" Knowledge does not belong to anything human. Knowledge belongs to that which has to do with nature. it belongs to the universe, but it doesn't belong to eternity, and there is a big difference.."
Louis I. Khan.

Lee Valley Parks Management and British waterways have agreed in principle to support the Ball project. I am negotiating where and how the project will be realised. I have begun making casts of the balls thanks to the wonderful support i have been getting from the tutor and technician in London Met,s 3D department. Fred and Greg...so a very huge thankyou to them both ...
The process is gorgeous and quite a relief from painting. The moulding and casting is not so disimilar to work undertaken in the kitchen, mixing, stirring, rolling out, pouring and smoothing...it's quite sensual too. These photos capture thre yumminess of the process.

Project evolves.

There have not been so many balls this year. I am really at quite a loss as to why. Perhaps someone further up stream has been getting to the balls before me. No matter. I have enough balls now to cast them to make a floating sculpture, whose life will be transient and a more permnent sculpture as tribute to the ones who went away.

I have become a member of a local nature group based at Stonebridge Lock and they are really happy for me to present Art based activities and events to the public as they would like to promote the Lee Valley Park through Art.

I am currently investigating the costs of plaster, clay and concrete and learning how to slip cast and make plaster moulds. I am also working with the Harringey Project Director to see how I can cast the Balls with a group of women from a Harringey Out reach group. The women will be drawn from culturally diverse backgrounds and currently live in a very run down part of Tottenham and have few opportunities to enjoy art , nature or collaborative projects. They often feel alienated and unable to contribute to their estranged communities.

Our project will start with a trip to the Tate Britain and then to the Tate Modern. We will look at art and discuss the point of Art. We will talk about the ideas behind Doris Salcedo's Shibboleth as I strongly feel there is a connection in our ideas. My work is inspired by the River Lee. It has been used as a natural dividing line by past rulers and it has been the passage taken by many invaders in the last two thousand years. The Celts, Romans, Saxons, Vikings and Normans. Many of Tottenhams inhabitants are transcient and to the less tolerant of the so called British, the arm chair or pub stool polititians, are seen as invaders who come to get our jobs and houses. Many race intolerant people do not realise they are descended from ancestral invaders , French, German and so on.

The ladies will make the balls into a beautiful sculpture which will float and be sybollic of the transitory nature of human migration and of liberty. The permanent sculpture ...made of concrete balls will be laid beside the Lock restaurant , located next to Tottenham Lock. The slip stream has a concrete base and only ever flows at about three inches, so the balls will not be in any ones way..

The project will link with my next venture which will be to build a raft from the redundant wooden palettes at Tottenham Lock Wood yard...which is waiting to be sold for redevelopment.Though a certain gallery in the east end seem to have used this idea already....they must have spies....

The raft will be made with children..(well from wood and made by children!) from a local play project andbe rowed down thecanal to Stonebridge Lock...with the help of a local rowing club... . Later this raft will be turned into compost bins . We will be visiting the 'shed' which won Simon Starling the Turner Prize two years ago....so we can discuss...the topic..."is this art...?"

The raft will be used to transport the balls down to The Lock. .... perhaps we can have a mini exhibition on it...!