Cob building in Crouch End

So my investigations into raw clay building and how to sustain it’s life has led me to the http://www.cobinthecommunity.org/

Dropped them a line and was going to meet up with proejct leader at their latest exercise on Friday but the rain stopped play.

Great personality though and we will meet up when the time is right.

This gives me some time to regroup and do some testing of my own on clays I would want to us in Waterlow Park.  The contact at Camden Council is holiday until 18 March so there is a little leeway there as well.

Plenty to do!

The garden metaphor – conducive to healing

The Victorian garden given to the people of Archway as a ‘garden for the gardenless’ sits within the context of Victorian philanthropy.

Importance given to all the elements in the garden, gates of entry, water, trees, hills, views, reveal the Victorian Frame of Mind (see also Walter E. Houghton’s book of the same name).

In my work as a complementary therapist, ‘elements’ are vital conditions for the facilitation of healing.  Earth, fire, water, air, light, inspiration are all depicted symbolically through the ceremonies in complementary therapies. There are rituals of entry that are observed in a healing space; these are normal things, like taking off our shoes, but they are given specific focus so they carry meaning.

The key here is facilitation; the natural propensity for the human body to heal itself is understood as a given.  The conditions must be made so that this can take place.

The same is true of the healing garden, in this case, the garden for the gardenless.

Tile Kiln Lane

At the moment my research has been in consulting with GLIAS (Greater London Industrial Archeological Society).  They have been exceptionally helpful in pointing me to various research resources, where I might find more about the tiles that were produced on this site.

The advice I have is that because a name was given to the site, the chances of it being of significant size and duration are greater, and also that this potentially indicates a more ornamental or decorative tiles were being manufactured there.

We will have to wait and see what the research uncovers.

Geology of Archway

The British Geological Society map of England and Wales (Sheet 256 North London) shows geology containing three distinct clay types.  Tile kiln lane (marked with the small black oblong on the image) boarders London Clay and  and Silt and Fine Grained Sand layer.  The latter is marked in pink on the map and the London Clay not depicted as it surrounds the entire boardered section shown.

The yellow area is delineated as ‘sand’ by BGS.

This shows as a bright red/brown colour.  This was supported by observations during my site visit, and is the reason I am going with the terra cotta’s for clay type in my proposals for six gates project.

I still have work to uncover the history of tile kiln lane and the nature of it’s output, but that is under way.

Waterlow Park – site visit 1st March

Today was a day for visiting Waterlow Park.  It hadn’t even occurred to me that it was 1 March!  The first day of spring?!!

The park is laid out in a clockwise narrative, with the story and history of the place explained at each of the way-points, namely, each of the six gates into the park.  These are marked noticeboards made up of a formulaic trypic, Parish Notices, Map of Where you Are, history panel.

I followed this route photographically using the mantra Juxtaposition, Intervention, Restoration.  It’s a 29 acre site so this took a good few hours and I ended up with around 250 images.  It is a VERY rich site contextually, even within the boundaries of the park, let alone the outlying streets.  It is MUCH easier to find reasons for clay once you visit a site.  Sounds like an obvious thing to say, but CLAY IS EVERYWHERE!!

Most people don’t see it, so it seems it should be pointed out to them.  Working within an accepted and understood framework is the key.  The whole point is communication and in order to do that there needs to be a hook, some shared place of understanding that people can then respond to and discuss.

It is very easy to forget these basic facts after spending so much time immersed in one subject.  They cannot be stated enough!

So, the following is a start at suggestions for responses to each gate.

Photography to earth and drawing

I saw this AMAZING photo in the Evening Standard.  I am not a follower of football, but I do appreciate a good photo and this spoke to me on a number of levels.  The shear energy in the player – full power!  And the position of the photographer:  on the ground.

This observation is key to the way I must take my photography forward to really make it work for me.  Clay is all about the material reality, substance.  For me, the work of being here at all can be explored and explained through clay.  This comes from the ground.

So, TAKE PHOTOGRAPHY TO THE GROUND

Why photography?  It is a very efficient method of flattening a subject.  I have always struggled with the flatness of things, especially the not-quite-flatness of paintings (but that’s another post!).  I also feel very integrated into the spaces I am in…it’s as if my skin is an acutely permeable membrane.  Photography helps me distance myself from it.  This is vital for effective development.

The same happens with observational drawing but a different set of information is revealed.  The making of a drawing allows me to leap further into the page with a drawing more readily than I can with a photograph.  Leaping is not always GOOD!

Egg Moon

The Grass or Egg Moon in shamanic tradition is “when the grass turns green and life comes back into the ground”.  It is my intention to highlight the potential in the material clay, which is why all pieces will be reclaimed for use in other projects.  This acknowledges the long natural cycle of renewal that making in clay offers us.

Between 10 April and 10 May is the Egg Moon of 2013, and will be used as a period of time during which making on-site in Waterlow park in Archway will take place on a daily basis.  Small and medium scale temporary interventions in raw clay will be made.  The works will be documented either with photography, drawing, video or sound and the pieces may be re-worked and re-visited over the period of making to document their change in state.

The effect of abstraction – audience

Is a public space really a place for abstract clay work?  The charm and the challenge with clay is that it is ALL potential.  Nobody really knows how to react to it unless they have spent SERIOUS amounts of time with it.  So is it too gratuitous to place my own purely meditative responses (which are inevitably abstract) in a public place?

Abstract forms need a hook to make them work.  It could be texture, scale, colour; many things.  But they need a hook and it needs to be clear, at least at the beginning.

The public place is one that is to be shared by ALL who use it.

This is particularly the case with Waterlow Park.  The abstracted form is a distinct challenge to the comfort of a place, so possibly a questionable thing to do.  You can kind of get away with it if the abstraction is using materials that are obviously from the place, but to literally, insert clay into a spot?  That might seem to be provocative and is that what we want in a ‘Garden for the Gardenless’?  Really?

Where is the harmony?

Where to work

So, now we begin the final push!  I am slightly troubled by the lack of time I seem to have…to find the site I need…to secure permissions…to fulfill my ambitions for my degree show, but the best way to get over it is to do it!!

I am sure of the following:

• I want to work outside
• I want to work with raw clay
• I want to intervene in a temporary installation
• I want to incorporate my intuitive response to space

I have a site visit to a new studio in Archway next week so I should take a look there to see what is around and about the place.

SOOOO strange that this is in the same road that my grandfather worked in as a cabinet maker;  Elthorne Road was his place of work for 50 years.  amazing.  What shall I find?!!

(Courtesty of Caxton House Community Centre)