INTENZ at Corby Open

 

During March we took part in the first Corby Open Exhibition in the Old Library. Artist Phiona Richards has written a lively, comprehensive post describing how the exhibition came about which you can read here.  The Old Library is a wonderful space and there are many artists working towards making it a more permanent Gallery and Studio Spaces. We decided to enter a variation of our installation INTENZ called Conurbation which utilised the big triangles and three sets of smaller triangles.

INTENZ was originally created as part of our project Fingerprints on the Pew and in response to the architecture of St Peter and St Andrews Church in Beanfield Avenue, near our studios. It is a portable sculpture which can be moved and changed, creating many different permutations. INTENZ has already appeared at a number of sites in a variety of configurations.

Parents and children making sculptures

at the Boating Lake in Corby

During the Festival of Christmas trees 

at St Peter and St Andrews Church

 

At York Minster

Now we had a new venue, at the Corby Open, to arrange our adaptable sculpture. Setting up was quite eventful as we had been allocated a space to be shared with artists with films to project. It was a tight squeeze and took several hours to install but we were helped and encouraged by one of the exhibition volunteers, Nick, a landscape designer who completely understood and enjoyed the flexible nature of the sculpture and its exploration of space. Nick spent several hours with us, playing with the permutations of the sculpture's structural possibilities, and relating it to his own thoughts about garden structures.

We were just about to tackle the lighting when it was all change! The space was also going to be used for a poetry reading during the Private View and the other artists felt the installation would block the flow of people through the room. We were left in a bit of a quandary as we had been allocated the space and couldn't immediately see where we could move to.

After investigating other spaces and making a flurry of phone calls, we set about dismantling the installation, moving furniture and reassembling everything in a completely different configuration in another room! Again the space was quite tight, there was no room for people to interact with the sculpture as we had originally intended and there was definitely no flow through.

In many ways the space was challenging to use and the results not completely to our satisfaction, but we wanted to add our support to this new venture in the heart of Corby. We rose to the challenge, this being another opportunity to reconfigure the installation once more to fit yet another space!

We were able to set up some of our small lights 

and darken down the room to create some dramatic effects.

Ann Leonard, who originally saw INTENZ at St Peter and St Andrews, and came to Corby Open, said "Loved Miles & Dacombe's installation, it gains new dimensions whenever I see it."

Here are a pair of visitors who decided to turn on the main lights to see what was in the room! Carole was at the gallery that day and invited them to make their own sculptures with the smaller triangles.

Although it had proved challenging to install INTENZ at the Corby Open, we once more had some great interactions with people who saw the work and had a chance to interact with the structural shapes. All the elements of INTENZ are made in the same proportions, an irregular tetrahedron, in a variety of sizes, from the very tiny to the huge! It is constantly fascinating just how many structural inventions can be made from the same elements and it was great fun to give the installation another outing!

Miles & Dacombe plus INTENZ can be hired to help your
school, gallery or group explore space, light and sculpture.
Further details available upon request.

Spring Forwards

Whilst scoping our second Kettering Light Walk and looking for a place to plant some living willow  we came across The Green Patch Community Allotments run by Groundwork a wonderful growing resource in the heart of the community. We approached Lucy Darby, who said they had received a commemorative bench, and that a willow half bower would work perfectly with the bench adding some gentle shade. We had planned to plant the willows as the culmination of our next walk, but the walk had to be postponed and we had already collected the willow. To grow willow from unrooted cuttings or whips, the willow should be cut and planted after leaf fall and before leaf bud - usually during December, January and February. We decided it was best to go ahead with the planting.

Nigel helped us dig a channel for the whips

We began by setting in the uprights, pushing the longest sturdiest whips about 6 inches into the ground vertically to make the main structure. It took quite a lot of effort as the ground was still compacted and quite dry due to the lack of rain we have had in February.

Tying in the front of the arch. 

Once the diagonal whips were in position we began to weave them into shape. The interwoven diagonals are for strength to create an open lattice interlinked  feature, the tension of the willow should generally hold the structure together.

We then replaced the clumps of soil and turf, then tried out the Bower for size!

Winter Aconites seen on our walk

Getting ready for some more Guerilla Gardening

We were so glad to have been out in the fresh air planting that when we were next together in our studios we began preparing a new batch of seed bombs to take on our Finedon Light Walk. The clay had gone hard and was about to be thrown away when Carole salvaged the bags and reconstituted them in a bucket of water. It was still quite tough to excavate from the bucket but we had more than enough for our purposes! 

Clay and wild flower seeds

shaped with cookie cutters.

Carole has been popping back to The Green Patch 

at regular intervals to check on our willow's progress.

Nigel has been keeping The Bower well watered,

paving slabs have been placed under the bench and 

there is a mulch of bark chips around the whips.

 Vertical whips sprouting fresh growth  from the top

Diagonally planted whips sprouting along the 

full length giving a denser growth to the structure

We ordered our willow from here 

Willows Nursery Walgrave 

Northampton  NN6  9QA 

Walking by Water

We started our first walk of the year, and the first in a set of eight new walks for our project Light Walks for Dark Days.

We set out in Kettering on a crisp, frosty day.  The bright sunlight seemed to heighten the colours in the bare trees, vibrant red and green twigs in a sapphire blue sky.

Frost edged leaves and blades of grass like tiny diamonds.

It was hard to imagine that the patch of rough grass near the bridge had once been the site of a Mill and that the field we were walking across had once been a dumping ground for waste materials from the local Boot and Shoe factories. This green space is a well used, well loved space, children play here and throughout the day there are many meetings of groups of regular dog walkers of all ages. To the left hand side of the field there are old apple and plum trees which still produce fruit to this day.

We headed across the common towards the water's edge, and stopped on the footbridge for a while. Carole caught sight of a large trout darting in amongst the water plants and told the group that this was a popular spot for young anglers and exuberant dogs who love to career down the banks after sticks or squeaky toys!

Looking over the bridge, fast running shallow water and luminous green flowing weeds.  We started thinking about the speed of the water, where it goes.  "How are rivers made?" somebody asked.  We talked about the power of water to carve its way through earth and rock, rivulets joining with other rivulets to create torrential rivers, all down to gravity and the search for the lowest point.

Walking on down the path along the water's edge, a horse plodded across its frozen field to greet us.

A field stretching up the hill beside us, its dead stalks contouring the slopes in rhythmic lines. During the planning walk in December Carole and Jo found clusters of fungi nestled in between the ground level branches of an inviting tree.

On the day of our walk Carolyn found the same tree equally inviting and couldn't resist clambering where the fungi had clustered just a month before. This is the wonderful thing about walking, the route may stay constant but time and seasons bring a host of tiny changes which create subtle alterations.

We found a single boot, sturdy, quite new, mysteriously abandoned at the side of the path and we all wondered why it was that there were often single boots / shoes / trainers left to fend for themselves.

John was reminded of the song Jake the Peg, and created a new leg for the boot, 

 

which then temporarily became a walking stick

Willow trees growing wild by the water, loving the moisture! Their yellow whips of new growth got us thinking about weaving willows and how nature always regrows after death.

A line of frost clung to the water's edge.

Pete recognised the pip pips of Great Tits and we spotted a pair of them flitting repeatedly from one tree to another.   Jo mentioned she had spotted coots nesting on the river on a previous visit.  And so, attuned to watching for further wildlife, we continued on, ears pricked and eyes searching for any movement.

Further down, we spotted a great grey heron on the other side of the water, standing still as a statue.  It reminded John of other great birds and when he saw an Albatross at a nearby reserve.

Further down, the water's rush slowed until perfectly still, creating perfect mirror images.

As we picnicked, a cheeky red robin hopped up really close to us, checking out any crumbs on offer.  Quick, mad rush to get out the camera in time to snap him - but no!  

Each time the camera was lined up and ready to click, he would flit away again!  Teasing us, he reappeared several times, just flying off again as we were about the capture him ... until ... finally!  Jo got this -

and Carole got this - we were quite sure he was starting to pose for us!

 After lunch Jo showed everyone how to make paper boats

we had wondered about using seed paper but thought it wouldn't be very watertight

we chose a simple orange paper which would break apart in due course.

The paper folding was great fun, luckily the sun was just warm enough to keep our fingers supple and it wasn't long until we had created a whole flotilla.

We left our secluded picnic spot and walked further along the path, heading towards Warkton, as Carole knew where there was an ideal spot to launch the boats from.  She assured us that it was just a short stretch away, with a shingly outcrop and quite fast flowing water. The first attempts caught a reverse current and came back to us, so we made sure the boats were thrown out to the furthest bank where the current carried them swiftly forwards. The boats were a Light Thoughts intervention, carrying our hopes and wishes with them.

The return walk covered a variety of paces, some were watching the time, having meetings to get to by 3pm, others were still caught up in the spirit of exploration, finding new things to see on the way back, but we finally got back to our starting point, rosy cheeked and with fairly muddy feet. It was a very good way to start the week.

A rich day of colours, sounds, birds and water, many memories stored away of a good day.