Sasha and I established Perpendicular studio back in 2012, since then we have been working collaboratively here in London.
When Sasha told me in the middle of the year that she would be moving to Italy my heart sank.
Not only because of the work we do together but also one of my good friends was moving so far away.
Once I had processed the news we began to talk about how it would be possible for us to continue working from a distance and what form that would take.
Whether distance was something we could directly address within the work.
Could it be time based?
Would it be about our own landscape or geological makeup?
Or absence of the physical?
How do we structure this? on a virtual platform or by creating a physical book?
How do we use different ways of communicating with one another?
But what we did know was that the narrative began here in London with a series of walks.
Armed with a camera, notebook, maps, jars and bags for collecting found objects along the way we embarked on our new pathway.
Our first location was Epping Forest a space Sasha knows well as she lived about 10mins away from one of the many forest entrances.
The second location we chose was the Thames Pathway near Woolwich because it was completely different to the coverage of the forest.
By spending this time together whilst observing, talking and sharing ideas we came up with a clearer idea about how we were going to structure this.
Time
Distance
Location
Landscape
Environment
These seemed to be the most prominent elements that were becoming apparent.
We talked about sending one another packages which could include objects, images, drawings, tests creating an ongoing creative exchange and we would respond by sending something we felt continued this link.
It's now early December and we are still in the early stages of this process and have had three exchanges.
And the fascinating element about this process is the freedom we have allowed ourselves.
We don't know where this will take us, whether this work will ever be shown or exhibited, whether it feeds into a bigger piece of work.
Most importantly our creative collaboration continues despite the fact we are working from two different countries.
It's also the ultimate form of communication, with each package we include a very short note explaining the contents but what's more intriguing is how the visual language begins to unfold over time.
We felt that we had to find a way of turning this opportunity into a positive move for our collaborative method of working. We also felt that our friendship is certainly strong enough to be able to create something quite unique.
