current work in the studio

I'll shortly be moving from my current studio to one shared with a group of friends. Before that happens I thought I'd document the various things I'm working on.

First is ) TH GOOD /OLD W~AY which is proceeding quickly. Two batches of six cards were completed and posted yesterday (one in Whalley Range/Moss Side, one in Levenshulme).

By way of a quick preview of Andrew Taylor's documentation of them the card below which comes somewhere between 61-66 inclusive reads:

I WILL MISS YOU

//PARSE HARMONY ...

VOICES * WRENS DASH

BETWEEN BRANCHES

)) I AM

Below are pictures of the character set I'm using and the stamp on which each card is composed. From memory I think the stamp is the stanza reproduced above in the process of being disassembled, which I do alphabetically.

I could have finished two batches on Thursday instead of one and a half except that the plastic tweezers that came with the stamp broke partway through. I used a plastic glue but I wasn't confident it would hold even if the repair (below) had been better.

I had to wait to Saturday to buy some metal tweezers that looked least likely to damage the type and continue. The new tweezers are easier to use than the originals and should speed things up.

And the two batches posted yesterday. It's beginning to feel to me as though in places there's something pretty special about the poem/sequence. But feel free to disagree.

I have a little work on extending/improving the visual poem boxes to do. I'm starting by cutting the forms before I complete the designs and assemble the boxes.

Another task at Fred Aldous yesterday along with buying the new tweezers was getting a finer knife and replacement blades for cutting the visual poem designs.

It was my second visit to Fred Aldous after I went there on my day off on Tuesday to buy 12.5 kg of air-drying clay so I can get on with the masks. The third ongoing project for those keeping score.

Incidentally you probably won't have noticed but the Long Lankin sculpture which has dominated the space is no longer there. A friend is shortly going to India for several months and decided to burn a large piece of work. Having decided I had to get rid of the Lankin it was the perfect opportunity to do so and it was burned at the same time.

There's a brief oblique reference to this in one of the recent batches of cards for ) TH GOOD /OLD W~AY.

At the suggestion of another friend this second mask will have two faces. I'm also attempting to make it thinner and lighter than the first. The combination of more holes in the mask and a thinner body risk this attempt breaking. But since I can wet and rework the clay that's not going to be a problem. It all helps in understanding the properties of the material anyway.

The sketch in the rather poor photograph immediately below is one of three approaches to creating a Long Lankin sculpture/installation/performance.

This one is something that emerged from a series of sketches done across the weekend of my birthday/SuperSonic festival in Birmingham. I refer to it as 'the plaintive branch', and like a lot of stuff it's mentioned in ) TH GOOD /OLD W~AY.

The plaintive branch is intended to be cast in metal. This means I'll have to track down a course to learn how to go about casting. So far I haven't had much luck, there don't seem to be any evening/part time courses in Manchester. If you know any differently let me know. It's something I really want to fit in during the winter/spring next year if possible.

The beginnings of the other two ideas are sketched in pencil on another A3 page on the wall pictured below.

First is some kind of space you enter into and encounter something - perhaps a grave form, perhaps something representing an event or character from the ballad.

Second is the germ of a performance using the bamboo (?) finger extensions seen in some pictures of the Asaro Mudmen. The mudmen of course influenced the masks project. My sketch is based on one of the photos from the first link which I have up in the studio.

That's not quite all. Outside the studio I have some ideas for future soundworks I'm beginning to explore which are likely to involve singing, and a separate performance idea based on a childhood game.

This was a game I frequently played on my own while wearing a blue dress with a beautiful texture. The game involved me dying romantic deaths - I think partly as a way of overcoming my fear. Although I want to do a little writing, planning and rehearsing, I think this project can be completed before the others described.