Like a cyber-sketchbook, this is a place for ideas, and snapshots of possibilities that might end up on one of the gallery pages one day, in some shape or form…
Here we are. Quite oblivious. is a very quick (and quite ugly) sketch that I did in an attempt to pare back my concept for Wait ’til it Settles to a 2-d form. This work shares resonances with my installation The Natural Course of Things, in that it’s about one’s consciousness (or lack thereof) of the various different layers of human existence, and the way in which nature can intervene to mask or reveal or dictate direction.
It’s 3rd Feb… and the water keeps on coming. All waterways are swollen to bursting, and dangerous, almost across the entire country, and more flood warnings have been issued today in Oxford. It’s incredible, just incredible. Figures show that parts of England have had their wettest January since records began more than 100 years ago.
Anyway, this is making me think about water in a different way. Ordinarily carefully preserved and measured, weather reports are showing polluted, overflowing excesses of water. Wildlife conservation is one of the things being blamed for water channels not having been sufficiently dredged over the past few years, and consequently unable to channel the quantities of water properly.
I’ve been thinking about water butts, and containers – vessels that we usually use to capture and contain ‘good’ water. My thoughts have turned to preserving this ‘bad’ water, and the various layers of history that it’s churning up in something that viewers might be able to relate to on a domestic level. I like the thought of the physicality of the selection below that I’ve found online, and that I’m considering using for my Wait ’til it Settles installation that’ll form part of the Inspired by the canal exhibition at the Jam Factory. I like the idea that, with some effort, they’re portable, so people might move them around in a restaurant environment, unsettling the waters. And I like the thought that, in the event of an emergency, one might wait til the muddy waters settle and then syphon the clean water off the top – ignoring the history, the old, settled murky water, and hoping for the best for the future.
Whatever containers are used in the end, I’d like them to be as transparent as possible so visitors can see what’s within (exposing the interior of a canal – laying it bare); and I’d like them to be mainly different in shape and form, just as the water within them will be taken from different parts of the Oxford canal.
Sooo… I **think** I’ve got myself a plan, or at least the basis of a plan for my Jam Factory installation – pen to paper…
Sarah Mayhew Craddock’s art practice is largely concerned with the psychology of space, the way in which people move around space, consciously or otherwise, and interact and engage with their environment. She is interested in pathways, the decision-making process, motivation, levels of engagement, and perception.
Sarah became intrigued by canals, and the history of the canal network when she moved to Birmingham in 2005. Venturing down the Grand Union and along The Oxford Canal Sarah moved to Oxford in 2008 and became enthralled by Oxford’s hidden secrets, notably, Oxford’s canal basin, now buried beneath the Worcester Street car park.
Frequently drawing on adages or aphorisms when entitling her works she reinforces the sense of familiarity, or lack of, between viewer and experience. Wait ‘til it Settles is an installation inspired by the dark layers of mystery that Sarah identifies in the quietude of canals.
Captivated by the idea that charged personal histories build up idiosyncratic languages that are mostly hidden from view, buried in the sediment that lies beneath the slow flowing surface water, Sarah has ‘bottled’ unsettled waters for public examination, as if presenting a science experiment, in the making of Wait ‘til it Settles. In doing so, she highlights the layers of history that make up The Oxford Canal, once one of the UK’s most important arteries of trade, and draws parallels between the canal and the viewers’ own personal histories.
… now to go and collect some unsettled canal waters, whilst they’re churned up and murky!
This etching is by the rather brilliant (in my opinion) Caroline Maas. I’m looking forwards to meeting her after having admired her work for so long! She’s exhibiting as part of this exhibition too – see below…
p.s. Other exhibiting artists included in this group show, Inspired by the canal, curated by Esther Lafferty (Director of Oxfordshire Artweeks), and organised in association with Oxfordshire Artweeks and the Oxford Canal Heritage Project include: Caroline Maas, Valerie Petts, Katherine Shock, Michele Field, and a mystery photographer (TBC I think)! We’re an eclectic bunch, and apparently that was a conscious decision on Esther’s part as she hopes to encompass the various ways in which Oxfordshire Artweeks artists respond to the same subject, in turn making the month long festival the rich tapestry that it has become so famous for. The exhibition will take place at The Jam Factory, Oxford between the 31st March and 28th April 2014.
Let it settle
Settle down
It’ll soon settle down
Wait ’til it settles
and with a little help from Proverbs, Maxims, and Phrases book…
No safety wading in unknown water
Smooth waters run deep
Stagnant water grows stinking
The water breaks where it is not expected
There is no worse water than that which sleeps
Water washes everything
Afloat
Water and history churned up by flooding
Stagnant, slow streams suddenly impassable
Danger – what lies beneath
Underwater, deep, dark driveways
Rarely dredged
Ordinarily slow moving, now fast and furious torrents. Channelling angrily and bursting their banks
Capture this water in massive transparent tubes, reminiscent of test tubes – an experiment of the ages. What lies within? Allow it to settle and let’s see. Create our own channel to explore. Walk amongst the water. An aquatic excavation.
Sarah Frances Mayhew 