Spurn Cloth 2 (extended)

Textures of Spurn opened last Friday at The Bowery, Leeds.  This exhibition sees Spurn Cloth #2 hung in a new way.  Rather than hanging the 10 metre long cloth vertically as before, it has been hung horizontally round the gallery to form a band of texture or a horizon that surrounds the viewer.  The installation has then been completed by continuing that band of texture and marks round the room to form a circle, only interrupted by doorway and window.

The new section has been made from rusted paper and print using the same beach-combed items from Spurn as were used on the fabric.  I've collaged the layers of paper straight onto the gallery wall - something that was scary but satisfying to do!  

More detail can be found here.  The exhibition is on until 5th July.

The Bowery

All are welcome to the preview of Textures of Spurn at The Bowery (Headingley, Leeds) this Friday.  The event is from 6-8pm and there will be refreshments and nibbles.  Also showing is In Search of Green by Hannah Lamb.  Hannah's work is based around her experience of woodland and river near her home.  These two exhibitions will be a feast of landscape inspired textiles.

This exhibition will feature Spurn Cloth #2, hung in a different format to the previous venues and with an extended installation unique to The Bowery.

next outing

The exhibition at the Ropewalk is now over.  I had some lovely feedback from people visiting it and, all in all, it went really well.  I'm looking forward to returning there in June to run a workshop on printing with rust.

The next venue for Textures of Spurn is Gallery 49 in Bridlington's Old Town.  This opens on 6th April.

In the mean time I have some work that is related to the Spurn project in this lovely exhibition down in Cardiff: A Personal Perspective.

collecting

I returned to Spurn last week to collect the two large Spurn Cloths from the lighthouse.  I was actually a bit nervous about going back: this really was the end of my official time here.  Out on the dunes autumn is evident.

Inside the lighthouse Spurn Cloth #2 was beautifully lit in the autumn sunshine.

and up in the lamp room Cloth #1 still looked quite at home.  I wonder how the colours have faded with almost a month in direct sunlight.  There must have been some change; a mellowing.   But the strong prints look much the same.  Any change that there has been is just part of the life of these pieces. 

I took the cloths down, packed them away and left the lighthouse as I'd found it 6 months ago.
 

count down

The countdown continues with just a week to go now before the residency exhibition.  I've spent most of this week quietly stitching away on Spurn Cloth #1 in my studio at home.  This 4.7 metre long piece is a patchwork of rust-dyed silk and I've used stitch to add further texture to the marks already there.  Some parts I've left without stitches: this space is important.  The stitches confirm the creases in the cloth giving movement, like ripples on the ever-moving water out there, or the ripples set in the sand each time the tide comes in and then out again. 

In the lamp room this will be hung in a curved form so you can't ever see all of the piece at once.  The visitor will walk round it on their way to the platform to look at the view.  This piece quietly reflects that view, with a horizon of sorts along the whole length of it.  Soon it will be time to roll it up in my studio ready to go back to the lighthouse.

marks on silk

As well as the fabric wrappings that I left at Spurn to gather marks from the groynes, I have also made bundles at home with rusty things collected on the beach.  These are all unwrapped now.  The silk practically glows with reflected light and the prints are a curious mix of subtle and strong.

I am planning two large textile pieces for my exhibition, as well as a series of prints on paper.  In terms of a space for showing art the lighthouse is pretty challenging: it is large (!) and there are generally low light levels.  This means that the subtle shades and natural tones that I am drawn to working in won't have much of an impact.  So I must bear this in mind when preparing work to go in the various rooms.  The one space that does have good natural light is the lamp room and this is flooded with it, even on a cloudy day.  I am going to make the most of that and am planning one of my large pieces for this space, where the viewer will be able to see the work very close and in good light.

I will be using the silk that I've dyed using rust and tea and making a kind of art quilt.  I'm going to start putting this together and working on it in earnest next week, when I'm at Farfield Mill.  The painted sketches I did last weekend will help guide me when putting this together and I'm really looking forward to having the space to spread my fabrics out and start fitting them together.

unwrapping

Low tide was around breakfast time yesterday so the first thing I did when I got down to the point was to inspect the fabric bundles I'd left a few weeks ago.  I could only find five of the seven I'd noted down, so two have been lost to the sea. There is a certain ceremony to unwrapping something that has been left like this to develop with hope and expectation.  I carefully snip the string and unwind it, then slowly unwrap the fabric itself.

One had to be dug out of a small dune that had formed against the groyne it was attached to.

The ones left further down the beach, which have been submerged with every high tide, twice a day are certainly more worn with deeper, darker marks.  Those nearer the top of the beach are still very white with bright orange rust marks, so these must only have been submerged a handful of times. 

I took them all inside and up to the lamp room where there is a rail I could drape them over in the sunshine to have a good look.  

They looked well in bright sunlight, particularly the silk, whose creases catch the light in much the same way as the ripples on sand and water.  

There are grubby marks, bits of sand and seaweed, holes where they've been pounded by the waves.  Some bits are rather too much like tie-dye but other parts are really unexpected and beautiful.  I spent a good deal of time on this visit forming a clearer vision of the final pieces I'd like to produce.  The ideas are still growing, and they will continue to do so with the making, but I have a good deal of material to work with now. 

rusty stuff

Some of the rusty metal on the beach is washed up with the other beach rubbish.  Some if it forms part of the sea defences.  Some of it is from broken down defences as they succumb to the relentless action of the waves.

unwrapping

On my way to Spurn today I went to Bridlington (it's kind of on the way) to visit the lovely Gallery 49 in the old town.  They are going to show my Spurn work next year and I went to have a chat about that.  The drive through East Yorkshire to Bridlington was wet and horrid and the rain continued on between there and Spurn.  When I got to Spurn the rain had just about stopped.  Finding that the road was closed due to a wash over I walked on the beach near Warren Cottage for a couple of hours and the sun even came out briefly!  The tide was right down and there was mud exposed that forms amazing peaks and troughs, very like the formations of the salt marsh over on the estuary side.

The digger cleared the road after a while so I was able to drive down to the lighthouse.  I couldn't wait to inspect my bundle on the groyne.  It was still there!  Unwrapped and rinsed in the sea I found some interesting marks on the fabric; nothing ground breaking, but a starting point.

The bundle left inside has obviously taken colour from the rusty metal but I decided this could do with another soak in sea water.  I'll leave this one longer before unwrapping.

The wind is really roaring up at the top of the lighthouse but the weather isn't as bad as I expected.  The showers are coming and going and in between there are some beautiful clear but moody views.

anticipation

I'm looking forward to returning to Spurn tomorrow, although the weather is horrid and looks like it is continuing like this for a few days.  I'm particlularly looking forward to getting to know the groynes a bit better!  These wooden structures for slowing the action of long-shore drift are quite dramatic and seem to feature in just about every photo of Spurn you find on Flickr.

I'm interested in the rusty metal that is often attached to these in various states of decay.  Much of my work in recent months has featured rust prints as a basis upon which I've layered other print techniques, as well as stitch.  I want to see what kind of marks I can take from the rusty objects at Spurn.  On my last visit I left a couple of experiments on site.  These have hopefully been developing and maturing and I'm looking forward to seeing what results there are.

I wrapped some metal objects I found on the beach, having first wet my fabric in sea water (the nearest sea fisherman along the beach must have thought I was bonkers; dancing around the edge of the water as the tide was coming in and trying to dodge the waves whilst dipping fabric into them).  These I left in the lighthouse.

I also wrapped one of the rusty bolts still attached to a groyne but loose.  This should be submerged in sea water every time the tide comes up.  Even after one night and one high tide it had obviously started to take on some of the rusty colour: 

 
My worry is that these have either worked loose and been washed away or removed by curious visitors.  Although this shouldn't be too unusual a thing to come across given that many of the groynes already have many bits of rope and broken net wound round them by the action of the waves.  As long as they remain in place and depending on the resulting marks, I plan to set up some more this weekend. 

sorting textures

I've been sorting through some of the textures and ideas I collected at Spurn last weekend.  One of the main things that strikes me about the place are the bands of texture and line: linear arrangements and almost always horizontal. 

As the tide comes up and goes down there is this constant change of the bands: 

patterns in the sand, 

the strips of salt marsh on the estuary side, 

never-ending sequence of waves rolling in on the seaward side, 

lines of groynes.

As a way of focusing myself I sorted the images that I'd had printed into three groups of textures:
ripples and wave patterns in the sand;

the waves themselves and the marks left when the water sorts and drops the material it is moving;

  

bold textures of the rusty, weathered groynes, the saltmarsh and other debris on the beach.