#magneticnorthartistattachment

[thejennawatt]

In January 2020 I took part in Magnetic North’s Rough Mix Residency, where I was given the opportunity to collaborate with artists from varying practices on a new work. The other artists were Flavia Hevia, Uther Dean, Gavin Glover, Greg Sinclair, Kol Sigfúsdóttir, Rachel Drazek, Apphia Campbell, Claire Willoughby, Elspeth Turner, Marion Geoffray, Nicholas Alban and Sean Hay. 

Leading up to the residency, I was really unsure about what I wanted to explore, with different projects tumbling around in my mind, I felt a real pressure to pick the ‘right’ one, and to come out of the residency with a really solid WIP. I was also a little unsure of how to use the main resource available to us: six performers, especially as I was still unclear about what form I wanted to explore. 

For the first few days, the main artists; Flavia, Uther, Gavin, Greg and myself, gave presentations on our practices. I shared a collection of objects relating to my exploration of rewilding, I observed that I had a strong emotional response to one particular object: a small brass bullet casing. The casing had come from research work that I carried out in the field late last year, where I went Hind stalking in Corrour. I realised that I hadn’t yet fully processed that experience and this residency might be an opportunity to do so. 

I discovered that the best approach for me was to ‘do less’, this didn’t mean less effort, but rather focus on a single objective, action or word and the main focus for my residency emerged; explore what’s it’s like to have other people tell the Hind Stalking story. This was a huge shift for me and it was a total joy to hand over responsibility for telling, what is for me, a hugely emotive experience.  Having other people hold that narrative created space for me to see what they were interested in, what aspects of the story they wanted to take responsibility for and also the gaps that I could write into. I finally understand how it could work with three performers, I could see my work without me in it, and It looked great.

Being able to observe other artist’s practices was hugely inspiring, the language they used, the detail they were interested in and also how they translated what they needed into exercises with the group. Lots of crossovers started appearing between sessions and there was a real enthusiasm and desire to keep exploring. It was a total delight to see everyone’s sharing at the end of the residency, but also to have an insight into how the pieces emerged throughout the two weeks.  It was a huge privilege to have such a wealth of expertise available during the residency and to feel supported by the room despite my own uncertainty. The Rough Mix process allowed my new work to gradually unfold and reveal itself to me, so even though I didn’t feel ready for Rough Mix, the work was.

[thejennawatt]

Landscaping with Beavers

In June 2019, as part of my artist attachment, I was invited to a take part in a 3 day residency at the Bamff Estate in Perthshire. The focus of the residency was to explore the dynamics between the family of Beavers, which had been reintroduced on the estate, the land and us.

Laura Bissell has written up an excellent summary of the residency, which you can read here.

This residency provided a rare opportunity for me to experience a landscape shaped by Beavers over a number of days and at different times of day. What at first looked like a really unwieldy landscape was quickly put into context as the work of Beavers. This immediately challenged my preconceptions of what a landscape with a keystone species would look like. It looked chaotic. Beavers are conspicuous.

What also became apparent, was that despite their relative shyness, they had set up a dynamic in the landscape that both maintained their privacy and security, but also enabled us intruders to watch them. This, I observed was not unlike the performer / audience dynamic, except instead of your two meter clearance, was a pond, and the pros arch and cyc. was a massive Rhododendron.

This was of huge interest to me. This is a dynamic I understand. This is performative.

In response to this, along with colleagues, we filmed ourselves building a dam and ended up showing the film in the main house in Bamff. But rather than just watch the film, the rest of our colleagues had to stand at a distance from the ipad on which we were sharing the film, and view it through binoculars. So it became less about the film, but the act of observing on terms that were not our own. The frustration at not being able to see properly through binoculars, at not being allowed any closer, at the image being an imperfect composition, at not having the usual performer / audience contract honoured.

Another example of us (me) imposing something inherently anthropocentric on another species.