Pore Project is a work in progress, begun in 2007 and set for completion in 2012, when the first show of a national tour will be at Surface Gallery in Nottingham. By then, the work will number some 300 ‘heads’ – images created in oil paint & stitch on linen – derived from around a hundred sitters; some of these are friends and acquaintances of the artist, others are sponsors, who like the idea of being part of a challenging piece of art.
Fascinated by human form, and the broad subject of life and death, the processes involved are an important part of the concept for Linda. All of the materials used are high-quality and of natural, as pure as possible, origin, and on top of that, each stage in the process is recorded. This is a sort of conscious marking of ‘life events’ as far as each piece goes, and the emphasis is on the concentration achieved whilst making the works, and how each might develop on and on from the initial image of the subject – both in terms of real time, and by the creation of multiple images. There is an awareness here that the combinations used in the making, might effect a sort of slow, built-in ‘obsolescence’ – Linda liking to think of it as though each piece will have it’s own life-cycle, an individual amongst a crowd, changing with life as we all do.
The majority of the sitters are based in the North East Lincolnshire, and as the work grows, this in itself has become another point of interest – as the recording of a cross-section of a place’s people across an expanse of time – albeit a creative interpretation; each sitter is invited to leave some testimony, as part of the project, so although art might be reflecting life, it’s also mindfully recording a section of history as well as making an event in history, too.
Pore is supported by The Arts Council England.