- all materials from allotment – provides a focal point to work – makes it easier to know where all materials have come from etc (from a sustainability point of view)
- not dismissing anything, using all possible materials
- man-made and grown plant materials
- seasonal
- dandelions dried and stored – can be twisted into cordage/string
- also nettle fibres
- lots of very repetitive actions
- noticing details, playing with materials and learning what they can do
- sustainability underpins work
- a slow accummulation of knowledge and place
My process-led practice is based on personal engagement with landscape and has sustainability at its heart. I am fascinated by the detail of organic things and my work celebrates and carries an essence of what I experience in the natural world. My background in physical geography and nature conservation underpins my artistic practice. I work with natural fibres and gathered materials, employing natural dyes, stitch, weave and soft basketry techniques. These elements come together in different combinations to create grouped surfaces and structures. Found items form the focus of my response to a landscape, forming tangible links to the places they were gathered from. I take an experimental approach to these found objects: by engaging with the materials that I find, manipulating them and experimenting, I learn about their properties, boundaries and possibilities. This exploration becomes a collaboration between object and artist. My allotment plot forms the focus of my work, providing an abundant source of materials.
^ nice project to consider in relation to my own work: my gathered objects are pretty much exclusively from the intertidal zone, and yet this is not something I often bring back overtly into my work. Could I start doing this? how?
^this project speaks to many themes that also surface in my own work, but what I enjoy about this piece is her focusing in on galls (the structures that plants create in response to disruptive activity by certain insects). I wonder if my own work could sometimes benefit from focusing in on one thing like this – particularly lately when I’ve been feeling a little lost. I think I have a tendency to want to keep things open and abstract, but sometimes having one tangible thing to narrow in on, and then branch out from, might be more beneficial.
^ this project speaks to a certain feeling that I’ve had at the back of my head recently about being more open to spontaneous findings while out and about in the world (as Fox is with her pavement findings). I will often quite intentionally go and gather materials from one place (e.g. a beach), or come to the studio to make art, shutting off the possibility of documenting/collecting more chance encounters and items when outside of these places and mindsets. Making a conscious effort to collect and document in a wider variety of places may open my practice up to a broader scope of e.g. materials and, by extension, experiments/outcomes etc.
Anna Harris 