22 September 1999

>Hi Ju,

Morning Rita :-)

>Thanks for the mail, great to be actually doing it rather than just thinking about doing it.

Of course, it's all thinking in my case apart from building the website.

I feel that we're getting somewhere now, and that l am learning to master this beasty. Hope this mail finds you in reasonable health today.

Well, my pain levels are still sky high, but that's the change in the weather and working to the max, so I'm not particularly bothered by it.

>A robin has just come in via the open door, I am sure it was the sound of the printer that attracted it.

Oh, I'm so *envious* - if I see a bird here at all, it's usually been brought in dead by the cat!

>Well l've managed to get a reasonable sleep at the hostel,

I shudder to think . . .

>and feel that we're aiming in the right direction, don't worry about treading on toes, we'll get there.

I think we're doing fine. It reminds me of working with Jacqui, my former cartooning partner, where we'd have a long chat that felt almost like a gossipy distraction from the work, but then the work arose naturally from the conversation. And Jacqui and I worked very well together, so the similarities are very positive for me.

>I am still for the water vessel idea in the centre of the cloister area, the site of the old water tower can faintly be seen, so I've been told, as I've not managed to see it yet. Robin just flown out. l wasn't putting the idea down when l mentioned the size, l was just giving you an idea of space. Have you ever danced or choregraphed a piece, to find it just doesn't work on a larger stage area. You don't have to scrap the movements, but you may need to change things slightly. Size and scale changes things a little, but I am sure it will work.

Sorry, I must have misunderstood you, but anyway I didn't think it was a putdown, just a reflection of this virtual business - however many pix and plans I look at, I can't get an idea of size etc until you describe it. (Like seeing loads of sunny pictures of the place, and only getting a different impression once you described the weather.) It's a fascinating process, though.

Actually I prefer big, in any case.

>Liz suggested siting the vessel on stone, instead of wood, I said we were open to suggestions and could try a variety of plinths to see which works.

I suppose either would throw a shadow - I'm basically into wood because of the circular shape (though circles have more connection with paganism than Christianity, I know) and wood's relationship with time - stone doesn't change as much over time as wood does.

> The springhead is a lovely area, very magical, with a small amount of running water which trickles, the whole site is very well drained, the ancient plumbing here was very good, with naturally flushing toilets, placed over ditches. Not quite sure they would work in the summer, or at time of drought. On the front page of the booklet it would be in the farthest corner, hidden on the edge of the trees. The map on the contents page places it better. There's a picture of it on page 21, and on page 24 you can see it in context to everything else. The idea I had was not to take space away from the vessel sited in the middle, but to make a link between the spring head and the water piece, via a winding river/snake of stones, finishing as a ring around the vessel. It's only a vague idea, but l feel l didn't explain myself very clearly.

The springhead sounds wonderful, and I'd love to use it - it was one of our original choices anyway, wasn't it? I only assumed that you meant to put the "font" on the edge of the cloister because it sounded such a big area that putting stones all that way in sounded very difficult (of course, I do tend to judge physical strength by my own, which is obviously not that great). The only thing that I need to work out in my own mind is, if we use the snake symbol in that context as opposed to the way in which you envisaged it in your original sketches, does it still make sense? And what is the link that we're expressing? But I bet it does have an internal logic - I'll think about it over the day.

>l see things often in images and find words often inadequate to express myself correctly.

Obviously I haven't been in the position that we're working in before, but I have had to look at my disability as performance art work very analytically over the summer because of the talks I've been giving about it at various conferences etc. What I've found is that with visual work I generally create instinctively and without words, but the thoughts were there and can be found. What's interesting for me about this current process is the need to do everything consciously and analytically in the first place, rather than unconsciously and instinctively.

Anyway, we can start sending sketches more regularly soon, if you have a scanner there?

>Saying that l get very frustrated when l can't turn the pictures into reality, things like gravity etc. get in the way.

However clear a vision one works to, the finished piece never looks like it IRL, does it?

> Yes l am still keen on the mobile/sound element too,

I guess one reason I liked the idea of incorporating it with the font was that, yes, it would be a bit fussy, but then I like the totem-pole connotation of that.

Also, from the catalogue the pieces on exhibition all look very contained and seem to have an internal cohesion, and I guess I've got an urge to disrupt that as well - but I guess too that the catalogue gives me as distorted view as the other images.

>I'll have a chat with Tim in the office, has he put the exhibition up he's aware of space and where we can't place things because of one rule or another.

Yet more considerations . . . apart from the nature of the collaboration, time, the space occupied by the exhibitors and the rules of the site are all influencing this work, aren't they?

>Will be in touch Thursday. Look after yourself. Love

Rita.

Talk to you tomorrow, then.

Love

ju90

Webmaster/site slave and Multimedia Storyteller
Created by Nature Modified by Life

ju90@netmatters.co.uk
http://users.netmatters.co.uk/ju90/ju90.htm