Trading Places/CR.E.A.T.E. Programme

Third Phase Residencies

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Ballydown PS, Banbridge, Co Down; Ann Henderson

Artist's Response: "0 to 58" portrait series

Written by artist Ann on 4 March 2006

The bulk of the work I did as part of the artist’s response was executed in tandem with the final contact residency with the kids at Ballydown. As I’ve indicated in previous updates I had lots of ideas on the go in the initial stages of the artist’s response work. However, I now found I was strongly drawn to integrate it fully with the work ongoing within my own independent practise. This at the time was pivoting mainly around the recent experience of having a baby and incorporated the collation of information and collection of materials, both digital and tangible, in the form of photography, video and sound, as well as in the form of umbilical cord, nail clippings, note taking and associated medical equipment and supplies.

I decided to focus upon a single strand of enquiry and began by referring to the pages of detailed notes I’d taken about the baby’s feeding pattern over a period of 58 days. I wanted to translate these notes into a visual format and proceeded to draw out on graph paper, in 24 hour blocks, sequences of shaded and unshaded squares. The shaded areas represented the periods for which he was feeding. The resulting drawing is in two parts. The first, representing up to day 38,is shown on right and has been inverted using Photoshop.

The series of images below are part of a sequence made from the second part of the drawing, days 39 to 58. They have been digitally manipulated by degrees using Photoshop filters.

I’ve selected at few images at intervals from a sequence of 15

I intend to put all 15 stills together to see how it works as a short, looped animation.

I like the way the image disintegrates and becomes representative, in a literal sense, of the physical state I was in at the time!

However, it was the resemblance of the original graph paper drawing to the punched cards, used on the Jacquard Loom, that really interested me and lead on to the idea of weaving an actual piece of linen. The pattern within the linen was obviously based upon the information within the feeding chart drawing, the aesthetics of which were determined by the mechanics of the actual weaving process.

I sought the collaboration of The Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum. They provided the technical expertise, materials and equipment to produce the final piece of woven fabric encoded with this specific information.

The first stage was to translate the initial drawing onto a large sheet of antique graph paper using red pen so the weavers could mount it onto the card cutting machine and begin the lengthy process of cutting the punch cards. The shaded squares then became holes in the card. The individual cards were laced together and mounted on the Jacquard Loom and the linen woven. There are lots of images showing these various stages in the process in the weekly write ups for residency three – so please scroll on down

This piece of linen, is a form of portraiture, ( the punch cards and drawings too) representing the individual for the first 58 days of his existence. The title is simply
“0 to 58”. detail images below

This idea lead in turn to the kids at Ballydown and I working together on a group portrait, again in collaboration with The Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum. The kids, all aged ten at the time, titled their piece “0 to 10”.

I wish to thank The Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum ( in particular Deborah Dawson, Alison MacNamee and Elaine Flannigan) for their collaboration and support in the making of the linen portraits using the Jacquard loom.

I want also to thank Kids Own ( especially Orla and Richard) for their endless enthusiasm, support and valued guidance throughout the project.

And of course my thanks to the staff at Ballydown P.S.,in particular Judith White, my project teacher and all the kids – a true partnership.

Artist's Response

Written by artist Ann on 28 September 2005

I began my artist’s response work to the linen project way back in August 2004. I found, not only, that I couldn’t switch off completely from the ideas that I was already working upon but that it didn’t make sense to approach the subject of linen as a separate entity.

I was currently carrying out various explorations based upon the central idea of “The Altered Landscape” and the response work to the linen project was allowed find its own way in organic fashion.

One line of exploration resulted in a body of work titled “ Land Marking.” Images 1 to 8 shown here are and are part of this series and deal with some of the marks we, as human beings, make upon the landscape (or are at least indirectly responsible for). I worked in the fields surrounding our house on Rathlin.

The Big Day

Written by artist Ann on 16 July 2005

The big day arrived with work on show and guests at the door.
I was utterly delighted as the kids met every single visitor with true enthusiasm and eagerly talked their way round the work – a real buzz.

We’d loads of work up and around but will concentrate on a selection, beginning with the linen portraits and their working drawing graph paper counterparts.

Just as you come in the front doors of the school we found the perfect spot of wall, with spot lights up and ready for the using, for our four framed pieces. With Jim, the care taker’s assistance and a measuring tape got rawl plugs and screws in place. Everyone was quite taken aback when they saw the work up, framed and spot lit.

I had titled my piece “0 to 58”, as this portrait represented my son for the first 58 days of his existence. The kids came up with a list of suggested titles for their class portrait and by popular vote selected “1 to 10” - they’re now all 10 years old. A great title I think which works especially well as the two portraits are partner pieces.

0 to 10
Graphpaper, pen, pencil, masking tape

0 to 10
Linen.

0 to 58
Graph paper, pen, pencil, masking tape

0 to 58
Linen

We included the punch cards for each of the two linen pieces as they also can be interpreted as a form of portraiture. The punch cards below represent the class. The weavers punched the information in such a way so that each card could represent one individual.

I’ve included the following image of the binary code impression drawings as this image ( with a very quick bit of photoshopping ) shows the piece in full. This work preceded the linen portraits.

And a closer look – chalk and charcoal on tracing paper.

I know I previously included an image of the kids original graph paper drawings “on Linen” on site but I particularly like this shot.

During our evaluation stint in Sligo Orla and I happened to have a conversation about the wax paper ( punch card drawings) installation video clips. She suggested thinking about some kind of more intimate way viewing these video clips rather than projection.
We got thinking back at Ballydown and the kids liked the idea of video viewing through one of the original punch cards, from which they made the drawings for the installation. With only a few hours to go before our open day we managed make a punch card viewing box for the lap top and run the video clips on a loop within. We all enjoyed peering in !

Judith, (Miss White) at various stages did work with the kids in response to what had
been happening within the project. ( see below) Amongst drawings and paintings were writings about “My Life as a Punch Card” the details of which were fantastic
after our return visit to the Linen Centre ( and some wonderfully gory!).

A detail of the overlapping colour laminates drawn in response our time in the weave workshop at the Linen Centre.

We removed the inner coverings on our linen objects piece during our open morning to reveal that a secondary level of “bleaching” had indeed taken place.

The work had been relocated in a area where the sunlight had been more subtle and therefore the “bleaching” was more subtle too, resulting in some lovely imagery.

And of course we wanted to show off the web site

What a good day we had.
The true measure of the success for me was not the quality of the work on its own but the fact that the kids were not only so enthused but so capable of talking and communicating about it all.

A big thanks to everyone who helped us at the school, to the staff at the Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum who worked collaboratively with us and of course to Kids Own.

portraits woven

Written by artist Ann on 31 May 2005

Week 7, Friday 27th May

Great excitement all round as we now had the finished pieces of linen, our group and individual portraits, just off the loom from The Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum.

The cloth was unveiled from its protective covering to a great clamour of excitement.
We had requested that our linen be woven with the natural colour of thread and the red thread traditionally used when weaving up the first proof of the cloth. This red colour was used within the industry to allow the weavers check the detail of the pattern more easily.

We had no idea how the pattern would turn out for the kids group portrait. The linen had been woven so that each person’s information was cut out of a separate punch card and then woven as a separate strip of the pattern.

The kids instantly making comparisons to cityscapes, the graphic equalizer lights on the front of a stereo and bar graphs regarding their group portrait.
See images below.

The images below are of the individual portrait “1 to 58”

I think we all at this stage had developed a real appreciation of the linen pieces. We were fully aware of the time and process involved on our own behalf but also too of the time and expertise involved on behalf of the weavers.

Now the linen portraits are off to the framers.

The open day prep is ongoing along with more discussions about the whats, wheres and hows.

Colour laminates going up allowing for layering of parts of images

getting ready

Written by artist Ann on 31 May 2005

Week 6, Friday 20th May

Our open day’s on the 3rd June so we needed make decisions about which pieces of work and which parts of the process we feel are most important and then of course how to go about making it public.

Putting the original graph paper strips on white linen.

These strips were draw out by the kids encoding their verbal portraits into sequences of shaded and unshaded squares. We liked the idea that just as this information was being woven into the cloth on the Jacquard loom, we too could bring these drawings together as a portrait on linen in a much simpler, more direct way.

Looked good back lit at the window

Using the curl of the rolled tracing paper drawings we arranged them so they just touched side by side – a 3d- 2d piece! These drawing were connected with the graph paper strips above but focused on pattern and space rather than the accurate transfer of information.

Our sugar paper pieces brought out in the light again.
We decided this could work arranged and taped together as one large piece. We covered smaller areas within the individual pages and got the whole thing up on the hall wall, exposed to day light again.
Be interesting to see what’s happened when we remove the smaller paper pieces on the open day.

Kids working with the black and white laminates, deciding which worked on their own and which layered. Long vertical laminate hangings were decided upon.

Revisiting The Linen Centre

Written by artist Ann on 31 May 2005

Week 5 Friday 13th May

Our pieces of work were underway at The Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum so off we went in the bus to see for ourselves.

The Linen Centre had arranged it so that both works were at different stages so we could be involved in the various processes first hand. The cards were being cut for the class, group portrait and the indiviual portrait, “1 to 58”, was in the process of being woven on the Jacquard Loom.

We’d loads of questions for Debbie and Alison, the two weavers and had fantastic conversations. They also involved us where possible in the actual making processes.

Image opposite :Cutting the punch cards for the kids group portait.

Image below:Kids lacing up cards for their portrait.

Images below: The individual portrait, “1 to 58” on the beautiful Jacquard Loom

Weaving in progress.

Detail below: “1 to 58”

We spent further time in the weaving workshop working with video and stills cameras as well as pencil and paper, focusing upon unusual angles and zoom ins.

We followed this up with memory work using oil pastels - black and white on black paper and colour drawing directly within laminate pockets.

Below images of some of the colour laminates.

The weaving room machinery.

The oil pastel when laminated partially melts to give a lovely painterly quality.

Some of the drawings when laminated appeared layered. Photoshop’s not the only way to layer your image!

And of course had to play with layering the actual laminatesthenselves. Some of the layered imagery really worked acquiring depth and subltey.

In all an incredibly busy but brilliant day.

It was great to revisit The Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum, where we began at the very start of our Linen project, roughly two years ago. Our visit being especially poignant this time as it was our own work on the loom and the card cutter.

Can’t wait to see the woven linen.

Dressing the Hill

Written by artist Ann on 21 May 2005

Week 4 - 6th May
Morning
We focused our attentions again on the bleaching green.

I asked the kids to make short video pieces to the title of “Dressing the Hill”. They had to perform a ceremony, again using the OHP. This week they were to think not only about the projected image but also how they could use the space between the projector and the wall. They incorporate the their own bodies as part of the piece. Combinations developed working using the OHP top as well as the space in front of the projector to make shadow imagery. Some also experimented with play of the projected image upon their own figures.

The kids’ ideas were great. I'll have to learn how to put video up on site but have included a few stills meantime

Afternoon

We retrieved our sheets of sugar paper from the windowsills. We first took photos with the linen artefacts still in place on the paper and then gathered round for the unveiling.

The images had a particular quality – a combination of the photographic and painterly.

An accident – and great effects with repositioning the objects .

Zoom ins.

We took loads of photos as we intend to expose the work to sunlight again.
We also worked in laminate pockets, drawing directly onto the opened sleeves with crayon. The kids first worked in black and white, emphasizing both the faded and darker areas.

They then, in another pocket, drew the darker regions only in black and followed this, again in a new pocket, by the faded region only in white.

These positive and negative drawings made especially interesting viewing when shifted around over the top of each other - as did playing with backgrounds.

I proceeded then to jam the first pocket in the laminator during the don’t burn yourself or stick the pocket in the wrong way round speel !
Miss White to the rescue after school with a screw driver !

Image,image on the wall !

Written by artist Ann on 10 May 2005

Week 3 Friday 22nd April

In the morning we revisited the idea of The Bleaching Green.

I set out a variety of materials for the kids to use. These included charcoal, white chalk, linen, tracing paper, masking tape, acetate paper, black fibertip pens and standard photocopy paper.

The kids were first given the all important time to experiment. They were to use the materials provided on the over head projector and concentrate on their wall work - the projected image.

Linen was frayed, tracing paper found to appear opaque, and charcoal was crumbled over acetate sheets. Drawing with charcoal ( see the image above) on the acetate produced beautiful subtle marks whilst cut paper edges produced quite the opposite. The kids found that using the acetate, layer upon layer, gave the projected image a certain depth. The process being something similar to building up layers within a digital images on screen.

Each group then worked to produce a sequence of images representing the transformation that takes place within the landscape as the linen is laid out to bleach. These worked really well as still images and if time permits we might take things further through animation.

In the afternoon we started work again on our punch card installation. This work had been put on hold when I had to take time out from the second residency. We had too many ideas to leave it in the store any longer !

We abandoned the lengthy process of setting up the bamboo tripods and instead suspended the punch card drawing from parallel strings across the hall. Previously we had set up the work in daylight and now it was time to draw the curtains and get to playing with introducing artificial light. The kids worked on devising ways they could interact as part of the piece. They wove their way in and out through the paper drawings within various formats. They worked on different ways of making the drawings move. The image below shows them lying on the floor in rows and simply blowing on the paper pieces, producing subtle sound and movement.

We also took video footage of the work in motion, zooming in on the dramatic shadow play on the hall roof.

The Bleachin Green

Written by artist Ann on 10 May 2005

The Bleaching Green - Week 2, Friday 15th April.

Today’s work was based around the idea of The Bleaching Green and imagery associated with it.

During the artist’s response time I had been making drawings from memory. These were based upon black and white photographs I had seen right at the very beginning of the project. Dark landscapes were transformed by length upon length of white linen laid out to bleach.

The kids were asked to collect natural materials from the school grounds to use within A4 sized works based on the original black and white photographs. These pieces, natural object drawings, were simply a first stage within a wider process of image making.

We took still photos. Some of the most successful (see above) were taken with the flash off which meant the image included camera shake.

We then made chalk and charcoal works from the natural object drawings.

Drawings were made combining chalk, charcoal and natural objects .

Photocopy images were made from the natural object drawings which had been done on acetate. The photocopy images were then drawn on, again using chalk and charcoal.

We also used the video camera to taking short clips from a birds eye view of the natural object drawings – as if flying over a landscape.

Then amid all this work and all the rotations it was suddenly time for lunch !

In the afternoon we turned our gaze to artefacts and materials associated with the linen industry. Now we were concentrating upon the actual process of bleaching. The kids selected and arranged the objects on sheets of sugar paper. These were left on windowsills around the school. Some chose to lay their object directly on the surface of the paper, while others experimented, creating space between the paper and the object, with various “proppings up”. All now a matter of waiting!

Back with the kids at Ballydown

Written by artist Ann on 8 May 2005

Day one, 8th April 2005, and it’s a year since we’ve been together in person ( with my taking time out to have a baby) but we’ve kept in touch via our video tape which we’ve passed back and forward in the post – our digital dialogue !

So, we kicked off our third residency by viewing the tape in full. The video concluded with me talking to the kids about the image shown below – a detail of a drawing I made during my “artist’s response” time.

For this drawing records were kept of my son’s feeding pattern over a period of 58 days. This was drawn out on graph paper in 24 hour periods, as a series of shaded and unshaded areas. It was the initial resemblance of this drawing to the punched cards used for the Jacquard Loom, that suggested the idea of weaving an actual piece of linen.

The Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum have generously agreed to provide not only the technical expertise and advice, but materials and equipment in order to realize this work.

The work is titled “ 1 to 58” and is a representation of this individual for these first 58 days of his existence – in essence a form of portraiture. The pattern within the linen will obviously be dictated by the information within the feeding chart drawing, the aesthetics of which will be in part determined by the actual weaving process.

It was this process that lead to the idea of making a partner piece to the individual portrait -a piece of work which involved all the kids and the exploration of the idea of group portraiture. Each child was asked to select five words which they felt best represented themselves, a verbal self-portrait. These words were then translated into a binary code and transferred by the kids onto strips of graph paper as a series of shaded and unshaded squares. Using this code each letter was represented by a sequence of eight squares.

The strips of graph paper representing each individual ( 42 in total) proved visually interesting as a collective in themselves. See below - We intend to work on this further.

I then worked like crazy to transpose these 42 individual strips of code onto one large sheet of graph paper (see the next images) to take straight to the Linen Centre so they could then begin the labour intensive process of cutting the punch cards for this second piece. The individual sequences follow one after the other, sitting shoulder to shoulder, as would the kids in any traditional school class photograph. Coincidently, the school photographer was in the school the same day taking family portraits, making the analogy of the class photo very easy.

The graph paper transposition is visually very strong and of course another form of group portraiture.

Back to the kids on our first residency day and we finished of in the afternoon with a continuation of the binary code work, This time however the kids were not to worry about translating their verbal portraits in a way which could be deciphered. Rather we concentrated on the visual aspects of the drawings and the pattern itself.This time we used charcoal ,chalk and lengths of tracing paper. These drawings possessed a lovely quality with their varying grades of opaqueness and transparency and as the kids pointed out were especially interesting when viewed in layers through one another. We’ll have to have a good brain storm as to how we can take these further.

Phew, that’s day one accounted for !