The end of the project

This project is now closed.  The installations have been removed, either by me, vandals or the ravages of time and there are no more exhibitions planned.  The cache boxes are still in place though and anyone can access those if they want a long walk by the coast in South Cornwall.

The end of the trail

Finally I have handed everything in and had it all marked.  The gallery looks fantastic and, now that the stolen computer (including the DVD of my film!) has been replaced, the entire exhibition looks just as I wanted it to.  I have to say that editing of the film is not exaclty as I would like it. 

I found Final Cut to be a difficult program to use, especially since I used 2 different cameras to shoot the film and did not render them before I began editing them.  This made my life hell, but I wont bore people reading this with the reasons why. 

All that is left is to upload it onto U-tube and then this Blog is at the end of its journey.  Anyway, hereare a few photos of the exhibition.  The link to the film is also here so you can see for yourselves. 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--rEknT22Qk

   Hope you enjoy them!

And Finally

At last the final cache is out and you can now visit all seven of the Fal trail.  It is up to individuals to decide which order they chose to do things in but the logical way would be from Bishop's Wood down to Another Brick in the Wall, following the river as it grown.  The best way to find the caches is to log into http://www.geocaching.com/ and go to hide and seek a geocache.  At the bottom of this page you have the option to search for caches by a named individual and if you type 'Frankiebo' into the serach box it will give you all the caches that I have hidden, including the seven on the River Fal and one (between a rock and a hard place) which is near Portishead and nothing to do with this trail.  What ever you do, take your time to enjoy the places and think about what they mean to you and to people through the centuries past and to come, enjoy the locations and, if you feel like it, add to the Artist's Books.  Remember, if you don't walk, my art does not exist!
I am in the middle of creating a short art film to accompany this project.  It will follow in due course.

Six out of seven Geocaches now in position with their ceramics in place!

After another weekend when the weather could not have been more helpful, there are now six ceramic installations in place along the River Fal, each of which can be found by looking on the website: http://www.geocaching.com/ and searching for caches by Frankiebo.  Or you can just set off with a map and search them out using grid references.  The only trouble is that if you do that you will not find the artists books so can I ask that you draw or paint or sketch something and email it to me at frankieboase@gmail.com so that I can include your work in my project.  Each of the pieces is inspired by the textures and significance of the location, highlighting the importance and fragility of the landscape and man's relationship with it.  because I do not want to exhibit the ceramics in a gallery I have decided to create a short art film about the project which will be uploaded onto i-tunes at some point.  As a part of the film I wanted to record some of the sounds of the area. 

Hence I was standing by Tresemple Pool at 5.00 on Saturday morning recording the best, longest and loudest dawn chorus of my life.  A truly uplifting experience.

 If you walk out and look for my art and think about the links, will you be equally uplifted and restored?  I do hope so.  These pieces are at Tresemple Pool, near Tresillian, Around the corner from Turnaware Point, down on the beach off the coast path from St Mawes to St Just, looking at Messack Point and up on Carricknath.  One more to go which should go into the kiln this week and be in place soon after.
Remember, if you do not walk my art does not exist.

Frankie Boase goes live!

I had a gloriously sunny day in Cornwall yesterday and I am delighted to announce that 2 of my 7 pieces are now in position with the artists books in the geocache boxes and all systems are go.  A few more will follow next weekend and the last few the week after. So it looks as though, provided I get a 'yes' from one more land owner, I should be properly up and running by the end of March which means I am properly on target.

So on the left is the piece hidden in Bishop's Wood and on the right the piece near the Castle.  If you do not own a GPS system you can still find them but you will need to look hard.      The grid references are.... 
Bishop's Wood 832491                                                                                        Castle 841327

If you do go and find them, please add comments to this blog or send me a sketch!  Enjoy yourselves and remember, If you don't walk my art does not exist! 

Setting up the geocache trail

At last I feel that I am making progress with this trail.  I have now placed some of the boxes for the geocache trail and in fact 3 of them have gone live; The ones in Bishop's Wood, Tresemple Pool and by the St Mawes Castle.  They do not have the artists books in them yet and nor do they have the accompanying sculptures but I now have a lot of successful pieces out of the kiln.  They juts need putting together and setting out.

I have been quite surprised that people are already visiting the caches and I wish that I had got the artists books ready to put in them.  I even have people leaving me little drawings despite the absence of the books.  I am absolutely delighted by this.  On the down side, I am having some trouble laying all the caches as the National Trust has taken exception to the idea.  I am rather surprised by this.  I thought they would love the plan to engage people with their environment and consider mans connection to his surroundings.  Oh well, I do not think this is a complete block on the idea.  There are other land owners around.  I shall try them instead.  I managed to get some photos of my exhibition pieces on the beach with the sun shining at the same time.  I am quite pleased with some of these photos:

Geocaches go live....

My practice cache, 'Between a Rock and a Hard Place' is now live and has even had its first visitor!
I am off to Cornwall today to place the main batch of caches although it will be a couple more weeks before I begin to add the art work.  However, I have been making hard and, just to wet your appetite for what I have in mind here is an image of one of my pieces waiting now to be fired next week...

Practice Run

Today I placed a cache on the coast path between Portishead and Clevedon.  I wanted to test the system so that I knew how to do it and how long it would take to go live.  I also need to know whether it is possible to edit a post on the website once it has gone live.

I have called my cache 'Between a Rock and a Hard Place'.  I will post on my blog when it goes live and you can all go looking for it then!

Almost Ready

I am almost ready to start laying my trail now.  The making of the sculptures is well under way and I have been researching exactly where the caches will go.  I will need to alter some of the locations because there are other geocaches already in the area and I cannot get too close to them.  I also need to get permission from the land owners, the National Trust, the Forestry Commision and English Heritage before I can position the caches.  The Forestry Commision has an agreement with Geocachers so the site in Bishop's Wood will be fine and I do not think the others will be a problem becuase there are other caches on their land so as long as I stick to the rules I am hopeful that they will say ok.

I have finished the sculpture for St Mawes although I have not put it together yet so there is no image.  That should follow shortly.  The others are getting underway fast now and I am planning to do a lot of making next week.  In each case I have made a little artist's book which will go into the cache.  This will inform people about the sculpture and also have space for people to add their own thoughts, comments and drawings.  In each case the idea is to draw links between the ancient and more recent links between the locality and us; In Bishops Wood for example the sculpture will be in a niche in a Yew Tree and I want to draw a connection between the ancient and more modern uses of Yew (Long bows and cancer treatment) and, by making the sculpture fragile, hint at the fragility of our ancient woodlands.  http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2010/September/30091002.asphttp://www.medieval-castle-siege-weapons.com/castle-defend.html

It strikes me that a link to the Geocaching UK website might be useful for people to be able to see what I am talking about before I actually go live so here it is: http://gagb.co.uk/ 
Anyone can start geocaching.  All you need is a GPS and you can get hold of one for about £60 on line. Then you register with http://www.geocaching.com/ find out where there are caches near your home and off you go.  Just remember to be responsible about how you search and abide by the rules laid down by the organisers.  It adds something to a walk and is great fun for children.

Geocaching Underway.

I thought I should go and find a few geocaches so that I know what they should look like.  As I am in London for the weekend I wen and looked for some around Richmond Park.  I had a great time looking and managed to find 3 so I was pretty pleased with that as a first time out with my own GPS.  I want to do a few more bedfore I start laying my trail so I shall try a few at home in Portishead and then in Cornwall.  I had no idea there are so many.  If you want to get involved the website is:  http://www.geocaching.com/ 

Transitions exhibition Weston College

I thought it would be a good idea to copy the link to the press release for the Transitions exhibition into my blog.  http://www.thewestonmercury.co.uk/news/inspiring_art_1_769295
I have the two pieces (which are described in a previous post) in the exhibition which is a group show on the common theme of transition.  As far as my pieces, which are exhibited under the name Frankie Boase, are concerned this is the transition from raw, liquid clay slip to brittle, hard translucent shapes over which I have had limited control once they went into the kiln.  The result are pieces which reflect our natural environment and make a statement about the changes within it and the fragility of our beautiful landscape.

Group exhibition, Weston College.

My project for the River Fal has been slightly on hold recently as I have worked towards a group exhibition at Weston College which opens on Monday.  The work that is going into the show is still inspired by the same ideas.  Fragile Earth reflected in fragile pieces.  I have created two installations; reedbed and geoforms.  Here are some images.

Reedbed was created by wrapping porcelain slip around reed stems which were fired to 1260C so that the porcelain has become slightly translucent.  The reed stems burned away to leave hollow tubes.  These have been suspended just above a mirror so that they will move slightly in the breeze and the reflections of them are almost continuous with the real thing.  This image shows them not quite ready to exhibit.  There is still some tidying up to be done around the base of each one but I think this image shows the effect that I am trying to achieve.  The reeds are suspended from a roof tile.  In order to check that the tile could take the load I decided to do a trial run with screw drivers as the less precious weights on each strand of line.  The effect is remarkable.  I wonder if the Saatchi Gallery might be interested!

For Geoforms I spread sheets of porcelain slip about 1metre in diameter onto plaster bats, taking time between each addition of clay so that strata built up within the clay.  I then rolled the clay onto a roller and laid it on a paper former which was draped over a bin while it dried to give multiple folds.  When it was fired, because of the extreme thinness of the clay and the size of the pieces a considerable degree of uncontrolled warping has taken place.  This has given rise to unpredictable tears and folds which are representative of the lack of control that we really have over our environment.  Several of these shapes have been grouped onto a bed of slate chippings which gives an informal gallery setting.  I considered placing the pieces individually on plinths lit from below to give the porcelain an ethereal transparency but discarded the idea as creating an image of over formality and making them look too precious.

I think my work is beginning to look a bit like that of Cornelia Parker  http://www.frithstreetgallery.com/artists/bio/cornelia_parker/  who uses visual and verbal allusions to supply cultural metaphors which change very ordinary objects into fascinating installations and whose recent work has begun to focus on issues such as globalisation which are close to my heart.   Both will be shown under my artistic name of Frankie Boase.