Lost Library: Part 3

Meadow Arts supports emerging artists by offering an annual prize to a graduating student from Hereford College of Arts' Fine Art BA (Hons) course. Our 2014 prize winner was Catherine Wynne-Paton, here she writes about her current project, Lost Library.

Part 3

My approach to this project has been one of open consultation with the library and friends group of the library and collaboration with other artists in the production.

So, with the idea of a performance turning text into movement along the route from the library to the festival site, with some kind of mini mobile library as the focus, I began discussions with creatives to see what we might create.

I met with students on the Extended Diploma in Art & Design at Hereford College of Arts, tutored by Darren Williams, to discuss the project and their possible involvement.  Using themes from the book and in particular the presence of gardening throughout the novel, they came upon the idea to source a 1950s wheelbarrow to adapt.  Once college work was completed Jasper Cousins adapted the wheelbarrow to hold a large roll of printed paper (the novel).

Working with music degree student – Mary Tolhurst – who I have asked to write and record a piece of music inspired by the novel which will be played from the Wheelbarrow, mostly to attract attention to the performance.  Mary is interested in the subtle transformative effects of music and how it can influence what we are feeling. 

To be able to use a novel in this way I soon had to contact the publishers to ask permission to use the text in this way, the author’s daughter Merryn Hemp was also consulted and is delighted with the project and thinks it, “A wonderful idea”.  The Library of Wales has given ten copies of the novel towards the project, which are now available to borrow at Abergavenny library.

To highlight the ideas of text to movement and growth (individual growth through reading and other library services), especially with gardening being integral to the way of life of central characters of the book, we’ll be giving away seedlings of plants featured in the novel along with the text, with the obvious connotations of text planting germs of ideas and knowledge in the mind and promoting growth.  A little clichéd, perhaps, but still very relevant today and a big part of what libraries and librarians are all about (in my view!  Comments very welcome.)

I am currently growing Little Gem lettuce, Chrysnthemum, Sweet Pea and Snap dragon from seed in my garden, in my neighbour’s greenhouse and the Greenfingers group in Pen-Y-Pound are also having a go in an effort to have enough seedlings in bio pots to give away with the text during the Eisteddfod.

www.lostlibrary.name   

twitter & Instagram @wynnepaton

Lost Library: Part 2

Meadow Arts supports emerging artists by offering an annual prize to a graduating student from Hereford College of Arts' Fine Art BA (Hons) course. Our 2014 prize winner was Catherine Wynne-Paton, here she writes about her current project, Lost Library.

Part 2

Initially thinking to turn text into movement through dancers and to take part of the library out of its usual building and into a festival setting in the form of a mobile library. I first referred to this project as the mobile library dance. Next came the long period of contacting various organisations and festivals. So, through months of contacting, explaining my concept, attending meetings, pinging emails back and forth, telephone and Skype conversations I came to have the shape of the performance coming together as it is now.

1916 was the last year the National Eisteddfod was in Abergavenny and so this was too good a chance to miss!

LOST LIBRARY Border Country puts the locally set novel in the limelight by featuring the text in the performance as well as highlighting the book in a short speech I’ve written and given twice so far in the run up to the festival. In the ethos of the Eisteddfod I have also had the speech translated into Welsh so that when the speech is performed it can be performed bilingually!

The book is by Raymond Williams (1921–1988), who was a Welsh academic, novelist and critic; he started writing Border Country in the late 1940’s and completed it in 1958; a railway signalman based in Pandy and his son being the central characters.

Performances are on mornings of 29, 30 July, 2, 3,4,5 and 6 August between Abergavenny Library in Baker Street and the Eisteddfod site at Castle Meadows.

Sponsored by Friends of Abergavenny Library Services and The Library of Wales.

www.lostlibrary.name   

twitter & Instagram @wynnepaton

Lost Library: Part 1

Meadow Arts supports emerging artists by offering an annual prize to a graduating student from Hereford College of Arts' Fine Art BA (Hons) course. Our 2014 prize winner was Catherine Wynne-Paton, here she writes about her current project, Lost Library.

Part 1

Q:       What do you get when an artist gets together with a library, a local book and a well-known Welsh festival?

A:        A lost library! 

LOST LIBRARY Border Country – a collaborative performance. 

LOST LIBRARY Border Country is the first phase in a project intending to raise the profile of libraries generally and Abergavenny Library in particular and this part will culminate in performances during the Monmouthshire & District National Eisteddfod.

Writing in The Print Shed's garden

Back in the spring of 2015 I had the notion of ‘bathe in ignorance’ on my mind and it was something I had to respond to – I wondered how I might Bathe in my own ignorance? Naturally (for me) I headed to my local library to find the biggest dictionary they had and chose a few pages to work with and from those pages I noted the words I didn’t understand. This gave me 254 words, which I projected through paper and later black plastic by pricking the words into the material in dot form. I then made the black plastic into a tepee-like tent and, luckily in May we had beautifully strong sunshine and once inside I had the form of the words projected onto me and anything within the tent. In the summer I began painting, acrylic on canvas – the starting point being one of the words, working intuitively. September found me exhibiting my work at a solo show at The Print Shed in Madley (www.theprintshed.net) and as part of the show worked with the grass as my medium, this time using black plastic sheeting to write a few of the words across Jill Barnaby’s garden there. I am currently in the middle of painting all 254 words onto mini calico covered boards, picking words out of a bag.

Abergavenny Library

Around this time, I began thinking about the positive impact libraries have on lives. At times in my life I have used the library a lot, at others, not so much. One way I have used the library – to find unknown words – has fed my curiosity in a way that simply wouldn’t have happened as easily without the library nearby. I wanted to find a way to bring attention to the library, discussions around the reduction of library services often seem so, well, quiet! Not just write about it in a blog, or another article in a newspaper, how could I make the library (and thoughts of libraries closing, opening hours reducing and staffing levels being squeezed) jump off the page and into life? Words and text are a pivot for much of my work and the possibility of turning text into movement has been forefront of my mind throughout this quest focussed on libraries (for their multi-faceted benefit to our society, including financial, which they don’t receive royalties for!)

Performances are on mornings of 29, 30 July, 2, 3,4,5 and 6 August between Abergavenny Library in Baker Street and the Eisteddfod site at Castle Meadows.

Sponsored by Friends of Abergavenny Library Services and The Library of Wales.

www.lostlibrary.name   

twitter & Instagram @wynnepaton

Jade Simpson mentored by Clare Mitten

Every year, New Art West Midlands (NAWM) supports selected graduates in an exhibition at four of the region's major galleries. As part of NAWM 15, Meadow Arts was one of a number of arts organisations that worked with Turning Point West Midlands to arrange follow-on development opportunities for the artists involved. You can find out more about how NAWM supports young artists in the video below.

We selected Jade Simpson, a graduate from Stafford University, as we were particularly interested in the way that she used collections as a starting point for her work.

Jade Simpson's work in the NAWM 15 exhibition

After a discussion with Jade about her personal aims as an artist we decided that it would be most beneficial to put her in touch with artist Clare Mitten for a couple of mentoring sessions. Here is Jade’s account of what she gained from the experience:

Clare Mitten in Jade's studio

'Being paired with Clare Mitten has been a wonderful experience. It has given me the chance to observe up close an artist who is further into their career and insight into how other artists work. Seeing her studio, her local haunts and the places she goes for inspiration has motivated my own practice back home. It has been particularly interesting to compare our backgrounds and how it has influenced our practice, for instance her being based in London, a place where museums, exhibitions and culture are openly available, as opposed to Stoke-on-Trent where the art scene is made up of a close knit community or small pockets of creative hubs. We also found similarities in our works, even labelling ourselves as 'art scientists', discovering the natural world through the medium of art. 

During her visit to my own studio we were able to discuss ideas and directions in which my work could go. Clare came up with a brilliant idea regarding illustrations by Audubon and other naturalists that she discovered in my workspace and how I can adapt them into a 3D medium. At a time when I believed myself to be stuck in a creative slump she revealed that the inspiration I needed was already right under my nose. As well as that we discussed how to adapt my current situation of wanting to be a crafts-person/maker and also continuing to be an exhibiting fine artist. 

I believe the mentoring programme was a great success, for me in any case, and I enjoyed every moment of the visits, from seeing an exhibition about yogic Buddhism, to simply chatting with Clare about or home towns and influences over a beer.'

Jade's studio

Jade E Simpson

www.jadieeleanor.wix.com/jadieeleanorart

Twitter: @jadieeleanor

Facebook: www.facebook.com/JadieeleanorArtist

More about artist Clare Mitten:

www.claremitten.com

 

Idiot Compression

Jonathan Callan's work in Hay

We are delighted to be showing several works by Jonathan Callan in the Never Judge a Book... exhibition. The artist has been in Hay-on-Wye this week to re-site his installation work Idiot Compression on the first floor of Richard Booth's Bookshop.

The work is made up of hundreds of books, which have been cut down. They still function as books in a way, as the pages can be turned, but much of the information has been taken away, in the discarded part of the book. Callan is referring to the idea, often touted as fact, that we only use 20% of our brains and only retain 20% of the information that we read.

When reinstalling an artwork like this, the place it is being shown (its new site) will have an influence on how the work looks. Jonathan Callan has been testing ideas during his time in Hay, finding a configuration that is appropriate for the artwork within its new temporary site.

Click here to read more about Jonanthan Callan and the works being shown in the Never Judge a Book... exhibition.

www.meadowarts.org

Installing Never Judge a Book...

Artworks arriving in Hay: part 2

 
Once you have the artworks in the building, it is time to install them in their correct places for the exhibition. Lots of work goes on behind the scenes in advance, when the curators make visits to the venue and plan where each piece will go. There are many things to think about when planning where the artworks will be sited, to ensure that the art looks its best and the exhibition takes a coherent form that engages its audiences. 

Practical concerns include the weight and size of an artwork. Working in unusual venues means that there may not be the same kind of large entrances that a purpose built gallery has, or there could be a weight restriction on an upper floor. Tape measures are a vital piece of kit for the Meadow Arts team!

The Never Judge a Book... exhibition is open from Friday 27 May to Sun 17 July at Richard Booth's Bookshop, Hay-on-Wye.

Installing Bill Woodrow's sculpture, Open Book

David Leister testing the projection for Luke Fowler's work

Thom Snell installing Sound Books

Oli, Manda and Anne taking a well deserved rest

Tape measure at the ready

Read more about the Never Judge a Book... exhibition and artists here

www.meadowarts.org

Installing Never Judge a Book...

Artworks arriving in Hay: part 1

It has been a very busy week for the team. The Never Judge a Book... exhibition opens this Friday, so artworks have been arriving at host venue Richard Booth's Bookshop in Hay-on-Wye over the past few days.

Our curatorial team, Louisa and Anne, have been on site to supervise the artworks, liaise with artists and art transport teams. Our technician, Oli, is making things ready and putting work in place. Manda has been providing on-site support and Rebecca has been at her desk as backup. All hands have definitely been 'on deck'!

The interior of the bookshop is really something special, so it is quite exciting to finally get our hands on it, after months of planning. Oli has had to put a film over the windows upstairs, in order to protect the precious artworks from the sun's rays, which can cause things to fade.

The upper floor of the bookshop, with artworks ready to be unwrapped

C'ART art transporters arriving

Many of the artworks will be on the first floor

C'ART transporting Bill Woodrow's work

The exhibition is based around the idea of the book as an object: many of the artists whose work is shown have played with the concept of the book, sometimes using it as a sculptural material, as a form to wrap and alter or in a playful and subversive context. You can read more about the exhibition here.

www.meadowarts.org

Seeking Women

Faye Claridge continues to blog about her artist's residency for Shifting Worlds at Ironbridge Gorge Museum with Meadow Arts

"A lot of what I’m looking at in the residency involves the role of women in the Darby family and, therefore, in Quakerism, early education, the iron business and, ultimately, in the Industrial Revolution.

The mothers, wives and sisters in the Darby family were at times shareholders and managers of the works. Diaries show us they were a regular sight in the works, understood the business and are recorded as joint signatories on loans and other business deals. This was in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, years before the wider British fight for (a semblance of) equality. In fact more than 250 years ago there were more women at management level in Coalbrookdale than there are today. Their achievements are extraordinary and can only be understood in the context of the Quaker faith.

As biographer Rachel Labouchere writes: “Quaker women, often with large families, [who travelled]… many thousands of miles away from their husbands and children, always seemed to astonish the world at large, but was accepted in their community and fully understood.” [i]

From the beginnings in the 1650s Quakers (originally called Seekers) believed women were equal in faith and were supported in public speaking and publishing. The Darby women who became ministers travelled extensively to speak at Meetings and either took nursing babies with them or left them behind (with family or staff) for weeks or even months at a time. Their long journeys on horseback were also often undertaken without a male companion.

The Darby women’s involvement in the business largely occurred after a male death and before a male heir was old enough to take over, but even so their involvement wasn’t limited to a caretaker role and some of the developments of workers’ cottages, banking and the brickworks were theirs. I think I’m right in saying it was their ability to take over that maintained the business in the family, as without them at worst the death of the head of the family would have meant selling the business, or at least the balance of ownership would have gone to other partners.

Their abilities had, of course, been developed through education as well as inclusion in business meetings and visits to the works. Again, years ahead of schools for the general public, Quakers supported education of boys and girls and the Darby children were all sent to Friends in what we would now understand as boarding school. By 1718 Abraham Darby II had started building schools for workers’ children and more than a century later, in 1846, Alfred Darby built a very large school with full support and donations from workers, to educate 700 children up to the age of 12.[ii]

The role of the male Darbys as fathers is also touched upon in the Darby diaries, where one notable letter from Abraham Darby to a business associate in 1758 states he might delay their meeting because he wants to be with the children at the time of their (then potentially harmful) smallpox vaccination[iii]. He also almost single-handedly brought up his daughter Hannah after the death of his first wife and the two were very close.

I don’t expect all of this to come across in the work I’m creating, but it’s been interesting to talk to visitors about why I’m embroidering names (or asking them to). Embroidery is a very accessible way into this important story. Visitors will look at the samplers in the collection and, hopefully after meeting me, will see them not just as remarkable works of skill but as symbols of education, empowerment and the joining of domestic and industrial talents."

Shifting Worlds: contemporary art and the Birthplace of Industry is a contemporary art programme produced in a partnership between Meadow Arts and the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, funded by Arts Council England.

All exhibited work and events take place at Coalbrookdale, the site of three of the ten exciting and varied museums that make up the Ironbridge Gorge Museums. The museums give a fascinating insight into the people, processes and landscape of the Industrial Revolution and its impact on the present day.

www.meadowarts.org

www.ironbridge.org.uk

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[i] P.39 Deborah Darby by Rachel Labouchere, William Sessions Ltd, 1993

[ii] P.263 Dynasty of Iron Founders by Arthur Raistrick, Sessions Book Trust, 1989

[iii] P.83 Abiah Darby by Rachel Labouchere, William Sessions Ltd, 1988

(Not) Burning Bridges

Faye Claridge continues to blog about her artist's residency for Shifting Worlds at Ironbridge Gorge Museum with Meadow Arts

"I’m hoping to do something spectacular with The Ironbridge and as part of planning this I’ve been thinking about the bridge as a symbol of the Industrial Revolution. Bridges are a great symbol of unity, literally linking communities and enabling travel, but do they symbolise revolution?

The phrase ‘burning bridges’ is dramatic, riotous even, which might remind historians of the food riots that affected developing industry in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. But this isn’t representative of the vale, where the Quaker Iron Masters saw very small-scale protests, possibly because of the worker allotments and welfare donations already in place along with the belief in fairness regularly demonstrated by the foundry owners.

Rather this bridge – and the company’s other achievements – were born out of stability, family, permanence. Perhaps the problem is the word revolution, which the Oxford dictionary defines as a “forcible overthrow”. Its origins are only slightly more helpful, developing from an old term to turn which at a push we might dramatize as a cranking up.

The aims of the Darby foundry owners appear broadly to have been to innovate and improve, certainly not to revolt. As their biographer Rachel Labouchereputs in, they wanted “innovations… that would improve conditions for mankind” [i]. They left a huge legacy, which could be symbolised so many ways. Beyond their technological advancements, reading the Darby family diaries reveals so many visitors who go on and further influence many others – like Cadbury, Lloyds, Nash, Darwin, Fry, Cash – and I even wonder whether Prince Charles’ vision of Poundbury (where workers, business and services co-exist) was affected by his many visits and role as Patron of the gorge museums.

These connections – and so many more – make the bridge even more poignant as a symbol. It’s interesting as a work of engineering, it’s important as the world’s first iron bridge, it’s vital as a focus for cash-bringing tourism, it’s heartening as a symbol of continuing industry in the vale. But it’s strongest for me now as a symbol of the Darbys and the way their business, family and faith linked and the way their innovations made iron affordable enough to catapult industrial design all over the world.

They were a bridge between the rural and the industrial, the past and the future. And like all bridges (that aren’t burnt in revolution) they link so we can travel in both directions."

Shifting Worlds: contemporary art and the Birthplace of Industry is a contemporary art programme produced in a partnership between Meadow Arts and the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, funded by Arts Council England.

All exhibited work and events take place at Coalbrookdale, the site of three of the ten exciting and varied museums that make up the Ironbridge Gorge Museums. The museums give a fascinating insight into the people, processes and landscape of the Industrial Revolution and its impact on the present day.

www.meadowarts.org

www.ironbridge.org.uk

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[1] P.37 Deborah Darby by Rachel Labouchere, William Sessions Ltd, 1993

Shared Names

Faye Claridge continues to blog about her artist's residency for Shifting Worlds at Ironbridge Gorge Museum with Meadow Arts

"The second part of my Aga visit was at the Ketley works, on the edge of Telford, where the iron created and moulded in Coalbrookdale is painted and assembled with other parts to (mainly) make cookers. The operation is large and varied and a more diverse workforce of men and women use widely different skills here, from metal shaping to graphic design.

In the paint spaying section I was interested to see a sudden change from black branded polo shirts (now ubiquitous in business) to pure white overalls, each sewn with the individual name of its wearer.

For months I’ve been gathering names (from the present and the past near-endless Darby network of Quaker Friends, fellow innovators, employees etc) and I’ve been sewing these in reference to the samplers in the museum collection. So seeing embroidered names, in Aga, in the works made famous by the Darby family I’m researching, was a very pleasant shock.

Beyond this initial surprise, I’m curious about these uniforms, the way they differentiate these employees from the other strata (mainly made up of black polo shirt factory floor or own clothes in the office or call centre) and the significance of wearing an embroidered name. I may be getting hung up on the details here, but I’m certain being given a jacket embroidered with your name feels very different to being given a clip-on name badge. It has a permanence, it shows personal investment, it’s something you could be proud of. It’s individual.

Yet the story I’m focussing on keeps slipping strangely between individual and family or group identity. The innovations that led to the Industrial Revolution in Coalbrookdale were led by three men with the same name. This wasn’t peculiar to them of course, they lived at a time when first sons were habitually named after their fathers and, usually, followed their father’s business. But it’s convenient for their story told in retrospect to have this obvious link across the three generations. It’s also very telling of how we mythologise individuals, especially when further reading tells you there were more children in the family named Abraham Darby whose stories are little know and there were other partners in the business whose contributions were as great as the three main protagonists. But does it matter there are three Abrahams rather than one in the story when we talk about the Darbys as stereotypes of Quaker faith or industrial innovation? Perhaps stereotype is too harsh a word, when museums, historians, story-tellers inevitably have to simplify stories and find the main themes that will interest a present-day audience. I started this series of blogs saying how much we like to have a face for historical stories but it’s equally true we cling to names (and dates).

The Quaker burial ground above Dale House shows the Darby believers not at odds with us in this. Their tiny grave stones show just that: names and dates, nothing more. They deliberately reveal the bare minimum which, in itself, reveals (or confirms our understanding of) their non-conformist desire for simplicity. In this context the name is all-important, at its simplest to locate and at its broadest to commemorate. Visitors can see where Darbys lie and learn almost nothing of the individual but get a sense of their modest place as a tiny piece in a large and complex story."

Shifting Worlds: contemporary art and the Birthplace of Industry is a contemporary art programme produced in a partnership between Meadow Arts and the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, funded by Arts Council England.

All exhibited work and events take place at Coalbrookdale, the site of three of the ten exciting and varied museums that make up the Ironbridge Gorge Museums. The museums give a fascinating insight into the people, processes and landscape of the Industrial Revolution and its impact on the present day.

www.meadowarts.org

www.ironbridge.org.uk