Blueprint: Ryde, Isle of Wight. A Research and Development project funded by Arts Council England. Commissioned and produced by Ryde Arts.
The Blueprint project is an exciting, innovative and collaborative approach to informing future public realm work in Ryde. The project centred around experimentation and forms part of a research and development phase that highlights how the design and construction of future public realm work can draw from the town’s existing assets.
UNESCO Biosphere reserve status is about a happy relationship between the natural and human world. In the Blueprint project we explored what this means for the community in Ryde and how to reflect this in our public spaces.
Using artist techniques that puts natural history and geology at the heart of our creative process, we explored Ryde through a series of experimental workshop days. Our process explored the colours that make up the local landscape, landscapes that have formed Ryde and this island. The sessions delved deep into the history of place and celebrate the biological identity of Ryde in the context of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve status.
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The Colour of Place
Making pigments and geospheres from the local strata.
In collaboration with guest artist, Amanda Wallwork.
Geology has more impact on our lives than we are probably aware of, dictating the soil, flora and fauna of our environment and having a profound impact on our sense of place. This workshop offered a chance to connect directly with this place, exploring the colours that make up this landscape and have a go at making geo-earth balls and paints, using materials collected from this area. The session explored the landscapes these colours represent - landscapes that have formed this island and created the materials it is made from and form the bedrock for the essence of place. Amanda Wallwork.
Oak Gall Ink and the canopy of trees
Making Oak gall ink from the trees in Appley park and exploring the importance of tree cover in our towns and cities.
Oak gall ink creates a beautiful brown black ink that is made from tannic acids found within the galls. It was the standard ink formulation used historically in Europe dating back to the 5th century and remained in widespread use today.
As part of Appley Day in October, we led a free, open-access workshop showing the process of making beautiful permanent ink from oak galls. In this outdoor woodland workshop, we looked at the importance of tree cover in our towns and cities and explored the patterns, shadows and shade they create to make experimental oak-gall ink drawings.
Anthotype photographic process, Appley Park, Ryde.
Exploring the darkroom on our doorstep.
Anthotype is a historical, delicate photographic process and an environmentally friendly way of making prints using nothing other than the photosensitive material of plants found in the garden, the flower market or in the wild. We utilise natures own colouring pigments to produce photographs that have virtually zero impact on the environment.
During September we used the last of the Summer sun to lead a workshop exploring a photographic process with minimal environmental impact. Plant emulsions were used to coat porous paper with local flora creating the compositions. Sunlight exposed the prints and as all the resources were natural, the waste went back into the earth. The emphasis was on connecting with place; seeing what grows around us and the colours and forms the plants create.
Images shown here are results from students at Sandown Comprehensive school.
Residency at Department, Ryde
As part of our research and development I (Eleanor) used the window space at Department on Ryde High Street. This allowed time and a physical space on the high street in Ryde to process materials collected locally, hold meetings with local groups and respond to the place and the environment in an immersive way.
“Blueprint has allowed a truly creative response to a place. Working with people that live in Ryde and on the Island, we have been met with an enormously rich natural resources and community spirit that feels like just the start of something very special”
Research and development exhibition and presentation
A final presentation of work made throughout the Blueprint project. Councillors, participants and stakeholders attended a presentation and exhibition and took home a bottle of Appley park oak gall ink, harvested and made in Ryde.
Collection boxes show pigments collected and processed in Ryde and in a sense make up its visual identity in its purest form. The pigments are displayed in handmade oak presentation boxes, stained with oak gall ink which was made and processed in Ryde by the local community.
Special thanks to guest artist Amanda Wallwork who is credited for the creation of the Eocene collection of Geospheres photographed below.
Denman and Gould.
“Blueprint is a Research and Development project and as such is a work in progress. The ideas Eleanor has explored exemplifies the wealth of resources available on our doorstep and the powerful narratives that can be found through creative exploration and experimentation”
