Wire Pear
On June 17th I did a practicle workshop exploring themes pertinent to artist Matthew Darbyshireʼs practice and inspired by his new public artwork Hercules Meets Galatea. With museums and collections closed for many months and artists having limited opportunities to show and share artworks, this workshop was designed to consider alternative ways to collect, curate, make and present – from our own home, studio, or college environment.
These sessions were delivered through a series of conversations, creative prompts, practical activities and playful assignments. The group were to test a series of activities and upload images and responses to a shared dropbox. The outcomes will be utilized in the production of a booklet/zine of resources and activities for distribution to a wider audience.
I found items around my studio; a roll of wire, paper and string this led me to the black paper then the wooden balls and the wooden sticks. I then had to lay them out in order of their connection.
I made some fast drawings of the wire, starting out with 3 in a row,
then I did five as quick as I could – after making the drawings, I thought that they looked like wire drawings of pears from above. I then did a single wire drawing of a pear shape. The following day after the workshop I looked at the drawings again, I picked up the armatage wire and decided to turn it into a pear.
I have always loved pears and have photographed pear still lifes.
I have been asked to exhibit one of my pear images which I printed as an albumen print next year (spring 2022) as part of the exhibition ‘Squaring the Circles of Confusion: Neo-Pictorialism in the 21st century’ for the Royal Photographic Society.
My love for pears extend to me growing a couple of different varieties in my garden.
I have a page on pears in the ‘projects’ section titled ‘Pirum’