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Final decisions made on book and exhibition
With the Paston hand-made book nearing completion, four members of InPrint met with Lucy Care, of the Paston Heritage Society, at Annette Rolston’s studio in the Bally Art Factory, Norwich. A variety of prints, plates and pages were available for viewing, and decisions were made on the running order of the book, publicity for the exhibition and practical matters including finance and setting up subsequent exhibitions.
As well as organising the whole project Lucy is also an artist, and has contributed images and a poem to the book. Annette, on whom the burden of printing has largely fallen, also has images in the book, as has InPrint member Joan Murray. Poems from InPrint members Caroline Gilfillan, Lisa D’Onofrio and Tim Lenton are also included.
The main exhibition, at which the book will be on display, is on October 11 and 12 in St Margaret’s Church, Paston. It will be followed by exhibitions at Cromer and Nottingham, and the book will eventually be on display at the Millennium Library in the Forum in Norwich.
The pictures here were taken at the Bally meeting on 14 August and include a few of the prints that will eventually become pages in the book, though not necessarily in their final form.
The selling floor
Studio 24 and Studio 25
Pics of our Studios - Studio 24 (the print room) and Studio 25 (a combined media/writing and arts room) leading into the large store room beyond.
The studios are linked by a contained foyer area, 6' x 6.' Unfortunately these photos don't show the amount of space we have acquired.
There were just two of us in the giant expanse of the factory this morning, rain hammering down. Can't wait to be in the place at night!
The store room is nearly sorted. We're being given work tables and benches, and Annette's flatbed press arrives next Thursday. Now the real work must begin.
Seats in the Factory
Here is one of the many open factory spaces beyond our own art studios. It's a very exciting place and situation. Today I met a sculptor creating a huge Travellers' horse in wood.
We're fast getting our studios together.
The fact that this was a thriving factory will never be lost on me. It's a bloody broken world in which all I can do is break the broken further and then re-make it.
Into Bally!
Via a Thrifty van the foundations of our Bally Factory dreams were set in place today.
The bones of a printroom are already in place. For the first time ever, the present family of 'poetry vending machines' (old fag machines) is together.
Our inner room - a storage room - will actually be the pulsing veins of all we do: half of it will be lined with floor to ceiling shelving (holding power tools, audio-visual equipment and materials - while half this room will be blacked out for filming).
Our largest room is an entire contradiction: half will be a 'dirty' area for construction and the other half will be 'clean' for writing, media and contemplation! Given our collaboration, I dedicate myself to this contradictory application between hammer drills and metaphors!
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This is our 'safe' inner space in a huge factory, once the life blood of Norwich itself, manufacturing shoes, handbags and all; once employing hundreds, if not thousands. The vast factory spaces are exciting and must be used in entirely the same way we've got to use our studios: with utter obsession (to do, to learn, to be).
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Yes, in a sense, I've cajoled other artists into believing in this space. While the best of Universities and Art Schools across the world are "factories of ideas," this is a real factory (however dead-broken), in which we can also broker ideas. We've between 12 and 15 months to realise this Factory.
The Van is hired
Bally Studios...
The van is booked for tomorrow's big move to our Bally
Studios. There are 5 to 7 helping out.
Norfolk has a "quiet lanes" policy, which means the wilderness zones have few sign posts, so navigating our way to a far flung outback will be an interesting aspect of our journey.
A Factory of ideas?
While our studios are primarily to develop InPrint's
collaborative work (projects, performance, PVMs, art works), our
print room will facilitate workshops and the equipment will be
available for hire at a modest rate.
Further to our own studios, there are three very large open and flexible spaces, available to artists in all media. Part of what I want to do is to work with other artists using these spaces.
With studios set up and running, workshops and an array of activities will likely commence from late March. How and what happens - as we jump through the hoops and crash into the barriers - will be reported here.
Just packing up...
Getting ready to go!
InPrint will be residence at the Bally Factory Studios from Thursday January 4. Here I gather tools, equipment and materials...