Capel y Graig

‘HOLLOW’ IN THE CAPEL May 2014

Jenny Hall

I was introduced to Avi Allen and Capel y Graig on a land journey curated by Simon Whitehead in 2012. Having descended, soaking wet, from low hanging cloud in the Cambrian hills I walked into the serenity of the restored Capel and rested mind and body.

I returned again recently. It remains as exquisite an offering as I had remembered.

‘Hollow’ prototype

Avi invited me to the Capel following a workshop I ran in early May that she attended called ‘Play, Space and Performance.’ Jointly run with my colleague Dr Andrew Filmer, a lecturer in the Dept. of Theatre, Film and Television at Aberystwyth University, the workshop sought to explore intersections between architecture, construction and theatre. We used lightweight modular cardboard boxes designed for sitting and standing on, that connect together and also fit comfortably in the arms of a child.

We explored how these boxes might form a modular theatre set that becomes an integral and malleable component of a performance.

The boxes also serve another purpose: they are a prototype for a new installation that I am researching: ‘Hollow’ makes visible the underground space left after mineral extraction. Its muse: a curvaceous 17th century copper mine.

One of my sketches of the 1826 cross-section of Orijarvi copper mine

Over the winter I was artist-in-residence at Fiskars Village in Finland, a thriving arts and cultural space that was once alive with blast furnaces and molten iron. In the 17th Century, copper ore was smelted there that had been extracted from the local Orijarvi copper mine. The only record of this beautiful space is a draughtsman’s cross-sectional drawing from 1826. No data has since been recorded because the mine was flooded once exhausted.

We have burrowed underground for raw materials to build wealth. With which we have concentrated population and cultivated society. We have much to thank for the underground chambers that gave birth to life above ground.

I want to make visible these underground spaces that serve as a mirror of the culture above ground. Further I want to rationalise the organic, sensuous forms to restore the industrial drive behind their inception.

‘Hollow’ mirrored on a reflective surface (sketch up model)

‘Hollow’ prototype: a place for moving in, on and around

‘Hollow’ interior (sketch up model)

I would like to create a regular rhythmic form that can be easily constructed, that can increase and decrease proportionally in steps. The cube lends itself to such a structure. Interestingly, Plato associated the earth with the cube.

‘Hollow’ research phase in Capel

I want to use small cardboard cubes to represent the analogue curves of Orijarvi mine as a series of steps. This simplification of the complex void allows it to be partially transmitted through time and space and made accessible today. Cardboard is both organic and industrial, capable of being rigid but also soft. It is tactile and it smells nice. During ‘Play, Space and Performance’ we found the box to be comfy to sit on, resonant to drum, scratch, sing and listen to: an ordinary sensory object of great potential.

‘Hollow’ will be constructed on a reflective surface so as to appear to float. Represented as a large scale architectural model, it is free from the earth that holds and hides its beauty. This allows the viewer to see the beauty of the underground mine as a discrete object.
Working in the Capel over three days I was able to develop ideas at an architectural scale that I had played with in the studio at my desk. I learnt the constructive and structural limitations of the system and brainstormed solutions. I was also able to see how the body interacts with the solids and voids created.

My daughter and friend came for the day and gave profound feedback in terms of what they intuitively wanted to do and play with. It is essential that the structure is robust and climbable and permits self-driven exploration.

‘Hollow’ also needs to be juxtaposed with loose boxes that are scattered in the space that can be moved, stacked and appropriated. That enable the viewer to interact with the constructive and flexible potential of the material.

‘Moulding clay into a vessel, we find the utility in its hollowness; Cutting doors and
windows for a house, we find the utility in its empty space. Therefore the being of
things is profitable, the non-being of things is serviceable.’

From Chapter 11 of The Tao Te Ching

There is something gained from also seeing these ‘profitable’ goods juxtaposed with their ‘serviceable’ mirror: the hollow left behind.

‘Hollow’ is still work in progress but I’m very excited by the shapes it is taking and our journey. Orijarvi mine was not surveyed before it was closed but there are many accessible mines that could be three dimensionally surveyed and modelled both in Finland and in Wales that would be interesting to make visible too.

Dr Andrew Filmer made an interesting point about how mining could be catalogued as a series of forms that could map the evolution of mining technology. I’m intrigued to explore this subject at multiple scales and across different media to create an architectural study of the hollows beneath our feet.

With great thanks to Avi for creating this essential, loving arts space at Capel y Graig.

Initially I was uneasy with the idea (or my perceived notion) of an art piece created off site to be ‘tried out’ in the capel, that the capel may provide merely a convenient large enough physical space for the physical demands of a work.

Having been enthralled and deeply moved by Siriol Joyner’s process during her visit in the summer; a sincere intention and excitement to ‘become’ with the capel, I had decided to invite artists in the future that will involve the capel space as integral to their practice development. I was concerned that the capel was some how now going to be disrespected; a very temporary ‘deposit’ on the floor, undertaken merely with the intention to check the logistics in terms of a further potential established exhibition space…

I WAS SO WRONG, and I apologise to you Louise! It was immediately apparent that Louise and Alice Forward (Artist and partner…part of Short&Forward ) had an innate respect and care for the Capel space, both in its physical presence and social context, and were excited about, and thoughtful regarding how the work and they would, converse with both. I was so pleased that Louise and Alice accepted my offer to help them lay over four hundred beautifully casted mushroom pieces on the Capel floor. I immediately felt that I wanted to help and be involved.

I had intended to ask Louise to explain more about this work and her wider practice..take notes, as I was genuinely excited about it, however, as the experience unfolded it somehow seemed inappropriate to probe, but rather to let thoughts and conversations ’emerge’… ‘pop up’ fungi like, in the process. Quietly unwrapping the mushrooms and laying them intuitively with care on the floor; feeling the hands/mushroom casts/wooden floor relationship, with an awareness of the pulpit, the light flooding in from the high windows and past experiences in the capel , gentle and wondrous discussions arose about fungi, bees ( a subject that Alice is passionate about within her art practice), capel acoustics and more…

For me, what became a shared reverent repetitive action of unwrapping, touching, laying, moving the mushroom casts, lifting and re wrapping them opened a space to quietly re consider notions of ecological relationship. The particularly wondrous conversation ‘Making Art About Centipedes’ between Suzi Gablik and Christopher Manes, from Gablik’s book ‘Conversations before the end of time’ came to mind, in which they discuss and challenge the perceived evolutionary hierarchy between humans and fungi. ( I now know that this conversation between Gablik and Manes, amongst other conversations within the book, is one that Louise is also particularly fond of. )

I was touched by Louise’s thoughtful and sensitive decision that the work ‘had somehow found its resting place’ and in order for the work to be shown elsewhere, she would have to discover other ways of showing it. For me, it was poignant that Louise considered the work and the capel as one..a becoming of the two that could not be replicated.

What a wondrous Capel day!.. great to meet two exciting artists, that have become dear friends. I also rather like being described as a ‘rare and wonderful sub species’.. of the art world…I think?..yes…thank you Louise.

Louise Short is a critical thinker…a deep and unusual thinker, and I feel privilaged to share time thinking with her. It is ‘sharing’ I always now look forward to.

I have recently been to Louise Short’s latest exhibition, Mycophilia, at The Old Chemist, now part of Ceredigion Museum, Aberystwyth…it is wondrous and intelligent of course…and yes she has found a new way to show the mushrooms! (see the above image)

Mycophilia runs until May 31^st 2014. Alice Forward’s exhibition Swarm Society will run from June 12^th till 2^nd August.

Newyddion | News

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