Some more boxes, books, and jigsaw bits to add to the mix...

Aside from the seemingly ubiquitous books and jigsaw pieces, the making of the "space" box was triggered by Marianne's work in progress, drawing on themes of dreams and aspirations (below).

This reminded me that when I was a child I always wanted to be an astronaut, which seemed about as likely as sending an elephant into outer space.

(Emma)

Some bits and bobs for PLAY

At last some things for PLAY. I managed to do something with a book (a bit late) I found one which hints at adventure/travel which is something I'm quite interested in avoiding. I am going to produce a series of works like those above and a large forest. Oh and some virtual jigsaw pieces. (Alex)

new ventures in sound & vision

Unsure what to eventually do with the box, the glass and wooden display case, Alex offered to bring along equipment to record my rambling about the ideas and create a piece that combines this with a hand held video of the empty box. This will present additional references back to the box in perhaps a better way than the other ideas I had and do the job I have in mind. The box is quite banal and devoid of its very specifically constructed function, which is the exact point of disinterest that I have. So this challenge to find a creative response to it may be resolved at some point soon.

(Steve)

The puzzle continues

The ill fitting jigsaw pieces are steadily increasing in number but we still need more, and decisions about how to display them are perplexing. Alex suggested that we should develop it further when the pieces are in-situ, adding objects in response to each others' ideas/materials.
(Emma)

Add & Pass

Objects were passed around at the last meeting, and this is what I made of mine.













A similar theme ran across to the second jigsaw piece (this tends to happen if you work on two pieces on the same day!)

(Emma)

June 07

So last week Alex came round and we sorted the blog, finally I get time to upload a bit more. We also finished the Poster/invites, here is a copy. The idea of creating an exhibition project that evolves like a collage, with many contributions from many people and the course of events unfolding without a defined plan, had proved a difficult way to work during last year. So, now having a focal point of exhibition in August does help. I realised the concept would be difficult in some ways as previous a project that I developed called Conversations, in Norwich, had similar aspects. Though much more structure was there to start with on that occasion. I feel that we are working well and playing with the idea as we should be.

(Steve)

Assemblage - Collage?

Here are a few examples of recent work which kind of fit into the idea of assemblage. I managed to miss the last meeting where objects were passed around so I thought I'd bung some of this up as a sort of virtual contribution.



Adventure (things my wife has done but I haven't) There are lots of these.




Adventurer (one of 3 digital prints)








Forest (detail) I've since made two forests the idea is that I'm thinking about placing the trees in space rather than all the stuff I have to use to get them there.




(Alex Pearl)

May 2007

We are passing round objects and altering them. Boxes are featuring now and we may explore the potential for display or concealment. We may add or remove things from them, deconstruct or reconstruct aspects and so on as they are passed from hand to hand. We all produced parts of a jigsaw which is very unfinished but has an agreeably disparate range of approaches and materials.

Early 2007

Jevan had decided to retreat as he was to return to live in France, and Margaret had felt that she could not contribute full enough to continue because of other priorities. So we talked to Marianne and Alex about the project and they joined. A range of work is now underway as we are working towards an exhibition for later in the year. The focus has returned to objects rather than concepts at the moment.

Mid 2006

We had met a few times and produced some work. The focus remained with books for a while and we were working to themes and concepts, which was new to some extent for some of us. Emma produced an excellent piece with threads and I (Steve) worked on the theme of Chaos. We had also met with Roger Ackling and discussed our ideas. This was a fascinating and inspirational accation that stopped us in our tracks. We had reevaluated our intensions and moved forward with focus on the work and decided as adviced not to document; though now we have a new role and perspective for the documentation as the blogg will be defined in the same way as the work we do in other ways.

Late 2005

So I searched round and contacted other artists working with the materials and processes of collage & assemblage. I already knew Maraget Wyllie from a project I organised called A Construct of Time, site-specific to The Ancient House in Ipswich. While spending some grant money on documentation of my work the photographer Doug Attfield, I came across images of Jevan Watkins Jones' work, so I contacted him. I hadn't yet met Emma Johnson properly, I think. I am told that I interrogated them to some extent, as I found it fascinating how differently we all worked in response to materials and objects, and I wanted to know more and more. So the project was underway. Some of the work at this time revolved around books, I picked up on Jevan's shedding of paper and Emma's 'obsessive' repetative process work.

beginnings

Mid 2005 I had been kicking around a somewhat loose idea about creating an exhibition idea about creating an exhibition project that formed in the same way as my collages and assemblages. Over a period of time the content and activity would change according to the participants.

(Steve Joyce)

An early piece