Tutorial 13/11/18 with Jill

 I showed Jill my latest concertina sketchbook – Ford Machinists. I’d done a sketchbook class at West Dean College and created artwork about Ford and the Scamp Inquiry conclusion ‘Women’s skill and dexterity was significantly under-valued’, which I’d overwritten and obscured with production line seat imagery.  I can see this being the basis for the border on the next sampler – the meandering line could be interpreted as a production line!

We discussed my first draft of The Thinking Skill of Making. Good starting point – now to read about: Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project; Steven Scrivener, Cognitive Surprise; Donald Schon, the double loop of learning; Linda Candy, the transformative spiral of research.  Amend what I’ve done, plus another 3,000 words by next tutorial.

We debated the identity of the artist.  I’ve recently moved from seeing myself as a student (where work of variable quality and mistakes are tolerated because one is still learning), to being an artist because my art is based in robust, deep thinking and failures are part of the cycle of making.  Jill sees me as an artist because my own voice is visible in the art; there is mature practice; and it is not borrowed from other artists.

We discussed location of my MA show.  Lanchester Gallery will be out of commission by next September, and the Lanchester Library told me they expect all their spare rooms to be accommodating clerical staff during renovations.  I could approach the Doctoral College for a room at Elm Bank, but felt the Herbert Art Gallery was a better venue.  I’ve had my samplers selected for exhibition at Dundas St Gallery, Edinburgh and Laura I Gallery, Barking, and I want to continue exhibiting to a wider audience. We discussed how selection by independent galleries validates your work in a much more significant way than putting on a group show with friends.  A public venue at a respected institution for a solo show is part of my personal development.  Scary but the next step.  Jill said Imogen had gained funding for an exhibition about Home with the Herbert Art Gallery, and was building relationships with them.  While it is my responsibility to organise the room (one week in September 2019),  Imogen has the relationship and more influence.

I said I was going to the National Archive at Kew to investigate The Scamp Inquiry report about the 1968 Ford strike by machinists.  I am looking for punchy quotes about how Ford treated their women employees, aiming to create artwork from it.

We also discussed Jill’s impending retirement/change of contract. We both anticipated hiccups with access to IT, and agreed Imogen should become my Director of Studies to ensure continuity with IT, while their roles remain largely as they are now.

Actions:

CMT to amend The Thinking Skill of Making (first 3,000 words) plus another 3,000 on next two samplers. 

IR to advise on who is best to approach the Herbert Art Gallery about space.

Date of next tutorials: 

Wednesday 1230 28/11 – JJ; 

Wednesday 1400 12/12/18 – JJ, IR cross faculty party plus tutorial (time?)