Cyanotype Project/Poetry Reading : Winchester College
Shroud
Richard Stillman
Yard and Metre Event, Winchester
As the marks resonated, did they sound true?
Could we tolerate margins of error or latitude?
Is there strength in that built by blue ink?
It is hard to see without certainty.
Why have they flown, gathered, shrouded?
Is the date significant? A memorial?
Or is it white noise reverberating,
striking parallels, refusing focus, insisting?
The shape of the cross is still distinct
but opening out, refusing definition,
never quite caught as an intention,
pinned on dimensions it wants to refuse.
Cyanotype from a site drawing, Space for Peace, Winchester Cathedral 2011.
When objects or atmospheres collide energy is transferred, a new force may be created. And, as forensic scientists can attest, when objects touch they exchange traces, each leaves something of itself with the other.
This is why artists enjoy collaborating. Working with another artist can give a jolt of inspiration, a spark of creative thinking, a surge of new skill, the stimulus for a new work. And the experience will leave its mark in some way on each individual’s practice.
The specific ‘collision’ may also result in a work which has its own integrity, which does not belong’ to either party and where their particular contributions merge indistinguishably - in effect fusion takes place.
This is the thinking behind 10 days | Creative Collisions and for The Yard artists and Hyde Writers it was the ideal excuse to come together, to let the shockwaves flow and see what new possibilities emerged. As with all the best creative practice, in science or in art, this has been an experiment, it involved risk, trust and open minds. Whether or not the outcomes are fully resolved they will be filled with potential - and with potency.
Stephen Boyce
The Hyde Writers
The writers revelled in a close engagement with artists and their work. Rather than respond to emailed images, the writers could immerse themselves in the artist’s world. Writers could examine the artist’s studio space, watch the artist working and feel with their own hands the materials in use. They could smell the turpentine, feel clay under their nails and trail their fingers over the rippling textures of paintings. Some writers took artists’ work home, so that they could live with the work. Naturally some artists provided a response to the writer’s work and the non-verbal feedback was unusual and exciting.
Writers faced a dilemma over which aspect of an artist to focus on. Some writers found inspiration in the personality of an artist and others were entranced by a part of the artist’s process. The art itself, of course provided a rich source of creativity. Writers found that the artists’ studios and individual objects within them were inspiring. A fractured shell of a first world war helmet might suggest several stories. Writers could see familiar techniques, such as collage being used by the artists, but they could also understand the strange dictatorship imposed by physical materials. The materials are often tricky things that impose their own rules and can bring uncontrollability into a process.
It was an experience that changed the writers. For ever afterwards a small part of us will be noticing the world from a different viewpoint, such as that of a painter or a sculptor.
Hugh Greasley
The Hyde Writers are a group of poets, novelists, script and short story writers who meet every first and third Monday in the Hyde Tavern, Winchester.
Founded in 2007, the group aims to produce high quality, challenging writing across a diverse range of genres.
The group acts as a workshop to facilitate the development of an individual writer’s works through rigorous yet supportive critical comment
Our members include prize winning novelists and short story writers, published poets and broadcasters, as well as young writers developing their craft.
The Yard Artists
When the studio management group discussed how to represent The Yard in 10 days Creative Collisions, we could not have possibly envisaged the quality and ambition of the project. Several months later, following a successful proposal, speed dating event and BBQ, two thriving creative communities in Winchester have collaborated, partnering artist with writer, and produced twenty six ‘creative collisions’ of new and innovative work. These projects have been prepared for an evening of projection, performance and poetry at Winchester College.
As a collective, Yard and Metre fuses traditional with contemporary, the analytical with the intuitive, the tangible with the abstract, in a collision of observation and enquiry. The breadth of subject and concept, as well as the standard of work produced, is testament to the dedication and enthusiasm of those participating in the project.
Thanks to Beatrix Kovacs, this beautifully designed publication documents the collaboration between The Yard artists and Hyde Writers and pays tribute to the significance of the event.
Jane Price
The Yard is a working studio environment in Wharf Hill, Winchester, established in 2007 by a group of local artists with the assistance of Winchester City Council. It provides affordable studio space within a vibrant, supportive community for up to twenty five artists and aims to promote contemporary fine art in the Winchester district
Cyanotype from a site drawing, Space for Peace, Winchester Cathedral 2011.
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