Collaboration, Piece 1, Stage 4

I'm now working on the fourth and final stage of the first piece in the art collaboration project between myself and the very talented artist, Sharon Griffin. It's nearing completion but still has a few days to go before it's actually finished. So for now I'll just show you a few work-in-progress photos of the oak framework that I've been construction in and around the three sections of the ceramic bust.

Piece One (work-in-progress) from 2020 collaboration project between artists, Sharon Griffin & Wayne Chisnall

To briefly recap (and lazily insert some text from said, previous blog post) what we are attempting with this project is to produce a series of experimental sculptures whereby Sharon kicks off the creation of each new sculpture by giving me a clay bust of a relatively androgynous-looking figure, made from a plaster cast mould that she made from her original clay bust sculpture. I then alter the clay bust in some way, before handing it back to Sharon, in order for her to perform her alchemy by apply some of her glazes (created from her own recipes, using locally sourced geological ingredients - apparently the variety of geological settings in Shropshire is unmatched within the British Isles or, within such a relatively small area, probably anywhere else in the world), and then fire the piece.  She then hands the piece back to me for next stage, in which I integrate it with other manipulated materials.

Piece One (work-in-progress) from 2020 collaboration project between artists, Sharon Griffin & Wayne Chisnall

I will say that at each stage of the handover, we are observing the correct and responsible levels of social distancing that these times (the time of the COVID 19 pandemic, for anyone reading this afterwards - if there is an afterwards) demand.

Piece One (work-in-progress) from 2020 collaboration project between artists, Sharon Griffin & Wayne Chisnall

Although Sharon works predominantly in clay and I work in... well, pretty much anything I can get my grubby hands on, we have a lot of things in common - a love of nature and the earth, of manipulating materials, we share many similar views, we're both from the same part of Shropshire, both with similarly odd family backgrounds etc. So I'm very excited to see where our collaboration takes us. Although, I already have a few ideas brewing for further pieces in this project.

Piece One (work-in-progress) from 2020 collaboration project between artists, Sharon Griffin & Wayne Chisnall

Even though the starting point for each piece in the collaboration, i.e. a clay bust cast from the same mould, is close to identical, every time Sharon hands it over to me she doesn't know what it's going to look like when I give it her back.  And likewise, before she returns it to me after glazing and firing process (and any other alterations that Sharon might have made, pre-firing), I don't know how it will appear. This is one of the many exciting elements of the collaborative process.

Piece One (work-in-progress) from 2020 collaboration project between artists, Sharon Griffin & Wayne Chisnall