Time

Time is something we use up in huge quantities in our creative activities. Just as Margaret Charlton has in this piece of artwork, which she kindly gave me recently. I am not sure we always give "time" a philosophical or critical review in relation to what we do or allowing it to inform our artistic practice..

I have just returned from a weekend at Urchfont with masterclass mentor Helen Mastrandeas. "Time" was the theme of the weekend. We explored the theme of time through Art, particularly in relation to textile practice.

We discussed the way that static visual arts such as painting and sculpture have grappled with the problem of how to show a purely sensual and intangible phenomenon in visual terms.

Valerie Constantino suggested that "the greatest strength of art expression in fibre media may be the impermanent quality of textiles.

Turners' famous painting of 1844 depicts the passage of time with the latest interests of the era, whereas in medieval times the passage of time was often depicted by pictures of death and skulls.
Perhaps it could be said that today the emphasis has evolved through the viewers experiences of Action Painting as depicted in Pollocks work and Goldsworthy with his art pieces which uses a natural palette.
The modern understanding of Wabi Sabi has also influenced many modern artists in pursuit of time references. Matthew Harris credits wabi sabi as being central to his work.

We looked at this water butt which sits next to the greenhouse in the grounds of Urchfont Manor.... the recent icy then milder weather has reacted with the water..... the result is beautiful, but fleeting. We used this as a reference for drawing or photographing and our attempts to depict time.

We broke this piece away and took it into the warmth of the studio and watched and recorded the melt. the passage of time.

This is a piece of work left by a member of the Thread Interventionists at Urchfont Manor. It was created in the Summer of 2009, and has survived animal, human and weather interventions and has survived the ravages of time.

A very thought provoking weekend of work and critical thinking.