Project Director’s Journal
June 2003
Inevitably, this Journal entry will
be very much concerned with the partnerships. Machiko Agano
and Anniken Amundsen are the first partnership to complete
their time working together. I have spent so many months putting
the partnerships together, I now find it odd that the first
one is ending its initial phase, and I am sure that if I find
it strange, how much more strange it must be for the two artists
after such an intensive time spent together. They have both
shown tremendous commitment to the project. I know well the
work of both artists, and have been involved in the installation
of their work in gallery spaces, particularly Machiko Agano’s
during ‘Textural Space’. I have always felt that
they have a great deal to offer each other and their latest
Journal entries indicate that they have found the points of
contact which will enable them to create a collaborative piece.
There has never been an expectation that
the result of collaborations would be a ‘joint’
work, only that the resulting work by both artists should
be created in the light of the experience. However I am delighted
and excited by the prospect, which Maxine Bristow and Kyoko
Nitta are also exploring and when I visited Michiko Kawarayabashi
and Ealish Wilson in Japan in May, they had already, through
the processes each use, identified areas of collaboration
and influence.
Towards the end of June the exhibition
designer, Philip Bintliff, and I visited Jeanette Appleton
and Naoko Yoshimoto in Yorkshire. We have been tremendously
fortunate in that the University of Huddersfield have provided
Jeanette and Naoko wonderful studio space and access to their
very specialised equipment and technicians.
I already mentioned in my May Journal
that the University has the machinery for making very large
scale needle felt and this has proved an inspirational starting
point for the partnership. The possibilities of the machine
forming an invisible line, Jeanette on one side constructing
cloth Naoko on the other deconstructing cloth, with the theme
of ‘Memory’ at the core of their work.
Philip Bintliff, and I spent an extraordinary
few hours talking to the two artists about their approaches
to the project, to their individual work and to their collaboration.
The third partnership in the UK has just
begun. Kaori Hosozawa is based at the Surrey Institute of
Art and Design and she is working with Frances Geesin. As
I am based at the Institute I will have the great pleasure
of seeing the developing relationship on a more regular basis.
I am very grateful to be allowed such
access to the creative processes of all the participating
artists. Watching and hearing how they painstakingly work
towards the realisation of an idea, in partnership, is privileged
information.
Also this month we were able to confirm
partnership with Hove Museum for the opening of the exhibition
in January. This means that the exhibition will be split site
between the Institute’s James Hockey and Foyer Galleries
and Hove Museum and Art Gallery with the site sensitive installation
at Fabrica Brighton. This is excellent news and a great relief
as it seems that most of the artists are inclining towards
creating work on a fairly monumental scale!
Lesley
Millar
Project Director THROUGH THE SURFACE
top
|
