Shul: Assignment 4

The Publication

This publication is a project entitled Shul and it will be exhibited in The Albert Room at the rear of Cleethorpes Library and Tourist Information Centre from 19^th -23^rd March. The final set of images can be found in the accompanying folder. They comprise the original 15 images from the major project in the Body of Work Module, assessed in November 2017, along with 5 additional images. The extra images illustrate the further development of the BOW project. At the end of the original project I posed the question, “At the end of a woodland path is the decision made to remain on the wider track, safer, more secure where many have travelled before; or is it to follow the less sure route and, if so, what is to be found at its furthest extremity? Nothing - just the wood? Or is there a way forward by making one’s own path and forging a new route?” I continued to be intrigued by this idea and also to take photographs to attempt to illustrate it. I follow Robert MacFarlane on Twitter where he posts a word of the day. On 19^th December the word was Bewilder – To lose in pathless places, to confound for want of a plain road; from the verb “wilder”, meaning to lose one’s way, as in a wild or unknown place. (My blog on this is here) My Pocket Oxford Dictionary defines bewilder as to perplex or confuse. This Twitter post leapt out at me; it fitted the situation I was describing perfectly. I then began to gather all of the images that I had taken to fit this concept, edited them and presented them to my Peer Hangout Group. (Blog here) My blog reflections on this hangout are here. I had originally thought that I might include a further edited version of this work as a second body of work in my exhibition. Having reflected on the hangout discussion, however, I have decided against this, but feel strongly that it would be beneficial to include the concept in my work. To this end I have edited my artist’s statement to include it and used some of the photographs to support the idea.

The Exhibition

The exhibition will combine framed prints, a video installation on a laptop with headphones to listen to the soundtrack and a hand-made photobook produced by working in collaboration with a local bookbinder, Mags Bradley. I have avoided the blurb type book, but, having known the bookbinder for some time, I wished to investigate making a hand-made artist’s book which would encapsulate my ideas. Partly the idea came to me during my meditations whilst walking through the Lincolnshire woodlands when I pondered on the possibility of a book with covers made from the wood of the trees through which I was walking, or at least the same species. Mags reported that this would be eminently possible and showed me an example of one she had already made. As well as materials we discussed the practicalities of making such a book. The pages of the book will be 200gm/m² Somerset paper interleaved with printable translucent dividing sheets to both protect the images and take the text. The title will be embossed on a leather tag and attached to the binding. The wood I have selected for the covers is ash as this tree is such a feature of the Lincolnshire countryside. It has been ordered and collected from the woodyard and delivered to Mags who is in the process of making the book. The images have been printed on Permajet Portfolio Paper and the text has been printed on one of the vellum interleaving sheets. The work will be finished by the end of February ready for the exhibition on 19^th March. It will be presented for assessment submission in a purpose designed hand-crafted clam shell box.

I have shared various incarnations of the video installation with my tutor and my Hangout Group. The latest reflections on Hangout discussions were on 18^th January and on 24^th January. As a result of these discussions and reflections I have further developed the video and uploaded it to Vimeo. It is designed to be viewed using headphones and adjustments to the volume may be required to suit individual preferences.

The exhibition will take place in The Albert Room at the rear of Cleethorpes Library and Tourist Information Centre. A plan of the room is illustrated below.

Installation maquettes are shown below:-

Shul 2018 Mike Pickwell

Installation Maquette looking from the door into the main Library

Room size 7.5m x 7.0m. Height 2.8m

Framed prints 54cm x 54cm

Shul 2018 Mike Pickwell

Installation Maquette looking from the window towards the door into the main Library

Room size 7.5m x 7.0m. Height 2.8m

Framed prints 54cm x 54cm

Cleethorpes Library, Albert Room

To the right of the door from the main library will be displayed the title of the work along with the artist statement. Along the rest of this wall will be 5 framed prints 54x54cm. The next wall to the window will also hold 5 prints and the third wall 4. In front of the screened locked doors will be placed a table with a laptop for the video installation and hand-bound book. The final wall will hold 6 framed prints. All frames will be fixed to the wall with mirror plates at average head height.

A preview and meet the artist event has been organised from 5.00 – 7.00 on Monday 19^th March. It will be open from 12.00 noon on Monday 19^th – 7.30pm Friday 23^rd March.

Publicity

· Publicity via We are OCA. I have contacted OCA and will set this in motion with a month to go;

· Publicise on Facebook on both my own page and also the OCA Level 3 Students page and the OCA Student page;

· Publicise on Instagram tagging OCA into the post;

· Publicise on Twitter similarly;

· Face to face publicity with OCA Hangout Group and other OCA contacts as well as local arts contacts and other personal contacts;

· Advertising with posters in Cleethorpes Library and other local libraries;

· Publicity via an article for the Parish Magazine which goes out to 120 homes;

·
Publicity via the Lincs Inspire’s brochure The Sports and Cultural Quarter ‘What’s On’ guide. There are 1300 people on their mailing list and a newsletter goes out to around 400 people. This publication has already gone out and below are images of the cover and the advert publicising the exhibition inside;

· Displaying posters wherever possible. Distribution of these has already begun.

Below is a copy of the flyer/poster to be used to publicise the event; A4 for posters and A6 for invitations.

A copy of this is included in the assignment submission.

Collating Audience Feedback

As part of the exhibition there will be a guest book which visitors will be asked to sign with name, address, email address and comments sections.

Timetable

· All images have been printed and taken to the framers. These will be ready on 22^nd February after which I need to attach mirror plates;

· Prints and text are ready to be included in the photo-book which will be completed by the end of February;

· The video installation is complete and posted on Vimeo. A PC executable version has been produced to be used in the exhibition;

· Business cards have been designed and taken to the printers;

· Exhibition hanging from 8.30 am 19^th March;

· Exhibition opens 12.00 noon, 19^th March;

· Preview and meet the artist event 5.00pm – 7.00pm, Monday 19^th March

· Exhibition open every day from 8.30am – 7.30pm. I intend to be present from 10.00 am – 5.00pm to meet visitors and ensure the security of the book and laptop;

· Prints and cards for sale to offset the cost;

· Exhibition closes 7.30pm Friday 23^rd March;

· Exhibition taken down Saturday 24^th March 9.00 am – 12.00 noon.

Budget

Hire of gallery	£50
Printing of images (paper and ink) for book and framed prints	£70
Framing of prints	£290
Production of book	£223
Total	£633

Although this seems very expensive, prints and cards will be for sale during the exhibition and since planning for this approximately £500 has been raised through talks, card sales and Insight and Art Market sales. Framed exhibition prints will be for sale at £60.00.

Conclusion

I have spent a long time thinking and planning for this event. I am excited and anxious in equal measure, but as the opening date approaches things are coming together. I do feel though that it is a good way to bring my work to a wide audience and being local I feel that I can tap into more people than if I had travelled further afield. Many people are used to seeing my photography when I do talks as far afield as Lincoln, Scunthorpe and Gainsborough, but this is both a different aspect of my work and a different way of viewing it. I shall use these talks as a way of personally inviting people.

Although I am going to incur a not inconsiderable expense to put on this show, as I have mentioned, I have already recouped a significant amount both at events during the last seven months and prints and cards will be for sale at the exhibition. Exhibition prints will be for sale at £60.00. I also feel the culmination of my studies warrants the expense. This is going to be yet another opportunity for networking and will enable me to talk to a wide range of people about my work. Hopefully it will lead to further opportunities for exhibiting my work and other projects are already in the pipeline through my involvement with Arts Meridian and the portfolio group I attend.

Other Supporting Documentation.

Biography

I am a photographer living in the east of England and am currently completing my BA in photography with the Open College of the Arts. My background is in traditional photographic representations of wildlife and landscape, but as I have progressed through my studies I have begun to question the ways I represent the world.

My current work is inspired by wilderness and the natural world which I explore by walking. Wilderness or wildness can mean anything from an untidy garden through to desert; or, according to the Oxford dictionary, anywhere in its natural state and not civilised, domesticated, tamed, cultivated or populated. My inspiration is not the wilderness of wide-open spaces but wilderness on a much smaller scale. Robert MacFarlane writes 'I had started to refocus. I was becoming interested in this understanding of wildness not as something which was hived off from human life, but which existed unexpectedly around and within it: in cities, backyards, roadsides, hedges, field boundaries or spinnies.' The mountaineer, W.H. Murray, also wrote of the same experience as long ago as 1951. 'Through the very uncertainties of our climb my mind became unusually observant, embracing many simple things that commonly pass unregarded. While searching for a handhold the eye would alight on a blade of grass peeping from a crack, and see the amazing grace of its fluting, the fresh brightness of its green against the rock; and although the joy was that of one second the memory lived on.'

My work is now beginning to focus on wilderness on a smaller scale: woodland footpaths or the way an old brick wall is reclaimed by the wild. It is informed by photographers and artists such as Eliot Porter, Paul Gaffney, Hamish Fulton and Richard Long all of whom portray wilderness, often by walking.

Artist’s Statement –Shul

Shul is the Tibetan word for a track. It means "a mark that remains after that which made it has passed by - a footprint, for example. A path is a shul because it is the impression in the ground left by the regular tread of feet, which has kept it clear of obstructions and maintained it for the use of others." (Solnit, 2005, P.51). My work focuses on woodland paths and walking along them allows me to slow down, to fully experience and appreciate the landscape through which I travel.

I have long found walking to be a meditative experience and agree with Roger Deakin when he wrote ‘To enter a wood is to pass into a different world in which we ourselves are transformed. It is where you travel to find yourself, often, paradoxically, by getting lost’.

Following a woodland path is not straightforward. The horizon is limited. Woods muffle external sounds leaving only birdsong, the rustling of leaves or the creaking of trees in the wind. Choices have to be made. The path may be broad and well-defined; boundaries may be clear with wild and tangled undergrowth beyond. Other paths are less definite, ephemeral, a trace of a path. Perhaps there will only be a bent blade of grass or scuffed leaves that indicate that something has passed this way. Is the decision made to remain on the wider track, safer, more secure where many have travelled before; or is it to follow the less sure route and, if so, what is to be found at its furthest extremity? Nothing - just the wood, bewilderment and confusion? Or is there a way forward by making one’s own path and forging a new route?

Press Release and Invitation to the Exhibition

Mike Pickwell warmly invites you to an exhibition of photographs depicting the Tibetan word Shul, a mark made after something’s passing; thus a footprint is a shul, a footpath is a shul. The work focuses on woodland paths; walking them allows us to slow down, to fully experience and appreciate the landscape through which we travel. There will be a preview and meet the artist event on Monday 19^th March from 5.00pm -7.00pm and the exhibition will be open every day during library opening hours. Mike will be there to talk about his project every day from 10.00 am – 5.00pm.

The purpose of this blog entry is to share the development of my Body of Work with my peer group Hangout colleagues. Hopefully this will enable further development or, perhaps, abandonment.

I have been collecting these images for some while now, but have been puzzling over how to use them to develop my major project from the Body of Work module. The BOW images were shown to the group when I shared the work as an AV presentation but for those who are not familiar with the work a link to it is here. In BOW at the end of the introductory text I posed the question .....at the end of a woodland footpath....Is the decision made to remain on the wider track, safer, more secure where many have travelled before; or is it to follow the less sure route and, if so, what is to be found at its furthest extremity? Nothing - just the wood? Or is there a way forward by making one’s own path and forging a new route?

I had been wondering how to use the collected images to develop the BOW when I came across this post on Twitter by Robert MacFarlane. This link is not to Twitter, but to my blog on the post and perhaps explains where I am coming from. With this in mind I am thinking that rather than incorporate the new images into Shul I will develop a new body of work called Bewildered and I shall display both projects in my exhibition in March.

Although I have begun to edit the images I have not yet sequenced them. I have instead grouped them into three collections. The questions I would ask are:-

do any of the groups work better with the concept than others or,indeed, perhaps not at all;
do any individual images work better than others or, again, not at all.

Image captions are for identification purposes only. To see the images full screen please click on one of the small ones; they can then be seen as a slide show at full size.

Bewildered

In dense woodland, when a path is lost, it is easy to become perplexed, confused, bewildered.

Group 1