It’s now November and like the natural world in the northern hemisphere at this time of year I feel like my mind and body want to go into a dormant state, to hibernate. There is a sense that I need to rest, give myself a chance to recover after a chaotic year. I’ve struggled with getting back into work and trying to figure out what’s next in my making. It is in the past week that I realised I have being processing a lot over the past few months; living during a pandemic, finishing a degree during Covid-19 restrictions, saying goodbye to all our animals as we sell up and the death of my grandfather. No wonder my mind cannot focus on making.
Luckily I did return to Crawford college for my glass residency. It has been great to be back in the building, within a making and creativity environment. Granted, seeing others working and being busy has made me guilt trip myself but still I enjoy being there so much. Things will come right, all in good time.
For now, I’m jotting down ideas in my sketchbook, if something pops into my head I type it into my notes on my phone. I take photos if I see objects/colours/patterns that feel important. I recognise that how I’m feeling is something I could focus on in my work. That sense of being lost, unsettled, uncertain could be something to work out. I’ve looked at notions of place, belonging and identity before, but what if I look at these ideas from a negative angle? Not feeling grounded or settled? Or not being certain of one’s identity? An interesting thought for now.
I was pure delighted to be asked by Friends of the Crawford Art Gallery to do an interview with them earlier this Summer to speak about my work. Michelle and Niamh were so kind and very welcoming. I feel honoured to be asked but also the fact our chat took place in the amazing library of the Crawford Art Gallery was fantastic. Here is part one and part two…because we couldn’t stop talking!
I’ve been trying to stop my mind from thinking about making. I just want a mental break from it. But it doesn’t stop. In fairness I’m surrounded by what inspired my making and thinking over the past couple years; the farm. It’s hard to close the door on something when you’re surrounded by it. So I’ve been just thinking, not touching materials or playing with objects. My thinking has been about my grandfather’s suit hanging inside one of the old barns. Makes me think of how old, redundant things/skills are just put out, out of sight, left to decay. Looking at the strip woven into the fabric and wondering if that could be replaced with blue cord? Blue cord keeping it together, a link to its past as a farmer’s item of clothing. Or his cap, he always wore a cap. If I cast it maybe? Solid cast or pate de verre? Just thinking.
Bill’s old suit jacket hanging off a cow bale in the old cow house
Talking of the farm, it’s been very busy around here. We’ve been trying to paint the out houses. A mix of whitewash and masonry paint. They’re is a LOT of wall to cover. The weather has been great so my father has cut hay. It’s been made into round bales but he keeps mentioning making square bales which just gives me shivers. The amount of physical work involved in handling bales in sweltering heat makes me realise how much I want to convey the love/hate relationship I have with being a farmer’s daughter and working the land. Also to shattered the rose tinted nostalgia that others seem to have about rural life.
I came across two terms that I’ll investigate a bit more. Intangible hertiage and inherited nostalgia. Both seem to be what I am looking at in my work particularly intangible heritage. UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage was ratified by Ireland in 2015. “Intangible cultural heritage ‘refers to the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognise as part of their cultural heritage. This intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity’.” To me it is the objects and artefacts and the skills employed to use them that are interest. The hay pike, the reaping hook etc.
Inherited nostalgia is perhaps what I’m aiming to breakdown. The found memories of childhood holidays or second generation stories of growing up in a rural environment. These types of memories and recollections often don’t consider the reality of working the land.
As a side note, I’ve completed a couple of application forms for various competitions. Becoming a pro at it now! Received the ‘sorry to inform you’ emails from other organisations. All part and parcel of the process. The forms do make you think about your work and how to be succinct about explaining it. I’m delighted to say I have been selected for the Sculpture in Context exhibition in the National Botanical Gardens in Dublin later this year. Pure thrilled with that.
It’s over!!!! I say that with joy and sadness in equal measure. Our assessment was yesterday so we all had to be out of the exhibition space at 10 a.m. So hard to believe that my 4 years at Crawford is over. It’s been such a refuge, not just the building itself but the opportunity to learn and make. Getting to escape from the real world and throw myself into thinking, making, doing, researching, learning, and most importantly, experimenting.
Our little group of C.A.A students. Taken in 2019 while setting up our exhibition within the sculpture corridor in the college. Photo: Rebecca Ryan
I don’t know if I can really process everything that has happened from the time I started there. The workshops in glass, ceramics and textiles opened my eyes to all the possibilities these disciplines offer. As a plus, I took so much from electives in photography and printmaking. In truth, I still don’t think I’ve settled on a particular medium I want to work in and in fairness i don’t think I want to settle on just one. Having options was the reason I went to Crawford, to do the Contemporary Applied Art course in the first place. It was wide ranging in that three areas of making were part of the course. I’ve discovered my methodology is moving between materials which allow me to tell a story through their own associations and histories. I used to beat myself that I hadn’t ‘picked’ a subject area. I now realise that’s ok, I don’t have to. Some people do, but I don’t have to.
So now what do I do?
I’m taking the advice of all the artists and lecturers who’ve given talks at the college. APPLY TO EVERYTHING! So I’ve application forms for awards, bursaries and prizes to fill in over the next couple of weeks. I’m technically not finished of college yet as our official launch to our degree show is 11th June when it goes live online. If, IF!, it opens to the public there will also be work in that between giving the spaces another clean and invigilating the show. I would love for my family to see what has taken my interest over the past 4 years. I also want them to see what I’ve been breaking my back for in the past three months since the building was opened back up to students.
2 months since I posted. 2 weeks until our assessment. It has been a mad couple months; got access to the college and the facilities, making moulds, casting glass, cold-working, still(!) making turf chain links. All the while helping on the farm as we have 15 cows to calf and nearly all calves got sick. Same s**t, different year.
My concept hasn’t changed. I’m still looking at our connection the land, to place and our sense of belonging. Labour of the land has crept into the work, hence the pike and bill hooks I made in glass. The surprise has been glass, didn’t think I’d be working glass, especially so much of it.
Here is some images of the work in progress since the middle of March. They include kiln formed glass and pate de verre technique. I had the plan to make a glass chain, a glass cast of my Da’s hand, a hay pike and hook for my chain.
Wax models being prepped for coating with layers of plaster and silica mix.
Moulds in the kiln (pre and post firing) and then divesting…exciting times!
Everything work!!! Well almost, the two chain moulds had to go back into the kilns with extra glass into the reservoirs. I was so happy to see The pike worked, the glass managed to flow down into the spikes of the pike. Approx. 7cm of pike was not cast but that’s ok, we have a pike that has been worn back like that from use.
Cold-working room; using Dremel to cut into glass. Hand-lapping and wet polisher to grind down glass
A month since my last post and I feel like I’ve been busy but when I look around in my studio I don’t have a lot ‘done’. Done is a relative term I suppose, I have a lot of thinking done, testing done, research done, Instagram account done but with regards getting near a finished piece…feels miles away from being done.
Here are a few images of what I’ve been trying and testing…
My test twigs coated in two types of slip; stoneware and porcelain. Some with newsprint wrapped around as a supportCarving a twig into a slab of plaster silica in prep for pate de verre firingMy unsuccessful wax casting from a second silicone mould I made. I knew when I was trying to form the silicone around the chain that there was something wrong.This was pure play, seeing how would turf take to a former. I used a baking bowl. Tried whitewash, again to see what would happen. Interesting result but piece is still drying out, cracking as it does.
I feel at the moment that serious consideration is being made by the college as to whether we will be allow back in to use facilities due to Covid concerns. The rough plan was possibly mid-March, case numbers depending. Numbers have not reduced considerably and I think the risk might be too high to allow students access. Even if that access was one person per workshop, it might not matter. We’ll have to wait and see. I can only do what I can at home. Keep playing with materials and see where they take me.
February now. Time still passes by during all the craziness. Deadlines still need to be met. I think I’ve accepted that it’s ok if I don’t have ceramics or glass pieces in my degree exhibition. It MIGHT still happen but I’m working around it not. So back to peat and other materials of the land and home.
When I finally got started again after the Christmas break, I picked up the pieces I had made for my December assessment. They had dried out and shrunk even more, after all they were sitting in the college for 6 weeks. Encouraged by Orla, new coordinator for Yr 4, I went playing with what I had. I returned to lime wash, something I think I’ve been carrying around since 1st year of college. Lime wash, the white lime powder mixed with water that’s splashed onto old farm outhouses and walls to brighten them up but also for its antibacterial properties. I messed around with the turf objects made with peat and twigs from the sraith sod (upper layer of bog with heather) and watered lime powder.
The turf base painted with whitewashReverse of first image, the sraith twig coated in whitewashScraith twig dipped in whitewash. Ghostly as it seems to disappear against the white wallsDipped the flattened piece I made last year into whitewash. Like it’s eating into the turf.The setup
I put together a powerpoint of these images for my tutorial with Debbie and Orla. Along with these I had some research done on ash glazes for ceramics and how to go about making them. Again, knowing that I may not get to put anything into a kiln but trying to prepare anyway. Valuable points to note: 1) ash is caustic so gloves, mask and googles essential when in dry form 2) burn enough raw material to ensure a good supply of ash 3) can be used washed and unwashed, and finally 4) test, test, test and test again (there’s a lot of testing which makes the ash glaze less likely) Useful website: https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/pottery-making-illustrated/ceramic-supplies/ceramic-glazes-and-underglazes/using-wood-ash-glazes/#
Other ideas: repeated process – jobs done around that farm that are the same as they were 100 years ago, cut timber or collect turf for the fire, walking same paths, doing same actions with hands/arms.
Colour: the colour from the scraith sod like different greens, hues of purples and burgundy, reddish browns. I look at wool I had in my room.(see below) also thinking of these colours as a glaze? But no sure about this idea or at least not getting excited about it.
Flattened turf against the colours of wool replicating the colours of the scraith sod.
Slip casting: I got high temperature kiln wire from Andrea, our glass and ceramics technician. The plan is to form the wire to resemble the scraith twigs, coat several times with slip and fire. The hope would be to get a ceramic twig that would contrast the peat base forms. I also hope to coat the twigs themselves in slip but from experience I may end up with fragments and ash. Andrea gave me other tools and materials so I can try to make a mould of the bases too. Silicone mould as well as a plaster silica mould for glass. I would love to get a glass twig(s) to place into the peat bases. The contrast would look really well, it would also reflect on the fragility of the objects and the memories that inspired them.
Large turf sculptures: I went out the bog this morning, cut fresh, black peat. The better kind for making sculptures and for forming into objects. It dries very hard and doesn’t crumble like brown turf does. I’m going to try making bigger pieces because when they dry they are a third the size. Recording the shrinkage also came up in the tutorial. I had thought about it but recording for months isn’t possible for me. I could however take a photo everyday of the same object and in the same position showing how it shrinks over time.
Officially back in college since yesterday but it doesn’t feel like it. Due to Covid-19 and new variant we aren’t allowed near the place. Last semester, we had access for 3 days which was brilliant for me. Being at home, surrounded by family makes it hard to get into thinking/making mode. My studio space here i.e the spare bedroom is freezing too which doesn’t help.
The big plus is the thesis is done!!! No longer have to split my brain in two between academia and making. From now on it’s just making. There’s a great freedom to that. Pity we don’t have access to facilities in the college for at least 5 weeks. I realised the other day that it has been over 2 years since I fired anything in the college kilns. Granted a few months of that was my own doing because of learning video making and going on Erasmus. However, it certainly feels like we’re missing out on key skills and techniques due to the whole coronavirus pandemic.
Anyway, this post doesn’t have any research, or thinking behind it. I wanted to acknowledge the start of a new year, a new semester and a new challenge. Getting work made with our June exhibition in mind. Let’s see where it all goes.
It’s been the toughest semester in college. Covid 19 has really impacted on the thinking and creativity. Along with the fact the it’s 4th year, it’s just been hard. I’m not alone in thinking that, the class group chat has been encouraging messages of ‘keep going’, ‘we’ll get through this’ and it’s ok, there’s a worldwide pandemic after all!’.
But what of the actual work…in progress. My mind kept struggling with the crux of my research. I still can’t pinpoint what it is I’m trying to convey. It’s based on the past, focused on home and a sense of belonging. But it’s more than that…I think I’m trying to understand the link between us, people, to land and home. I’m also hitting on a nerve, my own nerve. That the past isn’t all rose tinted, rural life is not a bucolic scene every day and nostalgia doesn’t always mean we miss the past.
During the course of the semester I’ve tried to express all that through the materials. Using turf and hay to play with the idea of links to family and the land I grew up on. Some pieces have been more successful than others. One thing I did during the past few weeks which I was disappointed about was the fact that I kept moving a piece along because of deadlines rather than the fact I was happy with it. Lessons learned.
Monavullagh Bog, Co. Waterford – The days I went out here digging for fresh turf was weird. Reminded me of journeys made here during the summers of my childhood. The utter peace and stillness there is otherworldly.
So much research and investigation has gone on (most in my head to be honest) over the past couple months. Only for Roisin, year 4 supervisor, I would have gone down the wrong road entirely. Some of the following images will show from newest to oldest work and making.
Most recent work on display for the latest tutorial
Combining fresh peat with bones, hay and turf ash
Playing with turf
Flattened peat twists as it dries
Presentation for tutorial in early November. Wall print made with hay, playing with layout of images through scale and jigsawing, footed turf sitting on turf ashes
So what of the making? It started in September with re-examining what I had been working on, concept wise, over the past year. The theme of memory, my grandfather, the farm yard and all the memories I have from going up there. I went through my sketchbooks, from the past year but also the last few years. Definitely reoccurring themes but for another time I think. So I set out what I believed were the most important words from my thinking at that time: place, gate, clay, memory, and specific memory event. Using a technique from seminars last year, I stuck these words up on the wall and created spider-grams of words associated to these individual words. Granted, all the words are linked to each other in my mind but I want to see what each one could offer on its own.
From all this, ‘place’ and ‘clay’ seemed to be the most valuable of words for the gave more options, suggestions and ideas. Even though I had clay dug and ready to work with and try to make as workable clay I wanted to see where ‘place’ would take me.
During my artist research (which went something like typing ‘clay artist place’ into google) I came across Mandy Parslow, a ceramicist based in Tipperary and lecturing at L.S.A.D. in Limerick, whose current work ‘explores how ceramics, place, embodiment and temporality relate to each other and considers the deeply rooted ways we perceive our physical environment’. By using the clay and found materials from the hills around her home, Parslow is investigating what a ‘sense of place’ means in her pieces. Luckily, she was exhibiting her recent work at the People’s Museum of Limerick from 10 – 26th Sept. (see images below) I managed to get to see the exhibition, ‘On Place‘, on the last day of its showing. Interesting to see how she used the clay, fired and unfired, to test her ideas. The forms are very organic and the working of the hands can be seen in the twisting and shaping of the clay. Alongside the pieces were also found-objects like a pipe or a bootstrap which I thought linked to my idea of the traces of people left on the land they worked on. From reading the artist statement and seeing the work, it all resonated with me. However, when I saw it, that feeling of doing the same thing or copying someone’s idea crept into my mind. I know it’s not because I’ve been thinking about doing this for over a year and also no idea is unique to one person. If I used the clay from around my homeplace of Knockalisheen, I know I’m approaching from a different and personal angle to Parslow.
My investigation with place and subsequent spider grams led me to other materials of the land besides clay, such as slate (from cow houses), lime powder (used to whitewash walls), stone (layered to created ditches), wood (for firing), bone (carcasses from the woods), turf (for firing) and hay (winter fodder for animals). (Image below)
Again, I narrowed down the focus with Roisin’s help and the three main materials I would investigate even further would be turf, hay and bone. They were the three words and materials that gave me the most ideas and also that I had the most strongest feelings towards. I have vivid memories from summer spent in the bog, footing and bagging turf for winter firing. Similarly, I remember spending days stooking bales in the fields and how the rush was always on to get the hay saved before the rain. Not all rose tinted memories I must add. It was hard work and it often felt like other kids didn’t have to do this during their summer holidays. Hands and backs always suffered the most, cracked, scratched, aching fingers after a day of work, only to know you’d have to do it again tomorrow. Then the realisation as you grew up that this would be the way every summer. Fond isn’t a word for all memories.
The bone is odd in that I thought it to be more recent to my life around the farm, finding bones of deer and other animals as I walked the dog through the fields and the woods. But I do have a memory of finding a cow’s skull up on a ditch near the house when I was maybe 10 or 11 and being fascinated with it. The idea that it was once inside a living animal, the intimacy of that and how vulnerable we all are to being that bit of discarded bone is what fascinates me now. I’m in awe of the engineering that goes into the structure of bone and how each bone then gives structure and support to our muscle, blood vessels and skin.
I started playing with the materials, taking photos, thinking all the time while doing that about how each material felt, held itself up, why it was important to me and it came back to hands and the involvement of the hands especially in relation to turf and hay. The footing of turf and the skill and knowledge that goes with that is something not many know of these days. Neither is the hard labour behind it and also the job of bagging the sods into old fertiliser bags in order to bring them home to the turf house. I wanted to show that, but also highlight that is something fragile within the Irish memory, dying out. Turf was starting to be my main material of interest for the time being. I went to the bog (images below) and dug out fresh peat so I could see what I could do with it, how malleable was it beyond forming the shape of a sod.
My next post will show the different ways I played with turf to see what answers it might give me.
Áine Ryan 