Yarnbomb-tastic!!!

There have been two themes that we have been exploring over the 5 weeks at Northbourne - Identity and Connectivity. By our 5th week here, we have been able to organically let them merge as themes, and aspects of the work has manifested into the yarn bombing of Low Fell! In a bid to connect Northbourne Care Home with the Low Fell community, we have been galvanising an army of residents, family members, including Claire's grandma and other artists, including 'Open Clasp' Theatre Director, Trina McHugh, MBE to create over 70 knitted envelopes. Each envelope contains one of the postcards made using the thumb prints created in the early days of the residency. 

Last week Amy, Claire and Phyllis trekked out in the pouring rain to 'Yarn-bomb' the area outside Costa Coffee in Low Fell, about 200 yards from Northbourne. The rest of us stayed dry and watched them on the big screen through Skype in the dining room… The Yarnbombing was an invitation for people from the local area to take a postcard and write to someone who lives at Northbourne. We didn't really know what to expect, response-wise but this week we already have had 30 replies sent directly to residents. We all, including residents have been a bit overwhelmed!

The messages have been so lovely. Most contain return addresses and Amy has been able to use the postcards to work with individual residents, having meaningful conversations and write replies. After feeling quite sad that the residency was coming to an end, the yarnbomb / postcards are our stepping stone into the next phase of the project. Even though we won't be living here anymore, we really want to continue collaborating with Northbourne and keep this dialogue with the community open and developing over the coming months (please send us an email through the 'contacts' bar if you would like to write to a resident!)

08/09/17 - Day 33 / Week 5: Alison and Two Margarets

Alison works here part time. After watching our video of Joan and her 'Skypewalk', she wanted to talk to us about some other residents - people she had got to know and really like, some with interesting and some with ordinary life stories. Our project and the open-ness of the blog has encouraged staff to see it as a place to share stories about residents and possibly themselves and to be excited about the potential for the blog to reach lots of people. It has been interesting for us to hear so much more about the residents lives. She wanted to show us paintings by one woman, Margaret Hall, who had died just a few weeks ago and whose belongings are still at Northbourne, including a lot of her artwork. Alison wanted to have Margaret and her work be on our blog, and be remembered.

'Margaret worked as an art teacher for a few years and lived with her mum, dad and brother. She basically devoted her time to her art and to her religion, she was a very religious woman. As a child her most treasured memories were between her and her brother. She remembers playing on a beach with him, with a red ball. Later in her life she used to send money abroad to orphanages, she would you know, respond to the kind of leaflet you or I might ignore - you can see in her stuff, she has thank-you letters from families all over the world. She was in The Gateshead Art Society and did an art degree in London before coming back up here to teach art for a few years and she was funny - a real character. Everybody here knew her, she was loud and nosey - she liked to know what was going on.
There were more paintings but I think a cousin in Scotland has taken a few, I don't know, I'll have to check. They're good though aren't they -strange. She said her mum never smiled. The paintings of her mum and dad weren't hung up, she had the drawing of her brother above her bed.
And I want to say it for posterity because I think it is wrong that the church didn't come and sit with her. For all the years she gave to the church, I think it's a shame nobody came to be with her at the end. I don't think anyone should die by themselves. We stay with them, for an hour at a time, even when we're short staffed. You shouldn't have to be alone.'

Margaret had lived in Gateshead all her life, and her wish had been to give her work to The Shipley Art Gallery after she died. We are going to try, along with Alison to get someone from there to come over and take a look at them. Many of the people living here knew her and still love coming into the annexe to look at her paintings. I spent an afternoon with a different Margaret and we looked through and talked about Margaret Hall's paintings.

06/09/17 - Day 31 / Week 5: The Canopy

Northbourne is surrounded by trees. Every window looks onto green. I love that Margaret (who plays golf and loves art) notices the trees every day, I suppose it might be easy to get used to them. Often meals in the dining room are long, quite difficult affairs for some, and they are so quiet! Just the sound of the always-on tv. So after breakfast last Friday we thought it would be interesting to change the environment by turning the tv off, covering all the tables with paper, changing the space by moving them all to face the window and inviting whoever was interested to join in to sit for a while and move some different shades of green paint around.

Dawn and Kate, the housekeepers wandered in and started painting - they chat and laugh with everybody and I think it gives licence to others. Amy went to get some of the leaves from outside, bringing them in and Kathleen reckoned they were Ash, Sycamore and Rhododendron. Mary, who I have drawn with before and who knows 'My Love is Like A Red Red Rose' off by heart, at first seemed annoyed that I had even asked her to paint and attacked the paper with the brush, probably frustrated that I was offering a paintbrush and she struggles so much to move her arm. So she sort of thrashed the paper with paint, and shouted a bit. Realising that this was totally fine - that we were all in fact going to copy her, and that there aren't particular answers or techniques needed to make gestural marks on paper and that the more expressive the better, Mary painted for about 2 hours, whispering about a woodpecker under her breath.

'Woody Woody Woodpecker
I wish I was you...'

I am writing and posting a lot of these blogs a few days after the events I am describing as I am finding it hard to talk about people. The residency has all been about people - trying to spend time with people who live here without always wearing the hat of 'engagement' or work. But in the event of stripping back toward that intimacy, lines are blurred and it is overwhelming. It will take some time to piece together my new understanding of what it means to be here at Northbourne and understand how it will impact my ideas about art and my approaches to making and talking about it. I do know that more than ever I feel driven to question cultural attitudes to materiality and material as evidence of existence. The war memorial in Low Fell high street is more visited, venerated and embraced than the living people whose lives surely are the only reason a statue like this matters. In the context of 'seeing' people; bearing witness to their lives and personalities, as well as alleviating boredom, making something in the moment and shifting moods and environments, art is a tool of engagement, and it is more than that. When Gemma and I were reciting poetry with Mary I felt I gained a deeper understanding of the Rabbie Burns poem - that you could love a poem all your life, and carry it around within you, ready to use and share whenever you need lifting out of real life. It does leave traces, material ones. But it also leaves intangible ones and private ones - affects that are hard to testify to without changing them, lyricising them and ending up hiding them within versions, objects, images and words made about them.
After doing a group painting like this is, there is an object that exists. Many of the people who painted it won't remember doing it. What happens to it next is a difficult question for me. Having lived here and sat in people's rooms, I know from talking to relatives that most of the resident's belongings are either still in their house with their family- their favourite chairs, duvet covers, crockery, rugs, kettles, plants etc and what is here is a sort of bare minimum - Elizabeth has hardly anything - just a photo in a frame, but her husband comes every day from 10am to 6pm and they go out. I think he probably doesn't bring much stuff in order to avoid the reality that she permanently lives here. Others have more personal items - Hazel has many photos, hankies, ornaments, knitting, 10 pairs of glasses, all continuously folded, moved and arranged - each acting as a conduit to a buried, or half-remembered memory. She has a brooch she says her mother gave her, that is 80 years old, 100 years old, older than she is. Obviously if people express an interest in keeping things made with us - pictures or photographs, that's fine, but this canopy painting is 4 metres long. So we have cut it up and put it into 35 frames. On Friday, at our little celebration day, we will put them all out and offer them to people. They are either new, never seen before gifts from Claire and I, or they are mementos of our time here. If they are not taken, or wanted, I do understand why.

05/09/17 - Day 30 / Week 5: Mary, Gemma and Kate / Quietness

Gemma Seltzer is a poet and writer who applied to be one of the artists coming in to Northbourne whilst we were here to try out different, experimental and open ways of working. Poetry can be private and personal, and she wanted to come to be able to interact and collaborate with other artists who do this work as working as a poet, she is often alone. 
Gemma was here for three days, staying at my house at night. There was a lot of intense talking - about using persona to engage people and whether a 'quiet' persona was possible. Talking about quietness, I realised that I often do small 'performances' every time I enter a room to 'engage' people. I think loudness and humour create a sort of trust - that you will lead and take on the responsibility for whatever happens, however daft! One of the things I love about drawing when I am on my own is the space it provides me to be introverted and to 'withdraw' from the world, but I rarely get a chance to draw with other people in a quiet way. I think I shy away from the intensity required, and the intimacy. We talked about how it can be hard to inhabit, work with and accept quietness and decided to work together on Gemma's final day, using poetry and drawing and make space for introspection and silence in the noisy environment of the dining room.
Gemma had given Mary a rose and was reading 'My Love Is Like A Red Red Rose' by Rabbie Burns to her.

My love is like a red red rose
That's newly sprung in June:
My love is like the melody
That's sweetly play'd in tune.

Mary, sitting in her chair, can seem quite detached and struggles with mobility. As I have spent time with Mary, I could tell she was listening but that Gemma might not realise... so I brought some paper over and, as Gemma read, I began to make marks with charcoal, following the rhythm of Gemma's voice. I invited Mary to join me by holding up and offering a piece of charcoal. She took it and she drew after me, following my line like a dance.

As the lines grew Mary seemed to come into the room more and began to recite the poetry along with Gemma. The first verse was written on paper, but Mary knew all the words beyond the first verse. She was also, ever so quietly, putting on a Scottish accent.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in love am I:
And I will love thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun:
And I will love thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only love,
And fare thee weel a while!
And I will come again, my love,
Tho' it were ten thousand mile.

Mary got tired and I offered the back of my hand for her to hold onto and we drew together.

'I feel like a lark' she said.
We drew a rose

The room noise and sound of the incessant alarm bell faded into the background. Later in the day, Gemma and I talked about the way poetry connects to very early memories that people with Dementia have of poems they learned at school. I want to learn more poetry by rote, as well as songs - I know the first two lines to an awful lot of songs, then it is humming after that. I want to have more ways of speaking other than in conversation. We talked about feeling invigorated by the idea of working so closely as three people, with someone always being able to 'witness' - to see and experience the small things. Poetry had given us a private space within a busy room and drawing had given us a silent way to communicate.

29/08/17 - Day 23 / Week 4: Change of Plan

This morning we had planned to do a really simple group drawing, with wool and a large golden frame. Using the multi-sensory qualities of wool we thought this would work well with a specific group of residents whose communication and dexterous skills are limited, but who do join in and get enthused given time. Using wool is a nice precursor to our yarn-bombing plans for next week. The plan was to be able to incorporate the wool drawing into a mural for Flo’s bedroom.

When we arrived in the dining room at 10am it was very quiet with only a few people sat having breakfast. Our original idea went straight out of the window, as our group wasn’t there. They were out at a hospital appointment, sleeping in or sat in the main lounge. As there were only two people in the dining room, we decided to sit with Oliver. It became apparent that Oliver was upset and distressed because he didn’t have his breakfast served at 9am. He was in the RAF and previously got up around 4:30am to catch his 6am train to work. He loves routine and being on time. By 9am he is hungry. Oliver’s poor eyesight combined with the nature of living in a care home – the fact that you are beholden to the timetable and the pace of the institution means that he has no real control over all the small things that constitute an independent life. His frustration is entirely understandable but it is equally hard to know what to do about it. The staff are also helping 34 other residents get up, go to the bathroom, take medication, get into wheelchairs etc. On one hand it seems essential that the small things are attended to and we want to help Oliver – help him have his breakfast when he is ready. On the other hand, it is clear that Oliver is frustrated every day at breakfast-time. Sometimes he forgets that he has eaten, for example.

We sat with him, sympathising, trying to find solutions and shift the conversation but felt very aware that the staff were probably listening to us and even though it clearly isn’t their fault, as outsiders who arrive to breakfast with cameras, I’m sure it feels unnerving and uncomfortable that we are there. Kate’s reaction was to back off from the situation, and began chatting to someone else, she said that this felt really horrible in one sense but she just didn’t really know what to say! My reaction to his upset and frustration was to say I would get him his breakfast tomorrow morning at 9am. In hindsight, I’m not sure whether this was the best idea as I will be unable to continue this promise as the weeks go on and his frustrations will probably continue. I felt I wanted to help and also felt useless by the fact that anything I did was not really going to solve Oliver’s problem. We didn’t feel able to do the drawing and ended up doing it in the afternoon.

27/08/17 - Day 21 / Week 3: A day in the life of...

Reflecting on our Moving In residency so far I have become aware of how quickly the time is disappearing. It is hard to comprehend that we are now at the end of week 3 - where has it gone?

I wanted to document one of our days to show how our time is spent. We have been planning, making work and reflecting upon it in response to the time we spend with residents, trying as much as possible to be led by their interests. We did initially try to plan every inch of our day, but you can never guess what will occur in real life; whether that is help to find a handbag, assistance to get back to a room or just someone to talk to for an hour. This is something that we wouldn't normally get chance to do when working within a 2 hour time-frame. The regular workshop model would consist of arriving, delivering a session and then packing away. The immersive approach of living at Northbourne can be challenging and tiring but it has made me realise how being constantly present and aware is part of the job for care staff in general and is never praised or spoken about outside of this environment.

24^th of August 2017 - A day in the life of....

8am to 8:30 – Woke up and got dressed for the day

8:30 to 9 – Wrote some emails whilst eating breakfast

9 to 9:30 – Rang companies regarding fixing an old knitting machine I found in the annexe of Northbourne 

9:30 to 11 – Planning and thinking about the timetable for the next few days. Kate and I discussed ideas for the drawing with the group we were going to try out later that day

11 to 12:30 – Showed Amy how to use the sewing machine to make an envelope cushion to re-decorate the bathroom at Northbourne Care Home

- Barbara (Flo’s daughter) came to show Amy and I some of Flo’s stitching work and certificates she had earned as prizes for the sewing she used to do - it was exquisitely hand-stitched.

12:30 to 1 – Went into Flo’s bedroom with Barbara to look at all of Flo’s textile equipment which Barbabra has brought over from her old flat to her new home at Northbourne

1 to 1:15 – Ate a sandwich for lunch

1:15 to 1:30 – Got all materials and resources ready and transported it to the 2^nd floor of the care home for the 'Active Minds' activity box training and sharing event with activity coordinators from various care homes in the area

1:30 to 3:30 – Did the Active Minds' activity box training and sharing event

3:30 to 4 – Helped Flo find her handbag for half an hour

4 to 4:15 – Looked at the newly re-decorated bathroom Amy has been working on to make the bathrooms less institutional and more friendly. Various staff members were lending a hand.  

4:15 to 5 – Wrote up notes from the afternoon session to send to Equal Arts and activity coordinators

5 to 6 – Took a shower

6 to 7:30 – Sat knitting for the Yarn Bombing action we are planning for September...

7:30 to 9 – Had a few (alcoholic) drinks whilst looking at and discussing a print of a Lowry painting, chosen as the mills in the image are similar to the ones Flo would have worked in. Turns out Gwen worked in a 'pop' (fizzy drinks)  factory too. We then all did a large-scale painting on the floor using projection of the exact cotton mill that Flo worked in, onto paper with brushes tied on sticks, inspired by the Lowry image.

9 to 9:30 – Walked into Low Fell for some fresh air and to pick up some food

9:30 to 10:30 – Sat and wrote my reflections on the day

10:30 – Relaxed and had a bit of my own time before going to sleep; this is when we skype partners, watch telly or read!!

22/08/17 - Day 16 / Week 3: Casting Gestures

Link to 'The Housekeeper's Hands' video

We have been able to start thinking with the care staff about gesture and about trying to capture moments of their working life in hand casts. I love the idea of a small collection of statues attesting to aspects and elements of working here. When I asked Robert why he chose to cast his hand holding a pen he said, "For all you're able to communicate with your mouth, with a pen you can keep a diary - you might be more intimate with a diary than you are with your best friend. Things can hold a lot of stories."

Today Gwen and I photographed some of the hand casts, including hers. Her hand-cast is an impression of some 'Welsh' knitting - a way of knitting she says is different to how people knit up here (I can't knit but I love the idea that knitting is like a dialect!)

The casting is an interesting process to try with the residents as it is multi-sensory. The alginate smells minty, so as long as you haven't had too much time in the dentist (it's the stuff they use to cast your teeth) it smells quite pleasant, but not everyone understandably is keen to stick their hands into a bucket of pink slime! When words and conversation no longer carry a lot of meaning for a person, their senses become heightened as well as their way of connecting and it is only really curiosity that lets us know that a person wants to have a go. Derek is blind so obviously his sense of touch is important to him. He was very interested in the hand cast we brought him in to hold - the weight of it and the feel of the plaster and the shape of the fingers. We held hands to dip into the slime.



Talking about the casts in a poetic, open way, when everything that is said in the space of the conversation is written down and valued creates text that isn't a logical or linear narrative but resounds with indirect, slant references and thoughts. I had a discussion with Hazel about Robert's hands and wrote down what she said:

"The only thing that rings a bell for me with this is are these two fingers because they are together.
1, 2, 3, 4 fingers and that would be the thumb - the one that leads you in.
One of my fingers you see doesn't work. I keep the ring on it just to feel the finger is still there.
I'm not good at knowing what it's made of - my Dad would be able to tell you straight but I had no brothers - there were five of us girls. If I was doing it in cookery though, it'd be like when you make a flat cake with a decoration on the top!
Dad didn't appreciate anything I made, so I never shown him anything but I won an award for making an ordinary plain statue, only half way down I'd bent the leg and it wouldn't go back so I just left it… I never tell anybody because I'm a little bit embarrassed.

Actually it's like your hand that."

21/08/17 - Day 15 / Week 3: Florence Makes a Collar

Florence, who is 96 used to work in a cotton mill in Chadderton, near Oldham. She insists she can't sew any more but when Claire found a Victorian sewing machine in the reminiscence room, Flo just sat down and started to make the collar that Richard had pinned. Florence repeats certain details from her life over and over, but she is happy. It is interesting as you sort of forget she has Dementia as the stories are so lucid and she isn't distressed. She doesn't really know why she isn't at home, and does worry occasionally about that. She also doesn't remember details in the recent past - most things drift after maybe a few minutes. It is hard to know what to say when she asks who made that, or who has sewn that on? Sometimes if you say, it was you Flo! You can see in her face that she is surprised and momentarily confused; 'did I?' Rather than dwell on who made it, we tend to just move on to whether we think it is interesting or not, and shall we make (another) one? She enjoys making things and later on she enjoys looking at the work.

https://youtu.be/HsrKzHEctEQ

There are so many critical issues and events in a single day in a care home that it is easy to feel that 'art' and being creative is insignificant - even that it gets in the way. The first few days we were here, we definitely felt unsure about what we were doing, and did feel extraneous. So it has helped to have a couple of questions written on the wall, and just run them over everything we do. 'How does living in a care home environment affect our practice?' and 'What are the new ways of working that we are developing from being immersed in this environment?'
For three evenings this week, artist Richard Bliss has come to join us for a few hours and has been working on his piece, 'Quest For a Perfect Shirt' (read here on Richard's blog about his 'Moving In' experience). Richard's project concept is to sit in various locations (bars, cafes, trains, bus-stops and this care home) and hand sew a shirt. The activity attracts attention and conversations start. These conversations help decide the design of the next shirt.
We wanted to invite other artists into Northbourne on the simple premise that they work alongside and in the same space as the residents. It is extremely hard to see people just sitting in a chair staring at the wall, and artists always need and want spaces to work in, to allow those spaces and the people that occupy or drift through them to influence or resonate with the work. The simple act of inviting them into a lounge or dining room of a care home, not to 'entertain' or even attempt to 'engage' anyone, for us is an exciting one. It's a mutually beneficial situation that feels relaxed and alive with the potential for genuine, spontaneous human interaction and reciprocity.

18/08/17 - Day 12 / Week 2: Good Company and Sea Air

After Amy asked all of the residents if they wanted to come to the Seaside – only two residents were excited by the idea of going. I’m not sure why the other residents didn’t want to come. I think this may be down to a culmination of reasons from not feeling well, been out of the care home routine, or not wanting to go in a wheelchair….. Florence and Oliver were up for it! They were both in great spirits and as soon as we got out of the door of the care home, we all felt a completely different energy.

We spent time walking (and wheeling), smelling and breathing in the wonderful sea air - its like nothing else, listening to children on their summer holidays playing on the beach, eating fish and chips, reminiscing about rambling and and talking about other coastlines, from Blackpool to Sunderland concluding with licking ice-creams that were melting in the sun’s heat.

It was just wonderful to be out of the stuffy air of the care home environment and to feel like a group of friends enjoying a nice day out, without distractions of the alarm and bell noises, medication rounds and set meal times. It felt like freedom! At one point, Florence put her hand onto Oliver’s and they had a conversation about their lives, discussing siblings, relationships and where they were from.  

Activity Coordinator, Amy had booked the taxis and brought warm coats. Her deep connection and knowledge of the residents is special. When we returned back to Northbourne, Oliver said ‘What a wonderful day we have had’ and Florence responded with ‘What a nice change, a beautiful sunny day’. I felt completely honoured to have been part of such a poignant day.  

It was wonderful to spend quality with Amy and to hear her ideas, one of her ideas was a Northbourne Sleepover…watch this space!