Fabrica Churchshrooms

I think I may have mentioned before my general disappointment in installation art. So you might well ask, why do I keep going to look at it? Well because every so often you find something that takes your breath away. Something that is so staggeringly attractive that you can't get it out of your head. This exhibition was one of those moments and it make all the others worth while.

The majestic quality of these huge paper sculptures is best left described by those that know best (see below), but I can assure you that it is well worth a look. These magnificent, slowly spinning sculptural homage’s to the chalk hills so prominent to the East coast of England bring a sense of peace and tranquillity that plays a mutual respect to the surroundings in which they find themselves and leaves you with a feeling of reverence.

That these lovingly crafted and stately effigies are so willing to give up their splendour and sink into the black ink of the lagoon waiting below the chosen few only adds to the admiration I feel for the exhibit as a whole and this selfless act in turn creates a new beauty all of its own.

I would like to see inside the mind of the man that see this in his head.



So what is Fabrica? Based in an old Regency style church, next to a very good cook shop in the centre of Brighton it specialises in displaying contemporary installation art in a visually challenging backdrop. Challenging because the Church it's self it quite an installation in its own right.

According to Fabirca the gallery "Opened in March 1996 in the deconsecrated Holy Trinity Church, Fabrica was established by a group of artists from Red Herring Studios in Brighton, as a focus for

contemporary visual art practice, with the support of South East Arts, Brighton Borough Council, The Foundation for Sport and the Arts, and Chichester Diocese.

Fabrica is a place where artists come to make new work. Fabrica supports and encourages the artists with whom it works to be adventurous and to test the boundaries of their practice. It encourages an open dialogue between artists and visitors within the gallery space and produces an integrated programme of education and audience development activity that strives to remove barriers to access, engagement and understanding."

The show, technically know as The Elephant Bed by John Grade is available to see at the Fabrica Gallery, as follows
John Grade
11 July - 31 August
Opening times
Wed-Sat 12-5.30pm
Open until 7pm Thursdays in August
Sun & Bank Holiday 2-5pm
Closed Mon & Tues

Twin clusters of horn-like cones float down from the rafters of the gallery. One group dissolving into a mysterious pool, the other, awaiting a ceremonial end in the sea…

This huge new sculpture created specifically for Fabrica by US artist John Grade is inspired by the life cycle of a micro-organism – the coccolithophore.

Coccolithophores are invisible algae that congregate in their billions just beneath the surface of the world's oceans. When they die their protective outer casings drop to the seabed, where over time they form thick sediments on the seafloor. Around 80-110 million years ago they were responsible for forming the chalk which we now know as the South Downs.

It was the eminent Sussex geologist Gideon Mantell who originally identified the Elephant Bed in 1834, a thin strip of shale and chalky sands washed out from the Downs towards the end of the ice age. It is the bedrock that runs under Brighton & Hove from beyond Portslade in the west to Black Rock in the east. Estimated at 200 thousand years old, it is recent in geological terms.
Landscape is at the heart of John Grade's work. Past projects have involved travelling across the vast wildernesses of North and South America and making degradable works in response to the environment.

More recently he completed a creative residency in the Western boglands of County Mayo, Ireland, where he has historical family ties.

His work is characterised by the meticulous crafting of sculptural objects that are then left outside - either buried, left to rot or dissolve - to let nature take its course.
His preoccupation with change and natural disintegration means his works are rarely finished, always remaining in transition and open to chance. Periodically items are brought back indoors to be exhibited, re-examined, or to be worked on again, then returned once more to the landscape as a final resting place.

Grade's drawings and sculptures have been shown extensively in galleries, museums and outdoor locations across the USA. This is his first UK exhibition.

Brighton Putties

The beginning of august found me heading down the motorway towards Brighton to see me very good mate Dee. After a quick roasting in my tin can while I waited (and waited) to get through the tolls into Kent, (I should at this point note that it was soooo hot that even the sat nav fondly know as Nicola went into melt down) we cruised down through the south downs without further ado and arrived just in time for afternoon tea.

As is the way with the weather in England, having decided to talk a wonder down to the sea front it promptly started to drizzle and then rain on us!!! So we strolled along the promenade in the pissing rain until we found ourselves on the very famous Brighton Pier. After doughnuts, waffles and tea we had a good look at all the crazy people on the rides, which made for good spectator sport. which reminds me, Dee we still need to go on that roller coaster, next time hay. As the rain showed no sign of letting up it was back home for a very yummy supper and a good old yarn to catch up.

Friday dawned with a slightly greyish tint to the sky so we set off up the road to check out the Booth Museum. Stuffed full of things you would never be allowed to stuff these days the museum boasts over half a million specimens of assorted types and species some of which are now extinct and many of which are stabbed on to cork boards with little pins. That said if looking at taxidermy birds is your thing this is the place for your. Entering the museum one is confronted with room after room of hellish Victorian ode to the hunting of stunning creatures, stuffing them and hanging them from the wall. Not for the faint hearted there are lion and tigers and antelopes too, heads chopped off and mounted to the wall, but worry not what happened to the rest of the poor creatures body parts – skin on floor, bones on display, flesh undoubtedly eaten! To be fair to the place once you get passed the initial reaction of 'would these beautiful animals not have been happier left alone in the wilds from which they were taken' and acknowledge that it was a different time period and that these hunters were revered as great men, (although why the discerning Victorian gentleman would want stuffed a zebra attached to the dinning room wall and half and elephants head in the lounge is a little beyond me if for on other reason that it omits a rather unpleasant smell!) it is well worth a visit, if for no other reason than what’s done is done and we should try and look at the majestic beauty of this stunning collection of animals and curiosities from around the world with an open mind. After all they are quite stunning. Dee was rather taken with a checker elephant stow but for myself there is a merman made with such care to detail that even after all these years it still had the power of attraction.

After a return to the house for tea and cakes we headed down to town of some virtual retail therapy, this is where you wounder about shops looking at all the things you would buy if you had been born to money!!!! After spending several thousand virtual pounds we went for some serious pizza (which would have kill lesser mortals) then we encountered the fabric gallery (see separate post) a truly fabulous and well worth while poke about was followed by a couple of pints on the sea front in the sun, what more could a girl ask for? The hike home and some very yummy chicken fajitas. mmmm and a rather fun evening with the girls. Dee has to go to a fancy dress party where the theme is 'S' hence the obsession with the afore mentioned checkered elephant shrew!! So we proceeded to spend a large part of the evening doing Dee's head in while we came up with ideas for her costume. My personal favorite was that she should go as a solar powered calculator, complete with the number words, shelloil, on the display. Oh yes a fun night.

Springstep Goat Farm

SPRINGSTEP DAIRY
Mundon Hall
Vicarage Lane
Mundon
Maldon, Essex.
CM9 6PA
Tel: 01621 740357
Fax: 01621 742410

You can also find directions on google and they have a very good website. There is loads of parking space and it is a good spot for a walk after a nose about the farm


This week saw a little treat in the form of a trip to Springstep Goat Farm in the wilds of Mundon. This is a working farm where the goats are well looked after and the produce outstanding. The farm produces a selection of cheeses - soft and hard which can be brought from the shop or found at a number of different farmers markets across the county. I am a bit of a fan of their Mould ripened soft curd cheese - "Nose Knocker". The also produce milk and a very good ice cream. Goats milk is low in cholesterol so if you have an issue this could well be the way forward.

The farm will also sell you half a goat for £50 which seamed very reasonable to me, so next time we go I think I might be bringing home some goat to cook.

When you get there you can eat a beautiful selection of lovingly made cakes (sadly not cholesterol free) I tried their toffee date cake, very impressive but the slice was big enough to kill me off for the rest of the day!!! They also have a nice selection of sandwiches and light bitey things to suit most pallets.

On a note for those city types, it is a working farm full of farm animals therefore there are flys! lots of flys that fly about doing fly things. There is nothing to be done about them so if you do go on a day where flys are flying about please don't moan about it. IF you don't like flys there are pleatny of sterilised places for you to go and eat. I could not help but feel sorry for the poor woman serving in the cafe as what must have been the 50th person that day complained about the flys. What exactly they wanted her to do about them was beyond me.

The history of Mundon Hall Farm is a long one, and it's oldest feature is the petrified oak forest that grows within it's boundary. You can go for a walk and look at them, we did not get time on this visit but after the cake felt it was best if we saved something to go back for a second time. The oak forest in Mundon is first mentioned in the Domesday book so its been around for a while. Later, the oaks narrowly missed being cut down for use as masts when a fleet was built to sail against the Spanish Armada, you can if you are feeling energetic take a stroll down to Mundon spit and look at the estuary. The trees were rejected for their twisted trunks, which today draw admiring glances from many ramblers. The oaks are home to numerous wildlife, including owls, and in their roots, rabbits and foxes.

The farm itself is a classical Victorian Farmhouse, it has a lovely feel to it and the staff are very welcoming. It is clearly a family run business and on the day we went, mums and aunts had been called in to prepare the fruit ready for jamming. Outside, a lovely pond is surrounded by plants and you can eat outside if you wanted to. the pond is the home of carp, tench and rudd and you can see them bobbing about.

The house is built on the site of an old monastery, and today, the 14th century church, St Mary Mundon, still stands. It is currently closed due to renovations by the National Heritage Trust but still worth a look.

The barn was built during the Second World War by German Prisoners of War, and has survived 60 years of 'bracing' British weather. Believe me when i say there is not much to stop the wind in any direction.

Some years ago the farm became home to a herd of imported alpacas. It was felt that many would die during their quarantine period but few did and while many went off to find new homes a small number still remain at the farm. Their wool is harvested and is apparently of good quality so you might well get to buy alpaca jumpers in the near future. The alpacas had just had a visit from one very lucky Mr Alpaca a few days before we arrived and were looking pretty tickerty boo with themselves. So there may well be some baby alpacas on the way soon.

Some pastels and paintings

The Doughy Dog

Well the sowing insperation took me the other day after a trip round Leigh, where I saw a very cool doggy shaped door stop. Just what I was looking for, for my kitchen I thought. I did not however have the £36 to spend on said doggy door stop, so back on the bike and down to the local fabric shop for a bit of reminant (£2) and then home to make the pattern and sew it all together. A final hunt about the garden provied enough stones to fill the feet and give it a bit of weigh and some old bedding filled the rest. There, job done.

Galavanting with Granny

Southend Air Show 2009

Corgettes

So I picked my first vegetables from the garden this week. I have been properly impressed by the growth of the courgette plant and how nice the flowers are, which seem to come and go according to the weather. However there was definate joy to be had when I went for my morning constitutional round the garden and discovered two beautiful, ready to eat courgettes hidden under the foliage.
I have of course now shown them to anyone that will spend two minutes and have a look.

A visit from Anna

Friday 17th July 2009

This weekend saw a visit from my old house mate Anna, with the weather forecast - doom and gloom I was feeling a little apprehensive about how she would view the wilds of Essex and after spending 2 hours trying to get through the Dartford Tunnel things were not looking that good. She eventually arrived looking a little frazzled just in time for Gin! and a spot of baggers and mash with onion gravy - which seemed to go down quite well and after a lot of catching up and a good nights sleep we were ready......

Saturday saw the day dawn bright and sunny and after an awesome breakfast of best Italian coffee and fruit salad with home-made drop scones, drizzled honey and clotted cream we headed out to Southend. We decided to check out the library which also houses the Focal Point Gallery (located on the second floor). It was hosting a display by Milly Thompson - bizzar at best, it appeared to be a display of old fashioned draft excluder's with cavity fill on the end which had been painted to represent bodily fluids. Yes it really was quite gross to look at. These had been placed over images of beautiful women advertising beautiful things carefully cut from expensive magazines and pasted on to (deliberately I'm sure) unattractive chip-board boxes painted in magnolia. On the upside the images were colour co-ordinated so that was nice. I am positive that the artist was going for some thoroughly deep and thought provoking angle about us all being the same on the inside even if some of us are attractive on the outside, but personally I found it all very amateurism and disappointing. Who knows with conceptual artists though, maybe that was what she was going for.

The library was however very good, with loads of space and books, films, computers, research facility's and the hustle and bustle of a well used resource.

This was quickly followed by a trip the the museum - but with the weather still bright and sunny outside we did not stay long and moved our way through the town centre, via a quick look round the next sale (got some very reasonable red and blue tights) and Marks and Sparks for lunch and headed on down to the seafront gardens to eat our picnic. The event was spoilt slightly by some obscene old man making inappropriate comments and gestures. As Anna pointed out - you get less and less inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt!

Lunch finished we headed down to the sea front and wondered about what I think is referred to as the "Golden Mile" but what is certainly an oar-inspiring combination of lights and noise. Adventure land provided entertainment but neither of us felt inclined to take on the assortment of gut-wrenching rides. After all if one is going to pay for a Marks and Sparks picnic, you are unlikely to want to give it up! We eventually wondered along the sea front until the need to sit down and drink coffee overwhelmed us and we had to spend a pleasant half hour watching the world go by as we drank our coffee in the sun.

As we made our way back towards home the call of TKmax and Debenhams was just too much and we spent a pleasant couple of hours rummaging through the assorted sale bargains until we were asked to leave as they wanted to close up and go home.

Sunday started with a good lay in and then a trip to old Leigh where we started the day with a very fine bacon sandwich. What more could a girl ask for? Our stomachs taken care off we headed for a little constituional walk along the side of Benfleet creek taking in the the views and enjoying the blustery conditions whipping across the mud flaps. As the sky's darkened further we decided to head up to Hadleigh Castle by car.

Once there the views as always were quite staggering and we caught a break in the clouds so that we could enjoy them without fear of being drown by the promising bleak skyline. We had a good explore and hunted up and down the site for clues of its former glory. It was about this time that the need for coffee became quite prevalent and as we wondered back towards the car we found ourselves instead sat at the top of the hill in the Salvation Army Cafe drinking a very good brew and enjoying the views from the veranda. As the rain drew in we headed back towards home for a late lunch.

You will be glad to know that Anna's return Journey to Kent was slightly less fraught and took a much more reasonable one and three quarter hours.

cressing temple