A long gap between this post and the last one and much to report.
Naomi Siderfin bravely took up the role of mentor and we have had some productive meetings in my studio, in London and at Firstsite where we will be staging the concluding event for this project.
Our discussions have necessarily covered where I am now, in terms of work, projects and life in relation to my practice. More intensely it is focussing on studio work (new pieces under development) and bringing the many projects I am working on together through identifying common threads. This latter action is helpful and not only removes the 'headless chicken' approach but strengthens and underpins ideas across all areas of my work. I am beginning to see how I can create a more rigorous methodology to making; work is feeding off itself and carefully targeted research is applicable across all projects.
My current reading seems to evidence this - Ruskin's Ethics of the Dust, Baudrillard's System of Objects, Foucault's essay on Heteroptopias and finally Thomas More's Utopia. New work includes drawings and the text monoprints illustrated here (I intend to try out combining these with drawings as a step towards exploring the uncanny) and a series of objects which have been altered in some way. In addition I am growing my own collection - anything related to or representative of pyramid or triangle shapes; the collection includes a jigsaw, a fridge magnet, a group of crystals, a story book "Frank in the Mountains", a triplet of badges sporting crampons and more.
The final event planning has begun in earnest and will take shape over the next few weeks. It is likely to be a discussion and conversation with performance integrated with the process of gilding.
