Visions of rural England

Back in London this weekend and review the week. The rural landscape has totally changed since I grew up on a farm in west Cornwall (albeit decades ago). There certainly isn't an Arcadian countryside now - not that there ever was one, really.
Interested to see at the Tate Britain this morning that one room currently features 18th century paintings 'that helped shape a powerful mythology about British landscape.'
Some of this mythology - and a distorted picture - persists today. Most work on the land in this country now is done by migrant workers. In Cornwall though, for sure, these migrant workers remain largely invisible and the often tough realities of their lives are hidden from the rest of the population.

Back to the 18th century - painters like Stubbs, Gainsborough and Constable strove to create deliberately Arcadian landscapes.  In Reapers (1785) by Stubbs (above) the workers are spotlessly keen. The farm manager sits benignly on his horse, watching. The tower of the church, central to society at the time, can be seen on the skyline.
 And below, another rural idyll, this time from Gainsborough (1747), a peasant resting with the church tower central stage.

The Tate commentary continues: "British landscape paintings were prized for the expressive qualities and apparent truthfulness. However they often ignored the economic realities of modern country life, in favour of a sense of idyllic nostalgia which has endured until the present day."

The week's final meetings

At the Victoria Inn, Roche, with Ewa, a Polish worker, for a late morning meeting to discuss plans for I Packed This Myself. There is a cheerful funeral wake in the conservatory/restaurant. Someone is buying a bottle of champagne at the bar as we order coffee.
Then to Pool School, for a meeting to plan a small exhibition we plan there for next week.

A website review

Michal Kirstein, from Gdansk, who has worked several seasons doing agricultural work in the UK, is acting as a consultant on I Packed This Myself. He kindly reviewed   myuk.info.com in the midst of his current studies in Denmark...He writes:

"Have just had a look at myukinfo.com. I have never seen it before… unfortunately! Why unfortunately? Well, I find it really useful for someone who plans to go to the UK. Looking back at my experience I would be much more prepared to my stay in the UK if I had an opportunity to get all those information in one place on the web. I remember that before I visited England for the first time, I had spent much time looking for relevant information on forums, governments sites etc. Those sources not always provided clear facts. It is a shame but I didn’t get National Insurance Number during my first three stays in the UK. Also taxes were problematic issue. I had no idea why some employees reduced my salary more than others. Many problems and uncertainties would be solved if I had access to sites such as myukinfo.com. I can imagine that this quick review might sound like an advertisement, but I’m pretty sure that many people who went to the UK years ago or who plan to go there would share my opinion about this site. Even though I have been to the UK many times, I still can find many interesting facts that I have not been aware of."

Criss crossing the county and five meetings in a day

Never would I plan five meetings in a day in London. In Cornwall it would seem to make even less sense, in view of the distances to cover.

However - strangely, it worked. From Wadebridge (with its splendid bridge) and a meeting in the Co-op cafe with a migrant worker settled in nearby Polzeath, to Cornwall College, St Austell, to discuss plans for a workshop in March with Kathryn Rowe of the ESOL department.

Then to Bodmin to meet an old friend Paolo Albino, who recently opened a bar in the town centre. Sadly it was burgled and had to close: police investigations are pending. Catch up with Paolo's news - he has a Cornish wife and two children.   Bodmin town centre with its historic Shire Hall and clock.

Then back to Truro for a meeting in Malpas with an impressively determined Polish forester, working across the county with an English firm.
And finally to Leedstown for another English class run by Joan Smith, funded by Point Europa. The workers, all in their 20s or early 30s, are keen to produce something to reflect their lives for display in the exhibition we are planning for Penair School. Which is excellent news.

Meetings in Truro and another lunch in a car park

A meeting in Truro late morning with a migrant worker who has been working in a medical supplies factory near Newquay.
Packed lunch in the long stay car park with a view of a large cactus. (Sub tropical plants a theme of the week.)
Then to Penair School, for a meeting with Citizenship teacher Carmel Henry and the art department on plans for rolling out I Packed This Myself at the school. An exciting space for an exhibition and exciting ideas from the Art Department on visualising the experience of migration.

Another old school, suitcases from Falmouth and English lessons in a chapel

Strangely enough, visit another educational establishment I once attended - this time my secondary school in Helston. Pure 60s. A palm tree on view from the Geography department window.

With teacher Joe Stuteley we plan assemblies for groups of 100 Year 11 students in March. The challenge being to change negative attitudes towards migrant workers. Joe identifies some of the prejudices he is aware of - which I will not repeat as they are not worth giving space to. However, forewarned is forearmed.
Then to University College Falmouth where the tireless Jack Seal, third year 3D design student, has put the finishing touches to a new set of suitcases, lined with maps of metaphorical journeys by illustrator Glyn Goodwin and designed by David Cross.
Jack will probably be the next Terence Conran. He ordered the material from a signage printer in Suffolk and asked for the designs to be printed double sided on plastic. The printer said the material wouldn't bend - and just couldn't be made into boxes. However, Jack persisted.They look fantastic.

Then to another evening English class for Lithuanian workers, this time given by Jacqie Levin, who seems to work tirelessly (and for some of the time, unpaid) delivering English lessons. This lesson is in a chapel near Breage. It is run by local churches and chapels - who wonderfully, after Let's Talk evenings a couple of years ago, decided to stage these classes to help local workers. The whiteboard behind Jacqie has been paid for by them.

Very cheerful Lithuanians in their late teens and 20s (all shy of being photographed). Two girls have come to join their parents who have lived near Goldsithney (not far off) for the past seven years. They are glad to be living with their parents after years of being looked after by grandparents, though, they say, they saw their parents during the holidays. Others are working in local meat processing factories. All are determined to learn English.
The class, reached after driving down dark lanes to an unexpected oasis of light and warmth, strangely seems to have something of the feeling of a religious movement or push towards enlightenment of a kind. People working together, determinedly, to improve their lives.

A day on the road - exhibition, Bodmin and an English class for Lithuanian farmworkers

A long day. Starting at Chenderit School, Banbury, where I Packed This Myself is being visited by a local primary school.

Discuss the next shoot with photographer Tom Pilston (seen striding through the class, below). His photographs are on the far wall.

Then on the road to Cornwall, where have a meeting this evening.

Stop on the way at a roadside stall just off the M5 exit to Weston Super Mare. The owner says that he drives there every day from Bath (about an hour's journey.) His 'locals' keep him going, he says. I'm surprised. I thought all his trade would be travellers and people on the road (like me).

Stop off in Bodmin at the Portuguese shop to see if I come across any old friends from earlier stages of the project. It is closed on Mondays, apparently. But there is an interesting poster in the window, advertising English classes.

Then on, down to Leedstown, in west Cornwall. Leedstown is where I went to Primary School. It is now home to a community of more than 100 Lithuanian workers, mostly housed in caravans and working for SEF (Southern England Farms).

The packing house is opposite the cricket field. The cauliflower rigs look ghostly in the dark.

An interesting sign on the noticeboard on the way into the canteen, where the classes are being held.

A new - to me - website

See in the always useful newsletter from John Vincent (Network Ebulletin - created initially, I think, as an information resource for libraries but it is an invaluable source of information about the kind of issues Bridging Arts tackles)that the website for employers and migrant workers UKinfo has added Slovak to the site. This is in addition to Polish and Portuguese. Had not know of the existence of UKinfo - will add to the Education Pack. And ask some of the workers who are acting as consultants to I Packed This Myself to take a look at it and review ...

"myUKinfo.com is a cross-government initiative for the UK, led by the East of England Development Agency," the website says...

John also mentions another new publication.

Making a contribution – new migrants and belonging in multi-ethnic Britain

(Source: Runnymede January update)

"Last in the Runnymede Trust’s “Community Study” series, this report pulls together the evidence from the eleven Studies (summarised at the back of this document) and looks at the relationship between immigration policies and race equality. "

And a potentially useful news update.

Migration issues – Government, Government Agencies and Local Government

(Source: ICAR Weekly asylum update 14 January)

"The Newsflash is a weekly round up of publications, information, events, funding and jobs relating to asylum seekers, refugees and migrant workers for anyone who wants to keep up to date with the latest developments."

Torrential rain and re-stocking the Portuguese suitcase

Torrential rain on Golborne Road, Notting Hill. Re-stock the Portuguese suitcase in I Packed This Myself (filled with items that Portuguese workers in Cornwall, now working mostly in meat processing factories, said they carried with them to the UK).  The woman working in the shop kindly gives me a selection of scarves free...Golborne Road (like Vauxhall) is a hub of the Portuguese community in London. Portuguese cafes, bakers and grocery shops.

Ways of mapping

Interesting to look at medieval maps. Places are drawn, made figurative and pictorial. Am reading (skimming) David Harvey's book on postmodernism.

"The tradition of medieval mapping traditionally emphasises the sensuous..."

Above: A map of Champeaux, France, from the 15th century.
All this changes with the advent of perspective when geometry started to  measure and reflect space more accurately.
(Though not of course the spirit of a place).
The Condition of Postmodernity by David Harvey. (Kindly posted to me from Manchester by my daughter; it's on one of her reading lists.)
It will be interesting to see the new maps created by audiences as we roll out I Packed This Myself over the next few months.

The French debate on national identity

An article today in the Guardian about the great French debate on national identity, launched by President Sarkozy last autumn. Across France people are being asked to come up with their ideas of what is 'French' in response to an increasing unease  - and clear difficulties - in integrating communities from the country's former colonies in north Africa.
The author, Pascal Blanchard - like many French people -  has grave doubts about the wisdom of artificially constructing notions of national identity in this way.  He is a member of Towards a Real Debate, a collective founded in response to the the official debate.
Not exactly connected - but this makes me think of the great debate over the supermodel Ines de la Fressange, who was chosen to model for a new, official, statue of Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic in the late 1980s.
Fressange, with her perfect bone structure, aristocratic upbringing (daughter of a marquis), was considered perfect for the part.
However -  Karl Lagerfield at Chanel, the haut couturier who employed her, thought otherwise. They parted company, with Lagerfield saying he thought Marianne was a symbol of French provincialism and he refused to dress something so bourgeois and vulgar.
(Talk of Ines de la Fressange always cheers me up - she is living proof that is is possible to look impossibly chic at the age of 52).

George Clooney and a backpack

See the new George Clooney movie Up in the Air - the trailer makes it seems more interesting than it is... (though it has good reviews, perhaps I missed the point.)
But there is a backpack! And Clooney as Ryan Bingham, the apparently shallow, heartless, womanising (albeit gorgeous) motivational speaker uses it as a motif for the baggage that we carry through life.
His backpack is very light. He has no real relationships - just casual sex. Nowhere truly 'homelike' just a clinical white shell of an apartment. He exists in a world of airports and hotels, frequent flyer miles and hire cars. (Endless promotional opportunities in the film for American Airlines and Hilton - one of the things I found irritating).
But - it's interesting that he uses the backpack as a metaphor, carrying emotional baggage as well as material possessions.
Our new map/suitcases in I Packed This Myself also pose questions about the baggage you carry when you travel. Whether emotional or material. With the aim of linking this to individual and collective ideas of identity.

Daniel Defoe on migrant workers

Am reading A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe, with a preface by Anthony Burgess. Burgess mentions Defoe's satire, the True-Born Englishman, written in 1703 and attacking xenophobia and intolerance of immigrants.

"These are heroes who despise the Dutch,
And rail at new-come foreigners so much!
Forgetting that themselves are all derived
From the most scoundrel race that ever lived!"

Three hundred years on and we still have xenophobia and intolerance of immigrants.
Later talk to a friend who says he often finds, when he gets home and takes off his coat, that he has been spat at . (He was brought up in the UK but his family originated elsewhere.) He generously says the people (who spat) just don't 'get' what he considers the essence of being British i.e. a core tolerance.

What is the essence of being British?

Another early phone call - plus a review

An early phone call from John Childs, head of art at Chenderit. The school is closed for the second day running - a foot of snow has fallen overnight. So the exhibition will not open tonight. Possibly on Sunday, weather permitting.

Later in the day am delighted to see a review of I Packed This Myself on Global Dimension, a website funded by DFID (the government's Department for International Development) promoting educational resources.
Why Global Dimension? From the website...

The global dimension explores our connections with the rest of the world. With a global dimension to their education, learners can engage with complex global issues and explore the links between their own lives and people, places and issues throughout the world.

An early call from Blackburn and other messages

Snow falls across the country. An early call from Saj at Tristar Printers in Blackburn. Their courier service didn't work yesterday due to the snow. Saj lives a five minute drive away from the factory but it took him 40 minutes yesterday. So our A3 card leaflets to accompany I Packed This Myself won't be delivered to Chenderit School until Thursday.
But Chenderit proves to be closed today, anyway. And to judge from the weather forecast, possibly tomorrow too.
Have a meeting with Hannah Walker to discuss developing the Education Pack.
And Jack Seal in Cornwall has been admirably active on the phone. Jack is a 3D design student at University College Falmouth and a whirlwind of energy. He created a brilliant suitcase for I Packed This Myself when it opened in Camborne (see this Guardian gallery) and arrived at the private view straight from the beach where he had been surfing ( I remember). He has tracked down a printer who might be able to print our new suitcases with maps of metaphorical journeys on to corrugated plastic. Excellent.

An icy trip to Chenderit School, Banbury. The service station car park transformed by the frost. I Packed This Myself opens there at the Michael Heseltine Gallery on Thursday and will run for just over a month. Art head John Childs has printed up Tom Pilston's photos of migrant workers in Cornwall. And we will be unveiling our new suitcases with maps of metaphorical journeys by Glyn Goodwin...Local primary schools will each contribute a suitcase.

Putting together the new cases

Another busy day. A lot to cram in post the holidays.
Off first thing to Kensal Green to buy dried cod (bacalhau) from a Portuguese grocery shop (very lively early on a Sunday morning.) Picked up a calendar, too, with Portuguese and UK holidays marked with respective national flags. Then back to the office to make up the new folding suitcases with our designer, David Cross. Pack up the car, ready for the trip to Chenderit School, Banbury, later (install tomorrow). A great plus when transporting suitcases:  you can pack them inside each other like Russian dolls.

A long day and the suitcases travel to London

A long day. Left Cornwall with the suitcases at 7am when it was still dark. And frosty. Everything only just fitted into the car.
I Packed This Myself is due to open at Chenderit School, Banbury, this Thursday, 7 January .
Install Monday 4 January.