A time & a place – New Brewery Arts, Cirencester

A time & a place – New Brewery Arts, Cirencester

A time a place

‘A time & a place’ work by Ann-Margreth Bohl about artist residencies.
Starting 17th January 2015

Ann-Margreth is a german born artist working predominantly with natural materials stone, beeswax, graphite, string, leather etc.

Through the process of making, utilising inherent qualities of the chosen materials, she explored in both residencies the physical boundaries of a architectural space, resulting in the exhibited graphite wall rubbings ‘Ceasura 1&2’.

With her most recent piece ‘Lichtspielhaus’ (old fashioned german for cinema) she is introducing light and space into her work.

The artist grew up near the border between East and West Germany, the image of ‘die Mauer’ (the Berlin wall) is often revisited in her work, trying to look at the questions why we build walls and what effect walls have on us.

‘Lichtspielhaus’ is going beyond a wall creating a space for us to go.

This work was conceived during her residency in a pillbox in Stanton St Bernard near Marlborough in Whiltshire, a solid concrete structure for english soldiers to observe and anticipate the german enemy from.

The beeswax used in this installation comes from Germany, the artist is mindful of this and of the effort that bees have put into this material that they use to store their food and protect their young.

Casting beeswax

Casting beeswax

At times it is difficult to make connections between the different explorations but knowing that life itself moves in anything but a straight line I go along with where my nose takes me….thanks to my colleague and friend Anna Usborne I have been able to explore the first steps of mould making and casting. A totally new process to me and so different from carving in stone, naturally drawn to opposite materials and processes, I am intrigued. Form found in solid cold hard mass verses hot liquid poured into a form to recreate a shape. The first cast in beeswax of a pebble moved me as the pure form of the stone was apparent but the “stone” that I removed from the mould was warm, smells delicious and is light in weigth.

Casting beeswax, April 2013

Casting beeswax, April 2013

I quickly moved on to making moulds of random objects and obsessively casting them. I am not sure how relevant they are to me at this moment but I am going to continue getting to know this new technique.

Casting beeswax, detail

Casting beeswax, detail

Casting beeswax, detail

Casting beeswax, detail

 

Planning for some stone carvings

Planning for some stone carvings

reflections on water,drawing

reflections on water,drawing

So it is starting to be spring, the workshop is waiting to be covered in dust, I am trying to gather my thoughts and come up with some plans for carvings. I have made inquiries about the cost of portuguese marble which I want to use for the planed sculptures as they will be for outdoors and cotswold stone is to vulnerable to withstand frost over a period of time. Marble is a fluid stone in it’s structure and I am hoping to transfer some of my ideas about material into the forms.

imagine a stone carving surrounded by water,drawing

imagine a stone carving surrounded by water,drawing

Stone has a liquid element and I am trying to put this into the quality of form, combined with the aim of lifting the material out of gravity.

a drop of water, drawing

a drop of water, drawing

Looking at the formation a drop of water goes through when falling onto a surface, beautiful forms appear, through drawing I pull these shapes into something new, I am not trying to imitate nature, I am aiming to make sense of it by understanding the possibilities and limitations of nature and giving it form as it makes sense to me.

how far can stone be stretched, drawing

how far can stone be stretched, drawing

And then there is the question of combining materials, bringing beeswax into stone. Would I dare to cast wax into precious marble, what would be the point? With that one I want to wait a bit longer, make more experiments and understand it’s properties more holistically, it is a journey of discovery after all.

would I dare to cast wax into marble, drawing

would I dare to cast wax into marble, drawing

 

experiment, cotswold stone and beeswax

experiment, cotswold stone and beeswax

 

 

Guiseppe Penone, Spazio di Luce

Guiseppe Penone’s piece Spazio di Luce (exhibited at Whitechapel Gallery/ London until 11.08.2013) triggered following thoughts..Penone  uses beeswax as a memory of action, touch of the workers that apply the wax is remembered in the marks of their fingerprints, he parallels the power of the touch with the power of water that sculpted a boulder  (exhibited with mirror boulder sculpted by Penone). He says about touch, “the first experience of a child is tactile, only later does a child interpret reality with sight.” In the exhibition guide mentioned is how Penone rejects the heroic attempt to overcome nature, the artist’s humility in his enthusiastic embrace of the uncertainty, malleability and instability that lies at the heart of the natural world is evident in his work. “Spazio di Luce” for me has many different aspects and I am only beginning to understand this piece of work, no doubt will I go back to visit it.

 

Bees wax

Bees wax

During the last few days i started using a material new to me, bees wax …great stuff,it melts to liquid gold and sets in it’s rich amber glow. I am aiming to integrate local beeswax into the Cotswold stone and thanks to Jessie from the “Global bee project” I met Danny the beekeeper and he sorted me out with enough wax to play around with.

This post is dedicated to Sam who has been waiting patiently.

 

melting bees waxcotswold stone with bees wax