http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 Walking Into the Light Wed, 22 May 2013 21:17:55 +0000 a-n rss generator a-n The Artists Information Company and contributors edit@a-n.co.uk technical@a-n.co.uk http://www.a-n.co.uk/img/logo.gif http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 As I sit before my computer, still in Kilburn, North London, I find it hard to imagine that in 4 days time I will be in New Delhi.  The items for packing are piled behind me and most of the paper work, injections and purchases have been dealt with.  However I still have a sneaking feeling that something has been left undone.Maybe it is thought about what we will actually do once we are there, once we have booked transport to take us higher into the mountains to begin this important Hindu Pilgrimage.  I have a new video camera, yes, but what will I film?  Adrian, my partner has a new digital sound recorder, but what will there be for him to tape.  A lot, if our experiences in India are anything to go by, maybe too much.As well as just experiencing being in the mountains at the source of Indias most sacred rivers, what will this journey mean, in terms of ongoing research?  This is all ahead for us to discover.I feel daunted, and nervous and very very exited.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 We are now in Kathmandu.  Sorry that there has been a lack of BLOG, but we have not seen an internet cafe on the whole of our pilgrimage route.What I will do is fill in the gap with installments as if we were on the pilgrimage, but not now.  First, here in Kathmandu after 20 years, it  is a great shock.  Its so set up for tourists now, I knew it would have changed, but this is beyond belief.  Thamel just goes on for ever, not just Freak street and the German Bakery now!It comes as such a shock after spending about 2 weeks entirely with Hindu Pilgrims, we saw 3 white people the whole time we were on the pilgrimage, and we met a bunch of Pilgrims from Wembley!  (We hope to meet up with them on our return to the UK.  To find out their oppinions of the Pilgrimage route as British Asians will be very interesting)The temples here are really interesting to see now that we have been imersed in Hinduism for weeks, this strange blend of Hindu and Buddhist, butter lamps and Ganesh, bells and stupas.  It is fanscinating.  Walked through to Durbar Square (the main square in K) last night, late afternoon.  Many people were out shopping for vegatables, making puja (an act of worship) as they were passing.  Darshan (giving a view of the resident god) was happening in one temple and below there was a mayhem of veg. and motorbike horns and shoe salesmen.  It reminded me of when you are in a muslim country and the call to prayer comes and everyone just bumbles along ignoring it.  Here Hinduism is just a part of everyday life. It is like making a performance piece on the way home from work, although of course it is a religious act. One temple was surrounded by Pidgeons, this is my worst night mare seeing that I am affraid of birds, but Adrian made a great recording or thier sound.We also fell upon a stupa, a copy of the Swayambunath Stupa (stupa is a a round mound topped with a sculpture, used in buddhist worship).  I have never seen this before.  Gee (clarified butter) was being thrown down its sides and again the surrounding mini stupas were a mix of Buddhas and Hindu Deities. However, the highlight was an impromptue game of cricket, Adrian was a bit of a hit with the ladies.So more catch up news to come.  For now, we have a HOLIDAY in Thamel... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 As promised back dated posts Haridwar 01-07-08 I must say that this feels like old times, working on the laptop in a hotel room.  This laptop has seen a few hotel rooms, a few as grubby as this one even. But then, as we were coming back from the ghats this morning we saw where the dobhi was being dried.  I am sure it is really clean until it gets laid out on the side of the river right next to piles of rubbish, where pigs are scrabbling around in a welter of grubby plastic bags.  Actually this computer has been in this very hotel before, when we stayed in Haridwar 3 years ago during our Silkthreads Project. It feels as if the project has started now, after lots of travelling we are here in one of the main centres of Hindu Pilgrimage.  If you bath here all your sins are washed away, Adrian bathed his feet this morning, which might get rid of a few bad actions. Once again we are fascinated by how being a Hindu is not something reserved for going to the temple once a week, it is your whole being.  We are also again fascinated by how the ritual and actions of religion are like performance.  The images and symbols of the Hindu way act like metaphors, in the way artists try to make sense of their world through images and symbols. We have just begun to collect sounds and images, but tonight we hope to document the Ganga Arti, the Fire Ceremony on the Ganga, it happens every night at dusk, wild and wonderful.  Look out for images soon. Tomorrow we leave for Yamunotri, the source of the Yamuna River, by private Ambassador Car.  That actually means being a bit sick round the bends.  For those of you reading this who had not been in an Ambassador, it is something like being in a boat.  It is hard to know at this stage what we will become interested in, actions, rituals, bells.  But it is great to be nearly  there, experiencing the pilgrims way.     ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 I am now at Godawari, near Kathmandu, where I will be staying for the next 8 weeks. I will be teaching sculpture to girls who have been rescued from circuses in India, they were sold to the circuses by their families.Teaching sculpture to Nepali girls who do not understand English and have no experience of Art.  That is a challenge greater than the Char Dham, which now seems a distant dream.  But I hope that my time here will give me time to reflect on that experience.Back to India1st July Haridwar The Ganga Arti is the nightly ritual on the Har Ki Pari, the main bathing ghat on the river.  It is an ancient ritual of bringing fire to the river at dusk, bringing light and warmth into the night.  We had whitnessed this ceremony a couple of times when we were here in 2005 and it is strictly speaking something that you should do before embarking on the Char Dham.  I think that we went with a mind to record it, in the hope of getting material for use in later work, but crammed on the ghat with many other pilgrims, cajoled by the attendants to give donations for the upkeep of the ghats one is caught up in the atmosphere of the thing.   As the sun begins to sink the God of day is bought out from their temple, the amplified music starts to build and people raise their arms in the air, Jai, they shout.  Then the sacred flames are bought down to the river bank and all the bells in all the temples in the town start to ring.  For a few brief moments all is noise and light.  Then the flame is bought amongst the crowds and people sale their banana leaf boats of flowers and flames down the river.  I struggled to raise the video camera over the heads of those in front of me.  I think I got some reasonable footage.  Adrian has an easier time really, once the microphone is set up he can still look and listen.  The sense of separation that the camera lens gives you is difficult to deal with sometimes.  To always see mediated by the lens.  Essentially I think the experience of being there is the most valuable material we gathered, this, like many rituals seems to get better every time that you see it.  It is so theatrical, the building of tension, the attendants working the crowd, the anticipation.  People travel from all over India for this ceremony and you are sucked in by their enthusiasm for it. Haridwar is a fascinating place, a mixture of spiritual and end of the peer and it seemed fitting that filming the Aarti I was using up a bit of tape from England that had Brighton Peer on it. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 So, I have been in Godawari for 3 days now.  It feels like a lot longer, after the frenzy of travel in India and the Holiday in Kathmandu, life has slowed right down.I have started working with a group of about 8 girls, we have been exploring 3d form, first by modelling vegetables and odd objects out of clay.  Then I bought some ornaments down in the village and they copied those.  I am amazed at their facillity for modelling in 3d.  I have  been busy with that and trying to learn rudimentry Nepali as you can imagine, but have also had time to think  about the pilgrimage and my own work. I have had an idea ever since I was in Chennai Museum and saw memorials to victims of Sati (widow burning) on which they hung glass bangles, of making a bangle sculpture.  As I sat in the garden this morning I thought why not here, there is a Bangle shop at the end of the path.  It seems a fitting place, most of these girls lost their childhood in a violent way.There are other sculptures I have been thinking about, but I wonder if using the very blatent, obvious symbolism of sexuality that appears in Hindu sculpture and rituals may seem a bit crass in our (seemingly) more sophisticated art world.  But this kind of symbolism is the essence of life.  For example when we visited a temple in Uttarkarshi we saw a newly wed couple pouring Milk over the Siva Lingum (the phallic symbol of the god Siva).  Obvious, but none the less a beautiful action, the lingum was covered in flowers, which were also coated in milk.  It made me think of Helen Chadwick's photos of flowers, which I believe she coated in milk to make them look right for the camera.   I am still trying to walk everyday as well, as a way of thinking.  The idea of pilgrimage and the idea of physical activety to excercise the mind, today it was cut short by rain, but hey!... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 So entering the second week in Godawari.  Getting used to working with the girls now, even if the ones that I worked with last week were the Mosaic Girls, ie the girls who are employed to make mosaics, not the Project Girls, who are the newer girls that I am supposed to be working with. Anyway we had fun and they worked very hard, producing some lovely things.  I am now working with the Project Girls, I am trying to introduce them to the difference between 2d and 3d.  Also to the idea of creating shapes in a more abstract way, rather than always copying things.  Some of them have responded really well to this.  Attention spans are short and we will have to work on developing things.  This seems normal for girls of their age though. We keep trying to take them to the Museum in Patan to do some drawing, but as there is a severe fuel crisis here at the moment it has not been possible. The other challenge is to teach with a minute amount of Nepali, and a tiny bit of Hindi, a lot of sign language.  However teaching by example seems the best policy anyway. I have some company, or I should say some one to speak English to, not just bad Hindi/Nepali.  Lexa, another volunteer from the UK has joined me.  She will be teaching ceramics.  It does mean, that with a trip to Kathmandu at the weekend, I have not been thinking a great deal about any of my own work. However, today, I have started to teach the girls to make sculptures starting with a proper armature.  As some of them had made figures and wanted to put some mosaic on them I decided to show them some photos from the Nec Chand Rock Garden in Chandigarh.  As I had hoped they were very exited by the idea of making sculptures with broken bangles on them.  As I have been thinking about the Bangle sculpture I would like to make I think that we may collaborate to make a large sculpture in the garden here. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 So now in the third week at Godawari, it has been an interesting time, the girls   have started to make sculptures that we can stick broken glass bangles on.  This has involved making proper armatures, padding them with polystyrene and wrapping muslin dipped in plaster round this to make a basic structure.  Monday was quite mad as I had some girls at the plaster stage and some at the armature in wire stage.  The result is a solid bag of plaster and a blocked sink. Last Friday, myself and three girls, went into Patan, to Mangle Bazaar, to buy more Bangles than the old couple running the stall have ever sold before.  Monday morning we smashed them all!  I got my video camera out for the first time since I have been here to record this event.  I feel that this footage could become part of some work, footage of several Nepali girls crouching on the floor smashing these beautiful bangles with rolling pins, there seems to be some symbolism in this action.  Even the way that Mumta was scooping up the pieces and putting them in a box, it had a similar action to sorting rice or beans. I have been making some sketchs for a Naga (snake) woman sculpture that we could construct in the same way that we have made the smaller sculptures.  Working on this collaboratively, making a larger structure.  Nagas are worshiped by women and are associated with fertility. Speaking of fertility and as I have mentioned before the obvious symbolism of Hinduism on Sunday we visited the Siva temple in Patan, there the pujari was performing rites around a Siva Lingham, decorated with flowers and fruit.  A pan of water was dripping onto the Siva Lingham from above.  It reminded me again of the ceremony that we had witnessed in Utterkarshi, with the newly married couple pouring milk over the Lingham. I hope that what I am teaching the girls is useful to them, I think that they are learning useful skills.  I am exited by the idea of collaborating with them.  It is quite strange as I rarely make real sculptures these days and actually it is quite pleasurable playing with plaster and clay. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 So now I am in the fourth week of being in Godawari.  Some of the bangle sculptures have been completed by the girls and we have been making animals, clay on a metal armature, so that we can create part moulds for repeat casting.  All useful skills. The director of the charity returned to Nepal this week and this morning we met with a contact of his who is opening a shop in Kathmandu, just the day I fly from Delhi ironically.  She is interested in selling mosaics and ceramics and anything else the girls make.  Much to my delight she was very taken with the bangle sculptures and we talked about what sort of figures we could make, woman carrying baskets and water carriers. I now feel filled with enthusiasm, but realise that the large scale naga (snake sculpture) is probably out of the question. Last week there was a naga festival and pictures of nagas appeared on everyone’s gates, including ours.  I am still pursuing ideas about these potent fertility symbols.  I have been told that there are many stories of snakes coming in the form of women and luring men into relationains with them.  They then turn in snakes again.  The daughters of nagas are half woman half snake and called Naga Kanya. I am pleased that in some way the work that I am creating with the girls is relating to ideas that are circulating in my mind for my own work. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 Oh so much has been happening that I have not had a chance to write much, plus we have had a lot of problems with the internet.   Last week, Zoe and Dan, who have been working down in Bairawa on a mosaic project, where our guests.  Also Philip Holmes who is the director of the charity I am volunteering for was back in country, this as meant a week of planning and meetings.  A woman who is opening a shop in Kathmandu is very interested in the Bangle sculptures and we are now working on prototypes.  Also the clay maquette figures that the girls produced are now being developed so they can be fired.  This does mean that the emphasis of what I am doing has changed.  I realise that what is needed before I leave is to put in place means of development and production.  Dreams of Naga sculptures are out the window now.   An amazing weekend followed the meetings and planning sessions.  This started on Friday with a trip to Timi (a town near Kathmandu that is famous for its potteries and papier mache workshops).  We took the girls, all together in a micro bus. Because Hari and Rajendra who work here for the project in the pottery both come from Timi, they were our guides, we started with a visit to a traditional mask maker, who gave us a demonstration, this was fascinating. In a courtyard behind his house Hari’s uncle was working on a hand powered wheel, basically a tire and a stick.  We then went to visit Hari’s brothers workshop, where I discovered that glazed pottery was only introduced to Nepal in 1984.  The weekend was one long festival, it started in the middle of the night in Patan, although I did not catch up with it until later in the day, it was the day that all Brahim (top caste) have to retie their sacred thread, every one gets a thread around their wrist as well.  The main Siva temple in Patan was heaving.  The water tank that we had seen being cleaned a few weeks ago was full and everyone was queuing to make offerings to a Lingum (phallic symbol of Siva) that had been set up in the middle of the tank. There were many pandits who were tying sacred threads and just loads of people.  In addition the Shamens from the mountains were dancing around beating drums.  Outside was like a small fete.  It was all really exiting. I managed to get a lot of photographs and some video footage, although the camera was not too keen on all that Hindu mess.  Like most of these experiences I am not sure what to make of it all yet, but was interested in the following day which was the Gai Jatra festival, this is a day when people who have died in the last year are commemorated.  A procession follows a cow.  There was music and masked dancing. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 Back in the UK, after a fond farewell to the girls.  The day after I returned the shop in Durbar Marg that was going to stock Himalayan Mosaic products produced by the girls opened.  The girls got orders for several mosaics and the owner of the shop said that she would like more of the figures with bangles on them. Successful job I feel. Now I have to put this experience behind me and turn to review the video footage and photographs that I have collected.  I was pleased to get film of the girls preparing food, which seems to relate to the bangle smashing footage.  I am sure that I will be able to use this.  But I also have to cast my mind back to July and the experience of the Char Dham.  I also have to start to think about how this experience can be converted to a piece of art! ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 I am re inventing this blog, re invigorating it.  However, because I have spent so long re writing the introduction, it is now time for me to get ready for work and I have no time to write this entry.  This is the dilemma most artists face, trying to balance work for money, work in the studio and work that attempts to share the products of the studio with the wider world.  So I have re invented this blog to be part of that process, to help me share my experience and work in the wider world.  At least I made the time this morning to make a start.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 So my feeling that I need to improve my "web presence" has been compounded by a friend contacting me through Axis Web yesterday saying that it is about time I updated my status. Well I have taken it all on board and here I am concentrating on this aspect of my working life. The main presence I have on the web at the moment is on Ebay. What did we do before we could just log on and find people selling what we need on Ebay. Skips, Help the Aged Shops, Car Boot Sales. But on Ebay there it all is, whatever you want, quickly. I am buying National Dress Dolls and Glass Domes. The Glass Domes are quite hard to get cheaply and buying on Ebay does run away with you, until you get a credit card bill. Buying dolls on the internet is more interesting. A large part of my work is concerned with the phenomena of collecting and collections. Buying these dolls on Ebay plunged me into a new world of doll collectors, I could feel myself beginning to display collectors traits, bidding furiously for "that Bolivian doll" as I didn't have one in my collection. MY COLLECTION, what is that all about. Anyway, I am buying in bulk now, cheap as possible. I was filled with delight when I went to my studio yesterday to pick up several packages. Less delighted by the decreasing space I have, definitely not enough to do what I want with all these dolls. I do feel that this buying is part of the work, a performative element if you like. Maybe I should be documenting this process in some way. Maybe I should just be noting my thoughts about this virtual life. A virtual life where I recieve these parcels of treasured collections that have been in pride of place in display cabinets or have been forgotton in musty attics. Imagine the years of holidays that this parade of Greek Evzones and Thai dancers represent. In this virtual world I communicate with people all over the country and get gold stars and good feedback. I win some and I loose some. I actually wanted to talk about the Sublime and how it relates to my work. However it seems that on a Friday morning when you realise that you have forgotten to place a bid in an auction that is now ended, (for a rather beautiful Spanish Flamenco Doll) that only the Ridiculous can describe what I am doing. What is all this frantic buying leading to? Several sculptural resolutions, apparently, and some photographic work. It has taken several years of fiddling and photographing and leaving on the shelf to reach a point when I think I know what I am doing with all these dolls and why. I have decided that the older I get the longer it takes for me to digest and develop an idea, there seems to be a slow burn process throughout which ideas coalesce. But once they do it all seems chrystal clear. So I hope that I can start MAKING soon.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 After a frustrating week I have been cheered this morning by the arrival of the latest army of dolls, see image. I have to seriously curtail my ebay activity, well stop actually. No more space and no more money. Furthering this work is on temporary hold anyway. For the last 15 months I have been subletting 2/3s of my studio. I took this decision last January as I knew I would be teaching 3 days per week and therefore unable to use the studio as much as I wanted. I hoped that this would encourage me to concentrate on the more administrative tasks that I tend to ignore if I am able to go to the studio and make work. For various reasons this arrangement has not worked out as well as I had hoped, mainly due to other bits of life getting in the way. So the remaining third of my studio, which is an office/storage space is now really very crowded with the miniature population of the world. I am looking forward to regaining the rest of my studio in the summer to allow work with these midget folk to evolve. In the mean time, I have continued drawing, in recent years I have been drawing more and more, reassessing how this activity relates to my practice. It is a space to think that allows a mental sorting process, it is a comfort zone. I am unsure of the value of the results, particularly when, like yesterday, I feel they are not working and become mud on the paper. Perhaps I can retrieve that particular example today. It is frustrating and annoying when precious time in the studio results in "mud". Should this really worry me when this is only that which I stated above, ie, thinking space and a comfort zone, comfortable activity. At the weekend I started reading parts of Susan Stewart's On Longing again, I first read this text about 10 years ago and it is still so pertinent to the work that I am making. It was fascinating to realise how ideas formed whilst reading this book have been fermenting in the subconscious and have been so influential on this current project. Ideas about the souvenir and its relationship to actual experience, how the miniature relates to memory. Since the beginning of my Silkthreads Project in 2004 when I started out on a 15th month journey along the Silk Road, I have been trying to identify ways of containing actual experience within my work. At first this resulted in several large scale installation and performance works that directly related to material bought back from this trip. I think that the work with the dolls is routed in that journey and others, but that it attempts to deal with more general ideas about memories, possession and a mediated world view.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 Well, the most exciting news this week is that I am goin to Berlin for two months in June and July. I will be in a life work space in Milch Hof studios in Prenzlaurberg. It is such a great opportunity for all sorts of reasons. Berlin is a city that I know well, but it is very different staying somewhere for two months rather than a few days. I am very excited about the prospect of spending long hours in the museums and galleries and enjoying the sunshine in the Tiergarten. I am also really looking forward to having a studio next to my bed and no other committmants other than to myself and my work. I want to keep open about how things will develop during my stay. I will not be able to work with the dolls while I am there, the logistics are too complex. My proposal for using this space was more about walking and Berlin is a great city for that, traversing borders and historical layers and cultural differences on foot in a way that is not as possible in London because of size. On more mundane subjects I tried to rescue the mud pile drawing that I mentioned last time, slightly salvaged is the conclusion there, you will notice there is no image attached. I worked into it so much it started to be more like working on a painting, something that I have not done for may years. The rest of the week has been spent editing documentation of past works, necessary work that often gets forgotten. And I have called a halt to Ebay for now. A big photography session is due for the Easter Break.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 This is an image of Ampelman, those of you who have been to Berlin will know that this figure appears on the traffic lights in the old east when you are to "walk". So, as walking forms the core of my proposal for my time in Berlin, the Ampelman seems an appropriate symbol for the project. I am trying to keep an open mind about how work will develop while I am there. However I have been thinking about ways in which my research during the time in Berlin can relate to general themes within my work. Thoughts at this moment involve researching the German Romantic movement and the invented landscapes of 18th Century Europe. The vast building projects of 19th and 20th Century Berlin and the huge empty expanses of that ravaged city give me the same kind of feeling as the unseeable sublime in the paintings of Kasper David Freidrick. It is all so big, evoking the sense of a greater power, leaving you vertiginous. I want to revisit Freidrich the Greats fantasy summer palace and gardens Sanssouci at Potsdam. This place epitomises the 18th century romantic ideal. Whilst at first it seems difficult to make a link between the grandeur or German Romanticism and the tiny dolls I have been photographing in the studio, I feel that there are links. Their existence reflects a compelling need to attempt to make sense of the unimaginable vastness of a world full of difference and a desire to possess this. In a similar way the landscapers and architects of the 18th century created small ideal versions of the world full of the exotic, to be possessed and enjoyed by the aristocrats of Europe. I was quite exited to discover the existence of a more contemporary invented landscape in the "Teufelsberg" or "Devils Mountain". This is built out of rubble collected from the post war streets of West Berlin. I have since realised that this is where Anri Sala filmed one of his pieces that were shown at the Serpentine last year. The mountain is topped by an extraordinary structure that was a US listening post during the cold war. However my interest in the site is the mountain itself, a mountain that rises from the flat plain on which Berlin stands. I would just like to be there now to experience all these things. But I have to help students to get through their degree show first.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 My mind has not been with dolls or in Berlin this week. I have just returned from a trip to Antwerp. I fell in love with this city some years ago when I had an exhibition there and am always glad to return. M HKA the contemporary art museum is always worth a visit, amazingly so on this occasion. On the ground floor we were treated to a spectacular overview of art from the 1960s and 70s showing the influence on European Art of the new movements coming out of the states. The exhibition Spirits of Internationalism, ends this weekend. All hung beautifully in the amazing spaces of this disused grain silo. Then, on the second floor we were inspired by the retrospective of Belgian artist Chantel Ackerman "Too Far, Too Close". It really made me think about how narratives can be created in film by using the medium spatially, spreading image across different types and sizes of screens, not relying on a prosaic, cinematic, single screen, device. A lot of artists and gallery curators are so unimaginative in their approach to showing video works. Seeing the four spectacular Rubens paintings in the cathedral prompted a visit to his extraordinary house, extended from its Flemish heart into an extravagant Baroque Italian villa. Art super stars working for the "Yankee Dollar" are nothing new really. Neither of course is the practice of artists not making their own work, recently criticised so heavily by Mr Hockney. But I learnt several things during my visit to Rubens house that question our ideas about authorship. 1. Rubens was a court painter to Archduke Albrecht, as such it was his duty to make court portraits. Several copies would be made by the studio that could be ordered to be given as gifts to other monarchs or friends of the Archduke. 2. Rubens over painted older masters paintings with his own alterations to "improve" them. 3. Finally there was a painting made by two painters, one good at figures and landscape the other at still life, apparently a common practice at that time and a quick way to turn out paintings for the open market. It also enabled the buyer to get , well 2 for the price of 1. Final inspiration came from the Musical Instrument Museum in Brussels, an extraordinary collection, still on the subject of 2 for 1, there was a spinet with a virginals fitted into the side. Back home and back on track now, I got several books of German Romantic Painting out of the University Library yesterday and did a lot of thinking on the bus coming home. However I am not going to Berlin yet so I had better get on with some video editing now, inspired by Chantel Ackerman perhaps?... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 Well it is a long time since I wrote in this blog.  I have been in the waiting room, so to speak, but now I am here in my new home for 2 months.  My live/work space at Milchhof, Berlin http://milchhof-berlin.de It is situated in the very trendy area of Prenzlauerberg, which has been vibrating with exitement all weekend, partly because of Euro 2012, and partly just because it is summer.  Mauer Park was full yesterday afternoon, there were dogs and jugglers and acrobats; sunbathers and Turkish picnicers and musicians demonstrating their talents, it seems it is like a mini festival every weekend.   I took about 100 photos.  You can see some of these on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/16808392@N02/  It is strange but wonderful to be in this space.  To be in the studio building when no other artists are working, like last night, when it is totally quiet. Equally strange to be here on Saturday night when some artists were working all night.  It is quite comforting to go to sleep with the sound of electric saws, believe it or not. Yesterday I started a large drawing, just to have something in the studio to break up the whiteness, this too is a new experience, to get up this morning and to see it there on the floor, to add a few marks before breakfast.  If you have had a live/work space you will know how this feels, but for me it is new.  It is also amazing to be be free from all the clutter of everyday life, and to have a blank space to work in.  No appointments, no housework (well the bare minimum) and not so many distractions.  The time stretches in a way that I am not used to, being here, in the studio all the time means that thoughts are always centring around the work. I have started to explore the way landscape exists in this city, I think that I will start by mediating this landscape through photography, film and large scale drawings see where this takes me. In addition I am going to visit a friend today who is a landscape architect, this should result in some interesting dialogue I hope.  I am also going to call into Boesner (the German equivalent of Atlantis I am told.  I need to stock up on provisions, I only bought the bare minimum with me.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 So I have been in Berlin one whole week already, I think that my time here will go very quick. As well as meeting old friends and making new ones I have been looking at a lot of Art. On Saturday I went right up into Wedding, which is an untrendy part of the old West Berlin.  There in a defunct Osram factory there between the usual fashion outlets and furniature stores are a couple of very large scale galleries, .  At Galerie Guido W Baudach, there was a  show by Thomas Zipp, a large scale spatial installation of wooden buildings, or rooms that on entering were completey mirrored. I enjoyed the experience of being in there spaces as a few days before I had visited Charlottenburg Schloss and was very inspired by the Porcelaine Cabinet of Queen Sophia Charlotte.   This completely exotic cabinet is actually a whole room designed purely to display the Queens porcelaine collection.  The cieling is painted with a mural of Aurora chasing away the night (which I could write a thesis about), and, as in all the rooms in the Baroque part of the Palace the painting turns into sculpture which enters the space. The walls are covered with chinese porcelaine, held out to us by chinese figures, cups sit on sculpted tree branchs, and plates in the laps of smiling buddhas.  The whole thing is outrageous.  But the thing that interested me most in this room was the fact that mirrors in the corners of the room extended to collection into imagined space far beyond our reach.  I started to think of ways in which I could use this technique with the doll collection. The other thing that struck me at the palace was the way they had painted the ceilings in rooms where the original murals had been destroyed during the war.  There were just clouds, the heaven above.  This seemed to fit with my thoughts about the sublime, an archetectural sublime, filled with fantasy rooms where we can touch the exotic.  The exotic of other cultures including the extravagent past of the Hohenzollern dynasty. The gardens here are very interesting, I shall have to go back and film and photograph. Yesterday I visited several exhibitions, Roman Ondak at the Deutch Guggenheim and some small galleries in Mitte, but the highlight for me was to go into The Altes Museum and see the Casper David Friedriechs.  They are beautifully hung here and having been studying them in books for so many weeks it was really fantastic to stand before them.  Some I find strange and beguiling, some not so interesting.  A couple just astound, there is something much more contemporary about them, in the same way that through Turner we see the shape of art to come. In the studio I have started to make a series of small watercolours from the photographs I took in Mauer park, and in the mornings I run through this landscape to try to fix it through my body.  This work, combined with the Friedriechs seems to be consolidating ideas born 4 years ago when I made the Char Dham pilgrimage in the Himalayas.  The image of a small figure fixed against a vast landscape.  This is what I was hoping for in Berlin, but I am not sure how it will resolve into solid shape yet but it is very exiting though. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 Feeling less than chipper today.  I thought that the studio would be buzzing this week as they have an opening and summer party on Saturday, its like a morgue.  It is difficult to get to know who the other artists in the studios are. I don't like to disturb people because I know that they are here to work, not to entertain me.  We all know what studio blocks are like, all closed doors buffering the sounds of industry within. Having said that, the artists that I have met here are really friendly and they all speak good English, which helps.  My German is not up to much, but I am trying to practice. This is not easy as everyone answers immediately in English. On top of that it is raining! It was raining on Saturday, but that did not stop Florian, a really old friend of mine here in Berlin, from giving me a tour of the beautiful parks and gardens of southern Berlin.  I am sworn to secrecy about this, to prevent a tourist avalanche in this quarter, but I think that most people will be aware of Templehof, the former Airport.  I will definitely go back there to do some filming, it is an incredible space. I feel as if I am continually walking in gardens whilst here.  Unusual you might think for such a big city, but Berlin is blessed with a great deal of open space.  This varies from traditional formal gardens like those at Charlottenburg, to very informal, like Mauer Park, which is barely more than a strip of untamed ground.  Then there are the new formal gardens being created from the carnage of the 20th century. On Friday I spent the morning photographing the amazing landscaping that has taken place where the Mauer (wall) ran along Bernauer Str.  Very close to the studio.  It is like a Richard Sera sculpture park, making a three dimensional map of history. A subtle and beautiful sculptural statement containing a moving narrative. I also visited the Hamburger Bahnhof, the National Gallery of Contemporary Art, they have extended the museum into a huge corridor like exhibition space to the rear of the main museum.  The exhibition there, Archetektonika 2 was extremely inspiring for me. Containing work by many of my favourite artists, all pertaining to architecture in some way, mainly sculptural and spatial work and some photography. It made me want to start working 3 dimensionally.  Not easy, I keep wanting to go skip hunting, but then it rains and I don't want a studio full of damp garbage. Link to information about exhibition http://www.smb.museum/smb/kalender/details.php?objID=36493&datum=05.04.2012+00:00 I have been doing a lot of drawing and am continuing to make water colours from the photographs of Mauer Park.  Yesterday I took more photographs, in Charlottenburg Gardens. It was wonderful to spend time in the imagined landscape of the 18th and  19th century, where every turn in the path brings a picturesque vista.  Very peaceful and meditative, very egalitarian now, unlike it's elitist past. I started to see a connection between the hedges of the formal gardens there and the hedges that mark the passage of the wall through Mauer Park.  The last 3 days have been beautiful and sunny, Monday was incredibly hot. This gave me plenty of opportunity to get used to the bicycle that a friend has lent me, definitely the best way to explore the city, Berlin is very bike friendly.  However it is an old fashioned "sit up and beg" sort and far too big for me.  Well I guess the rain should keep me in the studio continuing to try and make some sense of all my explorations. See the latest photos here http://www.flickr.com/photos/16808392@N02/ ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 It does seem that I have been a little lax with this blog, too busy since the last entry, the brief period of loneliness and rain has been transplanted by sunshine and visitors.  Hence the silence.  I feel as if, half way through my time in Berlin I have achieved a lot and the work that I am doing is starting to mean something  Until this week I felt that I was just playing around and taking in a lot of new sights and ideas. But today, now the rain has returned, I have stayed in the studio, I pottered and thought and I realised that things are falling into place.  I am even starting to work three dimensionally. I suppose that this is how a residency works.  Time out from normal life gives you an opportunity to play around and experiment, without constantly referring to current concerns within your practice.  It also gives you the opportunity of adventure each time you leave the studio, even a trip to the supermarket can be interesting and new.  Pants and tights seem to turn up in the oddest places, next to the bottled water, before you get to the tinned beans. Anyway I have established today that several things are taking place in my thinking, resolutions for ideas and projects ranging back to The Char Dham Project are formulating.  But also in a very exiting way, new ideas for Berlin have arisen. There is an exhibition space here at Milchhof that I now have my sights on, and this could form the framework of a new installation. Ever since my visit to Charllottenburg Schloss I have been thinking about reflections.  The Pavillion Milchhof is a half glass construction that reflects the world as well as allowing a window into the art.  I am watching this space. The artists here allowed me to put a small drawing into their Sommerhits show, which contained work from many of the Milchhof artists and was curated by Werner Kernebeck.  So, in a very minor way my exhibiting history in Berlin has begun.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 Since I last wrote on Saturday I have realised that some of the things I was so sure of at that time are not really working in the way that I supposed.  But I am still exploring the city and having ideas, so many ideas, but they are coalescing and resolving through my experiments in the studio.  I feel a slight element of panic creeping up on me as I realise I have less than three weeks left here in Berlin.  Somehow three months would always be better than 2, allowing for settling in, getting started and then having more time to reflect and develop.  However, when I return to England in August I can continue, without the distraction of Berlin all around me. Berlin is still throwing up new spaces and places.  Still growing before my eyes, full of unbelievable, huge, buildings and vistas.  On Sunday I cycled out to the Olympic Stadium, it is almost a straight line for about 5 miles, nearly flat, that could not happen in London.  As I cycled back I could see Alexandar Platz straight ahead, getting bigger as I approached.  This kind of scale distorts distance, the same thing happens in vast natural landscapes.  You feel that you have nearly reached a point ahead, only to realise that you are still far from it. Something similar happened recently at Sans Soucci (the vast pleasure gardens and summer palace complex of the Hohenzollerns in Potsdam).  Walking down the central avenue towards the Neue Palais it seems quite near until you realise just how huge it is and how tiny the people approaching it are.   This is exactly what I was thinking about before I came to Berlin, this vertiginous, dizzying hugeness.  Distorting our sense of scale and self.  It happened again yesterday on a visit to Gropiusstadt.  The high tower block there is just unbelievably tall.  So Kings and Dictators and Urban Designers have shaped the landscape of Berlin, making us all feel as tiny as the figures in a David Friedrich painting. I also made a tour of rubble mountains this week.  I saw the Teufelsburg from the clock tower at the Olympic Park.  I mentioned this in a previous post, a "mountain" made from rubble collected, by women, after the 2nd world war and shipped out by rail to west of the city.  Today it looks like a natural feature, covered with trees, standing above the flat flood plain of the Spree.  Then on Tuesday I cycled up to Gesundbrunnen and out to Friedrichshein which both have Bunker burgs, now moulded into the landscape of the parks, but there are huge scarps of concrete jutting through the undergrowth.  A squashed city of fear, flattened by the forest. What forests surround Berlin, a primordial vastness of flat green colour interspersed with lakes and rivers.  A half formed landscape, stretching out across central Europe.  There is nothing like this in England.  My friend says he has seen wolf tracks in the forest quite close to Berlin.  Inspired by him and reading Robert Macfarlane's The Wild Places, I must get into it.  So far I have only seen it from above, as I fly into Schonefeld, from the Muggelturm in the East and the Bell Tower in the West.  And there in the middle of this green sea the Fersehenturm stands proud, dwarfing everything, city and nature, you can make of that what you will. Meanwhile back in the studio I have been playing with photographs in Photoshop, reflecting and expanding them.  I am also continuing to keep a map diary and I am having ideas about how these shapes could become three dimensional.  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 This week will be dedicated to filming, I have decided to go down to Templehof today to film the enormous sky there.  Because Berlin is so flat, the ground seems to fall away beyond the boundary fence.  Areas of the park are given over to allotments and crazy golf and windsurfing, but because of the immensity of the space these are mere blemishes on the surface. This place is unique, an enormous open space full of very little, in the middle of the suburbs.  Imagine if Heathrow stopped operating and it became a park for a while.  When I was there the other Saturday the grass was full of Skylarks and there are birds of prey hovering over head.  Just to be able to walk the circumference of the taxying area and down the run way is incredible, it still bares the hieroglyphs of international travel.  It makes you feel as if you are tracing a huge line with your body.   Then looming at one end of the field is the Nazi built airport building, reputedly the longest building in the world, nearly 2 km.  Its scale immense when you are close to it, so big you can't see how big, then dwarfed by the landscape from far away.  They use it for raves and temporary exhibitions, filming and that sort of thing. The history of the place is very resonant, it is where the Berlin Air Lift took place after WWII.  It also formed the link between West Berlin and the rest of Germany during the Cold War, making it the gateway to Berlin for most westerners. It won't last of course, it will have to be built on, no developer could just allow that amount of prime location land to return to nature. Anyway the weather is windy and the sky amazing, so I must get down there. It is definitely a time for making and filming, I visited the Hamburger Bahnhof again on Saturday and could not concentrate on the work in there, too full of my own thoughts.  Have been in the studio, working and contemplating over the weekend, its like an experimental hub, I am trying not to care too much about the results, I feel sure I know where it is all heading.  I don't know if any of the experiments are worth anything in their own right, but they are helping me think.  The liberation of being out of my own studio and environment is amazing, I feel as if I am a foundation student again. Before I go down to Templehof, someone from the studio is coming to visit this morning, this makes me feel a little less liberated and more self conscious about my efforts.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 I did do a lot of filming in my last weeks in Berlin.  Now I am home in London I will have to spend some dark winter nights looking through all the footage to see what I can do with it.  In the end I experimentally tried cycling down the runway at Templehof with the camera running?  Whether this will actually deliver any reasonable footage waites to be seen. I also made films of people traversing the long axis at Templhof and at Sans Soucci.  Also I took a lot of film of people passing through mirrored rooms at Charlottenburg Palace. Now for 2 weeks I have been making a whirlwind tour of Germany, Leipzig, Dresden, Bavaria and lastly Kassel for the Documenta.  It is all a bit mind boggling really.  Just so much to digest, on top of all the time spent in Berlin. However, my studio sublet moved out yesterday so I am heading down to my own space shortly.  But how to begin there, will I resolve older work first, or should I begin by reviewing Berlin work.  Resolving old work while the German experience settles would seem to be the most sensible course, but I have to get out all the large scale drawings that have been rolled up in the car for 2 weeks.  What do they really represent, just thinking aloud, or do they have value in their own right.  Exiting problems to have.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 I have been looking at the photographs and video that I shot in Charlottenberg Palace.  When I looked at this material in Berlin it seemed OK.  Now I have been home in London for a week it all seems quite extraordinary.  The opulence of that palace appears even more absurd from this distance. I was struck when I was shooting the video that all the rooms contain a lot of mirrors and so most of the video is footage of tourists moving around rooms reflected in mirrors.  Those of you who have read most of this blog will know that the concept of mirroring appeared in the work I was making in Berlin quite early in my residency.  A lot of the video that I shot towards the end of my stay was composed with the idea of mirroring it through projection.  However this footage of actual mirrors in the palace is very successful.  I am particularly pleased by this as I shot it using my SLR camera rather that the video camera.  This does mean that it is lower quality.  The people entering rooms and moving around between actual presence and reflected presence seems choreographed and performative rather than banal.  They all sport headphones as if on a sound walk, in fact it is the audio tour.  Who knows what they are hearing, instructions, information about Frederiech II?  They are absorbed in their own worlds, absorbed into the baroque decor. In Berlin I started to make drawings in 2 and 3 dimensions from the map diaries that I kept throughout my stay.  Having stuck these up on the wall in London I decided that these drawings have potential and can be developed further.  So far the experiments in the studio are still quite basic, but as I was looking at the details of Roccoco stucco from Charlottenberg I was reminded about the way in which I thought I could reflect these arabesques and reflective curves in the drawings.  I should take that thought to the studio today.  I am finding it really hard now that I am home to keep focus and to try and hold on to all the thoughts and sensations from the last 3 months.  The time spent in Berlin was so intense that I feel a little like I am half asleep now.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 Busy times, getting used to being back in my own studio after such a long time.  It is wonderful. Despite the fact that I thought that I would be revisiting the work I was making with dolls, I am continuing with the drawings I was working on in Berlin.  I realise that focus is something I struggle with, this has meant that I have decided to "Focus" and develop the new work while it is still fresh. This activity has been driven in part by the fact that we have our annual Open Studios this weekend, this year we are once again part of London's Open House Weekend. In short it means a lot more visitors than usual, Open Studios  become very tiring after time, loyal as friends are they do not want to troop along year in year out. Therefore an extra effort is required to bring the latest set of drawings to some sort of conclusion.  I know that those people who come to see what I have been doing in Berlin will want to see this work.  Also, to be perfectly honest, in addition to the larger drawings, I have been making a series of smaller drawings in the vain hope that some of the architectural visitors feel like opening their wallets.   Any way preparations are under way and photos of beautiful drawings presented in a beautiful space will follow. I have also been putting together ideas for the Pavilion back in Berlin at Milchhof.  As usual fiddling about trying to arrange these ideas clearly and in a suitable emailable formatt took more time it should have, let us hope that we will all be using cloud technology soon.  But like all writing about and collating of work, it has been very useful in trying to find out what I am actually trying to do at the moment.  This process  included trying out some mirrored video ideas, still very early days, but there is a lot of potential with these I think. But it is the progress of the drawings that fascinates me, it still feels new to be working in this way, allowing the work to develop in along a less intellectual path.  But I feel secure in the knowledge that there is a strong concept underpinning the work.  It is also interesting to see how drawing has been fundamental to much of the work that I have made in recent years, rather than earlier works in which I feel as if I had been creating a sculptural illustration of an idea.  Work becomes really exiting when the conscious mind takes a bit of a break. Anyway FOCUS is the word driving the work this week.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 It really is a long time since I added a post.  In a way I feel that I should put this blog to bed for a while.  The transition back to making work with the dolls is nearly complete and, whilst I am still developing the drawings other things are taking preference now.  Berlin recedes into the mists of Autumn. The open studios went well and I got some very good feedback about the drawings. I then had a piece in a group show, a piece that is about 2 years old, this  revived interest in that body of work, with the possiblity of organising a show.  So the policy is to get the head down, finish off and resolve the Doll work, develop show ideas for the Water Bottle Label work, finish off the website and keep the Berlin ideas developing on the side. So I think that there will not be any posts in this blog until I start working for a show in Berlin.   Perhaps I should start a blog dedicated to the Dolls.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 I am re igniting this blog, as I am off to Berlin next week for a few days.  Partly because I am missing it so, partly to see if I can get some more concrete plans for an exhibition in the city. I have been unable to leave the work on the large scale drawings alone.  I have been trying to finally resolve other work started before the residency, primarily the doll work.  But the drawings are progressing in strange and wonderful directions and it is very exiting. I had a visit from some curators at my studio on Tuesday and they were very impressed with the increasing army of dolls marching across the studio floor, but they were also very exited by the large scale drawings. This was encouraging.   I feel unable to gauge the success of this new departure in my work, so it is great to get some feedback on them. I was sorting through my plans chest a couple of weeks ago and realised that these drawings are not just the product of the residency, but that I have been making drawings consistantly over the last 3 or 4 years.  Not sculptors drawings, but first life drawings and then more abstract developments from the life drawings and sculptural works.  Berlin just allowed the drawing to become the focus of all my creative thoughts, not just a contingent activity.  It was a kind of release from more conceptually bounded work. I have been made aware of what a time away from normal routine and environment can do for ones practice.  I am exited by the thought of going to Berlin, it will be strange to be there as a visiter again, just for a few days, not months.  It will also be cold!... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526 So, I spent 3 very packed days in Berlin.  It was beautiful bright and sunny, but very very cold and snowey.  It was as if I had left yesterday and returned a day later and someone had added winter to the scene. I instantly felt at home and as if I had not been away at all.  Another collegue from London is situated in the studio just now and it was very strange to visit her there.  It all felt so familiar, but there was some one elses toothbrush, and someone elses work!  However it was lovely to see the studio again and to meet up with some of my German collegues. I also enjoyed walking through the winter streets and trying to visit as many galleries as I could, in between socialising.  There are just so many galleries in Berlin, it is crazy, for such a small city with such a small population. However, the main purpose of the trip was to discuss showing in the Milchhof Pavillion, I had a great meeting with one of the artists in charge of the panel about possibilities, and partly due to seeing the space again and because of his input feel that I have some really concrete ideas of where the work is going.  Very useful.  So there is a plan afoot, and I am aiming at having a full proposal in place for September and showing in the spring next year.  Let us hope the weather is more clemant by then. All in all I feel very positive.  Some decisions were reached, for example that the sculptural ideas are seperate from the video ideas.  I think they should be kept for another space, I still remember the orangery at Charlottenburg Palace.  This would be ideal.  Also I need to get better footage from inside the palace and maybe I can do that in September. It would also be good to have a pre showing somewhere in London, just a kind of work in progess affair. Meanwhile the dolls are burgeoning in the studio and demanding exhibition space and I am off to Morocco in a couple or weeks to fire up a couple more projects.  I need a couple more blogs!... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/441526