BATTLE SPONGE: More on the Spirit Shed....

"It has provided not only physical but also psychological sanctuary. It has been a guardian of identity."

- Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness

This is the idea I am moving forward with... in the the crossover between shed shelter and clothing shelter

Back from Womad and Jersey, and straight into the Shed!

It's tricky trying to write up/summarise my ideas that i've been having in the garden and the shed at Free Space Gallery. I usually work best when I have a space that I can really move into and spread out in and retreat to and express myself through; put everything up on the walls that inspires me, furnish the space, spend heaps of time there drawing, writing, thinking, eating... this is what my usual studio in the Bussey Building, Peckham is for me. But as of today, the Spirit Shed (as I have christened it) can now be this! I have my very own key to it, and now I can really move my stuff in there, and use the shed in the precise way I feel a shed ought to be used; as a physical and psychological retreat and also a space for expression of identity.
So tomorrow I will take some tools with me and really try and fix up a good solid working space.
I'm gonna go to town with the facade of the shed and make an awning/porch area which will exist as a tiny shelter area and a way to invite people in, but also as some sort of participatory exhibit; A way for the visitors to the health centre to engage for a second (because I need to remember that many visitors to the health centre won't spend long looking at my research, or may not be familiar or comfortable with art, particularly some of my more cerebral concepts that take a bit of time to get to know).

To get an idea of the purpose of my being at the Free Space Gallery, have a look at this post that the gallery director Melissa wrote recently. She sums up the place that art has in the health centre itself, but also in a wider wellbeing scenario. She mentions that I will be doing casual workshops. Indeed I shall! Due to those bills and rents we all gotta pay, I can't make it to Kentish Town every day, but on my weekdays off (of which I have more over summer!) I will be in the garden, with art materials, books, and chat. So the workshops really are casual as you can't just come and get to work and hang out with me and some paint! But over the coming months Melissa and I will arrange some more organised, formal sessions which we will advertise.
I'm thinking:
- fabric printing/painting sessions - to create scout style badges which I will sew onto one big cloak which can also be used as a tent. This would create a collaborative work which would be a record of talismanic/lucky charm images and symbols of the centre visitors.
- tent/den making!
- outdoor film evening
- banner making; giving an identity to 'the shed' as a feature in all of our lives; what do sheds/dens mean to us all?
- a visual 'story-telling' workshop to create a life story for an imaginary inhabitant of the shed. I think i've thought of a name for this shed-dweller; Mistress Axolotl.
She provides nurturing and desire fulfilment for all of the aspects of our health that the NHS cannot provide; she is available to all and is able to accommodate your wildest dreams (that's where the 'Mistress' part comes in!), and she is also totally versatile and adapt to every one of us (this is where she gets her name Axolotl - an axolotl is an aquatic creature, like a salamander, that is of supreme interest in medical research because it can generate embryonic stem cells throughout its life, which we can use to grow useful tissues for human bodies... providing cures!)
I would like to create a gallery in the shed, made up of visitors drawings and paintings and words, about her life, her work, her personality...

I realise I haven't got a lot of visual research to support my ideas so far, but here a few images that might show where my mind is going...
I am really focusing on the crossover between sheds/dens and garments/clothing as retreat spaces.
And also - you will see that i'm very into Frida Kahlo's wardrobe! I feel she's a sublime example of somebody who totally embodied their personality, fantasies and overall identity in what she wore. Here Mexican-ness is so apparent and proud, and her portraits often feature her clothes, making her art her life and vice versa.
You will also see some sketches for 'garden garments' that i am designing - clothing to furnish the well-beeing garden, inspired by sheds and dens and being close the nature, but bring our physical and psychological connection to ourselves and each other into the experience.

The architecture of tents: self-contained spatial entities.

So are human bodies.

And things happen inside.

Connection and communion

Seclusion and retreat

They don't need four walls, just a canopy or a lean-to offers refuge enough. Like a scarf, a cape or a hood, or warm socks.

Decorate with objects, jewels, paintings, painted and embroidered symbols - because this is a canvas for identity, whether it be expressive or cryptic.

I met a man while in the Well-beeing Garden who served in the army and now works in the Oxfam shop. I need to ask him about army shelters, and uniform - probably the most impossible things to express identity or individuality in/with? How do soldiers do this?

In our homes, decoration often frames the beauty of everyday and also faraway things. What is it about your reality that you like? What is it about your fantasies that you need?

These can all frame the beauty of oneself too.

The architecture of our surroundings can make a contribution to our happiness.

Are we different people in different places and clothes? I think so. Which is so fun, but maybe that's also why we need to make our own clothes and dens more often, so that they are totally reflective of what we are or what we want.

Kentish Town Health Centre is an interesting building on looking at it with no architectural knowledge: it is white grey, lime green and surrounded by tall trees. It has large windows and is a modern building with a lot of open space and air. It has almost no smell whatsoever. It has a glass central waiting area which opens onto the garden. From the shed I can see the grey floor of the building and a pink area. I think these colours will be the colours of what I make here.

All the elements of a building combine to create an atmosphere. A building such as KTCH, with it's community interest principals, ought to create an atmosphere "in which the best sides of us are offered the opportunity to flourish... " - Alain de Botton.

The angles, colours, textures, proportions, visibility, size, spaces... are they loud, quiet, calming, silly, wise, intriguing, slow, anxious, clear, soft, old, fresh.... do they lead us into thought with curiosity on looking, or divert us to think of something elsewhere and different? I don't think any of these are better or worse than other atmospheres, because everyone has different weaknesses and strengths and will respond to what community buildings offer in different ways. And this is why it would be so helpful and productive to make our own shelters. And clothes.

Amazing sand den photo I found in a photography exhibition catalogue I found at Grandma's, from a show in 1955 called 'The Family of Man'

Frida looking fantastic as usual

Interesting shaped garment to accommodate a combination of different body parts

Amazing!! I am definitely looking a lot at the 'hood' as a garment feature - they are very comforting and can be retreated into. Hoods provide protection from the wind, rain and sun, but also from the outside world if you need to hide.
I also love the fringing on this; I imagine that hiding behind a fringed, hooded cape feel like peeking out from a childhood hidey-hole in a tree or some bushes, with leaves and twigs slightly obscuring your view and own identity.

Like hiding

Slightly blurred photos of foliage and forest floor give the idea of movement through a wild place, maybe at a wild pace. Just appears as if one is inhabiting the natural space a bit more realistically, rather than just looking.

Waterproof nylon and hoods in full use

Voldemort gave the Death Eaters the weekend off, and they went to Womad

Wierdly aesthetically pleasing tent roof flood!! I like - I may use this in some of my tent/den/shed insallations

Above are sketches of me getting a bit obsessed for no good reason, with using water as a weight to hoist up structures. If I had more time and more things to hang rope from in the garden, this could be made to look really cool. But it's not relevant enough - it's really just a personal aesthetic/relaxation thing.