The Self-Isolation Residency 22nd may 2020: Day 54

'Our 22 Bees', paper-cut, 64 x 59 cm, 2020, Antony Clarkson.

I'm guessing that most of you know the significance of today's date? The 22nd May 2017 was the date of the Manchester Arena bombing which claimed the lives of 22 'Mancunian's'. At this time my main studio was based in Mirabel Studios in Manchester, literally across the road from Manchester Arena, in fact my studio window overlooked the 'artists' entrance to the building. I had been in the studio most of the day but as it was a Monday I had left to teach a life drawing lesson. It was on the way home from that lesson that I heard the appalling news. Today, 3 years later I am locked-down in a different studio proximate to a different city and even in a different country. but Manchester will always be my city. And so today as this piece of history is so dominating my mind and memory I have decided to do something that I haven't had much time for during this residency which is to make a one-day piece of art.

As part of today's post I want to note how certain themes and ideas tend to circulate in the mind of an artist and how ideas from one piece of work can resurface at an appropriate moment in another piece of work. I've mentioned in previous blog posts about how the worker bee is the symbol of the people of Manchester; this isn't a new thing, the bee has actually been a heraldic emblem of the city for over 150 years. It stands for the ethic of hard work of both the city and its people and that Manchester has always been a 'hive' of activity. You might remember that I mentioned exhibiting my sculpture, 'Mary's Table' (bottom image) as part of the 'Workhouse' Exhibition at Manchester's Hive Building which was an exploration of the idea of hard work. The hexagonal form of the pencils was used to deliberately echo the comb of the bee hive. This morning as I sat and reflected on what Manchester means to me and all the things that I accomplished in the city, the idea of the hive and the honey comb came into my mind rather than the usual idea of the bee itself, this drove my thinking for the rest of the day.

I 'played' with systems of hexagons in my sketchbook and as my ideas started to correlate I tore pages out of my sketchbook to start making maquettes (above left). These maquettes were created by folding the paper in a similar way that children do when they make paper dolls; this also stimulated a memory of another piece, indeed another paper-cut, that I made and exhibited in a Manchester Art Gallery. 'Paper Scissors Rock' (above centre) was created to be part of the 'Scholar's Rock Exhibition' at CFCCA, then the Chinese Arts Centre in 2010. That piece involved folding newspaper and cutting it with scissors to create the ROCK. This I decided was an appropriate method to employ once again for today's piece' although the larger size and weight of the paper involved with today's piece demanded the use of a very sharp blade as opposed to scissors, (above right).

And so Manchester runs through my mind today and through my work, the soul and spirit of Manchester will always be with me even when I am not there' in the words of the poet Tony Walsh, aka, 'Longfella', 'This is the place'.