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 

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

HELLO and INTRODUCTION to theTRANSPORTER project

Hello, welcome to our blog for the Transporter Project!

We hope we can provide an interesting read for those of you who wish to follow us on our adventure - due to start officially in 2 weeks time when we'll be flying off to Peru! See below for more info.... and if you would like to see more images of our research an artwork then please follow us on flickr too

Background:

As artists having grown up during the introduction of the world wide web, the digital age and globalisation, we feel it is just as important to value and utilise the local, handmade, personal side to creativity. We know that the desire for the original and bespoke is a growing market as people begin to understand the impact mass production is having on the environment and local business. It is this interest in getting back to basics, valuing tradition, learned artforms, skilled crafts and working with the environment around us, that has led to the development of 'Transporter'. We want to look, learn and develop new work that goes back to the artist as maker and collaborate with others to raise the profile of local traditions that make an area, place, and country unique.

Overview of project:

The project will allow Suzanne Hutton and Sam Taylor to be artists in residence at Sachaqa Art Centre (SAC) in Peru and deliver an engagement programme. We will conduct research, create new work and explore sustainability; looking at customs, traditional arts practices and skills and their relationship to the environment. We will spend time with SAC's founders, their resident artists and the local communities sharing skills, knowledge and inspirations in order to develop our own arts practises. From this research and dialogue we will create new collaborative art works whilst working on a variety of other projects in Peru.

On our return to the UK we will evaluate our time, continue to develop work in the studio, curate an exhibition and related talk and deliver a number of creative sessions and presentations to artists and students at The Shed Gateshead, Gateshead College, Newcastle University and International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies (The En-compass Project) in order to pass on knowledge and gain feedback on what we have learnt. The idea is that this is the 1st Phase in an ongoing research project to collate information about traditional crafts, skills across the world and compare creativity within cultures, whilst highlighting issues around sustainibility and the environment. There is also a FlickR page set up called 'TRANSPORTERproject' which will hopefully act as an online sketchbook where others can comment on our finds.

Main aims of TRANSPORTER project:

• To develop our artistic practise through collaboration with artists (in residence, local artisans and community members), developing new skills in local indigenous artforms and crafts

• Develop links between young people and artists from different countries

• Share and transport knowledge between artists/communities and countries

• Learning new ways of seeing and doing through cultural exchange, researching intangible cultural heritage

• Assisting with development of eco village as a way to research and create new work

• Highlight and raise the profile of sustainable arts practise and people’s relationship to their environment.

• Experiment and promote collaboration across cultures and art form.

• Produce a publication and exhibition as a legacy

• Promote further development exploring the idea of sustainable arts practise and learning from traditions.

• Develop rednile’s international links and Factory Nights programme

This project has been funded by Arts Council England with additional support from rednile projects, Sachaqa Arts Centre Peru, VARC and Newcastle University.