Artist stories

more about this artist contact add to favourites contact print page

Philippa Lawrence, Bound, Glamorganshire 2005

Background
Trained at the Royal College of Art in fine art printmaking, Philippa Lawrence is often drawn to multiples, either repeating an action or repeatedly re-employing a seemingly insignificant object.

Philippa's work usually consists of site-specific installations or collections of objects in response to a place. She makes work for galleries and other interior spaces, but also focuses to a great extent on open spaces and the natural environment. She has always been interested in making work that exists outside of expected spaces (e.g. galleries, museums) placing work back into the public realm.

Always approaching sites with great sensitivity, Philippa Lawrence's installations reflect upon perceptions of the visual arts, and encourages us to take note of our surroundings. Her works illustrate the benefits of observation, understanding and learning. Philippa's works are characterized by the enormous amount of patience, hard work and discipline. Her works are captivating not only in their beauty but also by being provocative. The concentration and time she invests in her work, together with her physical engagement, can be seen as a kind of transmission of energy.

Her work ranges from the beautiful and monumental to the quirky, humorous, beguiling and unsettling. Previous works have seen the hand-gilding of a thousand light bulbs, the nailing of hundreds of carpet tacks, the placing of many, many pegs, and the piercing of parchment with thousands of tiny holes. The process of making is key, as is the time and labour invested in the elements that constitute the work. The quiet, contemplative process and attention invested in each piece breathes a life into what is essentially inanimate and lends it a life force.

Project: Bound

Background

In 2002 a call for visual material from artists by Cywaith Cymru / Artworks Wales (the National Organisation for Public Art in Wales) and the National Botanic Garden for Wales led to the selection of 11 Internationally recognised artists being commissioned to make temporary site specific work for the Garden. The exhibition Explorations opened in July 2003 and ran until November.

My response was to make a series of interventions. The success of Bound - the binding in white cotton of an ancient dead oak on the border of the farmers land and the garden - led me to investigate further several key issues. I was interested in the significance of boundaries, the nature of making work and for which audience, the effective but temporary transformation of the everyday, and the desire to connect with both the land and the people through art.

Project proposal

In 2003 I wrote an application to the Arts Council of Wales for a Creative Wales Award to pursue the project further and was successful. In it I wrote:

I used to be a city girl. Times change and the past four years of regular travel across Wales has drawn me inextricably to the country. Over time, quietly, almost unnoticed, I found myself woven to the land, developing a personal and deeper understanding of the countryside.

On journeys and walks I began thinking about the reference points that would once have served as markers for travellers and those defining their home and its boundaries.

Whilst not Welsh I found that Wales has entered my psyche and my spirit and I wanted to make a work which referenced and celebrated the land that supports me.

There are 13 old counties of Wales; Anglesey, Brecknockshire, Caernarvonshire, Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Glamorgan, Merioneth, Monmouthshire, Montgomeryshire, Pembrokeshire and Radnorshire.

The project is to explore and to locate an ancient tree in each of the counties that can be wrapped and documented. The work develops previous ideas in which the commonplace, everyday and overlooked is re-presented to the viewer as an icon in itself.

For me the success of the first Bound in Carmarthenshire (as part of Explorations at the National Botanic Garden of Wales) was in its ability to reach and connect to the public. The stark, white elegance of this bound dead oak tree, an already much loved and revisited landmark in the gardens, drew the gaze and imagination of subsequent visitors. References were made to antlers, lightning, fungi, mummification and to swaddling. There was amusement and enjoyment. People were compelled to touch its trunk: no-one passed it without comment.

I am returning to the woods and trees that are by-passed by our road system, and in each of the old counties of Wales, identify and wrap a dead tree in an act of veneration and meditation on its (and our) past, present and future. It is important to be able to see the trees from the road or from a well-worn path so that the audience consists of those who live near to, or pass through, the area.

Inspiration

I can trace this work back to 1987 when I went to an exhibition on Japanese Packaging - Five Ways to Wrap an Egg - at Milton Keynes, and a subsequent trip to Japan in 2002 when white paper/cloth ties attached to bamboo poles outside of temples - acts of prayer 'spoke' to me.

For me, equal to the making of the work is the communication I make with the landowners or farmers. I enjoy meeting people and I have learnt so much from conversation, spending time in their company and on their land.

There is enormous scope in this deceptively simple project to research and collect historic information and to make very real connections to the land and to the local individuals we meet. Seasons and the quality of light change and lend themselves to a strong visual imagery that is documented. The work will be shown as a publication and as an exhibition to tour.

Through this project I hope to make a beautiful and effective temporary change in the environment, to make an artwork which has the ability to show the natural beauty in the world we live, and in what we may not have previously noticed.

Techniques: Making Bound

Key influences (other artists who work to effect change in the environment):

Christo and Jeanne Claude

Olaffur Eliasson

More information on Philippa Lawrence

The project has been supported and made possible by an Arts Council of Wales Creative Wales Award; with invaluable help from Andy Hazell on site; and photos by Gail Wigley, Alex Ramsay and Jason Ingram. At the time of writing (Feb. 06) the artist has completed 7 of the 13 trees and is looking for suitable trees in Caernarvonshire, Cardiganshire, Flintshire, Glamorgan, Merioneth and Pembrokeshire.

Sept 2006 update