B.

Show the light and the dark

Behind the scenes

Thanks to all those who came out on Saturday to help us launch Sian Torrington's remarkable installation How you have held things at 49 Patten Street in Avonside.

49 Patten Street, 1 June 2013. Photo: John Collie

49 Patten Street, 1 June 2013. Photo: John Collie

It was a great occasion, made all the better by the fantastic turnout from locals. Sian spoke about her initial anxieties about making work here as an 'out-of-towner' and how she came to reconcile those feelings.

Many of those present suggested to me that we should share her words more widely. So, with Sian's permission and by popular request...

 

Sian Torrington  Photo: John Collie

Sian Torrington  Photo: John Collie

Show the light and the dark
Bury the fabric
let it be beautiful and carry the earth in its pockets

I would like to make dark places
Light through dark earth

How do I hold this?

I want to make you chandeliers
my cracking lights

My rage it comes for other places, but it is the same, rage.

It is full of holes
Your skeleton sticks out
I want to reach in, I want to say
It is not hopeless,
Your time, your words,
Dropping, spitting,
We carry everywhere we have been I'm lumpy sacks
They dug, and dug
Repeated flooding
scrubbing and scrubbing
and it never coming clean

One by one
Try to take each piece
only as you can
Only as you can stand it.
Do not try and swallow it.
There is a kind of respect in the stacking, and another kind
in the throwing

My grief it comes from other places, but it is the same, grief.

How to make this?
How to make this.

- Sian Torrington

Sian Torrington How you have held things (detail) 2013. Salvaged materials. Photo: John Collie

Sian Torrington How you have held things (detail) 2013. Salvaged materials. Photo: John Collie

Sian Torrington How you have held things (detail)  2013. Salvaged materials. Photo: John Collie

Sian Torrington How you have held things (detail)  2013. Salvaged materials. Photo: John Collie

Sian Torrington How you have held things (detail) 2013. Salvaged materials. Photo: John Collie

Sian Torrington How you have held things (detail) 2013. Salvaged materials. Photo: John Collie

Sian Torrington How you have held things (detail) 2013. Salvaged materials. Photo: John Collie

Sian Torrington How you have held things (detail) 2013. Salvaged materials. Photo: John Collie