Page 18 - ALG Issue 4 2020

artists corner Plot 105
The busy harvesting time is just starting to slow down as we move between summer and autumn. Gathering crops on my plot includes the usual fruit and vegetables that you might find on any allotment, but it also includes gathering plant fibres and dyestuffs that I use in my work. I am an artist and I use grown, gathered and found materials. Using these sustainably sourced materials and harnessing natural processes means I can work in a way that is very much rooted in my local landscape.
My plot is part of Cottingley Bridge Allotment Gardens, Bingley, West Yorkshire and I took it on in autumn 2017. Each year I have found new ways of working with different plants as my experience grows. Maintaining the plot for food production is important and is the main reason for growing most of what is planted. Using the plants and materials that are there for creative activity sits alongside crop production. Exploring the potential of the materials is intertwined with cultivating and sits within the rhythm of the seasons, along with the ups and downs of nature, weather conditions, as well as success and failure of different plants. In both growing and making, I feel I am learning all the time.
Alongside the brassicas I grow a small amount of flax each year, for processing and spinning into linen, which I can then use to weave with. I allow nettles to grow under my fruit trees, which I then gather and process in much the same way as the flax, ending up with strong fibres from the stems to make
a soft spun thread. I make use of other plants that many would consider weeds, as well as plants grown for food or cut flowers: dandelion stems, bramble fibre, bindweed stems, daffodil leaves, garlic leaves, sweetcorn husk, leek
and rhubarb can all be used to make cordage (string), with which I make small sculptural structures. Found materials from the sheds on site are also made use of, so old tools, cloth
Cordage coils
Botanical contact prints on handmade books
rags, paper, plastics and ceramic fragments find their way into my work too.
As well as making structures using techniques from textiles and soft basketry, I use plants for colour, either to dye threads, print on paper or to make inks. There is something very special about drawing objects found on my plot, using inks that are derived from the place too. Through this variety of activity, I am exploring in detail
the different elements of my plot and finding ways to record my experience of it. Ideas around self-sufficiency are well rooted in the allotment tradition. Whilst ‘The Good Life’ may not be achievable by all who manage an allotment, there is certainly much satisfaction to be had in growing one’s own produce. To extend this tending, growing and gathering to include the materials for my work feels a very ‘right’ way of working. I know exactly where my materials are from, what was involved in their sourcing
and have put in the hard work that is involved in their processing.
Alice Fox
Read more about how I work in my new book Plot 105, available from www.alicefox.co.uk
Dandelion braid with stone
18 Allotment and Leisure Gardener
Photos: Alice Fox
Gathering dandelion stems
Drawing