Evolver 117 - September and October 2020

SOMERSET OPEN STUDIOS 2020 • 9 intensity. For Dudman, exploring this instability was a way of ‘decommodifying’ her practice. A Song for the Woods , using paper cut out haikus, was MAGGIE POWELL’s response to fern shapes and coppiced hazel trees. Sculptor SIMON HITCHENS found an indigenous chert in a field and drew the lines of the shadow it cast as they moved with the passage of the sun. JANETTE KERR, whose subject is usually the sea, put on her walking boots and set off into the forest, recording a visual feast of searing blues of woodland flowers, joyous birdsong and the sound of her feet crunching dried leaves. Moving into her home studio forced KELLY O’BRIEN to reduce the size of her mixed media sculpture. She focused on experimenting with different materials on a small scale, using found delights or sadnesses, a dead bee, in her garden which has made her rethink the insecurities, climate change, poverty and At the SOMERSET RURAL LIFE MUSEUM in Glastonbury SARA DUDMAN and ZOE LI are heading up a project called Somerset Reacquainted . Sixty three Somerset Art Works members will exhibit work revealing how they responded to their local environment and the changing the pace of their lives in isolation. Sara Dudman, who normally travels extensively, was forced to focus on her immediate surroundings. Realising that others were experiencing similar feelings of dislocation she contacted five other artists to ask them to share their responses to their restricted horizons. Each of them contacted five further artists and so the project grew organically. With the imposition of lockdown it was evident how fortunate rural artists were to have access to outside spaces and clean air. For many it brought out the latent poet, others succumbed to the romance of the wild. Observation of nature became an imperative. The realignment of life in a time when the world slowed down initiated sculpture, drawing and a myriad of other visual and aural responses to the reassuring stability of ancient woodland or the exquisite fragility of a broken bird’s egg. Some artists found solace in surrounding themselves with greenness, becoming a still silent observer and listener. Faced with incarceration they moved from their enclosed spaces into their gardens, growing vegetables and immersing themselves in a cycle of planting and growing. MELISSA WISHART started growing seeds on all the windowsills in her house and then graduated to an allotment. Rather than making new things BRONWEN BRADSHAW collected and identified the treasures in front of her, adjusting herself to time slowing and the rhythm of the regular turning of the weeks rather than any imposed schedule. She has been “pondering the past as I plant for the future… rewilding for my grandchildren and the planet”. For LOTTE SCOTT it was a time of extremes: a significant birthday and the winning of a major award, tempered by losing her beloved grandfather and her own illness. Scott’s practice encompasses drawing, 3D and installation and often involves found materials. For her the “gift of time” allied to the location of her isolated rural studio was the catalyst for a developing body of work which is still emerging. A pruned branch from an apple tree from her parent’s garden has accompanied her in the studio. Its presence anchored her, becoming a metaphor for hope and renewal. A fan of foraging, Sara Dudman experimented with making pigments from buttercup petals. She was fascinated by how the pigment changed as it dried or was layered, fugitive one moment and then returning to an incredible level of political instability, of our world. Despite the gloominess of some of her ruminations her resulting small studies are playful and uplifting. Artists are particularly adept at adjusting to circumstances, to thinking on their feet, but for some of these participants, this has been a time of blurred boundaries between work and life. Cancellations and postponements removed the pressure to meet deadlines. The future was unknown, unstructured and they were free to reflect and experiment. The resulting work and anecdotes on the project website are raw and personal, some heartrending, others hopeful for a different future. It will have changed some if not all areas of their practice permanently. Fiona Robinson SOMERSET OPEN STUDIOS 2020 JANETTE KERR SOMERSET REACQUAINTED KELLY O’BRIEN 26 September - 21 November: Somerset Rural Life Museum, Abbey Farm, Chilkwell Street, GLASTONBURY, BA6 8DB. Booking essential: srlm.org.uk. GRA ż YNA WIKIERSKA