Artist Frances Anderson on Art in the Sky

Could you describe your work in the Art in the Sky exhibition? Tell me a bit about the research themes and subjects that feed into your work.

The work that's in the Out in the Sky exhibition, so I have three large kites which are my breath kites.

So they link to my work that is rooted in my affinity and love of water.

I'm a channel swimmer and I've spent a lot of time in the water so it informs my practice.

They're made, they are printed kites so the process is quite long and complex.

So it starts with a swim and then photographing the movement of the water in my breath and then creating a plate, a photographic plate which is then printed with an intaglio printmaking process and then using Japanese paper and printing onto the Japanese paper And then I'm constructing the kite and each of the circles of the breath kites represents one breath of a swim.

So in total each of those breath kites, first breath, second breath, third breath, represent approximately two and a half minutes worth of swimming of breaths, the 60 breaths.

And so there's those kites, there is the film that is related to the kites and the my movement and my the notion of being immersed in water and being completely absorbed so the film again is me moving through the water and my observations of the water and looking up from the water to the world outside so there's that connection it's a little bit like when you're standing on the beach and you're flying the kite you've got your you've got your work up in the sky and you're looking with it over the top of you and it's the same sort of feeling as when you're in the water and you're if you're looking up and through and underwater looking up um and noticing lots of so when you spend a lot of time in the water you notice lots of details about the water so that's a lot of my work is around that and also kind of trying to resolve some of the experiences about what happens to you and how small you feel and insignificant when you are swimming long distances and how you become part of that environment.

So you're completely immersed in it.

And you notice the subtle changes and the subtle differences in temperature.

You can see the tide changing and the planktons increasing.

kind of intention and then it moves when the tide changes.

So all those little things and trying to bring those into my work.

So in the alcove you have the three breath kites.

You've also got some prints on some heavier weight paper which link to the film.

So that whole installation is about that breath, the breathing, the moving and being absorbed and being completely part of the water.

And then upstairs you've got another little kite which is again little breaths and the marks that are made by water moving through the sand and the traces that it leaves.

And you've also then got the prints that began this process of the kites, so the little moments, but in their pure print form, if you like, before they became kites.

And it's been an ongoing process where... exploring techniques and methods and the images and then thinking, a lot of thinking and a lot of time.

There's been quite a lot of time between the first prints and the kites being made.

So it's about resolving that, how I want to show those, but how they then came through into the kites.