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Blog / Creative Work Shop: Caroline Inckle

Creative Work Shop: Caroline Inckle

Outcomes
3 creative workshops held on Forres High Street
37 public participants engaged from ages 6 to over 60
1 online Culture Café event held
1 Street View Zine of Forres High Street stories published

Residency Overview
The first part of Caroline Inckle’s Creative Work Shop was a busy time of workshops and creative activities on Forres High Street. Caroline ran printmaking, Zine making, and a colourful alternative photo walk for participants of all ages to take part in.

Due to the Covid-19 emergency, Caroline moved out of the High Street studio and completed her residency from home. Before moving she displayed some work in the shop windows for the few passers-by to enjoy.

From home, Caroline worked with the documentation and images created during the workshops to draw out prominent themes that were used in the next stages of the residency. Working visually, she experimented with the interplay between the static elements of the High Street, such as the architecture and geographical orientation, and the more fluid movements of natural elements within the space.

Caroline felt that the polarities of the static and the fluid were particularly relevant during the time of her residency. She notes, “over the past few weeks we have seen the gradual, then quite sudden and severe restrictions on our physical movement. Within the High Street space, we are now negotiating a new natural element, which has been introduced to our environment. This impacts on our relationship to not only each other, but also to our physical and material environment, what we can touch and how we negotiate space.”

During the final stages of the residency, Caroline worked with old maps to discover the organic growth of the High Street and its continuing relationship with the natural and rural aspects of the town. Nature surrounds Forres and feeds in from both ends of the High Street. The natural environment, alongside the architectural space of the High Street, were strong themes within the stories shared during the workshop sessions and which influenced and inspired Caroline’s work.

Caroline made drawings and some digital works based on maps drawn by B Bishop & J Bishop from the self-published series The Lands & People of Moray. The maps show changes from 1250 to 1750 and the organic shrinking and growing of the High Street; a story of slow movement over the course of centuries. Of her work, Caroline notes, “as my work progressed, I noticed the drawings I was producing taking on elements of anatomy and organic forms. The shapes of streets become like arteries and the shapes of buildings a form of skeleton.”

The High Street space also became Caroline’s space for daily exercise, walking along the spine of the High street and experiencing her physical movement through space. Caroline explained, “I have become acutely aware of the awkward negotiations which now need to be made to keep the required distance from other walkers. Walking along the High Street pavement has now become quite a task. On-going calculations are required to avoid both traffic and other pedestrians. I liked to walk in directional flows, a drawing in of nature, feeding tinto the more architectural space in the High Street.”

Towards of the end of the residency Caroline connected with other artists through an online Culture Café on Thursday 23 April, discussing the theme of ‘Negotiating Space’. Caroline shared some of her experience of taking part in Creative Work Shop and provided an opportunity for the local creative community to share their experiences of creative practice during lockdown.

Outputs
To share elements of the public workshops Caroline produced a digital e-book entitled Street View. The book shares selected pages of the zines made during the public workshop and some of the High Street stories which were developed.Caroline Inckle’s Creative Work Shop residency was run via our shop and hub on Forres High Street in early 2020

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