I have been selected for this years Jerwood Makers Open, a prestigious commissioning award giving five makers the opportunity to freely develop new ideas central to their individual practice.
For some time I have been exploring the concept of veneration, with this opportunity I will be using large porcelain bells as a symbolic form to venerate the landscape. Pembrokeshire has some wonderful sea caves and I have been exploring these as potential locations to hang the bells. The Idea is to hang the bells and to document them using film and sound.
With the hanging of the bells I wish to venerate a natural architectural space but also an experience. I grew up on the coast of Pembrokeshire, and spent my childhood on its beaches, cliffs and in the many deep and mysterious sea caves. The transition from the outside world as you drift into a natural internal space is captivating. The change in light, temperature, atmosphere and sound also congers ones emotions. A pure white bell suspended in the entrance to a cave would be very evocative of that moment.
With the film I hope to capture the receding tide, the sound of the sea, water dripping from above, the wind and the chime of the bell as the light changes within the cave.
Over the past two month I have been making the bells, next I need to fire them and then in April/May I will be hanging and filming. The completed commissions will be presented for the first time in an exhibition at JVA at Jerwood Space, London from 10 July to 25 August 2013, before touring the UK.
