Places we are visiting this month in the North East!

House of Objects

For four Saturdays in June, House of Objects Creative Recycling Centre at the Rising Sun will open its doors for visitors to come and explore its Aladdin’s cave of weird and wonderful recycled materials and get creative in its specialist studio space. The theme for each week will be a particular object of significance that was invented or developed in the North East. For more information click here.
NOTE - House of Objects receive old/waste/unwanted (but still useable!!) materials, so if you are a company, shop or artist clearing out your studio then get in touch with them!!

Heritage Skills Festival

Heritage Skills Festival returns to Tynemouth Station on 28^th-30^th June, offering visitors a chance to try their hand at a wide range of heritage crafts such as stonemasonry, green woodworking, blacksmithing, lime mortar, leather working and much, much more.  Working with professionals, you’ll also get the opportunity to get advice and learn more about the heritage of the North East. Event information

Baltic Artist’s Book Fair

Festival of the North East event – the artist’s book fair at the Baltic in Gateshead, on 14^th & 15^th June.  further info 

Newcastle University 'Strand' Project

We are working with 15 Newcastle University 2nd yr Fine Art students as part of our creative exchange element of the Transporter project. The 'Strand' project, which runs alongside the students studio practice, allows us to share information, knowledge and skills learnt during our time in Peru and Berlin (as well as the developments within our arts practices), with the students to help them develop ideas and new skills.

They’ve had some great ideas and are inspiring us with new ideas too- we are encouraging the students to learn a new skill or develop a body of research on a new area during the Strand. They are responding well to this and some are integrating the project into their studio practice as they discover a new interest or area they wish to work in.

We are uploading images of the students work onto our flickr photostream so please have a look and comment to give them feedback on their ideas so far! http://www.flickr.com/photos/transporterproject/sets/72157633054505042/ Any signposts to artists, books etc to help them with their research is welcomed too!

The Student project aims and learning outcomes are - 

•Develop an understanding of different crafts and skills, what role they play in cultural heritage and whether they can inspire contemporary art

•Gain a greater understanding of other art forms

•Experiment and collaborate with other artists/peers.

•Learn, share skills in arts and crafts such as weaving, paper making, pottery, woodwork etc

•Learn new ways of seeing and doing through cultural exchange and researching their own cultural heritage

•Understand issues surrounding sustaining local and international traditional art forms and cultures

•Develop understanding of sustainable arts practise and broader environmental issues

•Question and explore their relationship to their environment.

•Self direct their studies and research

•Group work and critical feedback

•Create a body of research, ideas and experiments which explore new ground for the student

•Create a ‘resolved’ new art work/design/prototype (either individually or collaboratively) for public showing.

Our Artwork/ New ideas - how has this developed our arts practice?

It was quite a struggle to spend lots of focused time on making artwork when there was so much to take in and adjust to in Peru. We were out of the studio for 1 week in Chazuta and also spent a lot of time organising the Lamas event, updating the blog etc. That said, the inspirational surroundings and unique culture of the place meant that you couldn’t help but want to respond creatively to it.

Land Art/Natural Sculpture: We experimented with our first land art pieces which was exciting. There was a real sense of connection between the people and the environment where we stayed and this definitely rubbed off and made you think of how disconnected we are to our plants and animals in UK. We tracked a dried up channel from the main river near our studio and installed a pink line of petals from the Palmarosa tree along where the river use to run- the contrast of the bright pink petals against the mossy green rocks looked amazing. Weirdly, 4 days before we left there was a terrible storm and the river broke its banks filling the dried up river bed and washed away our Palmarosa line. The locals said the last time the river had done this was 11yrs ago and then again 100 yrs before that!

Film/Sound work: We also captured a massive amount of film and sound footage. The jungle was so filled with life and the staggered noises of frogs, crickets, bats, dogs and cockerels created a sound piece every night! Ants and butterflies were great to try and capture too- we are going to use our footage to develop an installation which will attempt to recreate our experience.

Ceramics: The potential of ceramics is also something which became clear when we worked with the ceramicists in Chazuta. It was so refreshing to be hands on with the material and we began making casts of the local environment. We want to continue this in the UK and any other travels to build up a giant clay picture of different places. We also want to explore the idea of the boundary between practical pottery or craft and when it can become art - thinking about pushing the material to its limits or creating a pot which doesn’t function as a pot etc. We are looking at sourcing clay in the UK and if there are places to collect and prepare it ourselves as the ceramicists in Chazuta do. We also used the process of making wishing pots in the plaza to interact with the local community in the village- this was an interesting experience and something the local children found intriguing!

 
 

Weaving: We met someone in the village who wove with discarded plastic sourced from the nearby town who had ingeniously taught himself to make baskets. Chumbie weaving (colourful belts hand woven from cotton) is also a beautiful and skilful indigenous craft and both methods have inspired many ideas in us to do with weaving different materials to create vessels of some kind. We had visions of creating a giant water catcher installation.

Natural pigments: We collected lots of stones from the river which we have crushed to create painting pigments and plan to test these out back in the UK and see what we can find locally which can be used in the same way.

Paper Making: Having made our very own paper in Chazuta we are now looking to sculpt with the sheets in some way, the paper is so thick and has such a tactile quality that we are going to experiment in 3D with it to see how far we can push the material

As well as the skills and crafts we were also inspired by the people we met and worked alongside. Sachaqa Arts Centre allowed us to work alongside a variety of artists, all unique in their artforms, experiences and ideas and all of whom made our time in Peru the fantastic journey that it was.

Lena Huber is a photographer and writer from Switzerland. Lena really inspired us by her refreshing approach to life, a free spirit and one of those rare people in life that can truly be inspired and interested in anything that she comes across. http://www.sachaqacentrodearte.com/page3.php

Jaime Miranda a sculptor from Lima, Peru. Jaime recently studied at Chelsea College of Art, London and has an amazing talent as a sculptor. Jaime was a great person to talk to about anything and everything and put us in touch with some fantastic people in Lima. We really hope to work with Jaime again in the future. www.jaimemiranda.com/index.htm

Trina Brahman, painter and founder of Sachaqa Centro de Arte, originally from Bradford, England Trina was very inspirational to spend time with and allowed us to see and understand different ideas on life. Trina paints visions that she experiences using natural pigments and attributes these experiences to living in the jungle, feeling a close connection to nature is important to her work. Trina has a unique approach to painting and really believes in her art, the centre and the life she is building in the highlands of Peru with her husband Daniel Lerner and baby Jacob. http://www.sachaqacentrodearte.com/page3.php

Peruvian Press!!

Here are some of the press cuttings that we received for the Lamas Sin Fronteras event in Peru. You can also see images from the event on our flickr account - http://www.flickr.com/photos/67813410%40N05/ .

We also managed to gain some air time on the local radio station and appeared on the popular local TV programme 'La Cocina de Manolo'!!!!

Day 4

Day 4

After two days of travelling and overnights stops in Lima and Tarapoto we are now in San Roque de Cumbaza where we will stay for the next 5 weeks and is home to Sachaqa Arts Centre.

Attached images are of the community we are staying in  - further pictures can be seen at our flickr account ... http://www.flickr.com/photos/67813410@N05/

Today we met Tomas (http://www.turismolamas.com/) who organises events and arts project in Lamas (a near by town). Thomas is really interested in the Transporter project and the work of rednile and our individual artwork and has agreed to help organise a Factory Night (FN) event. Many communities/towns were discussed but it was felt that Lamas was the most suitable place due to its already burgeoning cultural offer and a place that would attract more local people to this sort of event. Lamas is also famous for its folklore and preservation of Amazonian traditional culture. The concept of Factory nights is a new way of working for artists in Peru so we had to choose an area that would attract the most interest. We discussed many ideas in our pigeon Spanish, and with the help of many translators have narrowed down a variety of ways that FN may work –

·         an event where each person can create artwork as part of a large scale temporary installation or each person creates something new as an individual,

·         FN at a modern day stone castle built by a local businessman,

·         hand out disposable cameras to participants where they capture what makes their environment special – discussions lead from this,

·         day or night event where a variety of artists are invited to Sachaqa Arts Centre who have not been before to give artists talk about their work – introduces new artists to SAC and the eco village and creates networking opportunities. 

We are really aware of the slower pace of life here and realise that we also have to slow down and understand that there may be limitations to what we can achieve while we are here. (Its as far from Newcastle as you can get!!) Internet for example, is accessed through a dongle and is shared with other families and often do not work due to the torrential rain!! so if we don’t post for a while this will be why!

The people have all been so friendly so far and many are very creative, we met a sculptor the other day who was in the middle of making a didgeridoo and a local woman has offered to show us how to make the ceramic pots she was trying to sell us. We are due to visit Lamas on Wednesday to ascertain the right site and environment for Factory Nights so will look to update our blog again after that. Tomas has also asked us to be part of a local project in Lamas where they are trying to get 200 different wall designs painted by different artists so we are working on ideas for this.!!

Hasta luego!!

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