ARTISTS TALKING

# 50 [1 October 2007]

Two Artists in Residence on an Allotment - Day 1 - Rain, rain, rain.

London and Southeast England: Cloudy, with a little more rain or drizzle for most. This Evening and Tonight: Cloudy skies generally, with outbreaks of drizzle and mainly light rain. Low cloud will give mist and fog over the hills but it will be mild.Tuesday: A good deal of cloud, with a little light rain or drizzle in places. A few brighter spells may develop here and there in the afternoon.Outlook for Wednesday to Friday: Mostly cloudy again on Wednesday, with some rain likely later. Cloud and patchy rain slowly clearing during Thursday. Mainly fine on Friday.

Despite the weather today I collected leaves from the allotment and we made:

over 50 prints

some drawings

tea and coffee

some wet puddles on the floor

# 49 [30 September 2007]

I've just eaten the allotment. It is inside me. For supper I had mash made from the last of the potatoes, greens: spinach, curly jack, sorrel and oriental greens, and a yellow courgette.

As well as providing food for the stomach the allotment gives food for thinking, food for feeling. It is an open space apart from the day to day. On my visit today I thought about the 2 weeks' residency to come. I looked with slightly different eyes at the grass, the earth and the sky - I stared at them. I looked at the water in the baths and the metal of the empty wheelbarrow. I decided I will start each day of the residency by standing and staring. I will see what happens, what I notice, what I think. What I noticed today was the clover. There is a mass of three-leaf clovers. I love them. There is no need to search for a four-leaf clover, all the luck you need is here.

# 48 [29 September 2007]

CHECKING MY BOUNDARIES

My recent work has been concerned with location and locating oneself; finding one's place. A little while ago I worked on a project in which I was looking at strategies which blind and visually impaired people use to locate themeselves, to get a sense of the space which they are in. One blind person explained to me that to understand an indoor space, she liked to walk the length and breadth of the room, touching each wall to "feel" the space.

On Wednesday I walked the boundaries of the allotment, feeling the extent of our space, marking the boundaries with string looped around tall canes. Remarkably, the perimeter of the allotment was exactly equivalent to one whole ball of string.

# 47 [28 September 2007]

ANOTHER PRIZE AWARDED

Autumn has arrived on the allotment. Leaves, flowers, vegetables are dying back. The juice is retreating into the earth. I was struck by the beauty of some deaths. The dead heads of the artichoke stand proud, strong, brown. I have one more prize to award. The MERIT goes to this dead artichoke head. This one has to represent the team of heads. I remember the brightness of their purple hair in mid Summer. But their silvery brown crowns stand up straight and true.

# 46 [28 September 2007]

LAST PREPARATION DAY

We have had our last prep. day. We hauled pallets from the garden centre car park - they may be the start of our shelter which we will build next week. However we decided to put up a white gazebo on Monday 1 October, the First Day of our Residency - so that we have immediate shelter from rain and a place to lay out materials.

I have become interested in the original measures used to lay out allotment plots - rods, poles, perches - all these measure the same i.e. approximately 5.5 yards. Many old measures came from using the body like a ruler: a cubit is the average length from finger tip to elbow; hands are still used to measure horses. A foot needs no explanation. I decided to measure my allotment with my body. I loved lying face down on the grass and earth, like kissing my allotment. The plot is 12 bodylengths long by 4 bodylengths wide.

Crops were also used to measure: 3 barleycorns = 1 inch. I used runner beans grown this summer: the plot is 110 runner beans long by 47 runner beans wide.

# 45 [26 September 2007]

On our last preparation day 3 weeks ago, using canes lashed together with string, I tried to make a 3D drawing of the shelter we hope to build. The result was a wonky bamboo frame which wouldn't stay upright long enough to support the outline of a roof, a strong reminder of the need to develop my design and construction skills.

Last week I visited the Eden Project and was pleased to be able to take a close up look at a very solid bamboo construction together with information on various ways of using bamboo to build strong frames, walls, floors, roofs and screening panels.

Also at the Eden Project were wall paintings by two "vegetalistas" from Peru depicting the intertwined relationship between people and nature.

# 44 [24 September 2007]

Our final preparation day is on Wednesday. We will do a final survey and set up arrangements for starting the Residency proper next week - exciting. We will invite Simon over so he can see the allotment "in person". I went up last week to measure the allotment in bodylengths. This was inspired by finding out that the plots used to be measured in rods or perches or poles. All these are the same length i.e. roughly 5.5 yards. This is equivalent to 11 cubits, 5.0292 metres, 16.5 feet. 4 rods make a chain. One source says a standard allotment is 10 poles (10 x 30 yards or 9 x 27 metres). Roughly 300 square yards. But this does not add up. I must measure my allotment. Remember those old exercise books with all these measurements on the back.

# 43 [14 September 2007]

OUTSIDE BATHROOM

Judith's thoughts about bringing the inside outside made me realise we have 3 baths on the allotment, only one with taps. I went up to take a closer look at them. They are used as water butts now. Jeannie, my co-allotmenteer and I throw in comfrey as it enriches the water and helps the vegetables grow. Washing in rainwater is supposed to be good for your skin, to make your skin soft. I think I will try it.

# 42 [12 September 2007]

With the time we’ve set aside for the allotment residency drawing nearer, the issue of a shelter has grown more urgent. Out of the blue I received a call from Simon Barker, an architect based in Eastbourne, offering to join us to help build a shelter.

Simon has a long standing interest in the evolution of improvised buildings such as those found on allotments or developed on PlotLands. We met with Simon yesterday and talked about ways we could work together to build a structure on the allotment using found and recycled materials. We talked about what the shelter will need to provide for us, and how we can make it into something more than just a shed – could it have another function or in some way be a place of transformation, somewhere that offers “a new view”? A telescope? A cinema? A schoolroom? And we talked about the work of Folke Köbberling and Martin Kaltwasser who mount installations and interventions in urban space, building structures from found and re-appropriated materials.

Simon will visit the allotment and we will all start gathering materials ready for a weekend of building at the beginning of October.

http://www.barkershorten.com

# 41 [10 September 2007]

I love the shabbiness of allotments. Nevertheless I felt weeds and grass had got out of hand on our preparation day. Thus I took the strimmer and spade to prepare the allotment for the residency proper which starts in a few weeks' time. It looks much better for its late summer clean.

I took the opportunity for a lesson and examined the leaves of the vegetables and fruit bushes. Spent a happy hour printing from these.