See Hear, nearly Saw Heard!

by Chris Wright

It is almost over. The exhibition is running well with a good trickle of visitors, it finishes on Saturday, August 31st. The plants are still alive and provided a bowl of gallery-grown tomatoes for the artist talk event. This was really well attended and was accompanied by a lunch provided by the Artcore cafe. Thanks, Sohaila and Linda. The swing is popular although I am not sure visitors understand the concept behind it especially now all the catalogues have gone.  Perhaps we should have thought about an A4 sheet of information in lieu.

                                                               …waits for no-one Image: Alison Whitmore/Helen Stevenson

Yesterday I ran an experimental sound workshop where we began with a sound walk and then the participants went out into Derby recording things on their phones or cameras that interested them. Although there were only 2 participants left in the afternoon, we had a really interesting time as they were very focused. The last thing we did was to listen to the fountain in the middle of a roundabout with a hydrophone. The outcome of this day was that we are going to compose a short, new sound work with all their recordings which will be done by more than one person so we will have several pieces using the same original material but probably very different. Hopefully, they will be played at Artcore sometime in the future.

This will probably be the last blog for this exhibition and it is part evaluation and part commentary on happenings. One thing that I am so grateful for is to be able to create an exhibition without compromise. Usually, I have a big idea and then have to scale down and down until I get to my meagre budget. See Hear had a budget that allowed me to fulfil my ideas. Thanks  Artcore for having faith in me.

                                                          Dear Passengers with Ashley Morris film, Heartbeat of a Journey 

I love the look of the exhibition, it is clean and minimal with the works by myself and Ashley fitting well together and creating a flow of interest. Of course, there are one or two things I would do differently but they are not major. For example, the links connecting Osnabrück and Derby could, maybe, be more prominent.

I loved Osnabrück, the old and the new part of the town, the friendliness of the people, the bike lanes, the woods behind the house we stayed in, the Schrebergarten and especially Atelier M82. Having a studio there and in Derby made a real difference. It gave me time to step outside everyday life and think. Often, thinking space is what is most needed, even more even doing space.

So, after this ramble, what is next? Firstly to try and find some funding to begin a collaboration with Margit. What I would like to happen is that I do some initial research here, then continue with Margit in Osnabrück then to follow up together in Derby culminating in an exhibition. Good to have an ambitious plan.

Margit Rusert’s work for Lange Nacht which is the work I would like to make sound pieces for.

I still have work from the residency to resolve that needs a little more thinking time. I will continue with my ‘Plantagrams’ on instagram where I am recording, snaps on my mobile phone,  all the plants on a patch of land near the River Soar.

Plantagram No. 1 Purple Loosestrife

. In addition, I have an article to write on poetic mapping for a publication. Oh, and have a bit of a rest!!

I would like to give my thanks to everyone who has made this happen and made the experience a good one. Not forgetting my fellow artist, Ashley Morris. We made it and it worked.