27 September 1999
>>Hi again Rita :-)
>Hi Ju! Yes at last I am trying it this way, here goes.
Yee-hah!
>> I've been given a really good printer for work, which I finally got working yesterday - lack of the correct lead having prevented me before! - and I was able to print your sketches out for the first time this morning. It's quite an odd sensation to see them appearing!
>Can't imagine this at all, humm...
Weird, isn't it?
>> Anyway, having spent some time with them, my thoughts are as follows: I definitely agree on having a very plain shape for the "font" - although I still like the idea of using bits of facial features too (not complete faces).
>Would this still be within the dish area, looking inward, great fine with me.
That's settled then ;-)
>>I still like the idea of the wooden plinth, both for all of the reasons already stated and because it looks good on your sketches! I think a log rather than a tripod though, because that will throw a shadow like a sundial. I guess there is something to be said for a tripod too, though - it's very witchy, and brings in the triple aspect of the Christian God and the Celtic Goddess.
>I liked the log idea, but it's finding the right log, will chat to the gardeners about this.
Will wait to hear from you on this one. I will be interested to hear, too, how involved you manage to get the gardeners!
>> I'm quite convinced by the snake/river of stones; I think it does work well for several reasons. Unfortunately I had these reasons clearly in my mind last thing at night, so I've forgotten them again! I vaguely remember ideas like connections, passages of water within the Priory, and the pathway to God that the monks were following, but that's all!
>I find it funny, that you think everything through in such a deep way, when l find images and go for them. I do think but often afterward, I seem to have a brain that goes very fast. Some people would think l was shallow and not very bright, but l know what goes on inside, and many of the in-depth things you mention have skimmed across my mind, and have been shelved as something I would like to look into when I get time.
I think I've become a lot more analytical in the past ten years, partly from studying for the MA and the PhD and partly through becoming disabled - it forces you to think more deeply about a lot of things, and in the case of my own impairment also gives me a lot more time to think because of the time I spend being still and on my own.
I think in the context of this collaboration, though, it's part of my role, too; I'm the one with the time to analyse the things skimming across our minds and write them down for both of us.
>>I like the suggestion of using footprints from clay within the snake - this seems to me to resonate with both the monks' movements around the Priory and today's visitors. If we do this, perhaps we could persuade visitors etc to participate by casting their footprints - presumably they could just tread in the clay and then wipe their feet? It might be rather fun. Could we also get any school kids etc involved in lugging stones, or are their visits too structured for this? It's a way of involving visitors, anyway :-)
>This can be done easy by treading in sand and getting a cast of it with plaster. Cleaner for the participant, but messy for me, so who cares. I'll try it out on the family.
I expect they're used to it!?
>>This virtual business is a very odd experience, but very interesting too, and something that's constantly making me think. I think the Priory for me is gradually changing from the sunny, idyllic picture shown in the booklet- through your descriptions of wind and weasels more than anything else.
>Please don't think the priory is one thing or another it's like the weather, constantly changing, with moods, expectations and life.
That's why I like the idea of using reflections, shadows etc.
>Above everything else it is space, open, peaceful, but l have thoughts that this may not have always have been so. During the active life of the priory they seem to have gone through quite a few physical changes, giving me the idea of it being a constant building site.
I suppose it depends on how many years this took place over?
>l suppose like living with a D.I.Y. enthusiast.
LOL . . . maybe they had an Abbot who was!
>They also had a brewery, a blacksmiths, a pottery, stables etc. One side of the priory must have been very busy and bustling, something of this must have got through. Although there must have been times of tranquil ecstacy, I am sure it was often busy, like any household.
It was a very self-contained community, wasn't it?
>I am finding town life difficult, but l am not sure what living in the country would be like full-time.
Having grown up in a small town, which I hated, I never expected to like country life, but I fell in love with a lot of aspects of it very quickly (mind you, I do lose my heart easily . . . ) It also made me realise what a city girl I'd become, though - for the first few weeks I couldn't stop exclaiming "Innit green!" every time I stepped outside the door - that or "what happened to the street lights?".
>I am enjoying my stay at the priory, and especially meeting folks at the youth hostel. I am amazed how many women do the coast-to-coast walk alone.
So you're meeting some good independent women in the evenings, then? I revise my opinion of the youth hostel . . . of course, I revise my opinion of everything when you tell me more about it!
>Being brought up in London makes me fearful of the country, but I am learning to lose it slowly. But l still find the idea that people kill animals just for fun difficult to accept.
I'm not sure whether it's for fun or whether it's just the animal inside them coming out - we are, after all, a partially carnivorous species, and one that's never killed merely for food.
>>I'm gradually becoming aware of the proportions and size of the site, and this has also made me aware of how my reactions to distances are coloured by my mobility, which is not so comfortable . . . but hey, I'm getting my wheelchair soon, and if I could cope with walking around in a silver back brace, I daresay I can cope with the social implications of the wheelchair. I was actually on a total high the night after trialling one..
>Hope the chair works out for you,wheelchairs hold a lot of images and expectations, it'll be interesting to see what changes it makes to the way people see you as a person, could be a great study
This, of course, is the kind of attitude that marks out an artist . . .
>>So, some thoughts and some meanderings . . . I think it will be a very emotional experience when I finally see the site and meet you IRL. In the meantime, my thoughts are with you.
>One of my main worries is, will l be able to hug you? l am not a very huggy person, but something tells me l need to feel that you are real.
You will and I am! I have to warn you, though, that I give off "don't touch me" very strongly, because it's the only way to protect a fragile eight-stone body in a crowded city. But I am really very tactile.
>God it's been a long day, love Rita.
I'll bet it has! I hope some of it was non-work - I thought you were having a break on Saturday? That's why I didn't pick up my email - I was very tired, and also chasing round trying to get things sorted out for Helsinki. Then yesterday's photo session went on much longer than expected, although it was fun and very sociable as well.
(I'm going to be coordinating the website for The Offset - a loose collection of visual/performance artists, most of whom used to be associated with Leigh Bowery, and who are now led by Matthew Glamorre - which was the reason for my being in the shoot. They're a crowd that I feel very comfortable with, because they understand where I'm coming from without my having to explain it much.)
I have to say that the most fun came from watching my dog, who is an eight-year-old Sheltie and born poseur. I couldn't resist taking him, and it was very funny to see him lapping up adulation all day, starting in the street, on the bus, the train . . . then, in a studio full of exhibitionists, he still managed to attract the most attention . . . his coup de grace came when he was asked to be in the group shot with me, and the photographer ended up cueing us in each time with "One, two, Jasper!" Today he's doing his Greta Garbo act . . . LOL ;-)
ju90
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