I had an opportunity to get out to Green Point one last time to make some small works on Monday. It was a bittersweet thing; I was delighted to have the opportunity to work in that remarkable place again, but I was doing so fully aware that there are only a few days left here, and this was my last time on these rocks for quite a while.
Still. The work took on a playful quality as the day progressed – I was reminded of being a kid and playing on the beach for hours – there were many ‘what if’ and ‘why not try’ moments. It was lovely to feel so unencumbered by the need for ‘results’. To be able to get lost in responding to the place and its physical character in a simple, childlike way.
Part of that was the scale of these pieces: they are all small, hand-based gestures toward understanding the place in simple ways, intimate approaches to line and light and surface.
The photographs, however, can tell a very different story; the absence of many reference points for scale allows each piece a different kind of solidity, and different understandings of lines and borders and containment come into play.
It was a good day, and especially so because it left me with a great deal to think about.
I’ll miss this place.
Especially because the room to breathe and think is such an intrinsic part of all of it.
Sydney, these are truly beautiful. I love them in black and white and how it brings out the textures and forms.
Thank you so much Karen! They were really a great deal of fun to make. I agree – they needed to be in black and white. In this case I found the colour distracted from the finer details of the surfaces, and the play of light an line. I would love to make a big installation with the flat pencil slate – it’ is really interesting material to work with!