In June 2021 sculptor Juliet Gutch and filmmaker Clare Dearnaley opened Dovetailing, an exhibition inspired by luthiery, the making of stringed instruments at Fairfield Meeting House, an early Quaker Meeting House in the Yorkshire Dales. This collaborative project blended music, film and sculpture with wooden mobiles suspended from the ceiling, designed and made by Juliet, Clare’s film weaving together natural sounds, quiet making and the mobile forms with a specially composed piece of music composed by Sally Beamish.
This project like others I work on, was less about writing from scratch than bringing fresh eyes to the thoughts, ideas and information circling in Juliet’s head. I loved sifting through the words and phrases already written, spotting the hidden nuggets and creating a piece of writing that flowed and connected with the reader as well as bringing this fantastic exhibition to life.
Find out more: Dovetailing. Juliet Gutch
“I got in touch with Harriet as Clare and I found we were so immersed in the Dovetailing project that it was hard to be able to write about it with clarity. Harriet quickly absorbed all the many pieces of information we had put together over time and created a core document which we can adapt for different purposes, taking shorter or longer parts of it depending on what we need it for.
She created the text with so much thought, generosity and care, and I was impressed at how she expressed the concepts so clearly but without losing the abstract nature of it all. I have never worked with a professional writer before and it was a relief to be able to hand it over to someone else to shape the ideas into something more readable, comprehensible, and persuasive. We are very grateful to her!”
Juliet Gutch