A   Refracted  View                  

This is a project sharing local stories for The Margate Bookie as part of Estuary 2021.

Our focus is sustainability, environmental and social. Our project's ambition is to enact creative practices that move accessibility beyond how people navigate space and to recognise that universal access gives us a strong aesthetic that enriches all of our lives.

Local artists and the members of the Scrap Store @EKM, in Ramsgate, will co-create experiences that engage with their immediate surroundings. We will consider where we live, how we live and how we might live. These stories will be brought to life through A Refracted View.

So, why refracted? 

An image becomes refracted when light travelling in waves hits another medium, like water. This slows down its progress. Its natural inclination is to find the shortest route, diagonally through one medium to another which creates a different image. The most straightforward example of this is to half fill a glass with water and to stand a pencil in it, and then to look at it sideways. The pencil will appear fractured just above the waterline.

Our project, A Refracted View, presents different perspectives, new ways of looking at things. Our ambition is to disrupt socially constructed ideas of normality, excellence, and productivity.

How do we intend to do this?

We will trigger ideas using walking and thinking through craft. We will share our plans with you through regular podcasts. 

We hope to tinker with our imaginations to create new approaches by working together and engaging with our environment. Our materials will be people ( our artists and the East Kent Mencap members), places (Margate, Ramsgate, Broadstairs, Canterbury, Whitstable and Tankerton) and their stories crafted through a creative deck of walking prompts and flags signaling new directions and possibilities.

You can follow us and our podcast :

https://www.facebook.com/ThreadandWord

https://www.estuaryfestival.com/associated-programme.html

Our artists: Sharon Cavalier, Virginia Fitch, Amy Johnson, Diana Lane, Phoebe McIndoe, Sonia Overall, Elspeth Penfold.

 

A Different LENS

 A Different Lens is a collaborative project produced by the arts group Thread and Word for the Margate Bookie. Our journey starts with nine participating Kent based artists who have created material for an interactive digital map of stories with a focus on Margate and wider locations along the Kent Estuary. 

 

 

 

The first edition, entries to the map, include literary references to Thurber, James Joyce, Homer, Borges, Milton and Galileo. The artists use visual references that connect literature with personal responses to chosen locations.

 

Each artists has chosen a book, short story or a poem written by someone who is or became blind or visually impaired during their lifetime and introduce their writing to us through a creative engagement with storytelling referencing place.

The project connects with how we develop creative ideas to make the inaccessible accessible.

 

The map contains a strong audio presence as well as digitalised text and images. Listening to the audio without scrolling the images is a great way of enjoying  the experience without the distraction of reading text and looking at images.

If you are walking in Margate we hope that A Different LENS will  prompt you to engage with your surroundings through listening, providing a different experience as you might be engaging with familiar locations in a different way.

The mobile web app  contains surprise elements and hidden entries that are revealed if you are walking in Margate using your mobile, as the web app of the map links to gps. You must remember to switch the gps on for your phone if you are walking using the map and follow the safety guidelines.

The map is accessible on phones as a walk or on a laptop if you are unable to physically engage in the walk. The laptop experience also connects to gps and can take you on a virtual visit to Margate in an unexpected way. If you scroll through the links you are given insights through text, photos, sound and video which  show you the  locations and how these connect with memories, books and places.  

 

The map has an information page with full details :

You can visit the map and  find out more about the artists , locations and choices of authors  on the Thread and Word website: 

 

https://elspeth-billie-penfold.com/a_different_lens/

The vision is for a literary map that is going to develop with time throughout The Kent Estuary. Our next stage for the map will be to include entries by new artists and community members from East Kent Mencap, GOLD for Margate NOW 2020.

Please find information about how to participate through our virtual walks on a Sunday with #distancedrift and Margate NOW here:

#DistanceDrift 

 

We hope you enjoy following our journey!

 

Milestones

20 Weaves of 20 walks, real and imagined, during COVID19

Promeneur

started  27/03/20

Here the first 10

April

to Mick's Post

Hope springs eternal

the rythm of a walk

Desire Lines

A Derive

The Common

Tankerton

a question of time

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.

1. 
   
2. 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.

We made rope.

             

We created

This was followed by fortnightly workshops at GOLD led by local artists. The members of GOLD projects experimented with techniques and  materials.

Fab display boxes made by George Harding and Georgia May Jaeckle

Some careful curation in March

A celebration  

We hope you have time to visit!

A project delivered through Well Projects and GOLD Project  in Margate supported by POW Thanet 

Welcome to the LV21

Let's Take a Moment : A Walk for Reflect; Arts and Minds, Gravesend, Kent.

produced through Thread and Word

October 11th , 12th and 13th

 3pm meet @LV21, an arts and performance venue on a Light Ship, moored  at St Andrew quay, Gravesend.

This is a walk involving benches, the coast, memory and ritual .

The walk will take approximately one hour and is mostly on flat terrain.

Introduction


Those of you who have visited my studio looking out at the sea over Tankerton slopes near Whitstable know that there are many benches along the slopes above the beach  huts looking out to the sea. These give people the opportunity to create memorials for loved ones and also a place to take time to sit and stare at the sea. I have always been fascinated by these benches placed at regular intervals along the slope. So, when the call out came to take part in Reflect:Arts and Minds in Gravesend I jumped at the chance to be able to  create a temporary installation on a bench as a shrine or memorial in response to this event .

A vara

We will be walking from the LV21 to the bench I have been allocated in Promenade Gardens. The installation of the bench will take place on Friday October 11th. We then invite you to walk with us on Saturday October 12th and Sunday October 13th at 3 pm. to celebrate coastal living and what the sea means to you through  Reflect: arts and minds in Gravesham.

 I will be delivering this walk through the arts group Thread and Word which I set up in 2014 . This group invites artists to collaborate in walking performative events. These walks also give participants the opportunity to record their feelings as they walk  through a meditative knotting of ropes which are attached to a pole called a Vara at the end of the walk, to record the event.

We will be walking, with Thread and Word to celebrate all thing coastal in Gravesend, reflecting on what the sea means to us.

Anna Bowman

The artists joining this walk and offering poetry, performance and their own response to Let's Take a Moment are:

 A. Bowman, L. Claire, V. Fitch J. Mckay, S. McClymont, C. Lovey,  O. Lowery, S. Overall,  E. Penfold, J. Riddiough, L. Shawyer. 

Anna Bowman is sharing a personal anecdote of trips to the seaside as a child. She is also a talented film maker and photographer and will be photographing the event.

Anna Bowman

A plaque for our bench 

Lucy Claire is a composer and musician who works with soundscapes and will be collaborating with the group to create a  soundscape of the walk. This will be available to download . The piece will commemorate our walk through a plaque on the bench in Promenade Gardenswith a qr code linking it to the soundscape.

 "Soundscapes can transport the listener from one environment to another. Listening to a soundscape can calm the mind and encourage time for reflection. Let’s Take A Moment is a sound world reflection of a collection of poetry by Owen Lowery that focuses specifically on the coast and shoreline from With the fisherwomen of Nairn to the Mediterranean horizon of Pathos Sunset. I worked with sounds from the shore, the harbour, the hissing and sucking of the shore, the heady buzz of insects and the rhythmical sploshes of oars moving in and out of the water to bring another dimension to Owen’s words and help transport the listener from one place to another. "

Lucy Claire










Virginia Fitch will be reading a well know poem by Shelley to help us on our way.



Julia Riddiough is sharing two pieces, 'Windmills of my Mind' connecting with the story of the area with links to Don Quixote and his own inner daemons . Laura Shawyer will be enacting her second piece 'A Gesture of Harmony' a ritual devised by Julia using Palo Santo oil connected with well being, meditation and enacted through the holding of the knotted ropes as we end our walk.

Julia Riddiough

site specific work with James McKay

James McKay has created three interventions using poetry, place and string. It might even involve some costume changes. Looking forward to a few surprises.

James McKay

a mosaic by Susan Mc Clymont

Susan McClymont will share her poem "Pocahontas and me" She has also created a fab mosaic for our bench.  The design of the mosaic that accompanies the poem, is of an oak leaf overlaid by fern koru floating on the river. (Reflecting the oak trees of Pocahontas's Jamestown in America and the fern that emblematic of her native New Zealand).

Christina prep at Contemporary Art and Ritual

Christina Lovey is offering a personal reading of the knots in the ropes through tap dancing. Looking forward to some Flamenco rhythms . 


Owen Lowery has shared several of his poems read in his own voice for the soundscape. He has also helped with selecting the sounds he associates with the poems and the coast. We are delighted to take Owen's voice on this walk with us.

Owen Lowery

If you scan the qr code you can be transported to Owen's reading with a soundscape by Lucy Claire.

Sonia Overall  is joining us with pause/play

What is the quality of a moment? What do different pauses feel like? We will carry a bag of pauses with us as we walk, select one at random and enact it. Pause, play, repeat.  

Sonia Overall

Elspeth (Billie)  Penfold is inviting you to knot ropes to record the experience as we walk. These ropes have been made by hand by Elspeth for this event in her studio.The ropes will be attached to a Vara or pole at the end of the walk to create a document of the walk.
Elspeth (Billie) Penfold

I am always amazed by the creativity and generosity of all artists who collaborate with me in these walks with Thread and Word. I hope you are able to join us on the day and do feel free to share any readings/ memories or rituals with us as we walk.

although free, the walks are ticketed :Eventbrite and numbers will be limited .


The bench installation, soundscape and the walks have been delivered thanks to Funding from Arts Council England with seed funding from Sound Uk and the Welcome foundation.