at the end of January, i started taking part in the Resonate (ii) artist residency and development programme with Play Office in the Old Pay Office at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
in this project, i am working alongside two other artists Harry Payne and James Wylie and we are being supported & mentored by Thomas Buckley (Play Office) and mentors from the previous Resonate project Lara Habib Kobeissi & Riyadh Haque.
together, we are developing new work and an exhibition exploring heritage, in this case we are working with the Mary Rose Museum and also developing ways of working with new technologies.
at the start, we introduced ourselves and our creative practices, got to know each other and the other artists who reside in the old pay office studio with Sustainable Conservation Trust.
we began researching the Mary Rose, visiting the museum and getting an in-depth insight into the archive behind the scenes from Alastair Miles, Acting Collections Director at The Mary Rose. we shared and discussed all the things we noticed and were interested in to begin the collaborative process.
i was initially drawn to the more personal objects found among the wreck, some items of interest which I began looking into were:
mirrors
lanterns
small books (religious)
decoratively inscribed objects
fragments of silk among clothing
silver threads missing from embroidered items.
as my mind was wandering around thinking about mirrors and reflections of the seas surface, i was also thinking about the hazy glow of warm light emanating from lanterns made with horn and waxed linen
using beeswax melted over a stove in a pot of boiling water, i dipped different papers into the hot wax to try and recreate a horn like texture. once cool and set, i began piercing into the wax paper to create letters and words and imagery of the netting.
reflecting on the different elements found within the wreck and the ecology surrounding it. the environment surrounding me as i work on this project. the tide creeping in and drawing back out each day at the hard.
salt silt silk kiss.
finding a way into a project takes time. ideas come in waves and connection is slowly unearthed, risen from a bed of silt.
-
listening to a podcast i learnt that when the crew first came onboard the the Mary Rose, they were split into two watches (port and starboard). ‘each man had a partner on an opposite watch with whom he shared his sleeping space.’
onboard the ship, shifts occurred in 8 bell watches:
after 30 minutes: 1 bell
after an hour: 2 bells
up to 8 bells: 4 hours
time was regulated by sand timers which measured time in half hour intervals.
all the men on board were working to four hour shifts.
-
i am interested in the idea of the silt as a site of protection for the wreck, its people and contents.
intertwining this narrative with that of two men sharing a sleeping space, just encountering each other when one’s shift ends and the other’s begins. this gap in connection. a space for desire to grow. the tensions between labour and rest.
the need for this duality of shifts. how vulnerable we are. unlike swifts or dolphins, a human can’t switch off half of their brain so one half can rest while the other stays active to continue flying long distances, to not drown, to eat, mate, gather nest material.
thinking about light, silt, sibilance, merging, resting.
you can read my next post for ‘ resonate (ii) part two’ here.