Project Director’s Journal
Extra - 11 April 2003
My second Journal page is an outline
overview of what is now happening in the project. Four of
the partnerships are now well underway, a fifth is due to
begin at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design in the middle
of June. As far as the partnerships are concerned, my role
at the moment is one of observing and documenting.
At the end of March, after two months,
Maxine Bristow and Kyoko Nitta ended their first phase –
Kyoko Nitta will return for a further four weeks in August
– and I visited them at Chester College of Higher Education
Chester where they are based, to interview them about their
time together. As this was the first partnership to work together,
it was also something of a ‘test run’ to find
out if the frame we have put in place actually works. Maxine
was extremely helpful as both she and I worked out the guidelines
for the mentoring partnerships. These guidelines have proved
very useful for the partnerships which have followed. At the
end of May I visited Japan to interview the ongoing partnerships
there, and at that time I also met Kyoko again and was very
interested to see the first elements she has made in the collaborative
piece that she and Maxine will create in August
The second partnership in the UK, between
Jeanette Appleton and Naoko Yoshimoto, is taking place in
Yorkshire at Bankfield Museum Halifax and at the University
of Huddersfield I met them briefly in May after their first
week together and will visit them again at the end of June.
The possibilities of creating large scale work through the
industrial felt making facilities made available by the University
are very exciting
All the participants, in the UK and Japan,
so far have demonstrated real commitment to the project and
a desire to move slowly but firmly towards identifying and
understanding each other’s creative and working processes.
My time in Japan visiting the partnership
between Machiko Agano and Anniken Amundsen and between Michiko
Kawarayabashi and Ealish Wilson allowed me the opportunity
to observe the very positive connections which are being established
between the partners.
Visiting the two partnerships in close
succession also highlighted for me the very different approaches
taken by all the partnerships. As I have said, at the moment
I am observing and documenting, carried along by the genuine
excitement generated by the partnerships, enjoying the process,
not yet looking for the outcome or drawing conclusions.
Keiko Kawashima, the project co-ordinator
in Japan, and I spent time each day discussing the progress
of the project – particularly the working relationships
- and ways forward in terms of venues in Japan. The UK tour
is now in place (see Exhibition page) and I hope that we have
made significant progress towards the Japanese tour which
I look forward to writing about in a later Journal entry.
The project has been wonderfully supported so far (see Sponsors
page), however Keiko and I are still working hard to secure
the funding to enable the project to be completed at maximum
level.
The project Education Programme, which
is so important for the dissemination of the project, is also
underway. All the participants have given lectures to students
in the UK and Japan about their own work and their thoughts
about working together. In July Jeanette Appleton, Naoko Yoshimoto
and I will be talking about the project at a public forum
held at Bankfield Museum in Halifax and later in July Jeanette
and Naoko will hold a day workshop at the Japan Foundation
in London (see the Education page). This workshop will be
open to the public but places will be limited. Early in June
I will be meting with Waverley Council and the Heads of Art
from All Hallows and Heath End schools to select the artists
who will take part in the mirroring residency scheme at these
schools. In May I was very happy to be invited to speak about
the project at the educational seminar ‘Culture and
Creativity’ organised by The Daiwa Anglo Japanese Foundation
at their London headquarters.
During my recent stay in Japan all those
who are involved in the project and in Japan at that time,
met for lunch at the studio of tapestry weaver Harumi Isobe.
Harumi was both a ‘Revelation’ and ‘Textural
Space’ artist and has offered her studio for the use
of Clair Barber during her partnership with Teruyoshi Yoshida.
This was the first time we had all met together and was an
extraordinary occasion in terms of the warmth of feeling and
generosity of spirit that the project has engendered.
Lesley
Millar
Project Director THROUGH THE SURFACE
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