A photo diary with information about developments for Walking with the Waste Land at the Margate Bookie 2017.

Walking with the Waste Land is a community group which is part of a wider project at the Turner Contemporary exploring visual connections with TS Eliot's poem for an exhibition opening in February 2018, Journeys with The Waste Land. http://wasteland.onsocialengine.com/new

The Walking Group has spent much of the last three years exploring TS Eliot's poem The Waste Land and developing connections to the poem with sites in Margate where much of this seminal poem was written.

As the Research Group finalises the selection process and design for the exhibition the idea behind this particular walk has been to introduce six selected artworks to fellow walkers without them being able to see the work. We will use chosen sites in Margate, readings from the poem and our own personal connections  to introduce the work. Through this process we hope to share some of our experiences working on the project and how we approached the selection of the art work.

The event on August 19th which has been included in the Margate Bookie program http://margatebookie.com/about-us/ , will be followed by a viewing of slides of the six chosen artworks described during the walk, and a discussion led by Dr Richard Turney at the Turner Contemporary in Margate.

On Wednesday July 26th, we explored and developed our thinking further the best way we know how, through walking.

What follows is a photo diary with some reflections from last Wednesday..

  Margaret Hall sets us on our way, reading a selected extract from The Waste Land

As I reflect on last Wednesday, which I suggested as a way to test out ideas that have been formulated over the last few months, it struck me that it was difficult to describe this  as a trial run or experiment. The walk itself was so rich in contributions and discussion that  it reminded me that each walk is unique and you cannot replicate a walk.

 Each project that we have undertaken with Walking with the Waste Land takes on it's own momentum and develops from the contributions brought by those participating on it. This one was no exception.

For more about Walking with The Waste Land  http://wasteland.onsocialengine.com/categories/23679/walking-group

I have sometimes described these walks as walking encounters

On Wednesday the group was joined by:

Andreas Loizou the founder and organiser of the Margate Bookie,

Mirka Kotulicova a Gallery Assistant  at the Horsebridge Art and Community Centre in Whitstable.

 and Simon from Half Day Holidays https://halfdayholidays.com

The initial idea was that they would be 'guests' who would contribute feedback to our core contributors who bring their creativity and performances, with associated readings to the walks.

 I now feel hesitant to describe them as guests as I feel that they together with the Walking with the Waste Land group really created a wonderful walk which I will always remember.  

I am often worried that the walks should not be over rehearsed as they are not about a performance, they are very much walking as research. Wednesday was no exception we did not follow the prescribed route, which was rather wonderful as the walking talking and reading led us in new directions.

A development from the discussions that followed has been that  Jackie Elson will join us on our August 19th walk which is included in the Margate Bookie listed Program. Jackie is part of the wider research group and also a gallery assistant at the Turner Contemporary. She will bring her own expertise as a Turner Contemporary navigator, to describe one of the more challenging abstract artworks chosen.

We will also have use of the wireless sound enhancement system on the day, provided courtesy of the Turner Contemporary, with thanks to research curator Trish Scott.

Our walk last Wednesday has set us on a wonderful path of discovery , with thanks to, Judy Dermott (writer and academic researcher) , Margaret Hall (artist, reader and geographer), Jennifer Deakin (Photographer)  and Trish Scott ( research curator for Journeys with the Waste Land).

I am looking forward to being a part of Margate Bookie on August 19th.

This event is free but ticketed on Eventbrite:https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/margate-bookie-walking-with-the-waste-land-2017-tickets-35592846161?aff=ehomesaved

A walk in July 

A collaborative walk on July 12th with the Garden Gate Community Project and Walking with The Waste Land in Cliftonville, Margate.

A photo diary of a series of walks which we began in April. this is our fourth walk.

July seems to be the month for fruit and vegetables at the Garden Gate.

okra or ladies fingers

A pumpkin patch

Strange creatures

For our walk we took inspiration from ‘Precario’ (precarious) #ThreadandWord a walk in Edinburgh from Dundas street gallery to Inverleith house ( you can check this out in the previous blog entry:http://elspethpenfold.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/precario-1990-cecilia-vicuna-maximum.html

This multifaceted work addresses the pressing concerns of the modern world; ecological destruction, human rights and cultural homogenisation. Cecilia Vicuña's works often begin as poems, before transforming into images, films, songs, sculptures or collective performances - “hearing an ancient silence waiting to be heard”

Documenting the precarious nature of existence and the strength in fragility through our hand made ropes. 

At the start of our July  walk I suggested we use ropes to gather found sticks, flowers and leaves   while we walked. As always the inventiveness and creativity of my fellow walkers is wonderful. 

  For more about ropes and how these fit in  with the walks please visit:  

http://elspethpenfold.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/fragments-and-thoughts-explanation-and_14.html 

and so we walked;

                                                                                
















Dahlias at North down Park House  

A lovely path through the woods for a wander.

           

A record of this our July walk. I hope you can join us next time for our walk on August 2nd at 2pm. 

Walking with ‘The Waste Land’ is a community group founded by artist Elspeth Penfold in 2014. The group use walking as a research tool for locating TS Eliot’s The Waste Land and selected other poems in Margate. The group works closely with Turner Contemporary’s Waste Land Research Group who are developing Journeys with ‘The Waste Land’, Turner Contemporary’s first major exhibition of 2018, which will be on show from 3^rd February – 20^th May 2018, focused on connections between Eliot’s poem and the visual arts.

'Precario' (1990) Cecilia Vicuña 

'maximum fragility' can work against 'maximum power' 

These words from artist Julia Riddiough  who provided us with a walking chakra for our fragile lives.

http://www.juliariddiough.com

This gave us a wonderful start to our walk on Friday from Dundas Street Gallery to Inverleith house.

a quote from Julia's work :

'If you find you are at a crossroads and aren't sure which way to go , look to a gut feeling in your solar plexus for guidance. '

And so we begin

I have published the full text of all pieces mentioned in this blog on my website:

http://www.elspeth-billie-penfold.com

This walk is part of the Threads exhibition at Dundas Street Gallery, Edinburgh, curated by The Artist's Pool.

The exhibition brings together artists from varied creative practices, backgrounds, cultures
and countries to explore the threads that connect us through our experiences, humanity, gender, friendship and relationship.

The artist and printmaker Nicola Weir, made us some motifs to carry in our pockets. The process for this piece has been documented on our Facebook page Thread and Word https://www.facebook.com/ThreadandWord/ , a beautiful piece which echoes the power of fragility.

We were joined on our walk by the artist Naomi Garriock who soon got us started by helping to unravel the first ribbon to be read

There were 10 ribbons on spools with the words of the poem printed on them.

There were a total of ten ribbons

allocated randomly to walkers.

Jil Rock, Sprang , (March)

The ribbons are a development from the first Thread and Word Walk in Shoreditch last March, when the artist Jill Rock did a performance of ' Sprang'
using a gold ribbon.




Cecilia Vicuña is a Chilean artist whose art is a recurring influence in my work. I am from Bolivia and use weaving and rope making as a part of my art practice.


I make ropes for my fellow walkers and ask them to record their memory of the walk through knots in the ropes.
The ropes reference my cultural roots and the history I learnt as a child growing up in South America.

They also connect with ideas I have explored through research into Art, Sociology and Social Anthropology.

A sobering moment when we read ,

The Women came out at night Las Mujeres salieron a la noche,

Poem by Jaime Huenún,

With thanks to the curator Roberta Bacic
http://cain.ulster.ac.uk/conflicttextiles



Over the bridge I suddenly spotted the Leith Walkway which was perfect , for:

 'Passing Through the Shadow of the Earth'

a poem offered to us for our walk by the  Ecopoet, Professor Jonathan Skinner.

For more about Jonathan: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/people/drjonathanskinner/

and as referenced in the poem,

.............. Heron..........,


serendipity

As we approached the Arboretum Way Naomi Garriock set us some rope based tasks
For more about Naomi:http://instagram.com/garriockmountain

Followed by a few more readings of ribbons on our way to the Royal Botanical Gardens and Inverleith house.

Naomi then set us up for a team event in knotting ropes,
 it all got a bit competitive

and tangled.

Finally a reading of a paper written by the writer and academic Judy Dermott

' Vicuña and Women Centred Modernism'

I quote: 'Vicuna’s Modernism, twists, and jives, she connects us to mythic time   through her foremothers, who employing their bodies, weaved and plaited and told stories as they did so, gossiping, stitching and when language failed, using the alphabet of pattern and colour, collapsing time, and crucially healing the fracture between body and mind.'

(please check my website for the full transcript)

and so to tea and scones! Thank you all for making it so much fun.

A Wander on Friday July 7th ,Thread and Word

from Dundas Street Gallery to  Inverleith house Edinburgh  

2pm - 4pm

in collaboration with Threads 

An artist led walk by Elspeth Penfold

 inspired by Cecilia Vicuña’s poem ‘Hilo y Palabra’

          A poem written in Edinburgh in 1970

Includes participative interventions by artists:

Nicola Weir,

Naomi Garriock 

With further work contributed by

 artist Julia Riddiough 

ecopoet, Jonathan Skinner  

                                               academic Judy Dermott. 

And includes :

A Yoga Mantra

Ribbons for unravelling

Poetry reading

Ropes

Knots 

Timed participative interventions with instructions

                     Ending at Inverleith House, where the poem was written  

Currently closed for exhibitions

                                                                       

                                                                                   



                                                                                                                                          

It may open again!

  

 ‘we still believe …….’ And sincerely hope








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Although free the event is ticketed :                                         
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/threadandword-tickets-34162936262?aff=ehomesaved