'You look broken...'

I have been a busy, busy bee recently with uni, and working two jobs, and most recently and most excitingly I have started volunteering at Milkwood gallery in Roath, Cardiff!

Milkwood is a beautiful little gallery with lots going on, a small space but a big creative output. They have the gallery, a shop, a month long residency called ‘The basement project’ as well as holding regular workshops for the community.

Milkwood is also the HQ for Made in Roath, a fantastic annual arts festival in Cardiff. This year will be the fourth year that the event has been held and it grows bigger and better every time, showing and highlighting work of all genres within the arts.

I am so glad to be a part of this community and I am meeting some lovely people and experiencing some great opportunities.

I volunteer on a Wednesday morning and am currently focusing on the social media, as well as updating online platforms on Culture Colony (If you haven’t heard of CC, look it up!) and helping to archive some of the media, images, text etc for the previous Made in Roath festivals.

Please follow the links below and have a nosy:

http://www.milkwoodgallery.com/
https://twitter.com/#!/milkwoodgallery
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Milkwood-Gallery/180958387867

http://madeinroath.com/
https://twitter.com/#!/madeinroath2012
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Made-in-Roath/109086352553047?ref=tn_tnmn

'Nothing but a storyteller...'

In my last project, based upon domestic life within Welsh culture a small group of us made a connection with Oxfam Boutique in Cardiff.

They kindly donated us some clothes that we could use for material in any way we wanted, this fit nicely with the up cycling theme, and in return we were able to display our final pieces in their shop window for 2 weeks!!

Well that time has come, Oxfam Boutique are holding an event for International Women’s Day at their store and our work will be in their shop windows for the event which is quite fitting really as without realising our work began to explore the roles of women in Welsh culture.

We had great fun putting the display up tonight, and although I can’t be there tomorrow I hope the event goes well!

'And promise me this...'

I’m really feeling positive about this project now, and I feel like I may be getting somewhere with it, however I need letters!

If you would like to write a letter for my project please message me and I will forward you my address!

The letter can be as short or as long as you like, anonymous or not as long as it starts with the sentence ‘I wish I had told you…’

The letters will be used for my current project to create a final piece, so please do not send a letter if you are not happy with your letter being developed into a creative output.

'In secret kept, in silence sealed...'

So I am well into my second term now, and the current project is going well. We had to bring objects and words to the table and explore their narratives so to begin with I chose an Edwardian portable writing desk, a Victorian jewellery box, some old, used keys, and a quote from Charlotte Bronte :

'The human heart has hidden treasures, In secret kept, in silence sealed; The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures, Whose charms were broken if revealed’

I began to consider aspects of concealment and secrets being concealed within ourselves as well as within the objects. I started looking at cocoons and looking at their protective state, and linking the two ideas by exploring the idea of these cocoons protecting the secrets we hold.

However part of the project was to also source a brief that we could work to as a hypothetical commission or competition. My sourced brief was called ‘Lost Properties’ (http://www.fringeartsbath.co.uk/lost-properties/) calling for submissions where we create a piece or body of work that highlights to the public a quality that we revere as well as something that is interactive.

Because of this the cocoons weren’t really successful, and I had to reassess where I was going.

Choosing to focus solely on the portable writing desk, I began to research into the lost art of letter writing a true quality that has been lost in a digital era and is something that I would like to encourage again.

I still wanted to incorporate the initial idea of secrets though, and believe I found a way to do that.

My idea so far:

To create an interactive area, preferably a writing desk set up, where people are invited to come and write a letter. I have chosen the starting sentence: ‘I wish I had told you…’ I felt this was fitting to revealing a secret and writing the letter could act as a way of purging their emotions.

The letters will then be displayed for a short period of time before I will use them to create a final piece, be it an art book or a series of postcards.

'When you're gone, nighttime speaks...'

I already mentioned the Sketchbook Project 2012 that I took part in, and I also uploaded some of my own photographs but my book has been digitized! So if you want to look at the whole thing, have a gander!

http://www.arthousecoop.com/users/jenniferkirkham

'He was so kind, such a gentleman tied to the oceanside...'

Close ups of various sections of the three aprons.

'Into our love the tears crept...'

'Grandmother'

'Mother'

'Daughter'