Over the summer during a lull in our work for exhibition some of our group thought it would be good to work on some mini collaboration exercises. One member would come up with a selection of words and the task was to select from these and work with them.
Sitting in the studio gazing out of the window thinking ‘how do I begin?’ I was watching the grey clouds scudding across the sky with great speed, obscuring the blue of the sky.
Looking down at the list of words, the first word to jump out at me was ‘movement’. The movement of the clouds.
The colour palette I would use would be the grey of the clouds and the blue of the sky.
I chose to use paper as my medium.
The other words I selected from the list were – words and paint.
I found a set of small concertina folded pieces of watercolour paper that had been previously prepared and never used, these would provide the paper I needed.
I began by writing the words that came into my head – clouds blown on the wind – repeatedly around and across the paper, covering the entire surface with a jumble of words that became quite difficult to read.
I then worked two more pieces of paper.
The three panels were photographed hanging and standing.
I had spent a couple of very enjoyable hours playing with the chosen words.
The following day I returned to the studio and decided to take this mini task a step further. Each strip was cut along the fold lines, shuffled together and randomly laid out in 3 rows. These were strung together and hung on the wall.
Conclusion
Get in the studio and do whatever comes into your head. A mini exercise gets you working again, keeps the creativity ticking over and can produce some surprising results.
Quinary 