Elspeth Penfold: March 2020

Walking Weaves

In the Footsteps of Sheila Hicks.

Promeneur

I belong to the walking artist's network and had been following some lovely insightful pieces posted by fellow members, these were posted on the network with the title: Walking in The Time of Virus. The wonderful thing about belonging to a community of walkers is that it is a supportive group and one idea leads to another.

I started these weaves which I worked on during self-isolation. My initial idea came through the work Promeneur,by Sheila Hicks see image attached. This is a piece I have always loved.

It is a small weaving made on a little portable loom that is made of stretch bars. These were used by Hicks as private expressions or ramblings. Ramblings seems a particularly apt terminology. Hicks has made thousands of these since graduate school.

I made daily small weaves during this period of self-isolation. These reflect walks I had done, walks I missed, imaginary walks, and walks I was looking forward to doing in the future.

A Walk in Wimbledon

26/03/2020

A Walk on Wimbledon Common

27/03/2020

A Walk on Tankerton Beach (remembered)

28/03/2020

You can see more of these and their stories by following this link:

https://elspeth-billie-penfold.com/walking-weaves/

I missed walking with freedom and the time to do as I pleased, this was one way of taking some time to meditatively walk and think through weaving.

Florilegium, A Gathering of Flowers

Walking and creating stories with GOLD project group members .

A window installation at 215 217 Northdown Rd . Margate for POW Thanet 2020.

The installation will be in place for the whole of March.

This project takes its inspiration from Foreligium, a diary shared between communities that are interested in flowers. Floreligium can be translated literally as "a gathering of flowers". It contains scraps of writing, drawing and collage that have been shared amongst the community and those who are new to it. They discuss the discovery of new specimens, the best spots to see a rarity and other fanatical stories.

Our project began with a walk at the Garden Gate in Margate in January led through Thread and Word.

Unravelling a ribbon with a line from the poem Thread and Word written by Cecilia Vicuña.

We walked around the garden and read lines from the poem Hilo y Palabra by Cecilia Vicuña and through walking reading and talking we gathered our ideas.