Quipucamayo

A new work, from my walking as research and using ropes to record memory. 

This week i am making connections, from further reading and a visit to the Rauschenberg exhibition at the Tate Modern.

A Pole storing the cords from one of my walks

Khipu cords are paths guiding the hand, eye and mind to the trans-temporal source of things

From further reading, the  concept is not uniquely Andean.

Further evidence cited of recording  and storing information on a cord:

Herodotus mentions one in use during the Persian Wars.
New Mexico Pueblos
The Ryukun Islands
Hawaii

Furthermore, a biblical reference:
Numbers15: 37 - 38
Prescribes knotted fringes as a vector of memory.

Connection with Robert Rauschenberg:

I visited the Rauschenberg exhibition at the Tate Modern this week,. As I made my piece QUIPUCAMAYO  and  my ideas, developed, it felt very connected with  Rauschenberg's central occupation from the 1980's and beyond  using art as a tool for the promotion of intercultural dialogue. 

for more about the Rauschenberg exhibition

Looking forward:

I will be organising two new walks in the new year, in London and Margate. The walks are an opportunity to openly and collaboratively engage in sited poetry readings and interventions. I will be posting more information in January. Please get in touch if you would like to take part in planning and taking part in either of  these walks.

The Art of Putting Information on a String

I am delighted to have had my piece "Quipu" chosen  by The Artists Pool, to be included as a part of the exhibition titled " Threads "at Espacio Gallery in March 2017 .

In connection with this piece, I will also be organising a walk which will include, poetry readings drawing and walking books. If you would like to take part please do get in touch. The walks are informal , easy going and fun. There is more information about my walking practice in previous blog posts,

This walk will take place from Espacio Gallery on the Bethnall Green Rd. to various sites along the route of Sculpture in the City.I will be sending out more information in the New year,

There is more information about my walking practice in previous blog posts, as well as in the link included below:

for more about how the project is developing

The Twisting Paths of Recall 

Memories of A Walk for Armistice Day : a collaborative walk between the Coventry participants from the Mead Gallery Warwick and A Journey with The Waste Land, at the Turner Contemporary in Margate.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          The stages in the development of a Khipu -memories and cord .

Spirals hand made thinking about the haptic.

                                                                 

   " The weaver is both weaving and writing a text that the community can read.

Cecilia Vicuna - 'Word and Thread'

Experimenting with knits and colour

" An ancient textile is an alphabet of knots, colors and directions that we can no longer read."

Colour and spaces and the meanings imbued in textiles

our walking group prepares to leave

our collection of ropes at the end of the walk

one walker's rope and knots

Testing ideas for a Khipu   a - n .co.uk

ropes and knots  made by walkers recording the experience

A Walk for Armistice day

An Introduction.

The Coventry participants from the Mead Gallery in the A Journey with The Waste Land Project joined the Walking with The Waste Land group on November 9th, for a walk . We started at the Turner Contemporary in Margate and collaborated on a memorable walk. It was a great experience and fulfilled all my expectations. We have made new friends and look forward to future collaborations in the process.

This walk took as its. form a  'derive' :'http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/2.derive.htm.

 It gave us the opportunity to continue to use walking as a tool to engage with the poem, the exhibition process and our own responses to spaces and places making personal connections with the poem. It is so exciting to see how the process of walking and talking unfolds as thoughts and ideas emerge from within the group.

 I have tried to capture some of the moments here.

Gathering thoughts:

I decided in this walk to make ropes for the walking group For an explanation about ropes and their use in my walking practice please go to the following link:

 https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6772592054933988824#editor/target=post;postID=8017345092652900437;onPublishedMenu=editor;onClosedMenu=editor;postNum=2;src=link

I wanted to use this opportunity to play with ideas about space and how the gaps between might affect where we place memory knots

Preparing for the walk making ropes, placing colourful threads which could influence where knots are placed.

I am now playing with the ropes to make a Quipu to record the experience and will post once finished.

Readings and Sites

1. TS Eliot's Epigraph, Judy Dermott, Turner Contemporary

           "With my own eyes I saw the Sybil of Cumae hanging in a bottle; and when 

             the boys said to her: Sybil, what do you want? She replied: 'I want to die' ".

             for Ezra Pound

             the better craftsman.



2. mappa mundi  ( with kind permission, Sonia Overall- The Art of Walking) , Billie, at the Turner Contemporary.

photograph Elspeth (Billie) Penfold

Begin wherever the arrow falls

              you may need chalk to mark perimeters
                                   where land and sea meet

borders are not barriers to progress

   but stepping on cracks is as crossing continents
                (they do things differently there)

crossroads are perfect places to loiter
and bargain for wares, souls or melodies


but beware deep woods, wolves, witches in trees
ditches where bodies may roll, bandits, brothers who
                                                                 prove false,
              lovers likewise, and be sure never to take the


left hand fork

skirt about the hems of lakes
avoid dipping toes in rivers
never board a boat with blackened sails
block your ears when the singing begins
                 
                                                                         but walk:walk until you meet a man
                                                                                who asks questions of your oars
                                                                                                                    your eyes
                                                                                                       or your intentions

and stop there.

3. At Fort Hill - reading Billie - (referencing one of our early walks last year, returning from Jan and Ian's after a cup of tea.)

'Who is the third who walks always beside you?
When I count, there are only you and I together
but when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another one walking beside you
Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded
I do not know whether a man or a woman
- But who is that on the other side of you?'

The Waste Land, TS Eliot









4. Margate Yacht Club, a reminder of one of our early meetings reading The Waste Land and where The Reading group, led by Ian meet once a month.

    5. The Old Kent Market- where Judy Dermott shared 'The Eliot's go to the Cinema.'










6.ThePieFactoryhttp://piefactorymargate.co.uk/exhibition/dawn-cole-johanna-love-monica-petzal

Where Karen Parker  shared her father's memory as a Fire Warden during the Coventry bombings.
http://wasteland.onsocialengine.com/post/5786693/karen-parkers-piece-shared-on-our-walk-a-walk-for-armistice-day

7. Margate Museum - a reminder of one of our early meetings and reading of the Fire Sermon, a treasure trove, exploring artefacts and files recording Eliot's time in Margate. Thank you for such a great reception/

8. Tudor House 

9. Trinity Square reading by Billie - How TS Eliot found inspiration at Margate " (Bernard Ginns 'The Guardian' 7 May 2008)                                                                                                Margate, said Mr Seabrook, was important enough to merit a mention "which is something in itself" England then was in the middle of the social, economic and psychological aftermath of the First World War ' At the time he was there, there would have been some war veterans selling paper poppies in the weeks leading up to the first national poppy day on November 1st 1921' said Mr Seabrook ' He would have seen disabled veterans and people blinded, limbs amputated and all sorts- I think you can speculate on this, He would have been in proximity to them and the residents of Margate.'

10. The Winter Gardens

An uplifting reading by Kieth Grossmith of his poem:

           Near, bright stars.

We did as the ancients
And played dot to dot
With the stars
Making pictures on
A black canvas
Gazing at night, subdued in Her softness.

And as we kindled in the fresh grass, We whispered, though no one else existed.
Feint words are truer in love than soliloquies devotions.

You smelled of little laughs and escape
And I breathed to the expanse,
Because I owned this World. 

Oooh, that feel of slender fingers, smooth and soft at my nape, drew pictures in soft figures of eight.
And then, erased by teasing fingernails before another masterpiece of lines.

Do you remember the sigh of the sea scrambling silently for the sands?
Do you recall that time?
We heard their conversation just before they kissed and witnessed their gifts betwixt seashells and spray and utter solitude;

Shadows beneath the moon, colours of laughter,
Moulding forms in the warm, summer air,
with no care for others.
Selfish. Alone.
The selfishness of lovers at the near shore.

K.Grossmith.

28/10/2016.

Finally

Julia Riddiough's thought on a previous walk, with thanks:

Julia's Rope

Walking Memories

Camaraderie, Mindfulness, Interaction, Investigation, Listening, Looking & Connecting!

If you would like to join us on future walks please contact me.

Fragments and thoughts : sited poetry readings. Photography courtesy Jennifer Deakin.

 To the Garden: A Walk and Talk Through Time and the Seasons with TS Eliot -

To be conscious is not to be in time

But only in time can the moment in the rose-garden,

The moment in the arbour where the rain beat,

The moment in the draughty church at smokefall

Be remembered; involved with past and future.

Only through time time is conquered.

  - T.S. Eliot, Burnt Norton

Reading from Sonia Overall"s "The Art of Walking"

in the rain / departure

leaving, door wedged open

water pooling, you step into the rain

filaments of longing curling

like burnt hairs

you turn up your collar                        

  (Sonia Overall,  The Art of Walking , 2015)

Trish Scott, Research Curator, Reading from "Burnt Norton"

"Quick, said the bird, find them, find them,          Round the corner. Through the first gate,

Into our first world, shall we follow

The deception of the thrush? Into our first world.

There they were, dignified, invisible,

Moving without pressure, over the dead leaves,

In the autumn heat, through the vibrant air,

And the bird called, in response to

The unheard music hidden in the shrubbery,

And the unseen eyebeam crossed, for the roses

Had the look of flowers that are looked at

There they were as our guests, accepted and accepting." (Burnt Norton, TS Eliot)

Patrick Seery, Walking with the Waste Land Group contributor,
Reading from "Burnt Norton"

"Garlic and sapphires in the mud                    

Clot the bedded axle-tree.

The trilling wire in the blood

Sings below inveterate scars

Appeasing long forgotten wars.

The dance along the artery

The circulation of the lymph

Are figured in the drift of stars

Ascend to summer in the tree

We move above the moving tree

In light upon the figured leaf

And hear upon the sodden floor

Below, the boarhound and the boar

Pursue their pattern as before

But reconciled among the stars.

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;

Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,

But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,

Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,

Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,

There would be no dance, and there is only the dance." ("Burnt Norton" TS Eliot)

Diana Lane, Walking with the Waste Land group contributor,
Reading from "Burnt Norton"

"To be conscious is not to be in time                  

But only in time can the moment in the rose-garden,

The moment in the arbour where the rain beat,

The moment in the draughty church at smokefall

Be remembered; involved with past and future.

Only through time time is conquered.

III

Here is a place of disaffection

Time before and time after

In a dim light: neither daylight

Investing form with lucid stillness

Turning shadow into transient beauty

Wtih slow rotation suggesting permanence

Nor darkness to purify the soul

Emptying the sensual with deprivation

Cleansing affection from the temporal.                       

Neither plentitude nor vacancy. Only a flicker

Over the strained time-ridden faces

Distracted from distraction by distraction

Filled with fancies and empty of meaning

Tumid apathy with no concentration

Men and bits of paper, whirled by the cold wind

That blows before and after time,

Wind in and out of unwholesome lungs

('Burnt Norton" TS Eliot)Time before and time after."

Final reading from Burnt Norton

        " The detail of the pattern is movement,            

As in the figure of the ten stairs.

Desire itself is movement

Not in itself desirable;

Love is itself unmoving,

Only the cause and end of movement,

Timeless, and undesiring

Except in the aspect of time

Caught in the form of limitation

Between un-being and being.

Sudden in a shaft of sunlight

Even while the dust moves

There rises the hidden laughter

Of children in the foliage

Quick now, here, now, always-

Ridiculous the waste sad time

Stretching before and after."
("Burnt Norton" TS Eliot)

Rotating our Walking books at the Walpole Bay Shelter

"All The Leaves Are Brown/Cliftonville Dreamin'," Julia Riddiough

"Margate at 9 Years Old", Keith Grossmith

Fragments and thoughts, an explanation and an introduction to my use of  Quipus, Ropes and Knots as a way of documenting the walks: To the Garden: A Walk and Talk Through Time and the Seasons with TS Eliot -

Textiles

"Textiles constitute an area in which socioeconomic codes, aspirations and desires unfold and are renegotiated. Together textiles write history and textile techniques provide us with models upon which to pin ideas and knowledge." 
(TEXTILE SUBTEXTS CURATOR Bella Rune

Artist and Professor of Textiles at Konstfack)

With this in mind the use of textiles in documenting the walks is an important part of my art practice.

 For more about my background

and how

textiles

relate

to

my work:

http://www.textilearts.net/artspace/epenfold.php

"Provenance" 2015, maps, wool. bolivian sack on easel.

Quipus 

The Quipu  is a quechua word for knot and was used by the Incas primarily for record keeping and sending messages by runner throughout the empire. There were several "quipucamayus" or qupiu keepers in each village. 

The complex knotting system of coloured threads  created a tiered system of meaning and a unique literature. Research into the literary quipu is still in its infancy. 

These are a few of the  works I and others have made trying to capture memories as part of the walks through symbolic threads and knots. Each of the ropes has been made at the request of a walker who has attended one of the  walks.

 Quipu,To the Garden Gate, walk as a part of the Chelsea Fringe 2016

A quipu developed during my residency at Sun Pier House, Chatham in August 2016

A Quipu of our walk on July 17th for Writing Buildings

Ropes made for The Margate Festival event : A Clifftop Wander 2016

Ropes resquested for The Falling Leaves Festival 2016,

A Walk and Talk Through Time and the Seasons with TS Eliot

named ropes

1. Margaret's  memory for A Cliff Top Wander, part of the Margate Festival 2016.
   

   
   

   
   

Fragments and thoughts, a performance "All the Leaves are Brown/Cliftonville Dreamin" by kind permission of Julia Riddiough: 

To the Garden: A Walk and Talk Through Time and the Seasons with TS Eliot -

Fallen Leaves Festival Garden Gate 2016

All The Leaves Are Brown/Cliftonville Dreamin’

All the leaves are brown

All the leaves are brown

And the sky is grey

And the sky is grey

I've been for a walk

I've been for a walk

On a winter's day

On a winter's day

I'd be safe and warm

I'd be safe and warm

If there was only a way

If I there was only a way

Cliftonville dreamin'

Cliftonville dreamin'

On such a winter's day

Stopped into a church

I passed along the way

Well, I got down on my knees

Got down on my knees

And I pretend to pray

I pretend to pray

You know the preacher likes the cold

Preacher likes the cold

He knows I'm gonna stay

Knows I'm gonna stay

Cliftonville dreamin'

Cliftonville dreamin'

On such a winter's day

All the leaves are brown

All the leaves are brown

And the sky is grey

And the sky is grey

I've been for a walk

I've been for a walk

On a winter's day

On a winter's day

If I didn't tell her

If I didn't tell her

I could leave today

I could leave today

Cliftonville dreamin'

Cliftonville dreamin'

On such a winter's day

Cliftonville dreamin’

On such a winter's day

Cliftonville dreamin’

On such a winter's day

Notes

‘California Dreamin’ is a song written by John Phillips and Michelle Phillips and the best known version is by The Mamas & the Papas, who released it as a single in 1965. The song is #89 in Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song became a signpost of the California myth and the arrival of the counterculture era.

Bio

Julia Riddiough is a Margate based artist with an active interest in exploring and investigating the archive, looking at the space between fact and fiction. She creates vivid film and photographic essays, often using found imagery as source material edited and reframed, exhibiting internationally. Julia is the founder of A Brooks Art, which began as a not-for-profit artists' led gallery and has evolved into an itinerant space for engagement and action. A Brooks Art believes art holds the key to unlocking the collective imagination and engaging our society. Described as truly provocative and meaningful, we showcase the value of art and the role it can play in transforming lives. 

Contact

Julia Riddiough

www.juliariddiough.com

www.abrooksart.com

@juliariddiough

Fragments and thoughts, an explanation and an introduction to our "walking books": To the Garden: A Walk and Talk Through Time and the Seasons with TS Eliot -

Our  walk on Saturday included some sited poetry readings, as well as some activities that made connections with rhythm, rhyme, memory and walking. We invited selected contacts who have participated in the process during the last year of our walks to be "Walking Books". The idea was that  participants who were invited on our walk on October 8th,  could book a time slot of 10 minutes to walk with a "walking book" and find out about their work and how it linked to our walking project . 

A big thank you to our "Walking Books", who took a leap of faith and joined us on the day.

One of our "Walking Books" has blogged about her participation in the project, http://missbtakesawalk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/a-walk-with-mr-eliot-in-margate-8th.html

thank you Tina.

Our Reading List                                

Walking Books - booking list.

‘A Journey with The Waste Land’

Trish Scott

Trish Scott is the Research Curator at Turner Contemporary, and is working with 30 volunteers to co-curate the gallery's first major exhibition of 2018, A Journey with The Waste Land, which explores the connections between T.S Eliot's poem The Waste Land, partly written in Margate, and the visual arts. With a background in both social anthropology and fine art Trish is interested in the dynamics of collaborative working and her doctoral research examines the intersection of social encounters, narrative formation and authorship. 

‘Shoulder to Shoulder – tales of the Broadstairs Town Shed’

Claire Shelton

My name is Claire Shelton and I have been involved with the Shed project since 2014. I’m project manager, fund raiser, community liaison, and day to day co-ordinator. I moved to Thanet with my husband and 3 children in 2013 and love the location, people and community spirit. Prior to our move I worked for an East London borough as a project manager and grant advisor to local community groups.

‘Walking in the City of London with T S Eliot’

Tina Baxter

Tina Baxter qualified as a City of London Guide in 2012 (ITG Green Badge). It was never the intention to be her full-time occupation but fate conspired it to be so, and the last four years have proved it was the right decision. Her guiding business is called Miss B Takes a Walk, and she now cuts a dashing 1940s silhouette through the streets of the City.

The City of London has much to offer in its 2000 years of history, so the walks Tina creates are wide-ranging, including Medieval and Tudor Walks, as well as lost rivers, feasting and fasting, gardens and architecture, foreshore explorations and women through time.  There are also walks about two great poets, Chaucer and a favourite, T S Eliot’s and The Wasteland.  A poem much influenced by Mr Eliot’s time working in the City at Lloyd's of London, the churches in particular and River Thames especially.

Tina is involved in several guiding committees and volunteers with Friends of City Gardens, there are 200 green spaces to take care of in the Square Mile! She is also a Freeman of the City of London, which grants her permission to drive sheep over London Bridge.  Tina is also a partner in the Georgian DiningAcademy, which involves suppers in historical buildings which evoke the fun and frivolity of that era. Talks also feature in MissB’s repertoire, Mrs Beeton – her life and times, and a new talk venture ‘GIN!’.

‘Experiential Research, Materials and Spaces’

Catherine Richardson 

With an art college background, followed by studies in literature and medieval and early modern culture and society, I work on the history of material culture – how the physical world shaped and was shaped by people’s actions, interests and beliefs. I use literary and dramatic texts alongside quantitative and qualitative research into historical documents such as court depositions and probate materials to investigate the meaning and significance of early modern materiality. Studying material culture often necessitates working with individuals with other kinds of disciplinary skills, and I’ve become increasingly interested in practical and experimental approaches to understanding the things and spaces of the past. Last month I tried my hand at butter-making, and this month it’s walking! I’ve written about the experience of living in early modern houses, about dress and textiles, and lots about early modern drama including Shakespeare. 

There is more about all of this here: http://www.kent.ac.uk/english/staff/richardson.html

‘Park Life’

Paul Boyce  (only available for booking from Cliftonville Library)

I was born 1962, my parents moved to Thanet in 1963 and I have lived here ever since.  During this time I have worked in various residential special schools, been self employed as a landscape gardener and currently run a community garden in Northdown Park, The Garden Gate Project…

for more about The Garden Gate:http://www.thegardengateproject.co.uk/

‘Here, There, Now and Then: Seeking the Self Through Space, Place, Time and Tides’

Louisa Love

Louisa Love is a Kent-based contemporary artist operating across sculpture, film, writing, research, walking, organisation and social/collaborative activity. She is interested in the nature and pluralities of artistic production, exploring the complex relationships between things, thoughts, knowledges and different modes of doing as a consideration of identity and the negotiation of self within the contemporary world. Experimental processes of drift and psychogeography often inform her work.

Having recently completed a two-year WW1-inspired commemorative project in conjunction with East Kent’s ex-miners community, Louisa’s current work takes a particular interest in exploring this question of identity through narrative connections to space, place, heritage and community.

Louisa works closely with artist-run organisation Dover Arts Development (DAD) to bring cultural/artistic activity to Dover, where she was raised and currently has her studio. She has a BA in Fine Art from University for the Creative Arts Canterbury and has been involved in various collaborative projects/initiatives across South/East Kent, including Collaborative Research Group, a post-academic research and education programme based at CRATE in Margate 2013 - 2015.

‘The Art of Walking’

Sonia Overall

Sonia Overall writes fiction and poetry. She has a strong interest in psychogeography and site-specific writing, form, intertextuality and performance-based approaches to text. Sonia has written and abridged work for street theatre and has published two novels, A Likeness and The Realm of Shells (HarperPerennial) and a chapbook of poetry, The Art of Walking (Shearsman). Sonia is the founder of Women Who Walk, a network of women using walking in their creative and academic practice. 

www.soniaoverall.net  

www.women-who-walk.org #soniaoverall   #womenwhowalknet 

Fragments and thoughts, Poetry by Keith Grossmith, from: To the Garden: A Walk and Talk Through Time and the Seasons with TS Eliot -

Thank you to all who participated in To the Garden: A Walk and Talk Through Time and the Seasons with TS Eliot - I have decided to share some of the experiences from the walk on my blog. For more about the walk, please check through past postings.. 

MARGATE AT 9 YEARS OLD.                                    

Underneath the sundeck
A freckled evening sky
Near where the patient Coxswain gazes
Up from the Bali Hai
Across from where our Eliot
Disjoined the untiring shore
The wild and migrating waves
Ripple evermore
To see the dappling orange
Kiss the harbour wall
Hear the laps of Mermen aye
I have witnessed all
I have seen the gilded seahorses
Bridled grace and shy
Carriage mermaids with their sanding hair
And sea green emerald eyes
Been witness to the marvel
Of Amphitrite’s’ calm and swell
On Margate’s sand have heard her call
Yes and then heard her tell
How ancient sailors married
Their salient souls with sea
Sang shanties at the high squall
With white horses on the breeze
Of salt and chalk and thunder
Of sweat and rum and sun
Of lusty girls in far off lands
And war and death and guns
How they have loved another place
Beyond the ancient pier
Beyond the browning harbour arm
On oceans topaz clear
How they cupped their hands at noontime
To squint the narwhale swim
And dread them with the beauty
To hear her deathly sirens sing
When they dined on beer and herrings
Befriended albatross and shark
Made heave ho with the land ho rope
After the silent iron dark
While underneath the sundeck
We have played our games with sand
Built castles at the shoreline
To protect our fragile land
Paddled in the ancient rock pool
Searched with yearning eyes
Reaching for those other worlds
Beneath evening Satsuma skies
I have read some sea tales
In chalk upon the wall
Watched in awe at 9 years old
Of love messages enthralled
Heard clacking of ha’penny bandits
Kiss-me-quicks and candy floss
The lure and sheen of arcade machines
And the litany of gloss
I have marvelled at the jolly boys
Of the rockers mods and skins
I have watched half naked drunks
Desperate for the swim
At the promenade by Arlington
Pink cheeks rubber ring bellies
Ravenous for the sea food
Of cockles and mussels in jelly
I have been into my dreamland
Seen it with my childish eyes
Of the double wheel and scenic rail
Travailing Margate skies
Experienced the fear of halcyon years
Of young lovers lustful graze
Lessened by an innocence
I too have been amazed
For I have loved this playground
Walked through the living place
Been witness to the morning smile
And evening sunshine on her face.

Keith Grossmith 2016

For more about the walk, please check through past postings. More can also be found at:http://wasteland.onsocialengine.com/categories/23679/walking-group

Workshop at The Garden Friday October 7th

                     "Poetry in Motion"

Painted frames drying

Sharon getting the mix right

A hive of activity

getting the succulents in place

The Team

Thank you!