SUSANNA CANDLIN – Artist

I’m actually writing this on the way home from day 15; we have a quick turnaround this evening as Ben and I are going to London for a private view at the IMT Gallery in Bethnal Green. I have some of my hybrid pieces, Stomata, in a group show entitled Naturally Non Binary. I’ll post some photos in tomorrow’s blog.

Today, my first cloudy day of the residency, Millie, Isabelle and Eliza came to finish their Strange Beings:

There wasn’t much work to be done; I just needed to think about the conduits which are going to escape from the gallery into the courtyard. I worked outside until it started to pour with refreshing rain (the first I’ve seen in weeks because it’s still dry in our neck of the Hertfordshire woods). 

Ben and my elder son Sam were here with me today,  because Ben’s parents from Cambridge were meeting us for lunch at this equidistant point between our house and theirs: they also wanted to see the installation.  When they arrived at midday, we took refuge under the awning, chatting and eating and discussing possible titles for the show. I’ve spent the last couple of days writing an explanatory information panel for the work and its provenance,  but still hadn’t come up with a satisfactory name that embodies all its multifarious elements. I think I’ve found it now…

When the sun came out again,  Frances Wilson walked to the Courtyard from her house around the corner, and she and fellow poet Christina Buckton (my dear mother-in-law) swapped stories about boarding school and what started their poetry writing. They swapped poetry books too, with the promise of a future meeting (they hit it off just as I hoped they would!)

There were a few visitors to the installation today, one of whom said that it reminded her of the tangle of wires behind her TV as well as Stranger Things on Netflix, which I haven’t seen but sounds great…