the first day, so I need to think about that, too. It will be a modest affair in comparison to many launches, but still ….  However, I’m heartened to find that Festial insights and ideas are now coming in thick and fast - especially when I’m in the shower, for some reason! Today I realised that there are 51 poppyheads simply because the 52nd has broken off … and how many weeks are there in a year? and what measure of time is Festial concerned with? Possibilities, possibilities.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 I read Jane Ponsford's last blog entry with recognition, as I too am enjoying keeping up with the progress of other projects - especially, as it happens, Jane's! I think our residencies have similar and dissimilar aspects that I'm finding interesting to ponder. At the moment, I have no workshops or open studios built into my agenda, while the education/community involvement element of Papertrails seems a significant part of the project. I suppose Festial is more introspective in structure, but I'm looking forward to sharing the outcome of my reflections with other people as the project unfolds. Still on the theme of others' blogs, I'm finding the new Airspace one giving food for thought. AndersonMacgee's questioning of the notion of permanence and eshewing ownable objects as the inevitable outcome of 'art' resonates strongly with me.Going back to Jane Ponsford's post - if she or any other bloggers would like to visit Festial for real, you would be most welcome!The new equipment that is part of the Arts Council's support for Festial has been ordered and is starting to arrive. Indeed, a delivery man knocked at the door a few minutes ago with the first item. Exciting, but scary as I have to work out how to use unfamiliar technology. The best way will probably be just to get out there and start! Certainly, in the past I've got a lot of the ideas and images that I've felt were the most successful through making so-called mistakes...Late this aftrenoon I'm due to pick up the medieval mugs and jugs from the North Norfolk potters: not earlier, they said, as their kilns will be firing today. This brings home to me how elemental and primal the process is. Neolithic, medieval and 21st century potters all firing their pots.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 The potters did a great job - the pots really look quite medieval, right down to the amazing pie-crust edges on the bowls. And it's not long now until they're needed for the first time on Festial's launch day, May 29. I'm feeling a bit calmer and more organised than I did a few days ago, but this may be a delusion. Press releases have been sent out too, and I've had a response from BBC Radio Norfolk who are going to interview me on their afternoon show just after the Rogationtide feast days. I've never done anything like that before, but for some reason I don't feel nervous - yet.I've decided, too, on the interventions I'm going to make around the boundary of Wood Dalling parish on the Rogationtide days, and luckily I'll need minimal equipment for them. Well, I say 'minimal', but by the time you add in camera, video camera, tripod, a packed lunch for two and plenty of tea (Trevor's coming with me!) I think sizeable backpacks will be required.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Off to Eigg tomorrow, where there is no electricity and where Festial might well seem a long way away, were it not for the fact that I'll be taking research material with me. 'Popular Medieval Religion 1000-1500' might not seem like light holiday reading to ordinary sane people! I'm also taking 'Medicine & Society in Later Medieval England' by Carole Rawcliffe which has been sitting here reproachfully for some weeks now while I try in vain to find time to read it. The cover picture is a medieval illustration of a man with Zodiac characters covering his body in the areas where they are (still) said to exert influence. So, for example, he has a crab at his throat, a ram on his head and a bull across his shoulders. I think I'm going to find a lot of useful stuff in there! And the author is a professor at the University of East Anglia just a few miles away. She's agreed to a meeting to answer any questions I have at the end of June, and sounds interested in the project. So I'm looking forward to that.Back to other blogs. I'm enjoying Cathryn Jiggens' blog very much, and looking into her previous work I can see threads that link our two practices. Cathryn is interested in a 'collective forgetfulness' - and collective memory, forgetfulness and instinct are themes I explore in my own work, including (I expect) Festial.www.world-tree.co.uk/festial.htmlfestial[at]world-tree[dot]co[dot]uk... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 An unexpected delay has given me an extra couple of days of Festial time. A few more things ticked off my 'to do' list: churchwardens and church keyholder now duly invited to launch ... more press releases sent ... explanatory posters and flyers deposited in Wood Dalling church and village Post Office. We arrived at the latter by bike in the rain. Publicity materials having been accepted for display by the friendly shop assistant (indeed, the poster instantly and very deftly being given a prominent position in the front window!), we discovered that the back of the otherwise-typical village shop is given over to secondhand books. Like predatory birds we swooped. I fancied a 1975 bird book; Trevor looked longingly at a thick leather-bound volume on the Domesday Book (just £1) and also a vintage-looking book of vintage cricket photographs (yes, well ...). Anyway, we had come out without any cash between us, so resignedly we pedalled off home for a cup of tea through the slightly worsening rain.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 A post from sunny Eigg! Just 50p in the 'honesty plastic cup' gets me 30 minutes on the internet. No electricity at the cottage, but the generator here at the cafe makes it possible to keep in touch with the modern world. Festial thoughts and ideas bubbling up, to be captured in the old fashioned way - in a notebook. Meanwhile the sun really is shining and the sight, sound and smell of the sea are never far away.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Yes, it really is today. Cold, damp and drizzly and I'm about to get onto my bike ...All welcome at the launch this evening if you happen to be in Norfolk! 6pm at St Andrew's Church, Wood Dalling for ale, buns and gingerbread. Oh, and a powerpoint presentation.See you there.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Where to begin? Tuesday was a bit of a washout, rogationally speaking. We set out in the rain, calling in at the church for a reccy to work out where to position ale, food, laptop etc. for the launch. We made our way to the first boundary crossing - still in the rain - but the vibes just weren't right. I had all the equipment with me, but the rituals I had planned - including printing words on strips of cloth using individual letter rubberstamps - just seemed a penance in the cold and wet! In the end we went home and dried off.The evening launch went ok though - buns, gingerbread, apple juice and ale seemed to go down well - and while I'd been baking buns and gingerbread Trevor had kindly put together a powerpoint presentation listing the festivals interspersed with images (some of which have been seen on this very blog)! Thank goodness for the laptop. I said a bit about the project to the assembled artists, churchwardens and two potters and took some questions. Yeah, it was ok. And the sun actually came out for the first time that day and cast some nice light into the church.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 I'm really in the thick of it now, with a giveaway publication to cobble together asap and all the work for our slash07 exhibition (www.world-tree.co.uk/slash) to put together before the set-up a week today. Is this a crazy thing to be involved with? To add to the madness, my head of department has asked me to teach four mornings next week when I'd banked on having every day - apart from Friday when I teach anyway - to make work from the Rogationtide performance/installation. Aaaghhhh! Not to mention the small matter of being interviewed on Radio Norfolk tomorrow afternoon.Wednesday and Thursday went well, at least. Miserable weather on Wednesday, so we ended up working in drizzly rain for much of the day, but at least it started off dry so I could get into a rhythm. Basically, wherever we could access the point where a road or track crossed Wood Dalling's parish boundary, we parked up the bikes a short distance away. I wandered around for a while to get a feel for the place, writing down any words that came to mind, and then took a few photos. Meanwhile, Trevor was taking photographs too - including documentary ones of me doing my thing. Then, I dug up some earth (or collected water at the two river crossings) and took it to the next point on the boundary where I tipped it out, finishing back at the first crossing point. At each point, too, I collected a flint or piece of pottery that caught my eye, and a stick from the nearest tree. Finally, I struck my singing bowl with the stick and Trevor videoed the action. We visited eight places on Wednesday and six on Thursday, and finished by sharing a can of abbot ale on the verge in the (by now) glorious late-afternoon sunshine. Well, I did mention that in the index of 'The Stripping of the Altars' the entry drinkings leads you directly to the reference to Rogationtide!!  So this is the material I have to work with.The next day I took the laptop to the church and sat in a pew and just wrote whatever came into my head - the first of  twelve 'despatches' from St Andrew's. An interesting experience.I'm thinking a lot about the urge I have to make rurally-based art that's as urgently relevant as any socially-motivated urban practice. The past is where we all come from, and our ancestors lived in the country.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Two weeks ago today I was out on my bike under threatening skies casting my circle sunwise around Wood Dalling. There's not been time to pause and update this blog since! And no time today, either, as it's the slash07 private view this evening and before that my mentor Jo from the Babylon Gallery in Ely is coming over for a mentoring session. She's coming along to Wood Dalling church with me and then on to the pv. There'll be lots to talk about and I'm looking forward to it.The work I have in slash07 has all arisen from Rogationtide, and has all been made within the last two weeks!! And the last three days of that have been occupied with hanging the exhibition ... some sleep will be nice. Meanwhile, I'm posting a few pics of what I've been up to since my last blog entry and looking forward to being able to update 'at leisure' (?) tomorrow!festial@world-tree[dot]co[dot]uk... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Jo's visit was very helpful, the private view went well and now my life is divided between invigilating the exhibition and preparing images and text for the first issue of my free monthly fanzine-style magazine Kalender.Kalender takes its name from the Kalender of Shepherdes, a medieval bestseller contemporary with Festial. It was a popular almanac of Christian feast dates, religious advice and woodcuts, laced with generous helpings of astrology and seasonal offerings that had little to do with Christianity. A bizarre mix, apparently.The style I'm adopting for Kalender veers between a parish magazine and Never Mind the Bollocks. We're invigilating all day tomorrow and I'm planning to deliver the file to the printer on Monday for same-day transformation into 180 cheap-and-cheerful mags, so Sunday will no doubt be given over to the madness that seems to have become a way of life at present.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 A heavy couple of days, but I now have a cardboard box containing 180 copies (well, I haven't actually counted!) of Kalender. There is slight disappointment in that the printers have reduced my A5 pages for some reason, which leaves an unplanned-for margin around each sheet and pictures that are smaller than I would have liked. But it wasn't their fault that I needed the job done in such a rush and that I couldn't check that all was well before they printed the whole lot. Having spent Sunday evening until midnight hammering out the page layouts with Trevor, and working on it on Monday morning right up to the minute when we just HAD to leave the house for our slash07 invigilation stint, it seems a miracle to have it at all. Even collecting the finished publication was stressful, as we raced from the exhibition venue at 5.30pm when the show closed to get to the copy bureau before it closed - at 5.30pm. We had to stop en route at a cash machine - with a queue, of course! - meanwhile, I failed to locate the mobile phone as it rang reproachfully, the print staff understandably keen to know whether we were actually going to turn up so they could get off home.But it's here now, and all that's left to do is to stuff a pressed wild rose petal into each of 180 small cellophane bags (don't ask!!) staple them onto 180 covers and rubber-stamp each front and back. Simple! And it's Corpus Christi tomorrow, and I haven't yet made any sort of plan for the day. So what am I doing about it? Cleaning the bathroom and washing the floors, that's what!! I've even given the porch a rare washing-down.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Corpus Christi was yesterday, by the Julian calendar. I spent a gloriously warm and sunny day at St Andrew's: I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be the only visit where I feel warm enough just in shorts and T shirt all day.The church was smellier than usual - I think the warm weather had made the bat and bird detritis a little more aromatic, shall we say. I spent time writing on the laptop, taking photographs of the traces of a sunken path leading from the front porch to (nowadays) nowhere, and then it was lunchtime. And I was lucky enough to have the luxury of a lunch invitation.Kay, a long-standing Wood Dalling resident with her husband David, has been following this blog. Some days ago she made contact via email and not only provided some very interesting new information but offered to lend me a special Wood Dalling book that had been compiled for the millennium. She also made the thoughtful offer of a stop-off for a cup of tea when next visiting the church as "it always strikes very cold in there" - true enough, as a rule! Kay and David both graduated from Norwich School of Art and Design in the mid-seventies, and David is Head of Art at the local high school. I got to meet Kay when she visited slash07 last Saturday, and we arranged that I would go and have lunch with her when doing my Corpus Christi stint. How lovely - she made me very welcome and has lent me lots of interesting things that have joined my growing 'to read as soon as possible' pile. It's a new friendship, made through this project, that I very much hope will continue beyond it.Back at the church, I took photographs of poppyheads until the batteries in both my cameras went flat, and rubbed all the brasses. There are eleven pre-Reformation ones, but I had to do some of them in two sections to fit them onto my A3 sheets! This was more time-consuming than it sounds: well, the first task was to brush the above-mentioned wildlife evidence off each one. Luckily, I had remembered to bring a brush and dustpan! Making the rubbings was intended as a practical task, as I hope to ask an expert in reading semi-illegible Latin to decipher them. But I discovered that photographs actually show the writing more clearly, so I'll probably send some of those. The rubbings are rather beautiful in their own right, though, and I'm getting some ideas about using them. During my tea-break outside in the sunshine, a pied wagtail - one of my favourite birds - started strutting his stuff around the tower, the gravestones and the sunken path. Grabbing my video camera, I followed him (or her; hard to tell!) and shot some footage on impulse. I'm not sure what, if anything, it will lead to - but you never know when a pixilated pied wagtail may come in useful! This has been a very different experience from Rogationtide. For one thing, I was on my own, with minimal prior planning or expectations. Corpus Christi was a festival of prime importance to medieval people and I knew I should include it, but its ultimate purpose was to celebrate the miracle of transubstantiation - ordinary bread being, at the same time, the real body of Christ although no change appeared to have taken place - and I knew I would have to find a way through this for myself that recognised the wonder felt by the people, and the celebration they shared, but working laterally so that I would be exploring something that meant something to me personally. I had a selection of equipment and materials on hand, but it truly was a case of 'seeing what happened' and where my thoughts/emotions took me. What I came away with was a lot of source material, ideas for a couple of things I would like to go back to do in the next day or two, and mental activity that will take some time to assimilate and start working with.The afternoon flew and the early evening was even sunnier with a lovely light playing in the big church windows (no stained glass here). It was time to pack everything up, checking the underside of everything to see that I wasn't taking home more than I'd bargained for. And that was Corpus Christi.www.world-tree.co.uk/festialfestial@world-tree[dot]co[dot]uk Please visit the website! Newly enlarged and with added Rogationtide features.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 A few days have passed since Corpus Christi and I spent much of the time at slash07 until we took the exhibition down on Saturday evening. Stewarding provided a great opportunity for rubber-stamping the Rogationtide dates and website address onto 180 copies of Kalender, and also stapling a cellophane packet containing a pressed wild rose petal to the front of each. Doesn't sound THAT time-consuming, does it??! I've sent some individual copies to press and gallery contacts, and the rest are being quietly deposited in small heaps in various locations for people to pick up and take away if they'd like to. Kalender is also downloadable from the website - but minus the free gift! www.world-tree.co.uk/festialA bit more about the 'Kalender of Shepherdes' from which Kalender takes its name: Published in French in 1493, it was first translated into English in 1503 'apparently by a Frenchman who knew only Scots English' according to Eamon Duffy in The Stripping of the Altars. The mind boggles ...! The Kalender of Shepherdes was one third religious instruction and two thirds astrological almanac, filled with calendrical, astrological and medical lore. A major attraction of the book was the fine woodcuts, illustrating both the religious and secular parts.I'm interested in the way that magic, medicine, astrology, divination, seasonal practices and the Christianity of the day were mixed up into one heady potion. It was an immensely popular book, running to several different translations and editions, and the Church doesn't seem to have had any problem with the seemingly incongruous blend.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Yesterday afternoon I had the opportunity to carry out the video shoot/performance I have been planning - and it didn't rain!! It's the result of an idea I had when I was at St Andrew's on Corpus Christi day and have been developing in my head since. It even developed and changed while it was happening, and then I went back again this morning and videoed a bit more. So, quite organic - but that's ok, I think. I think of it as my Corpus Christi Play. One of the main features of the pre-Reformation Corpus Christi festival were dramatised biblical stories (myths) that were performed each year. Often the plays would have been performed on the equivalent of carnival floats - but I wasn't that ambitious! Traditionally, each play was performed by the guild whose craft was appropriate to the action so that, for example, the shipwrights would portray the story of Noah building the Ark, and the roof-thatchers would perform the Nativity play with Jesus in the manger. I wonder what my story is? The main purpose of the procession was to display the Host - the consecrated bread that people believed 'was' the body of Jesus and the idea of Corpus Christi was to celebrate the wonder of this miracle, with all its gruesome implications. Medieval people would hang their best beds and bedcovers from their houses and stew their front doorsteps with herbs and flowers to greet the procession, and I took something from this idea as well. I was very curious to discover how it feels to strew, and to experience the smell as the strewn herbs were walked on.I'm not into the bible, myself, and found that the snatches of myth, folklore and story that habitually swirl around in my head proved ample inspiration for my Play. Well, it's not a fully-formed entity yet, but I've got lots of material to work with now. That's the wonder of 21st century technology .... and big thanks to Trevor for patiently filming my feet from innumerable angles!!So, I'm thinking wonder, fantasy, spectacle, the aroma of flowers and herbs, summer, the imaginative world, belief in the irrational, the macabre. I hope I can make something coherent of all this!Meanwhile, I'm aware that the second issue of Kalender (bumper Corpus Christi number) is due out, well, as soon as I can manage it ....www.world-tree.co.uk/festial... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 It's scary to acknowledge how many hours I've spent producing the Corpus Christi issue of Kalender. And it would have taken far longer if I hadn't had the assistance of a computer genius! To think that when my mentor Jo visited and I hadn't any idea how I was going to put Kalender together, I was wondering whether I should ditch it to retain my sanity. Jo did suggest that I trim down the project workload in order to do fewer things well rather than rushing around making work like a whirlwind. She was right, though, in her conviction that Kalender was non-negotiable. For one thing, I've flagged it up rather publicly. For another, I love doing it! When I had the initial idea I was excited at the thought of the publication as a limited-edition multiple that I would leave in random places for people to pick up if they were curious. But now I realise that it can be distributed more widely than my immediate locality - in virtual form anyway - by making it downloadable from the website, and that means it will potentially reach a much wider audience, which is great. Preparing the images and text is, itself, 'making work' that can be developed in other ways, and I'm finding that further ideas are springing up all the time. The trick will be to record those ideas but not to try to develop them all right now. After all, I've been rash enough to schedule four different dates to constitute one of my twelve festivals - The Midsummer Bonfires and Display of Relics - and the first Bon(e)fire for St John's Eve is coming up VERY soon ...www.world-tree.co.uk/festial ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 After a few hairy moments with the Corpus Christi mag - including a worried phone call from the printers saying that their machine was chewing up paper of all colours except for white and did I mind Kalender having a white cover - it's here! Because it was printed on a different machine, the print quality is different from the Rogationtide issue. It's rougher, more 70s fanzine-like. The detail is far less obvious than it is on a computer screen, but I think it's OK for what it is and what I always said I was aiming at: a spontaneous, low-cost publication as a giveaway multiple. I have to say I'm glad that Kalender is also up on the website as a downloadable pdf, as some of the photographs really are 'enigmatic' in its printed form!I've worked in a completely different way this time: making images for Kalender and working out relationships on the page has triggered new ideas to take forward that weren't there before. Ideas arose from putting together the Rogationtide issue too, but the looming slash07 exhibition forced me to make something more tangible before I started. So I was able to select from work that already existed and organise it into something resembling a magazine. I've learned a lot from both approaches, but the difference here is that the new festival - the Midsummer Bonfires and Display of Relics - is already upon me and without the spur of the exhibition I haven't managed to physically make anything except for Kalender in between.As it is, the first Bonfire has happened - last Friday - and here I am, still stuffing cellophane bags with sweet woodruff as the Corpus Christi free gift and working on a late-night rubber-stamping production line with Trevor while listening to 15th century music on CD. Madness!More on the Bonfires as they happen, but here's evidence of the first one on St John's Eve - Midsummer Eve itself. I threw camomile on and the pungent smoke rose as it would have done 600 years ago. On the way round the church we saw a fantastic sight: a clutch of barn owl chicks, all different sizes, performing for us through an open window in the top room of the blocked off porch. Did their ancestors do the same 600 years ago? Trevor has read that where barn owls make their homes, the pellets pile up for hundreds of years, so it seems quite possible. After the brief performance and much shoving and squawking the chicks retreated and we didn't see them again while we were at the church. But later, we saw the pale ghostly flapping of a parent owl. It followed the line of the graveyard wall, but didn't swoop in. I don't suppose it sees many humans around at that time, or not live ones anyway.www.world-tree.co.uk/festial ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Back to the old path behind Wood Dalling church yesterday evening. It's becoming quite a resonant place for me, and I wonder what is accumulating there with each visit.This was the second of the three midsummer bonfires, collectively known as 'St John's Fires', but this one was actually for the eve of St Peter and St Paul's Day. The bonfires would have been rowdy social occasions with plenty of drinking and merriment. Mine was more reflective, but I was interested to see the juxtaposition of the primeval excitement of fire with the sombre church walls and (nowadays) peaceful graveyard. St John's Wort was the herb I cast into the fire this time to make 'magical' smoke - as would have been done in the medieval period. I'd spotted lots of it flowering along the old railway track close to our home and planned to stop off to pick some on the way to the church. We just turned the car around to park on the distinctly unpastoral road close to the start of the walk - and I was surprised to find some St John's Wort right next to the car door! No visible owl babies this time, but plenty of noise issued from the unglazed window where we saw them last week. Bird books describe the sound that barn owls make as 'hissing or snoring' and I'd put this into the former category ... nice to have some company, even if the Fire wasn't going to be quite the communal event that it would have been 600 years ago and more.After last week's Fire, I'd had a few ideas I wanted to try out with the filming, including circling the fire and jumping over it. This was great fun and I was definitely starting to feel that something was happening.www.world-tree.co.uk/festial ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Last night was St Thomas' Eve: time for the last of the midsummer bonfires. Luckily, like St John's and SS Peter and Paul's Eves, the weather was uncharacteristically summery and I was able to go barefoot which always seems to help for some reason! I hadn't got around to making wet-weather contingency plans, other than going on the next fine evening, but in the event it feels great to have managed to have all three fires on exactly the 'right' dates.Having said that, I know that I've been so intent on planning the performance/intervention each time - and then carrying it out - that I haven't fully reflected on the fact that it really IS the anniversary of the hundreds and hundreds of times that these fires would have been kindled. Am I feeling anything approaching the same as my medieval ancestors would have? Or their pre-Christian ancestors? Well, maybe a little. But as I suspected at the outset, there are going to be limits. My life is so much more comfortable; I'm not escaping for one evening from hunger - or from the ever-present fear of witnessing or experiencing excruciatingly painful death. Something else I'm reflecting on now is the context of my work. How does it relate to current practice and debate? I realise there's a need to look critically at my "intentions, processes and outcomes", in the words of an application brief I'm currently addressing. At the same time, the next festival and the next issue of Kalender are always looming. Perhaps I should be secure enough in the overall concept of Festial to accept what happens as it happens, and the relentless turning of the year is a part of that. I'm trying to put myself in the place of people whose lives and beliefs shaped the world we live in today; the world that all contemporary practice takes place in. I just hope that this means that my investigation is as contemporarily engaged as any other exploration of the links and chasms between different cultures.www.world-tree.co.uk/festial  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 It's a strange thing for an artist who feels drawn to performance and intervention to admit, but I do prefer to work in solitude. So imagine my discomfiture when I arrived at St Andrew's last Thursday armed with a carrier bag full of odd plastic bits and pieces and a camera, to find FIVE vehicles in the driveway of this sleepy church in its small scattered village. There seemed to be people everywhere, taking lawnmowers in or out of boots, slamming doors, feeding ducks and goodness knows what else. I'm afraid I just panicked and drove away!In all, I made THREE abortive attempts to perform my 'Display of Relics'. As I approached for the third time clutching my tripod, I could see through the open doorway of the church that one of the churchwardens was busily wielding a hoover. I know one should applaud this valiant effort to keep the copious quantities of bat droppings under control but I must admit my heart sank.Still, patience was rewarded in the end and my Relics have now been duly Displayed. I haven't found much out about how this would have been achieved in pre-Reformation days, but that's sometimes a good thing I think, as there's less risk of being tempted down a reconstructionist route. All I knew beforehand was that on the Sunday after St Thomas' Day (and observant readers will recall that the last Midsummer Bonfire was on St Thomas Eve ...) the relics - usually organic material reputed to be fragments of the physical remains of saints or their garments, but sometimes fantastical artefacts such as a Griffin's Egg - would be displayed or paraded in some way at each parish church. And every church  - however small and remote - would expect to have something to display, which makes you wonder whether medieval people ever questioned the authenticity of these treasures.The idea for my Display came to me when we were visiting the Scottish island of Eigg in the spring. The two beaches close to the cottage where we were staying were both strewn with strangely sea-worn plastic artefacts, some of which seemed to me to resemble otherworldly body parts or broken bits of torture equipment. This worked for me conceptually on several levels and I became quite excited about the possibilities. In fact, I'd been looking forward to this festival since before Festial officially started. Right now, all I have is a large number of photographs and one painting which I made yesterday at an inspiring workshop led by Nigel Skinner. But when time allows, what a lot of possibilities they seem to hold for future work. I know - it's just a case of being patient again.www.world-tree.co.uk/festial http://www.re-title.com/artists/imogen-bardwell.asp http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist_profile/Imogen+Bardwell/41443.html... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 I've just joined OUTPOST, an artist committee run gallery in Norwich. Instead of paying an annual subscription, you get the option of doing a day's invigilation at the gallery, and that was what I chose to do. I'd heard nothing following my application, then on Wednesday I received a phonecall asking if I could invigilate for a private view that evening. Anglia Square is a slightly seedy shopping precinct in one of the poorer parts of Norwich. OUTPOST has managed to borrow five empty shops there, and have transformed them into fantastic-looking galleries. Especially fantastic as Norwich just doesn't have contemporary galleries like that in the normal run of things. For the month of July, five British artist-run galleries were invited to nominate an artist to take on each of the spaces. Then, for August, the galleries were handed over to five European galleries/artist organisations. 'My' gallery was that of Les Complices* from Zurich. Their artist, Edit Oderbolz, had taken up the carpet in the ex-charity shop, turned it over, divided it into segments and glued it to the walls and ceiling leaving the floor pitted and bare. Spending time in the room I increasingly appreciated the way the space had been used, and even got used to the smell! It was interesting to talk to the artist and the gallerist, and I bumped into various people I knew from art school too, so all in all it felt good to be part of something that seemed so dynamic and exciting. A far cry, frankly, from my perception of the majority of the Norfolk art scene.Meanwhile I've been slaving over a hot computer and, with Trevor's help, the pdf of Kalender 3 ('Big Bonfires and Relics Issue') is cooking as I write this. Then I'll email it to the printer and hopefully be able to pick up the 180 copies later this afternoon. And then I can start rubber-stamping each one, filling cellophane bags with this issue's free gift and stapling them to the covers. Absolutely no let-up! And ... the next festival - St Christopher's Day - is next Tuesday.www.re-title.com/artists/imogen-bardwell.asp www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist_profile/Imogen+Bardwell/41443.htmlwww.world-tree.co.uk/festial ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Seeing St Christopher was the title of the press release I sent out locally in advance of yesterday's Festial performance. August 7 was St Christopher's Day; if you follow the Julian calendar, that is. Medieval people believed that whoever saw an image of St Christopher would not 'die an evil death' that day. So the giant was often painted on the wall of a church opposite the main doorway so that travellers could grab a glimpse of the saint before embarking on dangerous journeys. The idea of Seeing St Christopher was to see how many St Christophers I could see in the course of the day - a kind of inverted 'pilgrimage' as the whole point of the journey was to see the protective images. Somewhere between each of the churches I planned to stop and collect something to make into a badge. Again, a sort of inversion of medieval practice as people who went on pilgrimages would often buy a souvenir badge featuring the saint whose shrine they were visiting. My badges would form a memento of the journey itself rather than the destination; the number I was wearing would increase as the day went on. And, not to add any further pressure to this unrehearsed event, BBC Radio Norfolk had responded to my press release by suggesting that they phone me at 2.10pm for a live interview.Well, this all sounds OK, but things didn't go totally to plan. After frantically getting stuff ready to take, mostly in connection with the badges, we left home later than intended (Trevor had kindly agreed to come with me as my glamorous assistant and to take documentary photos). And, more to the point, I had no idea how complicated a children's badge-making machine is (or perhaps it's just me?!)I spent ages trying to make the first badge, before Trevor pointed out that the badge-making machine itself was faulty and there was no way that it could make a badge properly. So that was one thing I ended up having to compromise on, although we did stop between each church for me to jump out and collect something just in case I can work out another way of working with them that seems conceptually sound.When Radio Norfolk phoned, I was 'seeing' only my second St Christopher, but the interview went OK and I think I got away with it ... I felt really sad afterwards that I hadn't mentioned Trevor and he had been so brilliant and helpful and supportive, not to mention taking fantastic photos. So, Trevor - THANK YOU.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 I'm finding myself in a period of uncertainty about the project. The past two days have been totally given over to working on Kalender. Selecting and preparing images and finding text are part of the work, I know, and it's absolutely true that by doing this I'm generating ideas for further exploration. The problem, I think, lies in the fact that I'm questioning the validity of the St Christopher journey as 'art'. Does that matter? Is it what I do with the material collected along the way that counts? Does it matter if some of the festivals end up feeling less significant than others? Will I ever have time to make more ambitious work that side-steps away from literal responses? At the same time as I'm musing on this, I'm aware of a box containing 150 copies of the last 'Bonfires and Relics' Kalender with its stapled-on free gift, to be left in various places for people to find and (hopefully) take away. So I need to see to that too. Thanks to Trevor, it's also up on the website: www.world-tree.co.uk/festial. I've been sending out around 30 copies of each issue to press contacts, curators and arts officers. There have been three Kalenders now and they've been met with a resounding silence. This, I'm sure, is adding to the feeling of stasis. Having said that, hammering the layout together with my computer guru is always so exciting that hopefully these worries will recede.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Yesterday evening we went to the private view of 'Ammunition', a group show of anti-war art at St Margaret's Church in Norwich. Some very powerful, memorable, uncompromising work; but leaving aside the debate as to what would actually happen in Iraq if the troops suddenly pulled out, it was just so great to see challenging art in Norwich. It was the same venue as our slash exhibion back in June, which has had an unfortunate reputation in the past. On the other hand, it's practically the only place in Norwich that's big, painted white, and available to be hired out for group shows. If there are more shows like 'Ammunition' planned, things may well be looking up... Earlier, I had collected the 'Giant St Christopher issue' of Kalender from the printers and I really am pretty pleased with it, all things considered. The print quality is great considering it's a cheap and cheerful option, and despite my anxiety there was so much material that it filled 16 pages again (the first Kalender was a 12-pager).I do worry sometimes that the 'enigmatic imagery' (in the words of my original proposal to the Arts Council) might be mistaken for weird Christian evangelicism, but that was neatly balanced when I collected the previous Kalender and the print shop's managing director assumed it was a witchcraft publication.So, it's back to rubber-stamping and stapling and writing comp slips and stuffing envelopes - the old routine. While researching St Christopher for the last festival, I was disconcerted to come across an American Catholic shopping website where a lot of the beliefs I think of as 'medieval' still appear to be alive and kicking. Just try googling for 'St Christopher medals' and see what comes up!!! Pages and pages and pages of them. I started to feel a bit insecure about some of the ground I was standing on in this project, but Trevor pointed out that these American Catholic buyers of lifesize crucifixes and figurines of Jesus playing baseball (yes, really) are also living in a world of expensive cars and comfortable houses quite unlike the medieval landscape. And medieval people had quite a different sense of time. They had no idea that the world had existed for millions of years. It had been created by God at a time not far back in history and would be ending - with Judgement Day for all - in the very near future. This must surely have affected their perception of life: perhaps everything was bigger, in sharper focus and more vivid to them. Anyway, the new Kalender is up on the Festial website now!... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Returning late on Tuesday evening from a music festival on Dartmoor, I wasn't sure how ready I felt for the next day's festival of a rather different kind. I had the bare bones of an idea of what to do for Festial's fifth festival, Assumption. This was an important medieval festival, one of four special Mary feast days that fell (not co-incidentally, I feel) during each of the seasons. This one was popularly known as 'Our Lady in Harvest' and I had this in mind, as well as the physicality emphasised in the belief that Mary had been bodily (as opposed to spiritually) lifted up to heaven after her death. Unusually, probably uniquely, for me, the work was also to have a gender element. This is surprising as I have a particularly vocal dislike of work centring around so-called 'women's issues'. But I'm interested in the fact that women had a very raw deal in earlier medieval times despite their skill and knowledge in healing, but after the cult of Mary took hold they were given far greater respect. So, on Wednesday morning I went up to Wood Dalling church for a reccy to see if my vague plans were viable. Deciding that they probably were, I returned that afternoon and spent several hours photographing, filming, making an elderberry 'rosary' and generally hanging around to see what else would happen. As usual, it ended up as a race against time and failing light. I hadn't nearly finished when the keyholder appeared with a wheelie bin and the enormous church key. Responding to my shocked negative reply when asked if I was ready for her to lock up, she kindly said I could stay as long as I liked and pop the key back through her letterbox. Emboldened, I asked whether it would be OK to come back later, after dark, to do some sound recording. 'Oh yes', she said, 'as long as you return the key by 7am tomorrow as there'll be a service in the church then.' (!) What an opportunity! Later that evening we loaded up a collection of seemingly bizarre objects (luckily under cover of darkness) including laptop, mic, cello, singing bowl, jar of water, drum and reindeer-hoof rattle. The full moon meant that visibility in the church shouldn't be too much of a problem even if there was no electric light. In the event, we discovered that there is electric light in the church, which made operations more practical if less romantic. I had hoped to see a bat or two, and despite the light a few of them did break cover to flutter around atmospherically. Trevor asked me to walk around the church playing the various instruments to see where they resonated best while he sorted out the technicalities of sound recording. This was a memorable experience. But the session can't be called a resounding success as we were unable to resolve the technical difficulties and eventually had to call it a day. That's not the end though, as Trevor has ideas for alternative recording methods so the envisaged video soundtrack is still a distinct possibility.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 It was my turn for a crit at our artists' group meeting yesterday afternoon, and I decided to pass around past issues of Kalender for comment. Some interesting feedback, and all in all quite encouraging. So, I'm feeling a bit more positive about the fifth issue of Kalender that's in production right now. I was worried that it may be in danger of becoming pedestrian and predictable, but I've had a break from it as our lovely friends Hilde and Alex from Harrow came to stay over the weekend, and maybe the gap has been beneficial. On Monday, we took Hilde up to St Andrew’s so that she could see the location – she’s been following this blog and reading Kalender on the Festial website – only to find a notice on the door stating that the church has had to be closed for internal repairs. Oh no! But I went across to the keyholders’ bungalow and although they were not at home, the enormous key was hanging in a special box beside the door. Swiftly borrowing it (and, of course, leaving a note to say that I’d done so!) we were able to gain access. Inside, it’s quite a sorry sight, as wood and masonry have been falling. Sadly, the faded charm of the place is verging on disintegration. I’ve since been in touch with the keyholder and he has kindly given me permission to get the key and visit anytime, on the understanding that 'on my own head be it'. Anyway, I've had a couple of new ideas this morning that I'm about to go and try out, and hopefully the injection of new images will liven things up a bit. One thing that came out of the crit was that people could see the structure underlying each issue, and also the regular 'features' that are beginning to emerge, but they don't feel that it's a problem, i.e. that boring predictability is setting in! Although at the moment it often feels frustratingly like skimming over the surface, I need to keep reminding myself that Kalender is actually building into a sizeable sketchbook of potential starting points for exploration. In fact, I can imagine it leading to at least a couple of years' work once the Festial year ends, and that's a reassuring thought.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 This morning, I felt a flash of happiness as I sat at the kitchen table making 'free gifts' for the front covers of 180 copies of the new Kalender by dipping paper in elderberry juice and rolling it into beads. Whilst I was absorbed in this meditative process, I could hear what can only be described as 'unusual' sounds floating down the stairs as Trevor worked on his soundtrack to the forthcoming video. It all felt so right.Wait a minute, 'forthcoming video'? Let's get this straight. Installation for Norwich Fringe Festival starts on Monday, six days away. The event opens on Friday. I am expecting to show my video in the undercroft of Dragon Hall, a fabulous medieval merchant's house in Norwich. To accompany it in a 'less-is-more' kind of a way, I am printing out the first five editions of Kalender enlarged to A4 and having them bound into a hardbacked book. The new Kalender will be stacked alongside as an exclusive Fringe giveaway.So, what stage am I at?- Soundtrack at a delicate stage, with Trevor alternately despondent and 'a bit happier'.- Video editing not started yet.- Kalender omnibus not printed or bound.- No lectern or plinth organised for display of book.- No DVD player or TV monitor organised for showing of video.- New Kalender not yet with the printers, let alone rubber-stamped or with the free gift stapled to the front.- A pitifully small proportion of the required number of free gifts completed, though the production line is rolling.Right. So what happened to that flash of happiness?!... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 It's my birthday today, but no let-up in the preparations for my Fringe Festival installation. I think we'll treat ourselves to a meal at the local pub this evening, though!Quite a few of the items in the catalogue of woe of my last blog entry have now been addressed, thanks in no small measure to Trevor, who has worked tirelessly helping to retrieve large unwanted TVs from lofts, making and painting plinths, offering calm reassurance and so on. I know I'm biased (well, we are getting married in a fortnight's time!) but his soundtrack, now I've actually had the chance to start working with it, is sounding FANTASTIC! Many more hours than I care to count have been spent in cutting, dipping, rolling and varnishing little elderberry beads for the covers of the new Kalender, but now every single one is stapled on and waiting to be taken to the undercroft of Dragon Hall in Norwich, where I'll be installing on Thursday. All the past issues have been printed out at A4 and comb-bound, so that's another thing sorted.I've decided to project a single image into one of the dark alcoves within the vaulting, as I have an overhead projector and the space just seems made for it. So there’ll be the projection in one alcove, the video in another (also naturally quite dark), and in the third, two tall plinths each supporting an image on canvas. That’s the plan, anyway, and at the moment it does seem achievable.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 It's my birthday today, but no let-up in the Fringe Festival preparations. I think we'll treat ourselves to a meal at the local pub this evening, though! Quite a few items in the catalogue of woe of my last blog entry have now been addressed, thanks in no small measure to Trevor, who has worked tirelessly helping to retrieve large unwanted TVs from lofts, giving technical assistance, making and painting plinths, offering calm reassurance and so on. I know I'm biased (well, we are getting married in a fortnight's time!) but his soundtrack, now I've actually had the chance to start working with it, is sounding FANTASTIC! Many more hours than I care to count have been spent in cutting, dipping, rolling and varnishing little elderberry beads for the covers of the new Kalender, but now every single one is stapled on and waiting to be taken to the undercroft of Dragon Hall in Norwich, where I'll be installing on Thursday. All five of the past issues of Kalender have been printed out at A4 and comb-bound, so that's another thing sorted. I've decided to project a single image into one of the dark alcoves within the vaulting as I have an overhead projector and the space just seems made for it. So there’ll be the projection in one alcove, the video in another (also naturally dark), and in the third, two tall plinths each supporting a photograph. That’s the plan, anyway, and at the moment it does seem achievable. www.world-tree.co.uk/festialwww.norwichfringefestival.co.uk ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Well, the installation is duly installed and I think it's OK. I'll get a better idea tomorrow evening which will in effect be the private view for the Dragon Hall exhibiting artists. It's a 'sponsor's party' and performance evening in the Great Hall, so I'm hoping that quite a few of the partygoers and audience will find their way to the undercroft!In the end I gave up the idea of projecting an image into one of the alcoves. It just didn't look the way I had envisaged and with all the loose dust in the undercroft I feared for my overhead projector over the three weeks it would have had to remain in position. The image was to have been a photograph of the lower part of a poppyhead. Projected onto the crumbling wall below the vaulting, I hoped it would have a very ambiguous effect (see accompanying pic).But I realise now that it was an unnecessary addition to the installation anyway, and that it works better kept very simple with just the TV on a plinth and two 'portraits' on twin plinths in the adjoining alcove. The bound A4 Kalender omnibus sits on a lectern near the stairway into the undercroft, and all the copies of the current Kalender are piled up on top of one of the enormous barrels that have a permanent home down there. The one improvement that we're intending to make is to sneak in tomorrow evening before the party begins to connect an extra pair of speakers to the DVD player. At present the sound comes only from the TV monitor itself, so if we position the speakers in different parts of the undercroft the soundtrack will hopefully form more of a soundscape.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 This is the longest gap in my blog since I started it in April. It’s not that nothing has been happening. Far from it. But the run up to the wedding and then a few glorious days in Venice (with nightmarish journeys, but we’ll gloss over that!) and then 101 other things-that-needed-attending-to got in the way (including that inconvenient thing: paid work!). Anyway, I’ve been given a window of opportunity to write about Festial while Trevor valiantly tackles a pile of pages from the encyclopaedia of economics that I’m supposed to be proof-reading, so .... It’s hard to judge the success of the Dragon Hall installation, although I think it was probably the best I could make it, given the resources at my disposal. Ideally I’d have projected the DVD, but in practice I would probably have needed a white surface or screen, as I don’t think it would have been visible enough on the rough brick walls of the Undercroft. So, the television monitor was a reasonable compromise. Two small prints on plinths stood in another alcove, and elsewhere was a lectern with the A4 comb-bound book containing all five issues (so far) of Kalender, and a whole heap of copies of the current Kalender, of which I reckon at least 90 have been taken away by visitors. Going back last week to dismantle it all, I’d been looking forward to seeing comments in the book, good or bad, as I had no idea how the installation had been received. It was therefore disappointing to discover that the only ‘real’ comment was that of my lovely friend Hilde, who came up to Norwich for the wedding and had been along to the exhibition during the morning beforehand. It was a really nice comment, but I have to admit a certain possibility of bias! Observant readers may remember the last entry where I was looking forward to the first performance evening slash ’sponsor’s party’ at Dragon Hall which, I assumed, would serve as a private view for the four exhibitors at the venue. Well, I was wrong! It was a perfectly pleasant event and I enjoyed the talk by Susie Hanna on her current animation about Sylvia Plath, but the speech by the Fringe Festival organiser made no mention of the art to be seen there at all. As some of the work was quite subtly located and mine was in the Undercroft with no signage exhorting people to go take a look, I’m not at all sure that everyone present was aware that Dragon Hall was more than just an atmospheric venue for the party and performances! It’s true that in quiet moments during the speeches, strange sounds could be heard emanating from the Undercroft (thanks again for the soundtrack, Trevor!) but I’ve certainly learned a few lessons from the experience. Firstly, don’t take anything for granted but actually speak to the speech-maker(s) beforehand and check that the work is going to be promoted. And provide clear signage to lead people to the work: don’t assume they’ll find it by themselves! As this was a Fringe Festival run by volunteers, it was really nobody’s job but my own. On, then, to Michaelmas in the Festial year. I’ll post a bit more about this festival as I do more work on Kalender – just need to finish that proof-reading first! – but I have had to compromise on the date that I visited the church this time, as Michaelmas using the Julian calendar actually fell while I was away in Venice. So, I went up there on the first possible day afterwards, to find that a few changes had taken place in my absence. The most instantly noticeable of these was that scaffolding has now been erected outside and inside the north side of the church. I did know that quite major work was going to take place during the course of the year to replace the north aisle roof and windows, but it was still quite a shock. There were no builders anywhere to be seen on that occasion (well, they are notorious for starting a job and then trying to keep lots of people happy at once!) but I think that, for this shy and retiring artist, the presence of the builders is likely to be an inhibiting factor while the work goes on. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it, though. Then, on Monday, I went to Ely for a meeting with my mentors Katie from BCA and Jo from the Babylon Gallery. It was quite a tough, but stimulating, meeting. Half-way through the project seemed a good time to take stock and maybe tweak things a little if necessary. Most importantly, Jo and Katie gave me advice which will help me find the motivation to push forward on that thing called ‘audience development’ through the barrier of feeling that I’ve received little or no audience feedback during the time the project has been in progress. So, now I have a checklist of ‘things to do’ (as if there weren’t enough already!) and I’m actually really excited about it. Among these, I’m planning to hold an Open Day in Wood Dalling to talk about the stage that Festial has reached and to show some of the work. Maybe there’ll be some hands-on activities, too – but I’d better not get carried away with all this until I’ve done some thinking about it. My first thought is that, as the church is named for St Andrew, St Andrew’s Day (13 December, Julian calendar style) would be a good choice. Another thing I’ll be doing is contacting some local heritage societies to see if they would be interested in hearing about the project. This all sounds far removed from the bright lights and cool galleries, but I’m starting to understand the need to ‘grow’ an audience from a tiny seed of goodwill. Maybe I’ve been a bit too ambitious, too soon.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 This week I’m getting my head down trying to attend to some of the ‘audience development’ issues that Jo and Katie were keen that I should address. Of course, it’s taking much longer than I imagined and the new Kalender, which is also crying out for attention, is so far no more than a (faint) glimmer in the background. Anyway, I’ve written to three local history societies (emphasising that this is contemporary art with a historical slant rather than history per se: I’m sure they’d have something to say about my accuracy if I presented my work as ‘fact’!). Also, I’ve written a ‘half-way through the residency’ press release which seems a bit thin on substance to me, but you never know I suppose if real news is thin on the ground right now. I seem to remember that, for this reason, the Arts Council guidance booklet advises artists to issue frequent press releases and resist the feeling that their story is not newsworthy just because there’s little take-up the first time round – or perhaps I’m just imagining this! Putting Kalender together feels much more creative than what I’m doing right now, but I recognise the necessity of reaching out to a grass-roots audience if my ambition is to be taken on by publicly-funded galleries. Yesterday I received an email from OUTPOST - the Norwich-based artist-run organisation I belong to - advertising a performance this evening: my friend Anna and her husband Laurence (Townley & Bradby) will be scooping up stray strands of tobacco from a computer keyboard, making them into a roll-up and smoking it. I’m always interested to hear what Anna and Laurence are up to and I know I’d enjoy the performance, but I find myself wondering how far out of step with cool contemporary practice my own concerns/issues/passions/obsessions may be, and whether this matters or not. In the end, I suppose it doesn’t matter whether it matters – it’s just what I do and I’m going to keep doing it. On the other side of things, I’ve also received an email from an MA student in the Department of World Art Studies and Museology at the University of East Anglia. Amandine is researching ‘Art and Religion in Norfolk’ and is looking to interview contemporary practitioners working within this area with a view to an exhibition next year as the outcome of a partnership between her Department and Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service. This could be interesting and I’m hoping to meet her sometime next week.www.world-tree.co.uk/festialimogenashwin[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Twelve days after my last blog entry, I’ve sent out a lot of press releases and made enquiries about the possibility of holding a mini Open Day within Wood Dalling’s own Christmas Market in the Village Hall on December 1. No feedback on any of this so far! No feedback either from any of the local historical societies I contacted – but it’s possible they have to wait until their next meetings to discuss the issue. Another thing that's taken time is sorting out some radical enhancement of the Festial website. Trevor has, as usual, done some lovely work on this (well, that's what I think!). www.world-tree.co.uk/festial On a lighter note, I’m in the process of brewing 40 pints of Festial ale – cheating, admittedly, by using a kit – as a (clearly essential) part of my Michaelmas research/work. If I get the go-ahead from the Wood Dalling Christmas Market organisers, I plan to give mugfuls of this away to interested punters at my Open Day. Now, who says this is stooping low???! When I say mugfuls, I won’t actually fill the (medieval-replica) mugs right to the brim, obviously, and I’ll be inviting donations for the Village Hall Fund .... I’ve also proposed taking along my laptop with a slideshow of project images and a small portable DVD player for the two video pieces. The Committee were meeting last night, so I expect I’ll hear one way or the other fairly imminently.For the last few days I've been gathering material for the Michaelmas edition of Kalender. I was worried (as I often am) that there wouldn't be enough and it wouldn't hang together, especially this time as the festival itself was somewhat overshadowed by the wedding. I needn't have worried, though - when we sat down to do the layout it was actually difficult to fit it all into the 16 pages! I'm hoping to email it all to the printer tomorrow so it should be ready to pick up before the weekend. That's not quite on schedule, as the next festival - All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day - theoretically takes place today and tomorrow! We went past the church today and there were vehicles parked in the driveway and builders swarming (well, that's an exaggeration but I certainly spotted one) so it's not ideal. I'm not all that keen on the present cold wet conditions either, if I'm quite honest, but I'll get up there tomorrow anyway and see how it goes. Whose idea was this project, anyway?! Last Wednesday I went to UEA to meet the MA student, Amandine, who had contacted me about the project in relation to her MA coursework researching the idea of a ‘200 Years of Art and Religion in Norfolk’ exhibition. I met Amandine and also Anna, a third-year Museology undergraduate who is also working on this research. We had an interesting discussion. The students had already met several contemporary artists and had become slightly confused as to what was at the heart of the theme of ‘Art and Religion’. Amandine had seen the Festial website so she knew that my work wasn’t using art as an expression of religion, but Anna thought that perhaps that was what their brief implied. I said that if they were looking for artists/craftspeople of today who are making sculptures, textile pieces and so on to locate in places of worship (including site-specific pieces) I was certain they would have no difficulty finding them. But that is absolutely not what I’m doing in my own work. Amandine felt that it would be more interesting to take a step back from this ‘expression of religion’ thing and incorporate work that looks at or comments on religion, but I did have the impression that the students hadn’t really formulated clear thoughts about this yet. Apparently, an artist they had seen that morning had assumed they were looking for Christian artists, although the word Christian doesn’t come into the literature they sent me and I’m certain that any exhibition funding body would run a mile from anything labelled ‘religion’ that didn’t allow for different faiths to be represented. Another thing I talked about (I hope I didn’t talk too much!) was the difficulty in classifying medieval religious art as an expression of faith, as there were so many motives underlying the creation of the work. Not least, the wish of the donor to gain brownie points with God and earn a shorter time for him/herself and his/her family in Purgatory!... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 I heard from the Wood Dalling Christmas Market organiser and the news was not good. Apparently they can’t fit me in! No compromise options were offered, like paring down the presentation and giving me a small table out in the hallway, for example. It does make me wonder how much local interest in the project it’s possible to drum up. I mean, they even turned down the free beer! Ho hum … a great excuse for an Advent party, anyway.  And, I’ve heard from one of the three local Societies I contacted about the possibility of going along to one of their meetings to chat informally about the project. It’s the one that’s based in my home village – and they’ve turned me down too! It’s true that they seemed to think I was offering a formal talk and their programme is full for 2008, but it’s always a bit disheartening to be told that your records will nonetheless be kept ‘on file’ and to be ‘thanked for your interest’! This community-inclusion thing is really not going the way Jo and Katie (my mentors) seemed to envisage. Anyway, there are positive things to report – for one thing, Kalender has gone together well and is finished and is with the printer. Unfortunately, when I went to collect the 180 copies on Friday afternoon I discovered they’d printed it as a postcard-sized image in the centre of each A5 page. It was pretty hard having to turn it down having struggled across the rush-hour traffic - and actually seeing the box of condemned Kalenders - but there was nothing else I could do but go home empty-handed. The printers are going to re-do them, but I probably won’t be able to get over there again until Friday. Meanwhile, this new edition – Michaelmas, issue 6 – is now downloadable from the website: www.world-tree.co.uk/festial Last Tuesday and Wednesday were All Saints and All Souls’ Days – Julian calendar style – and I spent some time at the church on Wednesday afternoon. There was no sign of the builders, and I had a great time taking photographs as the afternoon sunlight shifted around the old building. Plastic sheeting has been hung to separate the south aisle where the builders are working from the nave, and I found the reflections and shadows really evocative. A real piece of luck. Afterwards, I was lucky again as I was able to warm up with a cup of coffee beside the woodburning stove of Kay, my Wood Dalling friend who I’ve met through the project (another good thing about Festial!) And later an idea emerged for some work connected with All Souls’ Day, so on Thursday I baked a dozen fairy cakes …. but, in the tradition of fairy stories and soap operas alike, I’ll leave the rest until my next blog entry … !... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Whew! It’s been hectic on the Kalender front. Having collected the reprinted Michaelmas edition, now with pale pink cover (the printer had run out of the light purple I’d chosen) and the right size but not quite such nice quality printing – sigh – Trevor and I set to and spent a whole evening rubber-stamping, filling cellophane bags with wheat grains and stapling them onto 180 covers. Yes, well …  The mentors suggested being a little less mysterious and including some information about the project in each issue. I’ve sort of compromised by writing a short introduction to Festial and printing it on a compliment slip to be inserted into each Kalender (another small task x 180!). So now I’ve posted out the 30-odd press/gallery copies and just need to sort out the other 150 comp. slips so I can shift the rest from the sitting room floor. At the same time, I’ve started compiling the next Kalender – All Saints and All Souls – and this time, for a change, it’s going to be practically all images with minimal text, which will coincidentally (of course!) be less demanding research-wise.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Not much to report on the 'audience development' front. I have to admit to feeling a bit jaded about the whole thing. However, the new Kalender is with the printer now, and I'm hoping to pick up the completed job tomorrow afternoon. In the end, I decided to focus on 'All Souls' rather than trying to accommodate ideas around 'All Saints' as well - and all in 16 pages! There was plenty of material to fill it as it was, and I'm pleased that there was room to include some full-page images. I read Jane Ponsford's last blog entry, and know just what she means about working surrounded by dead people - the 'All Souls' of the festival seem very close by when you wander round the 'empty' church. But I've never felt uncomfortable there. St Andrew's is extremely forlorn-looking at the moment with all the dust, rubble, scaffolding and moved-around furniture, but certainly all seems benign. Putting a named cake on each of the floor brasses and photographing it was an intense experience and I hope the visual result captures something of that.This new Kalender is about to be posted on the website:www.world-tree.co.uk/festialOh yes, and feedback would be very gratefully received at:imogenashwin[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Still working on the Kalender production line! This All Souls issue has coincided with so many other things that need to be done, and consequently seems to have taken an age to prepare for distribution. But now all the little 'poor souls' are in their cellophane bags, the rubberstamping is finished and compliment slips printed and sliced up, and all I have to do is to buy a new stapler (now where did I put the old one?!!) and attach 180 little 'souls' to the covers.Christmas? Ah, well, Christmas is the next festival I need to plan for ... and what a good thing it doesn't fall until January 7th according to the Julian Calendar!The photographs here were taken by Trevor from the scaffolding tower currently occupying part of the nave of the church. He took the opportunity to grab an unusual perspective on the familiar Wood Dalling characters.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 I'm starting to have thoughts about the next festival - just as well, really! Christmas, Julian Calendar style, falls on Monday 7 January and after the New Style festive lull this date is coming up all too fast.I've been wanting to experiment with the webcam equipment in the church since the project started, and Trevor's suggestion that we go there at night for a sort of Christmas Eve vigil next Sunday evening seemed like just the right idea at the right time. So, hopefully the webcam will have an airing at last, although I won't have the technology to beam the images live from Wood Dalling church. It's been important to me to avoid any Christmas cliches in preparing for the festival - after all, everyone knows that quite a few of our current traditions were being practised in medieval times and that many of those are actually pagan in origin, being a celebration of the return of the sun at the midwinter solstice. While I'm very interested in all of this, I need to step sideways and find a slightly different 'take' on the festival. I'm thinking of focussing on the weird heads in the church, that always make me think of woodland spirits, satyrs and fauns, rather than on the human portraits/inscriptions I've been so involved with during previous festivals. Not sure yet how they'll be interpreted, though. It sometimes feels a ridiculous scheme: a residency with a self-imposed structure that leaves me feeling pressurised to come up with well-resolved concepts and a reasonable amount of work that seems worth publishing - as well as a heap of ideas for future development - twelve times during the course of a single year!!But on the plus side - after taking far longer to ferment out than the instructions promised - the Festial Ale is ready to drink, and it's very good indeed!... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Christmas is here! Well, as far as Festial is concerned, anyway. Yesterday (Christmas Eve) we cycled to Wood Dalling in beautiful (if frosty) sunshine and spent time in the church taking photographs and feeling the atmosphere. That builders' plastic sheeting is such an asset when it comes to intriguing ephemeral light effects. I was concentrating on the weird un-human heads, mainly, as well as some rather wild magical creatures  that are actually heraldic devices on the ledger slabs. Speaking to the keyholder afterwards, I learned that the subcontractor has sold the lead from the church roof and declared himself bankrupt, so nobody knows when the work is to be finished. The tiny congregation will presumably have to find the money for new lead now. I was sad for them as I love the place to be dusty and crumbling but it's clearly  not a sustainable position long term.Then, last night, Trevor and I returned for a Christmas Eve Vigil. Trevor had sorted out the technicalities of using the webcam (not without a measure of frustration: computers!!) and we had a great time filming and photographing candle flames in the dark church into Christmas morning. At midnight, we wished each other a Happy Christmas and returned home for a foaming glass of Festial Ale! Lots of material there, but now I'll have to decide what it's all about ...http://www.world-tree.co.uk/festialimogenashwin[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 It’s a week now since our medieval Christmas Eve ‘vigil’ in St Andrew’s, and I know that both Trevor and I have been thinking a lot about the experience. Being in an empty, darkened church at what would have been midnight on Christmas Eve for all those Wood Dalling residents who are commemorated in the brass inscriptions – well, it’s not something that I would ever have imagined before the start of the Festial project! I think that one thing that’s stayed with us both is the sheer level of noise in the pitch-black church. It was a stormy evening, which I suppose accounts for most of the banging and flapping(!) and also it was the dark phase of the moon so things could hardly have been blacker. Yet, it really wasn’t scary.   How much of the information gathered during that day and night will really come together into something I feel is interesting enough to share is another matter entirely. But today is when I start to find out, as it’s time to begin working with the text and images for Kalender 8. Quite often before I’ve felt as I do right now: that the ideas in my head are too vague; that I’ll never create a coherent publication; that I’m just not passionate enough about the possibilities inherent in the images collected for this particular festival and that this is bound to be reflected in the magazine itself.   But, so far at least (and thanks in no small measure to Trevor’s technical and creative input), Kalender has always exceeded my initial expectations on all those counts. Fingers crossed! ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 It's been a bit of a struggle this time, getting Kalender together. I think this is partly because I know in the back of my mind that the next festival - Candlemas - isn't until 15 February so there's been more time than usual to prepare the 'Christmas' issue.  But if I'm honest, I've been scared that this time I won't be able to pull it off, to make a batch of images and a few thoughts into something that reflects my thoughts/memories/feelings about the festival.I'd got all the pictures prepared and found a load of text, both from books and from extremely miscellaneous websites, but still fought shy of sitting down and seeing what happened when I tried combining them. Then Trevor had the idea that I should try writing a 'stream-of-consciousness'  piece about that Christmas Eve vigil we shared and let bits of that run through the issue of Kalender as a linking thread. Well, we finished putting it together this morning and - heaves sigh of relief - it's fine, I think. I'm pleased with it, even! Last night I hadn't created the cartoon, nor decided what the free gift should be. The cartoon sprang into my head as I went to bed last night and the free gift idea came to me as I woke up this morning ... phew!imogenashwin[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]ukwww.world-tree.co.uk/festial... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Disappointment on Friday: having struggled across a raw, sleety Norwich through the rush hour, acutely aware that it was only five minutes before the printers was due to close for the weekend, I arrived to find that Kalender hadn't been printed. I can't blame the printers, even though I'd phoned them on Tuesday to confirm that they could do the job and emailed the pdf to them straight afterwards. Although the email definitely didn't bounce, it didn't ever reach them, and  they can't be expected to have thought to phone me back to ask where it was when it didn't arrive. Can they?So, there I was, panting in the doorway explaining what I'd come for, while the staff sat round with their glasses of wine (end-of-the-week ritual) looking at me in bafflement. Sigh. I've sent the whole thing again now so I'm hoping that it will be sorted out tomorrow when the working week jolts back into action. I'll have to make a special journey to collect it now but I think it will be worth it as I'll be able to crack on with rubber-stamping and stapling a miniature Yule Log to each of 180 covers. Then I'll be able to get the usual 30-odd copies out to the curators/publications on the mailing list. The Festial residency started last May. So far, I've received very little feedback and would really welcome comments if anyone out there has time! The new Kalender has just been uploaded onto the website at:www.world-tree.co.uk/festialimogenashwin[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 I've just been invited by BBC Radio Norfolk to go into the studio on Friday afternoon for an interview about Festial's progress. This is likely to be the result of their having received the latest edition of Kalender (one of the 30 I posted to galleries/media) which by my reckoning will have arrived with them on the day they phoned me. So, that counts as a good result, promotionally speaking!By complete coincidence, Friday is also the date of next festival I'll be marking in the project - Candlemas. That's fine, though, as I can go up to St Andrew's in the morning to do whatever I'm going to do (she said mysteriously - or is it just that further planning is required?!)Something that I really need to do is to contact my Arts Council case officer to see if I can arrange a meeting. When I first planned Festial, I envisaged making lots of work during the year in addition to compiling and distributing Kalender. In practice, Kalender has been 'the work' in itself, and thinking of it in that way has been the only way to retain my/our sanity. That means that I don't have a physical body of work to curate into an exhibition at the end of the year, which is Phase 3 of the project according to the Arts Council funding I was awarded. There are plenty of ideas I want to develop, but having got to the ninth festival of the twelve, I need to work out what to do next.Oh yes, I meant to mention a new improvement to the website - an aerial map showing the location of Wood Dalling with a link enabling anyone to discover how far they are from St Andrew's! www.world-tree.co.uk/festialimogenashwin[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 I did the Radio Norfolk interview. And this time I managed to remember to mention the Arts Council,  the Festial website and Trevor's role in the project! It started inauspiciously when the presenter clearly had no idea whatsoever what the project was about, despite having some sort of info in front of him (couldn't read it from where I was sitting). 'So we've missed the medieval festival? Is there anything to talk about, then?'  He phoned his wife to make sure she remembered to pick up his prescription (he had a shocking cold). Then I handed him the two most recent issues of Kalender and he handed them back, saying they would only confuse him further. I returned them to him firmly, saying, no, I really think they will help. 'Do you really think so?' he asked doubtfully. ' Suddenly he became intrigued by the free gift on the Christmas issue - a (very) miniature Yule Log, to be burned and the ashes scattered to ensure fertility during the coming year. 'Ooh, I'll try this!' he chortled. The record ended - something bland and innocuous, such as is played on local radio stations up and down the country, I suspect. The presenter hadn't been listening to it, having been talking to his wife on the phone and getting up to speed on the Festial project. 'Ah, wasn't that lovely?' he enthused to his listeners.After all that, the interview went fine, I think. To the presenter's credit, he did get more-or-less to grips with the basics of Festial in the minute or so I was gabbling away to him, and it all seemed to flow reasonably well. I was given a copy on CD but I doubt I'll ever feel brave enough to listen to it! Must try to work out whether hits on the website have increased since Friday. www.world-tree.co.uk/festial ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 After getting into a bit of a routine - panic about what to do for festival/festival happens/panic about what to put into Kalender/Kalender happens and feels OK after all/panic about what to do for festival ... well, you're getting the picture - I thought I'd better make some effort towards sorting out the bigger picture. Like, what happens when the year ends?So, I've managed to arrange to meet my Arts Council case officer and will also hopefully get the chance to catch up with my long-lost mentor, Jo. As an aside, yesterday I discovered the sad news that Babylon Gallery in Ely is to close permanently in June. What a major loss to contemporary art in East Anglia; I can hardly believe it. I've also applied for a short-term residency which concludes with a solo exhibition for the chosen artist - feels like a long shot but, well, might as well give it a try.And, the Candlemas Kalender is currently at the printers' so, barring cock-ups, I'll be collecting it tomorrow afternoon! Yay! And HOPEFULLY also our expresso machine which is currently being fixed (not at the printers' I hasten to add). Even bigger YAY!! ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 A few random thoughts, subtitled 'areas of discussion over the lunchtime washing-up'.I have moments of worry over Festial. Over the things I'm interested in. Even wondering how interested I actually am in the things I say I'm interested in. In particular, in worrying over Festial I wonder whether I'm coming across as someone with a religious agenda (I'm not), and how relevant to contemporary life my preoccupations are. I mean, I can counter any accusations of this nature with the assertion that I'm living here in this moment with these thoughts and images running around in my head and as a contemporary artist I can choose to use anything as subject matter and it will, without any further need for justification, be contemporary art.I think I believe this.But the next moment I'm wondering  whether photographs of Starbucks frontages projected onto the walls of St Andrew's would say 'contemporary' more persuasively than anything I'm minded to do. How far can I say 'But I'm not that kind of artist?' Is it limiting to decide what kind of artist you are without trying things you wouldn't have imagined as part of your practice? Is it possible to have conviction in this area, and to do stuff within your self-defined limitations and use those limitations creatively? I think I'm sure about something, but then I wonder how I can be so sure that I'm right. I might just be being blinkered.I  think this would all be easier to fathom if I'd received more critical feedback during the project. Without that you have to be your own critic, which inevitably has its own limitations. Trevor and I talk about Festial and he comes up with some very useful input, but of course we're both quite close to it. I know that I'm happy with some of the imagery that's emerged so far, so does it matter whether it satisfies my peers as relevant or worthy of review? Meanwhile, I posted out 32 copies of the Candlemas Kalender this morning. www.world-tree.co.uk/festialimogenashwin[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk     ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 Two unrelated developments: Firstly, last week I went to Cambridge for a meeting with my case officer at the Arts Council, and afterwards had a brief catching-up session with my mentor Jo, who happened to be due at the Arts Council offices for a meeting herself.The meeting went really well and I came away with more ambitious plans for 'work arising' from Festial than I went in with! It was good to see Jo, too, who has strongly encouraged me to put all my strength(!) into contacting galleries and persuading them that they really need to show my work after the end of the residency year.Hmm, well, I've put together a rough proposal and have been contacting people like mad in the last few days so we'll see whether it leads anywhere...The second development has been some feedback from two of the newest recipients  of my Kalender mailout, the esoteric writer/researcher Nigel Pennick and historian/expert in paganism and folklore of the British Isles Ronald Hutton. They both responded positively and seemed delighted with their free gifts! A boost at this stage of the project and much appreciated. Meanwhile, I'm researching Palm Sunday for the next festival and wondering how cold and damp St Andrew's is at the moment ....And I'm thinking about Anselm Kiefer's Palm Sunday installation at White Cube a year ago. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/384170 I got the residency I applied for! Three weeks in the art department of a renowned public school about 12 miles away (unlike the pupils I won't be 'living in') followed by a solo exhibition in the school's gallery, 'The Nicholson Gallery'.I visited the department today, and it's a real art department, messy and  smelling of oil paint. Daunting but I'm up for it, definitely. And won't the mentors be pleased! I've said I'd like to spend time experimenting with printmaking using ideas and imagery generated by my