Object handling session

Objects in first group: Canoe prows, spirit wand, shell belts, coral necklaces, feather and grass fans, boat, figure with fish,

Objects in second group: fish hooks, fans, Liz’s pieces, boat

Responses to objects

It helps us to remember when we were fish.

Married to divinity of plants, trees and fish

We are the Earth-part of nature

Tradition of being innovative

Must shimmer

Wealth-true exchange

Mobility, flow-air, water, blood (communities) If you arrest this-there is poverty.

Re fan- call of the wind-on line-genealogies-links back to the gods-caught-potent

Binding/reciting

Re-activate processes-talking to the ancestors

Stories accumulate

Gods and goddesses don’t accept mediocre.

Prow-when a canoe is on the ocean it is one thing, but when it is on land it will crack-so it won’t have the same function any more

Canoe/boat-upright it represents a person-horizontal a house

Multi functional and symbolic-power incarnate

Artists personify things-which enable conversation

Appropriate to the coast

In charge of the memories-must compliment-narrative accompanies objects-they speak back to us-artists make them sing and dance

We must be diverse-it’s what makes us wealthy

Forms used in different places-land, sea

Ideas of beauty

Re canoe prows-rituals, processes, training-is re-balance after preparing for war

Woodcarving done by men not women

Gods and goddess’ ‘food’-it’s all about food

Gets us close to perfection

Makers-users-community

Male and female experts

Good at organising-artisans are fed

Acknowledge that you are going to ‘change yourself’ whilst process is ‘on’.

Indivisible-function and form

Crabs are the people of Cromer-they are in the people of Cromer

Beach stories-make crabs

Ensure fertility of crabs

Takes love and attention to catch a fish-all or nothing

People themselves have a hard shell-and are soft inside

Exchanging and flowing

Bird quality

Time spent doing something basic 

Parrot like markings

Birds connect to the sea (not just fish)

Human beings-sea not our environment-but we do connect

Respectful

Flow through every piece

Range of weaving techniques

Precise, awe, inspiring

Pattern suited to that particular grass

All represent movement from an environment that is never still

Water, trees, shadows, grasses

Patterns-regular considered ways

Sea -Unpredictability-though has a pattern too(tides/waves)

Relationships between materials

Physical and intimate knowledge with materials

(shells/ grasses)-by finding the best thing for the job

Very tactile

Little boat resonates with George’s boat

Liz’s boat made from: brick tiles from buildings which fell onto the beach-Cromer/Eccles-worn into something organic

Brick pebbles used to contain us

A series of containers made from objects that were once containers

Fluidity-in becoming different things

Sea claims land-buildings fall into the sea

Dog balls-everything is ultimately a natural material

Playing with the idea-different resonances, imbuing them with different things

Coast with shifting boundaries-meaning and literally

Local and natural resources

When you work with materials as an artist, part of the process is that knowing the material’s qualities

Cornish fishing festival in Mousehole

Has been documenting peasant communities in Hungary-richness of lives-dark winter evenings-things made in groups

Decorative and powerful

Value the exotic

One offs-not repetitive-original-bespoke

Re figure with fish-comical human form-animated

Lots of things can’t determine what they are

Lobster pot shows just as much care

Had time to decorate

Decoration informed by function

Interested in the conversations that went on whilst making was happening

Identity of place

Environmental, social

Slight differences make a big impact

Ancestral infinity

Spirals-continuation of life

Cairns on mountains-add to something on beach-shells/stones-tide washes it way in a day

Guernsey jumper patterns passed on generation to generation-with no written/drawn patterns

Crabs still caught individually

Families support fishermen

Participatory

Placating gods we use to have that philosophy here

Re-birth

Hotel de Paris