Park Run

On Saturday 3rd February, I went to a weekly event in Hanley Park called the Park Run, which despite the bad weather was full of volunteers to run that day, which was surprising. I had to talk to the person in charge to let the people know that I was there and taking pictures for my placement. No one came to me to say that they were not comfortable, so that was fine. By letting everyone know, this was the first time, I felt exposed and known as an artist. I felt coming to this event was important as this was part of the park's community and like it's own tradition.

This was a little new to me because I'm letting a bigger group of people know about me, so I'd have permission to take photographs. I felt more exposed and nervous today, but in a positive light, because no one came to me to say if they were uncomfortable with me taking pictures. Experience in taking photographs is the same to me, only there was more movement which made it more tricky to take clear photos. 

The important things of this event was to experience one of the traditional events of the park, which felt like a friendly and fun environment with lots of people to meet. With these photographs more people will know the public events that happen weekly in Hanley Park.
I walked and jogged the track of the run to take pictures of any runners I could see. I wasn't planning on running but when I got there it looked like fun, I thought "Why not"? But because I was walking, obviously I had to stop and start to take clear photos, so next time, I will be careful to try and not do 2 things at once. I might need to take just a couple of more photos next week because from this first experience I was taking pictures from a perspective of being part of the run, but next week I might want to just take pictures from the side lines, watching the run. These pictures may contribute to my exhibition artworks. Here are some of my photos from today:

After all this, I had fun and felt more athletic and happy after walking and jogging. The atmosphere felt friendly and buzzing. I would like to come back again just for the run some day.

Hidden narratives found in Hanley park

As well as documenting the changes of the park, I have found some interesting things that have given me ideas on the narratives, memory and time themes of my artworks. For example, the tracks of footsteps and tyres made by people show where people made their walks around the park before. A love-lock on one of the bridges that makes me think: 'who is that couple? Are they still together this day?' I saw lots of graffiti and writing on the inside of a gazebo, which makes me wonder who wrote these? What do they mean to the people who wrote these? Most of them are fading away, which proves they're old, but how long? All these leave hints at other people memories and their stories made around the park, which I may never know the whole story. I also found a tree where a past artist has carved animals into it, like a totem pole, that tells stories about themselves, according to culture of them. I could look further into that? I also found a graffiti painting done by what looks to be the Hanley Park Community Arts Projects. Maybe graffiti can be a medium to use in my exhibition since it's used widely in the park? These are all site-responsive ideas found in the park.

I hope to find more stories however and wherever I can in this area. These will contribute to my exhibition artworks.

A totem pole sculpted by a past artist in Hanley park, leaving his mark.

Graffiti I found on the inside of the gazebo by the public.

A love lock found on the one of the bridges.

A past community art project?

Tracks and footprints found in the mud and snow.

Beginning of Changes in Hanley Park (from walking)

From the first couple of weeks in semester 2 (8th January-24th January, 2018), I've visited the park 3 times taking photographs of the small changes I've seen happening in the restoration of the park. I'll include changes of the seasons/weather if I can. The photographs may be the artworks I will produce for my small exhibition. I'm picturing them on the 2 gazebos near the now taken-down band stand or wherever area of the park is not sealed off for the restoration. Putting my documentation on a public Facebook page would be good. I'll ask if they have a page of the park already. In the process of the restoration, so far, the area by the College is the most newest and main bridge is currently being worked on. In the possible artworks I'm producing, it's photography more than paintings, which I am more used to.

So far, in my process of taking photos of the park with some time in between, the experience is like visiting art galleries, only more than once. You are seeing the changes of each individual object/landscape around you. It's like the 'walking' experience, where you don't just casually walk a routine, but you try to notice things all around you in using your senses more carefully. I've haven't worked outside this long before and despite the weather sometimes, its been fun working with nature and photography. I'm quite new to editing photographs on Photoshop, so its a bit of a challenge for me, but the experts on Photoshop at Staffordshire university can help me.

In my visits, I'm creating a narrative, memories and a timeline of myself in walking around the park because, in how time works, it includes movement of people, nature, objects and everything (Time is an illusion'). When you look back at those places where you walked, you can picture yourself walking it like before. Also, how time changes man-made and natural things, when you look at the old photographs and the recent ones. That's the funny thing about time. These will give me ideas for my artworks in my exhibition. I will continue walking in my routines and documenting the park for as long as I can, while trying to make decisions about my artworks and my exhibition date. It'll will depend on how my production of artworks. It'll have to be at the end of February or early March.
I've also look on google for old photographs of the park most likely before I first visited the park, to see the real time changes, between them and my own recent photographs. This is one of my methods in using 'found objects' in my work. In this case 'found images' for me to work with. For example: the fountain. This was the first area to be changed in the restoration and successfully too.

The bridge so far is going through the most change in my exploring of the park (See next entry).

The Boat House has looked slow, but it has changed much in history along with other things.

The Band Stand has changed as well but very slowly.

The building and band stand is now covered with fences and/or scaffolding and is in slowly but surely changing of being restored. There is also some posters on the fences about the restoration and the past projects taken place in the park. 

You'll see more changes in the next post of the next few weeks: 'Changes Continued'...

Changes continued

Starting from 30th January to 3rd February, I've seen more changes of signs and fences being moved about the park, the bridge being sealed off and painted, along with the weather changing. It's the same process as earlier on, except that I went to events happening in the park that week. (Will explain in 'Park Run' page). I'm not sure how many times I'll photograph more changes because there will be lots more even after March. So, I'll need to know when to stop before this semester and focus on preparing the exhibition.
I've been made a collection of artworks that I've photographed in the park, influenced by Andy Goldsworthy. I searched for whatever materials I could find (e.g. leaves, twigs, branches, stones, chipped wood, etc.) and made patterns with them, then photographed them. With these printed out, I'll present some of these in my exhibition and set out a small map as where I made them, for people to find if they want for then see what changes they have been through, in time.
I also had a meeting with Anna about my progress and she gave me some ideas about my artworks. Again, walking through the park is the same experience of walking, taking plenty of photographs and trying to notice nearly everything around you. You look at the bridge and first you think see is what you saw last time, you were there and then it changes into what you see now. That is the funny thing about time changing around you. These photos will influence my artworks and
I'll photograph the changes only one more time because with my exhibition coming up sooner than before, I should focus on that. (Look at 1st couple of visits compare to these photographs).

The bridge is painted a different colour now.

There may have been more white vases here before?

The whiteness on the red brick looks recent.

A quote found in Hanley Park.

There has been a lot of cleaning the park up by this gate.

There have been footpaths closed up temporary.

Most of the small pillars have been broken down and fences have been put up.

There will be different weathers that show different reflections in the canal.

'Colosseum' and 'Lights in the dark'

These are 2 collages, painted in acrylic paint. I randomly picked landscapes from my collection of photos from Italy. I presented the two of these together but slightly apart because at first I was trying to present another bigger picture of Italy, like the 'Memorial Wall' with multiple landscapes, but I only had time to paint 2 landscapes. I would've painted more to present together, which is something I am aiming to do later on. I just, on the spot, put these 2 landscapes together as 2 memories of Italy. Hence why I put a name for each of them, slightly describing them. The 'Lights in the dark' are a shot of my glimpse at a night time view - I didn't know exactly what I was looking at but only the lights, which made it mysterious. This was during a public festival in the mountains, which was fun as well. Also, 'Colosseum' is obviously of my visit to the Colosseum in Rome. This is my first attempt on the style of Cubism and David Hockney, which are the influences behind these works (as suggested in my progress meeting). They are slightly recognisable but fragmented to show the fact that memories fragment as time goes by. They were both originality going to be simple paintings, fragmented already in how they're painted, but I wanted to literally fragment them more for the memory of them to not be so 100% remembered. The way they are cut and fragmented are slightly different (squares and multiple shapes) because at the time, it felt fitting with how they were painted, individually. This made them shaped and layered differently. I hope to develop this later on. The feedback from my colleagues from these artworks, where quite spot on and interesting with some new ideas. So it appears that I got my intentions made slightly clear, surprisingly. Although this lead to focusing on architecture, which is a particular subject I've never focused on entirely (look at 'Temples in Time').