Here are some of my initial ideas for The Growing Season at Siobhan Davies Dance spanning from December 2013 until February 2014 .
The one solid starting point I had decided on was that I wanted to use clay from the local area, whether this is to be fired or left unfired still remains to be fully answered.
With this small strand of thinking in place the importance of London became key. With space being somewhat limited and many people living in flats with no access to garden spaces, public green spaces and allotments become even more important.
I came across a wonderful image of London during the second world war where a small plot of land next to The Tower of London that had been turned into a community allotment space to grow vegetables.
At that point I became interested in the layout of urban allotment spaces and Kitchen Gardens both very similar but there is a contrast of the formal/ Informal Order/ Chaos.
The grid was something that is visually prominent in both spaces but it was also a detail I had focussed upon when I visited Siobhan Davies Dance to begin photographing and familiarising myself with the building.
Stuart Road Allotments Peckham, London
The Fruit Growers Guide by John Wright
In between the reading I began working on some some rectangular and square tests and samples, Using Clay soil I had collected from Stuart Road allotments in Peckham.
Raw clay extracted from the allotments
First tests including soil, grass, red terracotta, paper and glass
The testing, experimentation, drawing and photography continues... I will be posting more images in the next few weeks.