What is your tutor up to? Chapter 18: Lydia Halcrow

OCA tutor Lydia Halcrow has a solo show which opened on Wednesday 30 May and runs until Saturday 16 June in Arcade Gallery Cardiff.
Hold the line – An aspiration to build or maintain artificial defences so that the position of the shoreline remains¹
‘The work in the show is in response to walks in two coastal places: Bideford Bay in North Devon and Porlock Bay in North Somerset, both are places that are not part of the ‘hold the line’ coastal management policy so that over time the sea levels are rising and the coast lines are shifting and changing in response. The title also refers to the drawn line of the horizon in the work.
I walk in these places, as I walk I record the contact of my feet with the ground using metal plates on my boots, I draw directly onto OS maps of each place, snapshots of views of the horizon, snippets of conversations held along the way, rubbings of the ground with earth and graphite.
I collect earth and objects, I observe processes of decay and entropy, and I try to find ways to ‘draw’ and ‘map’ each place using painting and mark-making with these found materials of the place.
Rust is a recurrent process along the walks, the decaying hulls of abandoned ships along the river Taw in North Devon, the rusting pillbox roofs slowly being buried under shingle in Porlock Bay. The work shown here uses rust as a way to record time and weather in each place and a way to make marks and drawings that are of the place.
Taken together the work aims to find new ways to ‘map’ and ‘record’ elements of each place through painting, drawing and mark-making, with the materials from the ground forming a central focus that binds the work together.’
View more of Lydia’s work on her website here.
 
¹Environment Agency Shoreline Management Plan Policies http://apps.environment-agency.gov.uk/wiyby/134834.aspx