I always really look forward to my tutorials with Jonathan, they feel very indulgent - having window of his time entirely focussed on my work. I always wonder whether I should have formally prepared anything, indeed Jonathan's first question was 'is there anything specific you'd like to discuss?', and there is, but it's everything! I find that if I just start talking the things that feel most important naturally come to the fore most pressing in my mind was to thank Jonathan for reading my research paper when I got to the point that I was tying myself in knots with it. After receiving his feedback I was feeling much more confident about my writing, which in turn led to feeling more excited about the possibilities the research for the paper had opened up.
Leading on from this Jonathan highlighted that my research has confirmed that focussing on one place is fine – because Cezanne and Neil both do. Both also have forays into other places/genres so stepping outside of a specific area occasionally is fine. It was interesting to note how Neil felt disconnected from his Broads project even though it was so close to him, it makes me wonder how Cezanne felt about the different genres he was tackling. Did he view his work on the bathers in a different way to his plein air landscape painting? He must have done.
We talked about Andy Goldsworthy and how long it takes to know a place (he says even after 10 years he doesn’t really know a place) Jonathan told me about a film made about his going to other places and building commissioned works. At one point a stone cairn type structure keeps collapsing and he laments the fact that he doesn’t know the stone – it’s from another place. This links to my pondering over other places and how I feel about them.
We talked about being open to the interaction of other places, and what might be learned from there that can be brought back to the ‘home’ place - how do other places interact with familiar places and home?
Next we talked about the forest – the time taken for the forest to regrow – 20 years for the timber trees to become mature (the ones grown as a crop). I said that I felt like I was really starting to notice the stages of the changes. On my daily walk I see areas 1 year after felling which have just been mulched and replanted. Some of the log piles are still in situ. There are areas in their second or third year of growth and more that must be 5 or six years in, which have been mown into strange stripes. I want to delve more deeply into the 10,000 tonnes of timber that’s felled every year and what that actually looks like.
We talked about looking at the marks on the felled trees. The brutality of the felling process to the land and the trees themselves. This led to thinking about how to tackle this visually – the print for GROTTO – has the feeling of the bleakness but I didn’t want it to be depressing. How do I record the reality of growing and harvesting timber without it being sad?
Jonathan mentioned the ‘defiant’ three trees left standing – the branches finding the light above the mess of the harvest. He pointed out that in the print their canopy stands above the distant foliage in the background. I said I have mixed feelings about the trees left behind… Are they the strong survivors? Are they the lonely ones that are left? Did they not get picked for their life’s purpose? I like the word 'defiant' to describe them. I wonder whether this is a concept I could incorporate into my work. I've always been interested in how 'nature' fights back and evades human attempts to control it. This could be a strand of investigation for me within this setting.
We talked about getting to the bottom of why they leave random trees when they harvest. I mentioned that there are rangers and forestry workers in the forest and set myself the aim to speak to someone and get to the bottom of it.
Jonathan mentioned the sculptural tree-like print at WCPF. I found it really interesting that he didn’t immediately think ‘tree’ when he saw it, but to my mind it was a pink silver birch before I got anywhere near it. It’s not, it’s printed and marbled paper and made from packing materials (there was a post with an explanation later that day rather coincidentally). I think I must just be tree-obsessed to see them everywhere! We talked about the question of how it was standing and my having a moment of thinking someone beating me to my idea. Jonathan said the question to be asked in that situation is ‘what have I done?’. He reminded me to think about my interim piece; the print and the wood going together and being equally important in that presentation of work. This led me to thinking further about my plans for further explorations of how to present a 'print'.
I'm vaguely outlining plans for the June exhibition. Starting with endless space & budget and what would it look like in the turbine hall at the Tate then paring that back to realistic opportunities at CSM. Jonathan said it’s likely to be similar to last year, so a reasonable amount of space. He asked me to think about what would it look like to have something huge in the main square, that it’s genuinely feasible to attempt. It might be unfeasible in the end but thinking through the possibility could be really interesting. This is one of the things that always wows me about Jonathan, he is so encouraging of the wild possibilities! But at the same time he points out that not being able to hold the crazy huge thing you planned and imagined isn’t a failure because of the immense value of the planning and imagining phase as a creative exercise. He offers examples of people who’ve done some completely wacky things with the unspoken thought of ‘they did it, why can’t you’? It’s wonderful!
He told me about Jean-Claude & Christo and how they funded their huge projects through selling all the prints and drawings made in the planning of it. The drawings were beautiful. Some of the big projects took decades in the planning, but the process of planning was a valuable creative process in itself that led to the creation of beautiful work.
Possibilities are opened up by the Swinley Forest – the bit I know & spend time in, I could document the trees for 20 years. Then there’s another space I work in to produce my prints. What’s the in between space? What would 10,000 tonnes of timber look like in Granary Square? What does 10,000 look like anywhere?
Next we talked about the labelling of log piles with the garish markings alongside the markings from the machines. The words already exist so I pondered using them in a 3D sculpture for the June show. I’m not sure whether to use words in completely flat prints as people read the words and move on, I quite like that when you see the log piles it takes time to discover the words.
Neither of us is necessarily saying that harvesting is bad – I look at the monoculture areas which seems bad, but there are new deciduous plantings. This time of year the deciduous trees stand out due to the leaves changing colour so it’s very obvious that there are a lot of deciduous trees in the forest and new ones being planted. Conversations with rangers might be really valuable to find out about the ethos and how the forest works in greater detail than I have managed to discover online.
Timber production can be similar to crop farming which can be really bad – apparently there are 60 harvests left in the soil on earth. Jonathan knows of a carbon positive farm in the UK. They don’t turn the soil over as much; they’ve even included as far as the workers getting to site in their measurements and are putting carbon back into the soil. Why are we not doing more of this on a global scale? How do ideas like this relate to the forest? How sustainable and carbon friendly is the forest????
It would be really interesting to know what’s going on with the timber because it is just a crop, a 20 year crop. There’s SSSI’s there’s SPA’s and the Thames Valley area there’s a link to Chobham and the heaths. My tourism background makes me ponder all the different human uses of the forest, which could be looked at as a 'farm' of sorts. There are many interesting angles to ponder....
The layering of the uses mirrors the printmaking. The layers in the maps I play with online as well as the marks made by bikes, footsteps etc. you can play with it in a printmaking way. There are so many layers!
Jonathan asked what an exhibition of work in the forest would look like. I need to use Shirin’s prompt to get my finger out and do something about this. She wants an image of work exploring the concept of home, photographed within the place. I think I could do something rather interesting with pieces I already have. It wouldn’t need to be there for a long time – maybe just for the photograph, maybe for a day, but something actually in the location.
Jonathan gave me a question to consider: how important is it that it’s of the location but not in the location. This is something to think about. Where is the priority?
I like the idea of something that’s in the forest. I like taking pictures of sketches in situ. Molly Lemon is an example of a printmaker working fully en plein air. The idea of working in the forest appeals but I'd have to watch out for other people’s dogs! It crossed my mind that the mini etching press from the Open Press Project could be used in this way. It's tiny, so I could do engraving or drypoint in situ and ink it up there and then to make tiny prints rather than just sketches. This feel like an exciting idea. I think I should start by making some plates in situ then printing at home to start with. I wonder what the added value of actually printing them in situ would be, versus the annoyance of not having the right colour or equipment with me or just getting forest dirt all over everything, and how do you soak the paper ... etc, etc, there seem to be a few barriers but with thought these could be overcome, the question is would it be worth it and what would it add to the work to be printed there?
The large-scale installation is something really worth thinking about, Jonathan pointed out that I could utilise Chas’s construction skills!
He talked about an artist who turned a pylon upside down, and the front side of a house. His first project was a circular chimney. He went to the marketing dept and asked them to help him and they loved it as they got the photos. All the other people involved get on board as it’s a really interesting challenge. For most people an interesting challenge is more fun than the mundane everyday tasks... What could I do that would pose an interesting challenge?
Jonathan suggested that I go and see the current Tate exhibition.... something huge and filling the turbine hall.
We ended on the note that there are easily 20 years worth of work in the forest. Nice interludes making work about other places but the forest could easily be an ongoing project for several decades.... this feels exciting (and a little daunting). Overall this tutorial felt like it really underlined all the shifts in thinking and new possibilities that have opened up as a result of the research paper.
