On Saturday 16th November I attended a cross disciplinary study day in Oxford. I booked onto the session because it was at a local venue (for a change), because Katie had set it up to promote cross discipline study days, and to propose setting up a new local group. There were 13 of us, mostly from the textile stream, but there were also photographers and artists.

We started with an introduction from Karen Woodfield fom the South West Group, explaining how their group functions, and to explain how we could set up a new group local to Oxford.

This was followed by an introduction from Katie on her work, how she approaches it, and the materials used. I was inspired by her view of looking at loss: items which have gone but leave an impression.  Much of her work is created using animal products such as pigs intestines. This was fascinating, as I had never considered such items could be used in an artistic context.

Katie became interested in court proceedings and outcomes when she discovered the old records held at Oxford County Court. She was then inspired further by a visit to the museum at Bodmin Jail. Prisoners would unpick ropes sent from the ships in Plymouth, and the resulting Oakum was then mixed with tar to be used as caulking in the ships’ hulls. This inspired Katie to use rope in her work.

Katie then became interested in forensic anthropology and this led her to study the work being carried out identifying bodies in the Bosnian mass graves. This inspired her to create a number of installations representing the people who perished in the war.

We looked at the work of Donald Weber who took sand from the beaches at Dunkirk (site of the D-day landings) and viewed each grain under a microscope. It turned out that some of the grains were actually microscopic pieces of shrapnel. So history lives on in the sand of the beaches at Dunkirk.

We then discussed the development of bio degradable and compostable materials and watched a video of Suzanne Lee, a fashion designer who is working on developing fabrics from bacteria, and which will be compostable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9u_m_QzXSI&t=18s [accessed 22/11/2019]

We then went on to look at a series of artists who Katie had taken inspiration from. I will be investigating each of these in greater detail following this session.

Sejla Kameric

Forensic exhibition at the Wellcome Gallery. In particular an impression of a container used to store bones.

Rebecca D Haries

Exhibition at the Wellcome Gallery. A series of images of the body, embroidered to show bacteria. Interestingly, one image showed a pregnant woman, and her stomach remains clear – no embroidered bacteria!

Luke Jerram

Exhibition at the Wellcome Gallery. A series of glass shapes depicting viruses indicating the temporary and fragile nature of a virus.

Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva

Callaboration with medical science on how and what we eat, and how it affects our wellbeing. She also worked with the Vatican to create an installation showing the passage towards god.

http://elpihv.co.uk/ [accessed 22/11/2019]

Christine Borland

Forensic Architects

A group who work in conflict zones, or areas which have been in conflict previously. Their aim is to identify bodies, mainly those found in mass graves.

The morning concluded with a discussion on how artists can collaborate with scientists to develop better ways of visualizing and communicating scientific concepts.

During the afternoon we worked on creating patterns using lace as a stencil, and water and ink to create the patterns.

Finally, I was very grateful to Katie for the informal conversation I had with her during the coffee break. She inspired me to look at other aspects of photography:

• using light sensitive ink Inkodye Lumi to create images,
• creating cyanotypes
• spraying an item with water to create a negative shadow, photographing the item at intervals to show how the pattern disappears as the water dries
• studying the work of Cornelia Parker.

She inspired me to think in a wider context when creating images.

(Pitt Rivers is an excellent source of inspiration, the Intuite clothes, all biodegradable.)

The day was extremely inspirational for me and I hope we can repeat this type of study day in the future.