Hadleigh Art Projects

"Getting people involved can be positive even when the artist's project isn't what they expected. Rely less on outcomes, measure the process not just the product."

Extract from A Manifesto for the Public Realm produced at the Art U Need Artist seminar Rochford, Essex 30th March 2007 and taken from the book Art U Need - My Part in the Public Art Revolution, Bob and Roberta Smith (Black Dog Publishing, 2007)

Watch this space....

Castle bombing

The gloves are off!

Today's theme for photo's in Hadleigh seems to be gloves! Still obsessed with benches - this must be the 'last bench in Hadleigh'. And shopping trollies so it seems!
'Found' some old cycle tyres. Ok I asked in the bicycle shop. Hmm....what shall I do with these?

Lord Coe visits Hadleigh Farm

Lord Coe has been to every Olympic games since 1980 and thinks it is"absolutely stunning" and is "really pressed to think of a better backdrop to any Olympic venue I have seen anywhere in the world. I think this is stunning"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympic_games/london_2012/9433617.stm

It was a lovely day for it!

Purchases

1 x chess set = £1.75
1 x old deck chair = £15
1 x pack post-it notes = 59p
1 x pack 10 blank postcards = 99p
5 x worn mountain bike tyres = free
1 x "closest thing" to a picture postcard = 99p

Technique

This is a technique I am developing.

360-degree view from a bench

This time

This time I tried to buy a postcard. Bought the closest thing I could find. Collected some 'conversations'. Photographed benches. Walked through the churchyard. Photographed the 'view' from the benches. Found some bicycles.

Car Park Controversy

http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/8895989.Hands_off_our_car_park_/?ref=rss

John Burrows

Read this this morning. Just outside the 'study area' for regeneration but the master plan does state that it would consider projects over the boundary. Did you even know there is a Thames Estuary Lace Makers group and a Hadleigh Evening Women's Institute?

http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/8888597.Hall_s__grubby__conditions_have_driven_clubs_to_quit/?ref=rss

Knowing a place for the first time

“We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time”

T.S.Eliot, Little Gidding

Thought I would share this quotation. It is strange how, despite the fact that there is this need to be at the location to 'understand what is necessary', it is only when you come away and discover what has been left in your memory that the sense of place that I am exploring really comes into it's own.

Yesterday I had the strong feeling that this project is going to be more of a challenge than I thought. I came away with some photographs and with some initial impressions but ironically it is the things that I didn't photograph that have stayed with me.

The new bench outside the toilet block for example which I remember consciously NOT photographing for some reason. I said yesterday there are many, many benches with nobody sitting on them. What is the thinking, I am wondering, behind creating a new 'place to sit'. This has set me off on a whole train of thought and picks up on a previous project of mine and makes me wonder what is this fascination I have with benches!!

One of the comments written in the Regeneration shop also keeps coming back to me 'please don't make it like Leigh-on-Sea'. I believe I understand the 'thrust' of this plea but it has also got me to thinking about    comparisons, similarities and contrasts, with neighbouring Leigh with which Hadleigh shares its border.

Also, it seems my sense of place is driven by what is not there. Almost 'negative space' not physical but in my mind. 

First taste

My first 'outing' in artist mode. A bright sunny afternoon in Hadleigh town. Re my earlier post - the difference with Google Street View and actually being there? You can't hear or taste the traffic! The traffic and road noise is incessant. Admittedly there are 'gaps' or lulls as traffic lights interrupt the flow. I recorded the sound and it is actually quite rhythmical. The thing I was surprised by how many benches there are. Only saw one person sitting, briefly.

Nowhere to buy a postcard I noticed! I had forgotten how suspicious it can be to be taking photographs in a shopping centre too.

Also it would seem I am not alone! I visited the Regeneration shop it seemed quite busy. I asked the lady I had spoken to previously if it were ok to take some photographs in the shop. Apparently the man with the pushchair who had just left had asked the same thing! He is taking one of the studios in the Fire Station and is 'doing a project about the London Road'. Interesting.

Another Artist reference - Francis Alys

Francis Alys is a Belgian born artist living and working in Mexico. Alys 'walks' urban environments and creates work in this way. He says that "it’s only on location that you understand what might be relevant".


I agree but what if you are not 'on location' can you still 'understand what might be relevant'? After all we live in the age of the Google Street View!


http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?client=safari&oe=UTF-8&q=hadleigh+essex&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Hadleigh,+Benfleet,+Essex,+United+Kingdom&gl=uk&ll=51.552593,0.611286&spn=0.003662,0.010847&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=51.552662,0.611012&panoid=VerFuswbVmJQhJxwX9jkCQ&cbp=12,296.16,,0,8.38

artist reference - richard wentworth

great artist reference given to me by my course leader. Very relevant to this project.

http://www.lissongallery.com/#/artists/richard-wentworth/works/

Pushing the boundaries

Here is the 'study' area courtesy of http://www.heartinhadleigh.org.uk/ Hadleigh Regeneration Masterplan website. I will start at the regeneration shop I think and see where that takes me.

Let the games begin

On 15th March, 2011 there will be 500 days to go before the 2012 summer Olympic Games begin. I wonder if between now and then I could take 500 images of Hadleigh. Better start tomorrow! I have set up a Flickr Group called Hadleigh Essex. Will be posting there.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1602487@N24/

I need to decide what kind of images I will collect. Searching 'Hadleigh, Essex' in Flickr produced page upon page of 'castle' and pretty 'estuary views' pictures, so there are two things I will not be photographing. As my contact from the http://www.hadleigh-essex.co.uk/ concurs, we want to see the real Hadleigh, its people and the town centre. This is the 'heart' I'm sure.

In true Alys-style I will walk around tomorrow and see what I come up with. But I need a route.

In the beginning - there was rain

My first ever post on this blog. I am very excited about this project. This is the view from a secret location in Hadleigh as I begin to make a plan. And yes, it was raining!