"shores"

Our neighbours Herb and Fannie were over for a visit this afternoon.  I showed Herb the burlap flake that I made.  He introduced me another vernacular word "shore", or "to shore".   "Shores" are the posts, supports of the flake structure, or any building structures.  It is also used as a verb, "shore" up the longer (a long pole used to make the platform of a flake).  Herb said he would show me how to put the shores up to the longer.  I will go to see him in the next few days.

Fishing Flake sculpture

I picked the most windy day to look for branches and sticks for my flake.  I found some long poles from the field.  They were part of a fence.  Brought in two pieces - not sure what I am going to do with them yet.  I do like the size of them, but how do I address the technical part of the installation:  especially the safety issue.

It feels so good to work with burlap and wax again.  Not sure whether this is working or not.

Installation "A Sense of Place"

I tested everything before I left the apartment yesterday:  MP3 Player, fully charged, file saved on USB.  And what happened when I got to 100 McCaul:  the speakers would not play, the MP3 player died.  They gave me another set of speakers (individual powered), and loaned me an IPod.  George found me a plinth so I didn't have to carry mine over from 205 Richmond

Yael brought in a guest artist to take part in the critique.  Not knowing about the background of the project, he said he could sense this is about something precious (the small sculpture inside the case, artifact), about time.  The 2 channel projection worked well.  Next challenge: multi channel audio???

3D Scanned Fishing Flake

Darryl from 3D Rapid Prototyping couldn't scan the first wood flake that I made because of the size.  After I made the smaller version, I took it down to Darryl again.  It took him a few tries to get it done.  I picked up the "printed" flake this afternoon and spent a couple of hours removing the support material.  The "printed" flake looks and feels quite differently:  not real, alien, flesh like, bleached....

I am very interested in the images that appear on the stl and Rhino files - a "virtual" fishing flake...

Story of the fishing flake

If this "fishing flake" could talk, it would tell us that "a little girl was asked by her mother to go down to the gully to get water ....".  I have looked at this archival photo many times and used it in different presentations, and I have never noticed there was a person standing under the flake until yesterday when Bob forwarded this email to me.

This is very fascinating to see how the stories unfold.... across the ocean...


This is also the power of photograph.  The photograph evokes memories in people I do not know.  The memories of the image bring back to those who live(d) in Pouch Cove are very different from my own.  Mine is constructed and is imagined.  For the people in Pouch Cove, they can identify boats, stages, flakes, houses, people, and how they have changed over time.  

From: Sharon Lewison
Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 3:37 PM
To: info@pouchcoveheritage.org
Subject: identification of a photo

To Whom It May Concern:

I have looked with interest in the photos on your site.  

The last photograph is of a fish flake.  If you look really closely you will see that underneath there is a little girl aged 7 or 8 carrying a metal jug. 

She is Veronica Shea; she was told by her mother Julia Shea (nee Constantine), to go and fetch some water in the gully or creek.  Julia was married to John Shea whose family has been in Pouch Cove since the 1790s.

When Veronica got to the road-bridge over the gully she looked up she saw a man with a camera.  He was a stranger and she wondered what he was doing there.

Veronica was born in Pouch Cove in February 1929 in the Shea house near the gully.  

The photograph was taken by a professional photographer whose name I cannot remember, sorry.  It appeared in an encyclopaedia which I think was entitled “Lands and Peoples”.  If I can find my reference to the photographer I will pass it on to you.

Veronica Shea is no longer alive; I am her daughter and I thank your for putting such interesting photos on your site,

Sharon Lewison

London England