My first 2 years in Scarborough

I moved to Scarborough from Faversham in Kent in September 2009, with the intention of settling here and turning a dilapidated and damp 5 floor B&B into a working artists’ studio, gallery and letting room. The project is progressing slowly, but I’m getting there. However, I am enormously proud to be able to say that I have managed to come through the building site stage with my sanity intact, and have even produced some new artwork! The Studio Gallery is up and running, and I have my first guests staying in The Studio Flat this weekend.  Two more to ticks on the list of things to do before I'm 50! So what's happened to Helen Birmingham, Mixed Media Artist in the last two years?

My fascination is with the concept of evolution and heredity. 2009 was the 150th anniversary of the publication of “The Origin of Species” and an exhibition of my Darwin-inspired artwork was held at Broughton House Gallery in Cambridge as part of the University’s Darwin Festival.

The summary of that exhibition concluded that future pieces of work would inevitably draw reference from their predecessors, and have a common ancestry, but that the nature of evolution meant I could not fully anticipate where my work would take me. In fact, my move to North Yorkshire has served to heighten my interest in the geological and fossil evidence for a belief in evolution over creation, and my first piece of work to be ‘made in Yorkshire’ was called “Ebb and Flow”. It was exhibited at the East Coast Open in 2010 and was inspired by the geological strata and the regularity and inevitability of the tides. At the time of making “Ebb and Flow” I was beginning to soak up the character and history of my new surroundings, and found myself particularly drawn to a footprint made in the concrete near the Lido on South Bay. The simple imprint of a builder’s boot. Whilst in the pursuit of maintaining a structure and protecting it from nature’s power, a fragment of history had been captured. It occurred to me that here was evidence of today’s footprints becoming tomorrow’s fossils - a reflection of the past and a glimpse into the future. “Time & Tide: an exhibition for Scarborough” was conceived.

“Time & Tide” was exhibited at the Stephen Joseph Theatre gallery as part of Coastival in February 2011 and remained on display there throughout March. The work is now on display at The Studio Gallery at 5 Belle Vue Parade and can be viewed there until April 2012. “Time & Tide” incorporates images and poems relating to Scarborough’s unique character. I hope the work will be seen as an affectionate portrayal of the town through the eyes of a newcomer. It comprises ten major pieces, each one a compilation of 25 postcard sized mixed media artworks looking at key areas of the town’s history and local attractions. My intention was to create a body of work which depicts Scarborough’s past together with a sense of the present. All ten pieces have the same basic format but different inspirations - there is something very satisfying to me in the structures formed by repetition, but I have to force myself to remain aware of the thread of intent which runs through the work.

Whilst making this body of work I found it hard to forge a pathway through the piles of ephemera which often cluttered my working surface. My work is created by repeating, copying and combining images, using a variety of materials and techniques. Much of the work contains precious yet seemingly insignificant scraps which have been carefully set aside and cherished from previous pieces, in order to maintain a physical and hereditary link between individual pieces. Ideas evolve as images are perpetuated, mutated or extinguished in a self-indulgent process of artistic ‘natural selection’. Creating ten linked, but totally individual pieces was challenging. I found that the only way forward was to immerse myself in the research and creation of each key area in isolation. I was conscious of the danger that over time some of the excitement of new ideas could be dimmed, and yet I was constantly surprised by the vigour and vitality which remained at the core. One of the most personally challenging aspects of this project was mastering enough carpentry skills to make the ‘Victorian’ cases in which the work is displayed. The overall presentation of the work forms an integral part of the intention behind the exhibition, therefore many long but necessary hours were spent with mitre cutter, panel pins and a hammer.

As an artist I believe I have two distinct roles: the hand which creates the image, acting as a force of nature, and the eye which combines awareness with artistic vision in identifying beneficial changes, and encouraging their evolution. Within my own restless planet I am artist, creator and research scientist. The experience of creating “Time & Tide” was at times frustrating and yet enormously satisfying. Inevitably my ideas, images and methods of working are continuing to evolve, and I have been setting aside many more precious scraps to return to, and thankfully my enthusiasm to do so is still burgeoning. 

Charles Darwin surmised that “Changes begin by pure chance, and then, if they prove to be beneficial they are perpetuated.” The notion of slow-moving forces acting over a long period of time was the underpinning of the theory of evolution. Natura non facit saltum (nature makes no leap). This idea leads me, as an artist, to think not only about what action I play on the surface of my work, but also how can I best record the history of those actions.

My background in printmaking leads me towards the practice of making multiple images, but I am excited by the notion that no two images are truly identical. Chance or mutation comes into play. For example, if I use a printing lock to create two images which to all intents and purposes are the same, slight alterations in the process of their making will inevitably create slightly different images. I may press slightly harder, the thickness of the ink may differ slightly or there may be slight imperfections in the paper for example. I can pick out the changes or mutations which are beneficial to that piece of work, and enhance them by stitching, burning or embellishing the surface. One of the eureka moments in my artwork was the realisation that if forces are proportionate in macrocosm and microcosm, I have terrifying power at my command. I am the force of nature acting on the surface of my artwork. I can choose to replicate sedimentation, erosion or seismic activity.

Nearing 50 I realise, at last, that I am in control of my life. I've made a good start, but where to now . . . . ?