ARTISTS TALKING

# 18 [29 May 2007]

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.

# 17 [15 May 2007]

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.

# 16 [10 May 2007]

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.

# 15 [8 May 2007]

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.html

festial[at]world-tree[dot]co[dot]uk

# 14 [6 May 2007]

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.

# 13 [2 May 2007]

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.

# 12 [29 April 2007]

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 52^nd has broken off … and how many weeks are there in a year? and what measure of time is Festial concerned with? Possibilities, possibilities.

# 11 [24 April 2007]

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...

# 10 [22 April 2007]

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]uk

http://www.world-tree.co.uk/festial.html

# 9 [19 April 2007]

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!