Elspeth Penfold

Some snippets ( with photos) ' Cabinet '

at Espacio Gallery

Curated by Jenny Timmer

This has been a really interesting exhibition to take part in, with thanks to all the lovely artists involved and, in particular to Jenny Timmer who has selected the work and supervised the install with huge generosity .

Here some photos, if you aren't able to come, at least you can check it out here and who knows, it might give you that little push to drop by!

Jenny Timmer's Tree

I'm not adding names to all the works I have photographed as I am unsure of some of the artists names. There are some I did not get to photograph and wish I had. You can see them all in the link to Espacio Gallery at the end of this blog posting.

I enjoyed spending time with all the work as I invigilated on Tuesday.

Jane Vincent's Canaries

Sam Hodge etchings of found plastics

These watercolours on paper by Whitney Jane Halsted.

The pieces I have shown are representative of the things I make as part of the performative walks I organise through Thread and Word. The walks are collaborative and it is through this process of working together with some wonderful people, places , literature and ideas that my creativity happens. We walk, we think and share our thoughts, we write and share literature. I weave, sometimes as I prepare for the walk ( it is such a mediative process) and often in between walks and after. For more about Thread and Word :ThreadandWord link

For Cabinet I have displayed a little box of ribbons on spools, which contain the lines from the poem Thread and Word written by the Chilean Artist and activist Cecilia Vicuña. This poem and others by the same author has inspired me to connect walking weaving and poetry as a process to think and share with others.

The label Walking Library is courtesy of professor Dee Heddon who has also been an inspiration to me and is well know amongst walking artists.

You are encouraged to handle the ribbons. As in the cabinets of curiosities of old, there isn't a lot to explain the work as this is part of making it a curious object to think about. I'm almost hoping that the ribbons will form some kind of strange weave or crazy knot by Sunday when the exhibition ends.

On the wall above the box is a riso-print of verses, poems, written by fellow walkers who joined me on Sumak Kawsay , a walk for Terminalia. This is a small pocket sized publication of poems which you are encouraged to put in your pocket and take for a walk.

The print was made in collaboration with George Harding at Well_Projects in Margate. The Riso print using soya base inks, with its unique tactile qualities, vibrant colour palette and its unexpected imperfections is a perfect fit for the work I make, which is fairly random and relies on those random chances, and encounters which lead to creating something quite unexpected.