BOSTIN NEWS - Caroline's House by Tim Brinkhurst
I need to bounce off someone to get to the nub of what I’m trying to say. To get to the real truth of my thoughts. Especially now that we are all self-isolating. I could argue that I’m still thinking the same way I thought three months ago. Because we’ve been forced to stay in one place, whereas before I chose to stay in one place. And it’s going to have an impact. And it has had an impact; I feel like I’ve been forced into agoraphobia.
What is the point? That is an interesting question. You have to say to yourself, if you won a million, would you still do the thing you’re doing right now? And for me, without any hesitation, I would say yes, I would still be doing it.
I’m creating an artwork out of my home. By mosaicing the front wall, the walls, the garden, the soil itself, the plants… I’m just driven to do it. You’re (I’m) like a machine making these identical shapes… There’s a flow when you’re cutting in silence and making a mosaic in silence.
… And the next day as I was going up the stairs with a cup of tea I saw it and it was as if I had forgotten I had put it up…
… There’s joy in it, there’s love in it, people respond to it. I’m using old crockery that people respond to, from their own memory, from their own past. The texture, the relief, the three-dimensionality of it all. The look of a flowing pattern and how your eyes glide over it, it does something to your mind, the whole repeat pattern and how it flows across.
(Green handled side biter. Score snapper. Glass cutter.)
These tools are important to me. I think it’s important to use manual tools as opposed to power-driven ones. The noise bugs me for a start, and you can’t think when you’re cracking away with ear defenders and goggles and whatnot…
It’s really difficult to say to yourself ‘I’m really good’ or ‘I really like this, it works for me’. There are people out there who say, ‘Oh wow, I love your work,’ and you go, ‘Yeah, yeah’. I don’t believe it sometimes, or you are delighted and thank them, but for myself to look back and think, that’s really good…
This (house) is an affirmation. This house; creating, it drives me because I’m in the actual process of creativity, it’s enough for me. I could say that I’m egotistical to create something so big. Who knows, when I die, maybe it will all get skipped outside… … When I’m gone. (Laughter.)
Sound artist and producer Tim Brinkhurst has produced 5 sound pieces for Bostin News that speak of and share creativity. Listen or read.
Sound - Tim Brinkhust
Words and Images - Caroline Jariwala
Commissioned for Bostin News 2020