Welcome to the blog space for time-trace-place, our 2-week performative installation at Porthmeor Studios & Cellars, St Ives!
Over the next few months this space will fill with ideas & plans from all the collaborators involved: Clare Wardman, visual artist; Rachel Graff, composer-performer; Sarah Keirle, composer-performer-visual artist; Nina Whiteman, composer-performer-visual artist; Gary Farr, trumpeter & creative collaborator; & myself,. We're all excited about arriving in St Ives & working across 2 spaces in the Porthmeor Studios complex - but why trace, & why St Ives? Trace is an interesting concept because of the sheer amount it can bring in - we leave traces, we leave tracks, we can also trace (or track) something, or make tracings. Traces can be ephemeral or concrete, historical or current, can build up in layers; a trace can be followed or left in many different ways through time & across space/place. St Ives is a great example of a place in which trace & its various possible relations is wonderfully present in almost any way one could choose to explore. Its history as a fishing town which eventually attracted many artists, & where both these aspects are now bound up in a variety of ways in the town's tourist industry, is written in traces through its layout & architecture that are still clearly visible. Multiple & changing usages, additions & alterations can be easily found, often with visible layers tracing various histories & stories. Porthmeor studios is itself emblematic of this often living palimpsest - a building still used by both artists & fishermen together, as well as the sensitive & sympathetic renovation of the building revealing not only architectural traces (layers of over-building, use of newspaper & beach sand to insulate walls), but also the traces of generations of artists at work, as well as the fishing & pilchard processing industries. Finally, other traces - the manifold presence of the natural world & its processes on a coastal place, & the day-to-day human traces that run through the town are all fertile grounds for exploration. How we plan to explore & bring together our findings through creative collaboration will be the subject for future blogs... Gavin Comments are closed.
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