A Year on the Malverns

 

 

The final year of my degree comprised of a body of work in which I explored the relationship between the journey of a walk and the journey of making. Underpinning the exploration was a year's worth of weekly walks on the Malvern Hills, from Spring Equinox 2011 to Spring Equinox 2012.

 

The walks were documented to inform the work by photographs, written observations and drawings made by walking. These drawings were made by holding a pen lightly on paper and allowing the movement of the body to dictate the marks made. In this way the drawings by-pass the mind, rather like a walking meditation, recording the movement of feet on earth through the movement of hand on page.

 

The final body of work included a series of 52 of these drawings, two large pots made in mixed paperclays, and 52 much smaller fragile porcelain paperclay pots. The large pots have haiku imprinted around the outside, written from the observations whilst walking. They serve to slow the viewer down and closely inspect the detail. The contrast between the large and small pots communicates something of the relationship between deep time and the transience of the moment, which is experienced whilst walking in the landscape.

 

 

 

'Drawing whilst walking'
Pen on paper
'Motion Poetry'
Mixed paperclays + inclusions, imprinted haiku
'Motion Poetry' detail
Haiku imprinted in clay
'Motion Poetry' Detail
Haiku imprinted in clay
'Drawing whilst walking'
Pen on paper
'Motion Poetry'
Mixed paperclays + inclusions, imprinted haiku
'Moments'
52 small porcelain paperclay pots

Copyright © 2014 Anna Mitchell.  All Rights Reserved. info@creativeclay.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anna Mitchell Creative Clay