Blog Blog Living in a Vacuum 6th August 2009
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I live in the countryside and I don't find it that inspiring. I'm inspired by derelict buildings, the smell of old dust and dirty cities. So all this leaves me finding it hard to get inspiration sitting in the country making boxes. I've felt like I'm on a production line, lost my reason for making, misunderstood my original motivation, felt lost. But after a long bike ride and a look at the work of Joseph Cornell and Joseph Kosuth I feel a lot more pepped up. I've started to think about how to display the work at the show at Islington Mill on the 29th September. Its a car boot sale format but I'm trying hard not to fall into the trap of craft stall type fair. I think I may have a cunning plan which keeps the notion of auctions in mind and gets rid of that awkward dimension, which happens at craft fairs, where the visitor is looking at the work with the maker pretending not to scrutinize them from across the table. Hopefully the cunning plan will also make the display into more of a performance piece. Now, where does one buy those peep hole you get in doors? |
Money equals Value 15 August 2009 |
The hardest thing about this project is in many ways assigning an idea of what the finished work is worth in money. Of course this relates to the whole point of the project but the value it is sold for also relates to you as a person. I guess that this is true of most exchanges which involve money, be it a paid job of selling things you have created. It is very easy to evaluate your self worth in terms of how much you earn. Example phrases " My grandson is doing very well, he's earning £23,000 grand now." "I sold a painting the other day for £23,000, now I know I've made it." |
Money Equals Value Part 2 20th August |
I read this today which seems to relate to the above; Situational Asthetics by Victor Burgin and this which I thought was just really lovely for some reason; The Cheshire Cat by Howard Fried. Think it may just be me, if anyone out there thinks its lovely too let me know here. |
Sacrifice 20th August |
Have just been watching a film about Chris Burden's work. He does things like gets shot in the arm, crawls across broken glass with his hands behind his back. If you have a strong stomach you can see it here. I'm not sure if its about sacrifice and endurance but it got me thinking about that. When artists like Gilbert and George decided to become Living Sculptures they became that for life, giving up their individual identities and becoming a double act. The physical effects of Chris Burden's work are shocking but maybe the effects of his work are less scaring than the other sacrifices that artists may make. Like, for example the sacrifice of company which such reflection and production of art may require, the exposure of soul and thought to judgment by others. I don't know if you do that in the same way in other professions, I shall ponder over that as I expose myself to the mind number which is Big Brother. |
| A few sample pictures of the work so far |
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Urbanism How to make a happy City
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Went to a Liverpool Biennial Urbanism 2009 event yesterday. The combination of sitting listening to people who are developing process based work and canvassing for longer time to work on projects and space to reflect has left me refocused and re inspired. At one point I questioned why I was so busy making things and thought that I would stop. Why add more objects to the world already littered with the detritus of human existence. But then as I sat I remembered my rational for this project. So bogged down in the necessary evil of realising the concepts through making I had become preoccupied by the individual things and racked with doubts about whether people would buy them. I had forgotten that the aim was to question all this, values based on the abstraction of money, the value of one material above another, one object above another. I've come to realise that the project needs to progress in two ways, the first is to reiterate the notion of comparison between the objects, which by the action of boxing them have become separate and secondly to show the work in different contexts. With this in mind I am aiming to create a poster featuring all the objects, a collection of the objects made out of cast off materials and find a high end or culturally recognised art establishment to show the boxes at after the Cheap affair event. So thank you to the speakers and the organizers at the Happy City event for the inspiration and realignment. Any replies to this click here Here is a link to say tar www.biennial.com |
A practical person September 23rd |
My dad came round the other day. He stood in the "room laughingly know as my studio" looking at the now grown collection of boxes attached to the wall. I wondered if he would say what he thought about them. Eventually he turned and said; "you've made holes in the wall nailing those up." |
| First Exhibition at Islington Mill | I was lucky enough to get a lift from my Dad,its a long way to go with half a ton of stuff precariously perched on an old pram(that sounds like a line from Its a Long way to Tipperary, but maybe my version doesn't scan so well). Once there the practical natures of Mum and Dad reared up and they attached the old door frames together, making them a lot less wobbly than I might have managed. All the work either stuck to the doors or along the tables looked just as it should, if one was viewing it using sonar. A trip to a local shop to buy a few lights solved the darkness issue and later a little man came and found the rooms illusive light switches. I sat behind my screen, my two spy holes embedded in one of the doors allowing me to see, a bit, and be seen, a bit more. It was a strange experience because being behind the screens restricted my view of the room, who was in it or what was going on. I couldn't see if it was busy or the noise was just coming from other stall holders. I had to rely on the a girl called Kate on the stall next to me to give me reports. "Not Busy", "No, still not busy", "Nobody here". The set up had its advantages though. The way that the screen bent divided the back space into two different spaces. Here I played house. On one side I had my tea making facilities on the other my studio where I made wooden labels. Through the little slot I posted notes saying hello and how are you? People wrote or spoke back and we formed a distant relationship. Some people rang the bell which summoned me from behind the screen. Then it was something like meeting an internet chatee for a first date. Having to form a relationship face to face after developing this strange removed one. People said that they were really excited when things came out of the slot. This made me want to sit in vending machines and vend messages, how fun would that be? Below are a few photos from the day.
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Behind the scenes 