It is happening!
Week 1 at River Bourne Farm;
I moved in the sheep shed, field 3, and started officially as the farm artist in residence on Monday 4Th of April. It has been a long ride already as I came to speak to the farm about the project in May last year.
Since, I have been working on funding applications and have been developing ideas with many partners, friends, artists... I am now delighted to be on site and started with a week of heavy duty clearance of the site around the shed. For those of you who are not yet familiar with the project, here is a little background info and an invite to get involved in the shaping, thinking, clearing, ...whatever you wish. I will be based at the farm for a period of one year during which I will be making a large Sculpture/installation from the sheep fleece gathered at the farm. The idea started one morning , two years ago, when I arrived at my studio, based on ex-military grounds, to discover 1000 sheep grazing on the surrounding field. I then wished to create a large piece with the fleece. A Thousand sheep will involve many people in the making of a large piece of a contemporary art work as I am hoping to gather and process the fleece from 100 sheep. I will start washing the fleece and prepare it for dying at the shed from April 11th and would welcome any volunteers from all ages to come and take part, view, guide or question the process. As the work evolves, I will reveal the deeper meanings of the work.
I will also run workshops in schools to explore all the different use we could make of sheep fleece as an art material. This blog will be a diary for the project but is also a platform for you all to feed in. You can send comments, ideas, concerns and questions. I will post dates for hands-on days which will also be advertised in the farm newsletter.
The purpose of the residency is also to assess the potential of having a resident artist in the place on a long term basis and develop more art at the farm so you can feed any thoughts and ideas on this as well. I look forward to develop this project with you
Great! look forward to following your progress and maybe making a visit sometime! Good luck and enjoy it all.
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