"Where will you sleep?" people asked, over and over. When, as Artist in Residence for one week at Lacock Abbey, Fox Talbot Photographic Museum & National Trust Village, I installed myself in a tiny wooden dwelling in the grounds, a camera obscura/hermitage/infirmary/shrine/hideway/pop-up studio. You can be our "Sociable Hermit" said Rachael, Visitor Experience Manager. And, so it was, the tiny wooden dwelling, as a camera obscura, usually placed in the front of the abbey, was, just for me and assistant Julie, moved to my favourite hidden away from it all space. The tree lined pond, the location, which the 13th Augustinian nuns would have used to catch fish for their supper. The view across the sheep filled field towards the abbey, was, it was said, also, once upon a time, the place of the infirmary. A space to care for the elderly. That's me, I thought, sagely, and started to move in my travelling museum of possibilities and transform the space daily, to respond to the myself, the people and spirit of place.
"Magical & Moving", said one visitor to my one week only transformed pop-up Camera Obscura, not so much a wooden hut, as a place of refuge, a hermitage/infirmary/studio. "I feel so much better for taking time to sit inside the space, enjoy the quietness of this inside out, upside world" said another. "Free and exploratory...I wish there was an artistic hermit here at Lacock all the time", said a beautiful young girl.A visiting elder lady from Switzerland, had such presence. She reached out to hold my hand and said "Tell me your story"...she went on to say, "I think you have started a way of being here, a place people could come each year, a space in which to take refuge and just be...Would you pray for me", she said, as she left. And so, from the tiny wooden dwelling, located, just for the residency near the old pond, I would make small pilgrimages around the grounds, resting with my book/bag/bundles here and there. Julie Brandstatter was my 'tender' assistant, who served endless cups of tea, whilst Leather Artist, Glen Mason, from Corsham, came to the rescue with making a fabulous book/bag out of found materials, to which I added my drawings, sewing, dolls and bundle offerings. The National Trust staff were brilliant and were hugely supportive. Visitors and collaborating artists, engaged in creative exchange, and participated by photographing me at work, rest and play. A rich archive of portrait photographs were created, in response to spirit of place, people and imagined stories. Thanks to all who participated, documentary photographs taken on my iPhone 4S, yet to be uploaded. Watch this space!
