A Room of One’s Own, Accumulating Weight

I recently finished A Room of One’s Own for the first time. There’s so much more to say than this initial post but in the midst of several funding applications I am reminded of two of so many phrases that hurtled towards me.

“That collar that I have spoken of… bowed my head to the ground.“

A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf (p.5, Vintage Classics)

This physical manifestation of worry or preoccupation is a concept I’ve ruminated on for some time. The Daily Journeys We Wear is an overarching concept for my present art practice. The notion being our lived experience can be manifested in wearable sculpture, portraits that enclose, cage, guard or amplify us.

I am developing a new series:

Worn: A Battleground.
Exploring what we carry with us.
Accumulated weight. An armour of sorts.

Worn Weft Weary. A trio.

Vestiges of an emotional battleground, artefacts.

I like the sense of a trio emerging here. They’ll be several stances forming a group I think. The W words are textural and a ripe starting place as specific words often are for me.

“A nugget of pure truth to wrap between the pages of your notebook and keep on the mantelpiece forever.”

A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf (p.4, Vintage Classics)

I loved this phrase from the moment I read it. That preciousness and the idea of a gift of words. A weightiness too though that can be burden like the previous collar. It is writing I want to write and the pressure I feel to find such writing when deadlines loom.

Irresolute…

…I started by researching synonyms for reluctant. It was interesting to see the specific differences implied by adverse or loathe over reluctance – they give a specific motivation that I don’t have for the unwelcome task in hand. Irresolute brings the right flavour of vague unwillingness.

Emotion of the day number 22, with thanks to Be Manzini

Rachel Pronger’s discovery of Sandra Lahire

The wonderful archive activists Invisible Women bring archive to screen. Their research and writing are beguilingly rich, I’ve learnt so much about missing work in film history from them. Their particularly lovely recent newsletter features Rachel Pronger’s piece in Art Monthly on discovering Sandra Lahire. This essay is fertile in its description of the films during the particular setting of lockdown in March 2020. Rachel draws themes from the collected work with ease and gave me a physical sense of the impact of watching them.

“I felt a hand reach out across the span of dead time, one lone woman to another. A kind of connection in a disconnected moment. Alone, but somehow strangely still together.“

Together, Alone: Watching Sandra Lahire in Lockdown, Rachel Pronger

https://twitter.com/IW_Archives?s=20

https://twitter.com/RachelPronger?s=20

Beyond the Multiplex

I’m working with the project team on the final stages of AHRC funded Beyond the Multiplex: Audiences for Specialised Film in English Regions. This includes a conference on 2nd and 3rd March where I’ll host a closing session exploring the research project’s recommendations in light of the conference discussions.

Find out more about the conference here

The aim of the BtM was to understand how to enable a wider range of audiences to participate in a more diverse film culture that embraces the wealth of films beyond the mainstream; and how to optimise the cultural value of engaging with those less familiar films. It did this by investigating how audiences engage with and form around ‘specialised’ films in four English regions, the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, North West/Greater Manchester and the South West. Here, Audience formation is understood as the processes of engagement with films that generate audience experiences.

https://www.beyondthemultiplex.net

Studious…

…That afternoon coffee rewarding a systematic and productive morning. The first thing I wanted to do when I got to my desk was write freehand and after that I moved through computer based tasks fairly fluidly. Application research, inviting speakers for a panel discussion, organising deadlines. Of course it isn’t always like this but it has felt like a good use of time whilst staying warm and dry indoors.

Emotion of the day number 21, with thanks to Be Manzini

Ensorcelled…

…This is the only way to describe the impact of reading N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth trilogy. Everything else is filling time until I can find my way back to the last book, The Stone Sky, again. I’m planning a Reading section on this site and will talk more about this trilogy then.

Emotion of the day number 20, with thanks to Be Manzini

Not ponderous…

…What is quite nice about this writing exercise is discovering so many words I’ve been using wrongly. I thought being ponderous was a good thing. Thoughtful, considered, weighty. According to the following I’m roughly 200 years out of date. Also a photo based round up of days I didn’t post might be in order. Partly explains why instagram is so popular, much easier that way but is in opposition to my resolution to manage my own content as much as possible, certainly as the primary source,

The Serious History of Ponderous:

“Ponderous is ultimately from the Latin word for “weight,” namely, “pondus” (which also gave us “ponder” and “preponderance” and is related to “pound”). We adopted “ponderous” with the literal sense “heavy” from Anglo-French ponderus in the 15th century, and early on we appended a figurative sense of “weighty,” that is, “serious” or “important.” But we stopped using the “serious” sense of “ponderous” around 200 years ago – perhaps because in the meantime we’d imposed on it a different figurative sense of “dull and lifeless,” which we still use today.”

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ponderous#synonyms

Emotion of the day number 19, with thanks to Be Manzini

Frittery…

… I think completely made up but meaning when I can’t settle to anything. The opposite of focus which is a thematic goal for me this year. It’s apt for this site’s progress too. The novelty of the redevelopment has worn off and it feels not seem less enough again, more of too many unresolved bits. Ngh.

Emotion of the day number 18, with thanks to Be Manzini

Preparing for Sheffield Creative Guild Sessions

I was really gratified to find I am fully booked for the business planning advice sessions I am hosting for Sheffield Creative Guild this month. I’ve been preparing for the first set of bookings tomorrow and really excited to meet the practitioners.

Sarah Grace Dye

Sarah’s Instagram feed

I am really looking forward to meeting Sarah, I love paper, artists’ books and all things folded. Having seen the photos from Sarah’s recent studio move and the absolutely beautiful space she’s created I’m going to have to work really hard to stay on topic in the limited time we have as I could spend hours discussing found objects and why we’re drawn to collect things.

Katy Billington

Katy has some stunning prints and the making behind them in her feed. I probably have more prints on my walls than anything else and I find the process intriguing. How a printmaker can reverse and isolate all the elements in a composition is so impressive to me. Katy uses lots of different printmaking techniques sometimes combining them.

THATLOOKSQUEER

Strength is often portrayed as a physical triumph over adversity, challenging a commonly held convention and testing ourselves to the limit. But what happens when we break? How do we heal and centre?

A Fallow Time: Strength in Isolation by THATLOOKSQUEER

This writing from my third booking tomorrow is really beguiling. I particularly loved the description of Phoebe Davis’ work in Site Gallery last year. Describing a fallow time earlier in this pandemic resonated with me too.