ARTISTS TALKING

# 29 [31 August 2009]

The show's over.

The music from those cartoons starts playing in my head. Now what? The material is removed. My allotment becomes storage space, potential, more sheds/studios.

# 28 [25 August 2009]

My nextdoor neighbour from the newsagents having a go again. Apparently some kids moved the chair from outside my shop window and blocked his doorway. My initial thought when he tells me this is 'What's the big deal, move the chair.' I ask when the alleged offence occured and he says Saturday. That's interesting because I haven't been opening the shop on a Saturday so there wouldn't have been a chair outside on a Saturday.

There's a couple of screwdrivers on the floor that weren't there when I left, strange. Look for their little kit but cannot find it. Someone may have manouevred the bulldozer so that they could reach through the letterbox and taken the screwdriver set.

"The end is near." Have started to remove myself, my presence, my art, from the shop unit. What happens to it now?

# 27 [14 August 2009]

Something different with the letters. 

# 26 [13 August 2009]

I went to see my Dad the other day and he was with an old hippy friend from school who was talking about 'retail therapy' and the fact that shopping is addictive. You know somethings wrong when the hippys have complied to consumerism. Next thing you know it'll be a new range from Nike; Nike Hippy, Nike Goth.

Been thinking about a tee shirt that says SHOPPING SAVES LIVES.

# 25 [13 August 2009]

A week has past, passed, since my last 'post'. Friends have been asking how the exhibition is going. I met a friend outside the shop last week and I thought he said quarter past five, he says he said quarter to five. What that means is that he saw how it's going. He said there was alot of interest from all kinds of passers-by. I know that people have been listening to the audio because every time I go I leave the headphones facing up so that the sound can be heard as you walk past. Every time I come back they're the other way round. I know that people have been using/playing with the digger because the rolls of hazard tape are gathered around the base of the scuplture. And everytime I go back at night to turn off somebody has 'written' something on the fridge doors with the magnetic letters, usually your basic low-level school standard graffiti.  

Somebody shoved the remote control through the letterbox!

Somebody tried to pull an empty roll of hazard tape back through the letterbox.

Somebody stole the sign saying "it's ok to listen" off the plinth.

But nobody has managed to knock the sculpture over. Yet.

# 24 [7 August 2009]

Elaine asked if I needed showing how to turn on/set up the projector for Teresa and Dominique. I said it's OK, you did it. Elaine laughed. I didn't mean......

It seems that my comment is negative but that's not the case. I watched  Elaine set up the projector earlier in the day and didn't think the projector was able to project a reversed image but Elaine went through the menu and hey presto the text flipped so that it was the right way round when viewed from the outside. So, I knew that following the menu logic, I too would be able to set up the projector if it didn't automatically default to the way Elaine had set it up. Which it did, phew! Is this making sense? The point, the point is, my comment, assumption, was actually positive.

My practise is based on this fact/fiction "I could do that." You too could wrap wood in hazard tape.

# 23 [4 August 2009]

Advertise here

# 22 [4 August 2009]

'Constructive criticism' from the man eating his pie sat in the chair outside the shop. He liked it better when I was in the shop, moving. I asked if art had to have movement. He wanted to know what it represented. I asked him what he thought it looked like. He reckoned it was some kind of barrier, stopping you. We moved to the right so we were looking down the tunnel. I agreed that if you were approaching it from the sides then it does look like a barrier but what if you approach it from the front, is there a way in? He liked it more from the front, looking directly in, 'perspective' he said. Who was going to buy it he asked. I told him I didn't think anyone was going to buy it but that was part of 'it'; part of the exhibition, exhibiting in a space traditionally used to sell. He said if he had a room long enough he might like it.

Yesterday the local skate shop used the fridge doors and the magnetic letters to advertise a party. Today there was only abuse!

# 21 [31 July 2009]

"a passage cut underground" - Chambers dictionary definition of a tunnel.

If what I've been building isn't a tunnel, which is what I think I've been building and what I see when I look at it, what is it?

# 20 [31 July 2009]

"Ask him, ask him!" She didn't ask me.

In the shop arranging letters on the fridge door before putting them outside. A guy, who had just watched the video loop of Steve McQueen throwing his baseball against the cooler wall, walked past whistling the soundtrack to The Great Escape.

I've been experiencing problems with old school tape technology; the player has stopped auto reversing so instead of the audio loop playing continuosly it's only been playing one side (45 minutes). Burned the loop to a CD to play on repeat on a CD player but then the CDs wouldn't even play! Exported the audio to a mini disk which should play for 300 minutes. Then the tape player worked all day yesterday and then today it stopped again. Found a tape playing walkman with auto reverse on the market for five pounds. Lets see what happens.

Put some fish hooks up, attached to the ceiling with hazard tape. Nearly walked into them on a couple of occasions.

Sat in the chair in the shop space can see the reflection of the video loop in the window. Whilst sat there I notice the wind blowing underneath the door and lifting the black plastic sheeting I've laid on the floor. Potential to knock the sculpture over.

A couple of passers-by returned to try and knock the sculpture down, they thought I was going to let them in the shop and use their hands. I explained that if they wanted to try they should use the remote control digger and the remnants of the rolls of hazard tape. The son said the wire wasn't long enough for the digger to reach, I agreed and advised to try and arrange the rolls so that pushing them against the sculpture should make it possible. The dad gave it a go and said he could see what he needed to do but it would take too long.

Wore a red shirt, red glasses, red socks and my red watch.