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PLAN FOR WORLD DOMINATION
By: Sophie Cullinan
fail to plan you plan to fail
Sophie Cullinan
Trying to get on with it.
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please turn off the light
# 72 [15 June 2012]
Plan for World Domination is over.
Long live World Domination.
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Oh no...I kept coming back hoping to learn how to do it...come back and dominate the world some more....
posted on 2012-06-15 by Franny Swann
who knew it would be this easy?!
posted on 2012-06-15 by Sophie Cullinan
Congratulations! Domination achieved in a mere 72 posts. Outstanding work!
posted on 2012-06-15 by Elena Thomas
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# 71 [7 June 2012]
In between my squabbling children I have been trying to snatch the odd moment to do my work and I am questioning what it is I am making and why. In the barage of noise within my personal environment is my work trying to compete?
exhibit A - BLUES - sound like bagpipes.
exhibit B - FRUITFLOWERS - mongolian throat warbling
exhibit C - WORN - vacuum cleaner
In a house where it is impossible to hear your own thoughts I can only conclude that my work is a personal protest against my own life.
In the interests of research into this I thought I would share with you the wonderful juxtoposition of two art related presents for my recent birthday:
Pres. 1 - a book 'The Creative Feminine and her Discontents' by Juliet Miller (very good - please read it)
Pres. 2 - Two teatowels by Yayoi Kusama (very good at drying dishes - please do them for me)
I am a gemini.
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fighting to make yourself heard... if you are still making noisy work when they've all moved out in years to come you'll know the answer. I suspect if you are noisy you are noisy and it'll always be that way. Thanks for the book recommendation... although amazon have already had fr too much of my money. If you are a gemini in two minds, I am a pisces, swimming constantly in both directions!
posted on 2012-06-08 by Elena Thomas
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Sophie Cullinan, 'Invasion (detail)'. featuring the wonders of clingfilm
# 70 [30 May 2012]
So, Strained Fruit is happily singing away up at the country park. All that is left to do now is my ACE evaluation form. How I hate forms!
I am imagining that this will take nearly as long as the project itself. However I have grabbed the nettle in both hands and have tackled the nastiest bit first - the budget - big swot that I am, and thankfully all seems to be neatly balancing out - phew.
Now for the rest of it....
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Thimble monster! Looks like an under-sea creature to me :)
posted on 2012-06-01 by Marion Michell
Thank you!
posted on 2012-05-31 by Sophie Cullinan
Sophie - your blog is cool!
posted on 2012-05-31 by Ceri Ann Littlechild
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# 69 [15 May 2012]
I am now going to go against the purpose of this blog - I am going to talk about something that you should never talk about - for WD you need to be forever sunny, forever successful - I am going to talk about rejection.
Despite my obviously BRILLIANT ideas, over this past weekend I have received no less than four proposal rejections.
In addition to this, I have a project that they just haven't replied to so I must suppose, after all this time, I can add this one to the pile.
I am quite good at 'water off a duck's back' but honestly. At what point does all this make you question what you are doing? I think I have good ideas but if no-one else does then am I wrong? and what about following your own path and doing what feels right?
I have come to the conclusion that the main problem I have is that my work does not fit into a neat little box and, generally speaking, people don't like this.
Or maybe it's just a load of old rubbish and I should go and get a 'proper job'.
So, apologies for cross pollination, but here are a load of balls.
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Come back Kate! we miss you.... well, I miss you at least, the rest is just a guess.
posted on 2012-06-21 by Elena Thomas
thanks Kate! Had a few conversations and revelations last week thus the 'end of world domination' but not quite settled into new blog yet - I love the sense of companionship you get from doing this - just need to 'reframe' my work as its getting me nowhere at the moment!
posted on 2012-06-21 by Sophie Cullinan
Is there something in the air! My thoughts have been turning to 'proper' work too this past week. Voicing it is difficult but it's clear that a lot of us have these moments. Just brilliant that there are supportive forums like this where you're able to share those feelings of doubt. I've been missing that sense of solidarity and companionship since ending my blog. Glad to see you've turned things around Sophie & continuing to move forward with your work. Keep going!
posted on 2012-06-19 by Kate Murdoch
planning to make some 'superhero' costumes (out of old socks and tights, obvs) anyone want one?
posted on 2012-06-01 by Sophie Cullinan
(the last comment was Franny Swann posing as me again!) Isn't it a good job she is a force for good in the world?
posted on 2012-06-01 by Elena Thomas
Oh God - you should be regenerating, leaving a legacy and being an unpaid social worker. All been there. Nil desperandum and keep straining the fruit......we all think your wiork is great.
posted on 2012-05-31 by Elena Thomas
WD is World Domination! Don't worry I WON'T BE BEATEN! I don't really care what anyone thinks about my personal work that is just what I want to make anyway but all the ideas I slave away at which will never be able to be used as they are so specific to a brief - IT DRIVES ME MAD at the loss of time that could be better used on my personal work. Sorry ranting over. I am intending to avoid proper jobs at all costs (been on that slope before!)
posted on 2012-05-15 by Sophie Cullinan
Commiserations! That's part of our lot, isn't it, esp. in these austerity times. Not sure how far we should ever compromise our vision, used to be a kind of purist where that is concerned, but a person needs to live. Please keep trying, and in the meantime maybe let's join for a minute of loud lamenting so madness does not ensue... PS. What's WD stand for?
posted on 2012-05-15 by Marion Michell
The Proper Job is over-rated. Don't do it. Carry on being fruity! (if you possibly, possibly can... it's a slippery slope)
posted on 2012-05-15 by Elena Thomas
# 68 [7 May 2012]
Finally got to see the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at Tate Modern today - having failed a couple of weeks ago due to massive Damien Hirst queue slowing ticket office down.
Brilliant - if you haven't seen it GO!
The last room is the best - magical. But I also loved the phallic boat and shoes and sofa and clothes.
As someone who has made the odd proturberance in my time these were very compelling. Such a shame (of course I understand why) that you can't touch them - I would love to know if they are squishy or not. So much art needs touch too but how do you get over the practical problems of this?
My children loved it all too, particularly the luminous sticker room. Confidently expecting a 'sticker-fest' in our house soon.
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I hadn't thought of that - not sure it's me to get arrested in a gallery! - and you are right - the tantalising nature being out of reach is definitely a big part of the appeal. Its the whole appeal/repel thing with those white extrusions - finally Kristeva's thoughts on 'Abject art' are starting to make sense!
posted on 2012-05-08 by Sophie Cullinan
I guess the desire to touch the work, and the impossibility of fulfilling that desire, is part of its impact. Of course, you can subvert this by touching it anyway, then you can view the telling off from the security guard as being an aspect of the work too ;-) You could take this all the way to getting someone to video you being escorted out of the building by security, and then send the video to the artist as a new aspect of their work you have just revealed ;-)
posted on 2012-05-08 by Jon Bowen
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# 67 [2 May 2012]
During my car journeys today I have been pondering upon the complexities of autobiographical work and problems therein.
What do you do if you want to make work about your life or aspects of it but don't want to have that 'airing your dirty laundry' feeling.
It would be easy enough if you were an author - nom de plumes are 'de-rigeur'. But what if like 'Belle de Jour' you are unmasked? What is the equivalent in visual arts - Banksy? Did Bob and Roberta Smith try to hide his identity to begin with or is it an elaborate joke?
Currrently listening to old Blur I am reminded that a lot of autobiographical music emanates from the ends of relationships - what if the work you want to make comes from the core but you don't really want the others involved to know your thoughts?
Do you have to rewrite the enigma code?
Just asking......
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Elena and Sophie I think that you are both right. But perhaps it is more to do with finding common ground and suspending judgement on yourself. For me, it doesn't have to be about 'he did this, she said that' etc; it isn't like Emin's 'I would've loved you, you did this to...' etc either. You can express it with material. I'm a big fan of de la Cruz' work. Her modernist canvases frequently reference her body. They can be coffin shaped, follow the dimensions of her torso or seep through doorways like a deep blue curtain. Rothko's Seagram murals too reference nothing in this world, but what makes them so personal? Maybe it is about finding the core and stripping everything else back, not building up disguises, though that could prove interesting. Maybe you have to dare to fail, or kick your work until it breaks.
posted on 2012-08-14 by Gerald Curtis
I've thought a lot about this too, stitching secret text into things, personal bits of poetry and so on. I'm scared that during the process of making the text illegible, I will become incapacitated and people will find out my sordid little secrets! So I don't do it... one day I might find a way to do it, but then it won't feel like a confession will it? I won't get that feeling of liberation, because there's been no risk?
posted on 2012-08-13 by Elena Thomas
Gerald I think you have got to the core of the issue! I think the liberating nature of this kind of a confessional is key - it is as always striking the balance - confessing without people realising EXACTLY what you are on about but feeling at one with the gist of it. Also I think a lot of my work like this never quite gets made because I haven't yet found out a tricky enough code (and I'm a big chicken!). A curse on prevarication! I like the idea of revealing objects but just don't get me started on my pile of 'stuff'!
posted on 2012-08-13 by Sophie Cullinan
Hey Sophie, I couldn't help but comment on this. I have written about an exercise I prompted people to do in my blog A London Persuit in which they have to bring a personal object and talk about it, then draw it while lying on their back with their eyes closed. Some of the stories were very personal, but what came out of it was a sense that everyone was a bit more connected in some way. I get this feeling when I do performances too. I guess it depends on the type of person you are to an extent, I have found that when I reach out in my work, it brings a sense of ease. Revealing stories can be very liberating for yourself and the audience.
posted on 2012-08-12 by Gerald Curtis
Hey Sophie, I couldn't help but comment on this. I have written about an exercise I prompted people to do in my blog A London Persuit in which they have to bring a personal object and talk about it, then draw it while lying on their back with their eyes closed. Some of the stories were very personal, but what came out of it was a sense that everyone was a bit more connected in some way. I get this feeling when I do performances too. I guess it depends on the type of person you are to an extent, I have found that when I reach out in my work, it brings a sense of ease. Revealing stories can be very liberating for yourself and the audience.
posted on 2012-08-12 by Gerald Curtis
I do have a friend I email strings of expletives to. I like to construct these with a sense of rhythm and timing. With imagination you can rhyme too.
posted on 2012-05-15 by Elena Thomas
You make me laugh! Maybe there should be a secret blog somewhere for artists to curse shout swear vent despair pull out hair and then we go back to our named blogs and try our hardest and behave ever so well again.
posted on 2012-05-15 by Marion Michell
To me, it's further down the pyramid than therapy... nearer the base, the bit that shores up the rest of life. I only discovered this by accident. To keep myself balanced, sane, working properly and firing on all cylinders, the art is essential. Without it I'm twitchy, irritable, unreasonable. I become physically unwell, but unable to work out why. And I get very down. The white lies thing is the same for me. I would know I was being fraudulent, even if nobody else knew. Any positive comments would be negated by that thought. If I had an alias, however brilliant, I couldn't sit happily thinking people thought I was something I am not. If the work starts in my head as a truth, but meanders a little, I'm ok with that. But it has to start from a real me, not a pretend me. I've toyed with writing an anonymous blog, but decided it was only because I wanted to be rude!
posted on 2012-05-13 by Elena Thomas
I don’t know if what we’re doing is therapy, but making art certainly helps to keep me sane-ish. Don’t do white lies either, blushing just thinking about it, but wondering if holding back can be a kind of lying too? Glossing over? Turning away? We all find our own ways of negotiating degrees of communication that we’re reasonably comfortable with. Reasonably comfortable seems to me the best we can hope for. Having said that: I am reasonably?/unreasonably? uncomfortable with talking about illness in my blog even if I only give small glimpses. Every time I write I wonder about it. Yet it feels the right thing to do just now, for myself. Subject to fluctuations… Now of course I want you to share your fab alias with me!
posted on 2012-05-13 by Marion Michell
I suppose it all goes back to being a form of therapy whether one wants it to be or not - I definitely find this as I get older - and wonder what I could possibly have made work about if I had wanted to do what I am doing now in my twenties. The fine balance is still worrying me - speaking as someone who is incapable of getting away with any small 'white lie' I immediately assume all 'multiple layers' are laid out and numbered alphabetically with detailed notations attached. Of course this isn't the case - showing my work at Kinetica proved this for sure! Who knows anything about the truth of anyones life anyway - no matter how well documented. Still wanting an alias though... and have thought of a fab one....
posted on 2012-05-12 by Sophie Cullinan
hmmm... sometimes when you see something it rings so true or strikes a chord you either could have said it, or wished you'd said it... or made it. Marion is very rapidly becoming one of those people who says the things I wish I'd said! I want to jump up and down in the background and shout "me too! I think that!"
posted on 2012-05-08 by Elena Thomas
I understand your questions and doubts about working from biography, not only because of what one might reveal about oneself, but also because there can be judgement, as if the art might be less pure, less real. But I’ve come to think all artists’ work has its source in their life, acknowledged or unacknowledged. Some are open about it, make the exploration of (personal) experience the explicit focus, say Louise Bourgeois or Tracey Emin, whereas for others it creeps while they turn their backs. A lot of my work is about childhood memory, with some of my own memories the starting point, but then, when you really delve into your subject you move in, move closer to your own core, and simultaneously away, get a wider focus, hook up with something bigger than yourself. That’s when the art allows connections, multiple readings, starts its own life. Is there something like emotional truth that might be important here? Even if you start with a specific experience of your own, you don’t know where it will take you. Best: to surprise yourself. And those who read art exclusively through the life of the artist ultimately loose out, negate depth, the multiple layers of meaning.
posted on 2012-05-08 by Marion Michell
it is a tricky one. And if I ever have the answer I won't be able to reveal it....
posted on 2012-05-03 by Sophie Cullinan
I don't think I could ever do it. I want the work to be mine, and other people to know it. I've worked hard and if there's going to be any recognition for that I want it myself. I think I would feel dishonest too.
posted on 2012-05-02 by Elena Thomas
that is a good idea - I love labels on things - especially if they are engraved! I'm toying with a pseudonym but what do I do if I get to be more successful than under my real name - I might start feeling jealous! I was also wondered if you could submit things anonymously - not sure how you would pay entry fees though....
posted on 2012-05-02 by Sophie Cullinan
Ho ho! That old chestnut! I’m with you on this one Sophie. My next sound/music piece is all about washing dirty linen in public… watch this space (well, no, not this space, but my space). I also use elements of my life as a starting point, but then the worry for me is that the audience may take the whole thing as a truth. I sometimes feel I need a disclaimer in my credits…” This work is not based on real people or situations and no family members were harmed in the making of this artwork”
posted on 2012-05-02 by Elena Thomas
# 66 [30 April 2012]
I have just come back from the AN workshop on Crowdfunding. It was a very interesting day. I heard about this type of funding last year when I was trying to get the funding together for GYO*BYO but at the time that i needed it individuals couldn't apply so I didn't look into it any further. The whole crowdfunding scene has moved very quickly in this time and there are now lots of organisations offering this type of opportunity.
Above all it seems that the whole idea behind Crowdfunding isn't that it is just about the money. It is much more than this and has a very holistic 'benefits all' ethos. It seems ideal for some of my Mulptiple Participat Projects waiting in the wings.
I really like the idea that everybody benefits and also that it seems to work on merit - my only slight worry is that I don't have a large enough address book to help me along the way. It seems that you do in at least the first place need to be good at drawing on your network to get the ball rolling. Having just been calling all these people up in aid of my RNIB marathon run I am a bit loathe to be asking again.
The key to it all seems to be to demonstrate how it is not the same as asking for donations - it really is a two way transaction and having read some of the current projects looking for funding I am looking forward to thinking up some inventive 'rewards' to entice prospective investors.
Not sure that my trademark 'sock works' should neccessarily be prominant in this process. Freshly washed holes anyone?
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It seems to be really good for certain types of project and not so much for others - go on a course if you can - I'm planning to give it a go so probably will end up talking about it on here!
posted on 2012-05-02 by Sophie Cullinan
Crowdfunding sounds intriguing, will check it out.
posted on 2012-05-01 by Jo Farnell
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runners making their way to the red start of the London Marathon 22/4/12
# 65 [25 April 2012]
I have been somewhat negligent over the past few weeks about both planning and blogging. In a great efficiency drive I am resolving to TRY HARDER!
I do have a good excuse (miss) in that it has been the school holidays (no work opportunities there) and I have been a bit tired having just run the London Marathon, but really it is just not good enough - again and again I tell myself 'how can I conquer the world like this?!' and still I do not have a reasonable answer.
As usual it is a case of 'feast or famine' as my mother would say. And I have a whole load of stuff up my sleeve waiting to happen - I imagine it will be all happen at once - the proverbial three (beautifully painted) buses. However carefully I plan, these things come in a burst followed by a lull and then a fret (repeat). Perhaps I am an artist version of Bruce Nauman's 'Clown Torture'.
It is in this time - when one project is about to come to an end and the possiblilites of others are tantalisingly hanging around, that I never know to what extent I should look for, apply for or plan new work. It is just not good to have to turn things away but there is only one of me and my time seems to flash by.
Friends seem to think that this is the way I like it - 'flying at 50,000ft by the seat of my pants' - it is just the way that I have always worked, but I'm sure there must be another way. Somehow, for my own sanity, I must find it.
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the only way is up
# 64 [19 April 2012]
Two minute posting:
Too much to do - madness ensues.
Many exciting projects on the verge of starting and need one hundred pairs of hands.
Very excited to find that I am on the a-n Crowdfunding day in Milton Keynes......
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smallest Cullinan. collection of unearthed objects from Sudborough Cottages
# 63 [14 April 2012]
Today youngest child and I have been wildnetworking at Sudborough Green Lodge Cottages, with Fermynwoods Contemporary Art.
There, in the middle of nowhere, artists can go to stay and work. They also do schools workshops etc. I have been taking my children (and sometimes their reluctant friends) to help recreate the garden space over the past year or so, where they have a 'garden working party' to help with the improvement work.
It is an amazing location and an amazing site and every time we have been there something interesting has happened. Once there was a swarm of bees that had alighted onto a garden bench, we spent the afternoon waiting (slightly nervously) for the 'beeman' to come. The next, whilst shifting rubble my friend saw, at the very last moment, a nest of field mice hiding in some weeds which were about to be scooped up and thrown onto the bonfire. Over the time we have been doing our very small bit in the way of rubble routing and earth shifting, the whole place has been transformed. It is very much ongoing work but the results are rewarding and inspiring.
Today we were weeding out prickly stuff from a 'slow growing' lawn which was progressing nicely on the more sheltered side of the house. As always there were other interesting 'workers' of great variety - usually artists, and we always leave feeling uplifted. Whilst we all weeded, my son gathered a small collection of unearthed treasures - he has eagle eyes.
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Precious treasures! I can't wait to see what you do with them!
posted on 2012-04-18 by Sophie Cullinan
Hi Sophie... been thinking about you all week... I've been given a bag of assorted grubby/odd/holey children's socks. I'm looking at them like little mouths... or pockets.... I feel a bit of crochet coming on.... I knew that the fact I'm treating this bag like treasure would be appreciated by you, but not many others!
posted on 2012-04-18 by Elena Thomas