Takeover post from: Cara Davies
I’m an artist, educator and researcher that works at the intersection of archives, documentation and performance. Intervening in archival holdings, exploring historical records, engaging with geophysical and archaeological findings, I work to unearth the fables of the everyday and shed light on the unique assemblage of life, translating these discoveries into rituals for performances, social meeting points, walks, talks and tours.
I’m also a member of artist collect @tracingthepathway. Together they explore the relationships between body, site and encounters, producing site-responsive or situation-specific artworks.
Often collaborations are kick started over the warmth of a cup of tea. The flow of liquid leads to the free flow of conversation. #Dialogue is a simple but rejuvenating act. The #exchange encourages reflection and catalyses strong bonds. Hot fluid #infuses #nourishes #satiates the physical body, whilst the ritual of taking a moment to pause and share a drink and some words with another #enriches the mind. In this space new project ideas are brewed, and new, and old, friendships are buoyed to explore fresh perspectives. Supportive, mentoring, nurturing relationships are ignited.
Sharing a drink and the gift of conversation rests at the heart of my practice and was a personal highlight at #Jamboree2018, since this the role of conversation has grown in importance to me for maintaining #wellbeing and providing #encouragement, #drive and #motivation.
? 1 – #Lubrication for the Soul
Image Credit: @tracingthepathway (2016) Simple Acts: Freshly Ground presented at Pushing Boundaries Symposium at University of Bristol.
#archives #performance #documentation #body #experiences #traces #frames #site #landscapes #dialogue #interdisciplinarity #collaboration #WeMetAtJamboree #ArtistsOnInstagram #SupportingArtists #ArtistRun #ArtistLed #ArtistLedSectorSupported
? 2 -“All that I have accomplished … has been by that plodding, patient, persevering process of accretion which builds the ant heap particle by particle, thought by thought, fact by fact.” — Elihu Burritt
In 2020 my practice took on new forms of collaboration:
Slow conscious acts of creativity with Helene Roberts (@hapticism).
Ideas, visions, imaginings with @RiaRighteous.
Exchanging opportunities, contacts, feedback with Sinéad Bhreathnach Cashell.
Our connections are based on #understanding #kindness #compassion #acceptance #trust #hope #unity. Their offerings make the impossible seem possible; breaking down the monumental into the manageable.
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#Jamboree is a platform for artists to share and develop their practice in an open-minded, inclusive, caring and fun environment. The ways @hellolowprofile support a multitude of practices is a breath of fresh air and makes light work of initiating creative collaborations.
Image Credit: @carajanedavies
? 3 – “I believe in stories;
that the ghosts of sites tell great tales; and
that heritage upholds its own magic.
I believe in dialogue as a catalyst for erasing the borders between two places and exposing the transitory and itinerant nature of the land’s inhabitants.” — Cara Davies
#heritage, #traditions, #rituals, #everydayactions and #politicsofplace intervene, disrupt, challenge, and inspire new alliances.
Since meeting at Jamboree, Helene Roberts (@hapticism) and I have enjoyed a shared interest in site, walking and performance practice. Together with Beth Greenhalgh (@beth.greenhalgh.11), Rose Hedley, David Pepper (@dpepperh), Mads Floor Andersen (@mads_floor_andersen) and Liz Waterhouse (@lizwaterhouse.art) we are developing ideas for future projects that traverse pilgrim routes; challenging acts of identity-formation, community cohesion and collegiality at the liminal point of border zones and crossing.
Image credit: Hecabe Rolima Alliance (2019) The Fishguard Connection, [residency] Peppers, Fishguard, Wales.
? 4 – Provide nothing less than #evidence of total commitment without compromise.
#Speak your truth #stand your ground #define your boundaries
Debates, knowledge exchange and skill sharing with @RiaRighteous since #Jamboree2018 has strengthened our deep life-affirming bond. This relationship is one of #kinship, #affinity #love #admiration #respect. We gift time to each other to be a sounding board for new projects and creative ideas but we also gift space to share our intimate thoughts, feelings and emotions.
We maintain a presence in each other’s lives which has helped me to rediscover my past, contextualise the present, and build models for the future.
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I believe that the #Jamboree model crafts opportunities for people’s lives to become woven together in unique and unexpected ways. This provides the basis for people to explore how to grow something/anything/everything with #quality and #integrity.
Image credit: @carajanedavies documentation of #affirmations #manifestations and #aphorisms for #happiness #balance #health #wellbeing with @RiaRighteous
? 5 – We live in turmoil, nothing is certain.
The role of the arts is vital in re-shaping and re-defining how we live and interact with one another.
#Jamboree2018 invited me to the collective power of artistic action. Over the last two years the inspiring creative and curatorial approaches of those I met at Jamboree has generated #sustainable #survival strategies that has inspired a new type of engagement for me in the artworld.
Image credit: @carajanedavies (2020) Rage [photographic series]
This project is inspired by conversations with @RiaRighteous (2020) on coping with loss and its ensuing emotions of grief, sadness, emptiness, confusion, guilt, hurt, anger, pain. There is #sacrifice but there is also #bravery #boldness #value #worthiness #dignityindeath
Acknowledge your value and honour that #pain is power
? 6 – #Starved of touch.
I yearn for the physical presence of others, for closeness and proximity, for the warmth, tenderness and encouragement of a hug or pat on the back, but, yet, at a distance the power of connection is a power that endures.
The networks I developed at #Jamboree2018 have been a lifeline for transforming my mental state and capacity through 2020. Whilst the act of touching may be currently prohibited, and feared, it is touching how these networks rally to provide light in these dark times.
The image documents a moment in ‘Chasing the Rainbow’ by The Living Collection (Beatrice Jarvis and Dana MacPherson) which was presented at Nomadic Arts Festival 2014: Between Wheat & Pine and explored what it means to find home, to seek shelter, to make nest, to hide, to protect oneself against the elements. I share this image of Beatrice and Dana’s project as it symbolises to me the fundamental needs of all citizens, a need and right sadly so many are denied.
#ecological and economic ruination #trauma #protection #solace #home #shelter
Inspired by conversations with @mads_floor_andersen (2020)
Image Credit: Arkadiusz Dziczek
? 7 – #Protocol for the Archive as Gesture is a series of prompts for navigating new routes into the material legacy of the past; a series of guidance questions and actions to catalyse new research, new conversations, new perspectives, new interactions with the archive.
#thresholds #taking space #attunement #attention #connection #infrastructure #mapping materiality #vestiges #relationscapes #gestures
Protocol for the Archive as Gesture is a collaboration between Heide Hinrichs, Elizabeth Haines, Sara de Bondt and Cara Davies initiated in 2019. In 2020 we developed the protocol into a publication, which is due to be released in 2021 by think tank and research platform #ArchiVolt at The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. Protocol for the Archive as Gesture is intended as an external chapter to the book shelf documents: art library as practice edited by Heide Hinrichs, Jo-ey Tang, and Elizabeth Haines and published in the series Track Report by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp. It is typeset by Sara De Bondt in Diotima by Gudrun Zapf, Lelo by Katharina Köhler and Lunatix by Zuzana Licko.
https://ap-arts.be/en/publication/shelf-documents-art-library-practice-drawings-heide-hinrichs
http://www.b-books.de/index.html
The project is an example of the type of research and archival projects I collaborate on and was discussed in Data, Decay and Documentation, my 20:20 at #Jamboree2018.
Image credit: Heide Hinrichs (2019) Inscriptions HD 4 [drawings] from the series Inscriptions 2006–2020 of 240 drawings
? 8 – #The Future We Left Behind is an archaeological meshwork of soil and concrete, where the past is undefined. A time suspended between that which “once was” and that which is “to come”; where the choices of our past lay the foundations of our future, but do not necessarily determine its outcome.
#memories #love #politics #land ownership #druid circles
Jamboree provides time and space for artists to trial new ideas which provide the building blocks to spark new projects – The Future We Left Behind was inspired by the outcomes of the walk/talk Home is Where the Art Is hosted by @tracingthepathway at #Jamboree2018.
Image Credit: @tracingthepathway (2020) The Future We Left Behind [installation] exhibited @mk_gallery’s #MKCalling2020. Image Credit: @studiochehade
#archives #performance #documentation #body #experiences #traces #frames #site #landscapes #dialogue #interdisciplinarity #collaboration