ARTISTS TALKING

# 77 [27 January 2012]

Thinking forward to photographs of a newly completed work, I began to run through the various people that work for me in my art business. There are a lot. My practice is very mixed, so in Production there are all kinds of people wandering about - various draughtspeople, several painters with different strengths, and sculptors working in assorted media to list a few. In the workshop there is a carpenter who is expected to be able to make all sorts of things for me, and occasionally even a welder. There is a Marketing Manager, a Business Development Manager, not to mention Production Planning, an IT chap, a small Purchasing department (who are always wittering on about money), and of course the chap in Accounts (between you and me I would absolutely love to be able to outsource accounts and promote the Accountant to Financial Director). There is also a Personnel Development Co-ordinator who has to be able to identify and address staff shortcomings. There is a Copywriter, a Graphic Designer, and once in a while an Exhibitions co-ordinator. I even have someone who designs and maintains the website. Oh yes, and the photographer. I'm bound to have forgotten someone, but they all get taken for granted anyway, to be honest. What's more, they get paid very little, if at all, and I get to swan around all day being creative.

# 76 [14 November 2011]

Great PV on Friday, and lots of very positive feedback. I took the show down yesterday. Now I concentrate on building on this, using what I have gleaned from the exercise, and making more work for the London show in the new year.

Following on from the last post, I have since received this email from one of the blind participants. I think I will just let it speak for itself:

Hello  Phil
Such a lovely Email......  thank you, and also for the wonderful chance to experience your exhibition.

I really don’t feel my input was up to much at all..... but I was intrigued how much of last evening was spent ‘watching’ and noting my reactions to various pieces.... and these memories were in colour.... which is bizarre, because I can only recall SOME of the visual descriptions!

I found the whole experience utterly enjoyable and  intriguing, and realised how much words and Texts influenced ‘flashbacks’ for me.  I wondered what I would have made of the ‘Burger of Shoreditch’ without the title.... I suspect it would remain one of my favourites!
I recall I had a sense of ‘ white’ even before I was given any more info, and I loved its overall shape and energy.

I also wondered how people who have never experienced physical sight would respond to these tactile offerings, with presumably a different ‘take’ on colour and ‘seeing’.
You asked about 3D tactile paintings  and sculptures...... am still trying to put my feelings into words, but it ain’t easy.

I think the different materials you have used make a huge difference to the conceptual experience....from ‘Jesus toast’, to the tiny ’hole in the wall’, the nail  piercing a disc, ‘Frightening Albert’ .... and on and on and on... these add a new dimension to the tactile experience..... and there is a sense of movement somehow, which is beautiful, and possibly enhanced by those different materials.

I have various tactile  objects, and have looked at them afresh today, and a couple of them definitely allow me to admit they feel somewhat static, which has been a suspicion for some time!!
Enough Waffle!


Thank you so much again, Phil, and I wish you very Well,
Looking forward to your next exhibition!


S. (Still smiling!)

# 75 [11 November 2011]

The past two days have been great. The participatory sessions with blind and visually impaired people took place, and I am thrilled with how they went.

The failure of one of the large organisations to step up to the mark left me floundering in some respects, but thanks to the direct support of individuals and small groups (and the power of Twitter) the word was spread widely. The downside is that the relatively short notice period made it difficult for people to attend, so numbers were fewer than I had planned for. Happily, though, that proved to be a great positive. I was able to spend much more time than anticipated with participants on a one-to-one basis, and really gain from being close to the interaction.

I was hoping, perhaps optimistically, that I might just be able to give something back by getting someone engaged with contemporary art that may not otherwise have become so. Wow! One of the attendees was a visually impaired MA Fine Art student with macular degeneration. She told me I had (her choice of words) opened her eyes to new ways of thinking about her approach to her own work. Best of all, one of yesterday's participants, when I asked her what she thought of the work, said she couldn't stop smiling. She had never been to anything to do with contemporary art before.

Result.

# 74 [10 November 2011]

A lot has happened over the past week or so, and most of it, but not all, has been good. I won't dwell on some of the not-so-good parts. Having said that, at the time of writing this the internet was down….

The weekend was very good. Matt Roberts had come down for one-to-one sessions with artists at Art Space, and to give two evening talks. Feedback from everyone I have spoken to so far has been extremely positive, even though most people (including me) have been reminded in some way of the work they have still to do!

I installed the exhibition at Art Space on Monday, and mostly it went well. I had to make some adjustments to one of the pieces at the last moment, which meant that it didn't work quite as intended. I have no-one to blame but myself for this - I didn't allow for a contingency in the installation time. Ordinarily I would have taken the piece away altogether, but there is a strong element of experimentation involved.

Also on Monday evening I hosted a crit group. This was organised by arc - the Artist Resource Centre based at Aspex. A dozen artists, some of whom I met for the first time, came to look at and to discuss the work. This was an interesting exercise. I hadn't expected everyone to like the work (I never do), and I had wondered how many would grasp the concepts. It don't consider it to be the most accessible work, but there was much encouraging feedback, and many were prepared to engage. Bizarrely though, on leaving, one participant said that he loved the work, but that he thought I was being a little disingenuous. That simply isn't true. There is no benefit to me in having a crit group and playing that sort of game.

I took a call from a picture editor at the local news while I was out and about on Tuesday. They wanted some pictures of the works from the exhibition. I said I thought I would be surprised if they went with it, but I managed to get back to the studio in time to send in some images. I'll pick up a paper today and see. Could be interesting….

I found out that my blog on A-N was again in the top ten. This was a pleasant surprise, not least because there are several others that I find infinitely more interesting than mine. Speaking of arc, they forwarded a link to their blog which mentions my installation in the arc space at Aspex. I think I must have missed this first time around. They are currently showing 'Deliverance' by Mike Bartlett and two others. I also heard that Morph Plinth arrived eventually at Sluice Art Fair. I don't know as yet where else it turned up (there was talk of it being smuggled into Frieze and an embassy), but I'll let you know if I find out.

David Minton's comment about my drawing 'Reliquary of Conceits' at the Salon 2011 exhibition in Vyner Street made my day.

Lastly, yesterday and today, I have participatory/discussion sessions with blind and visually-impaired people at the exhibition. This is to form a part of the research for my current strand of work, and the primary reason for the exhibition. I am very excited about this, and thrilled that people are prepared to travel to take part.

# 73 [2 November 2011]

In addition to the usual posters and stuff, I have ordered large print and braille info sheets for the exhibition, and learnt in the process that there are two types of braille available. In working on various aspects of this project I have come to realise that I take a lot for granted. Little things sometimes, like the language I use on a daily basis without a second thought.

I remain disappointed in the lack of follow-up and support from certain channels, but I have to roll with it. Tellingly, perhaps, the large organisations have been next to useless, whilst the smaller groups have, in the most part, been very helpful.

I have to make final decisions about the works I am going to show. Some of the choices have been made easier for me - either because there is not the room, or the works aren't quite ready enough (or I'm not sure they are ready enough to let go just yet). A couple more days…. 

# 72 [25 October 2011]

I went to a great talk at Portsmouth University yesterday afternoon, given by Dominique Ghesquiere, the artist on the Art Space Portsmouth International Residency 2011. I had previously only seen a few examples of her work on the blog, so it was a good opportunity to see more of her work. I had a feeling the work was going to be my kind of thing, and I wasn't disappointed. I thoroughly enjoyed it. An exhibition - the culmination of the residency programme - takes place at the end of November, taking in three sites around the city.

For my own practice, I am trying to drum up support for forthcoming discussion sessions with blind and partially sighted people (details here). Twitter has been a great help in spreading the word (so far tweets have been fed to approaching 16,000 people!), but finding participants is not straightforward. People have expressed interest from as far afield as Glasgow, but there are obvious logistical limitations. Some of the channels I had expected to be the most useful are proving, surprisingly, to be something of a let down.

# 71 [18 October 2011]

The 3D painting project is well under way. Preliminary stages have yielded some finished works, I have a pile of materials in the studio, another behind the sofa, more under the bed... I desperately need more studio space!

I have had to extend the reach for particpants for the 'focus' groups. The original contacts are either being evasive, or maybe the person(s) I was dealing with no longer work for the organisation(s). It will be a pain to have to start again at this stage. I have set up an info page on my website and tweeted a link to it to try to drum up more support. A request for re-tweets was very helpfully taken up by ACE South East - they have many more followers than me!

Are you, or do you know of, a blind or visually impaired person who is interested in contemporary art and/or would be interested in taking part in an informal discussion?

I am currently working on a new body of work exploring concepts of 3D 'paintings', and I am trying to contact groups and individuals who might be interested in taking part in small, very informal discussion groups made up of other blind or visually impaired people. This project is not about creating art aimed specifically at blind and visually impaired people, but rather to explore a hypothesis that a blind or visually impaired person may have an advantage over a normally sighted person in the understanding of the concepts behind the work.

This project is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England

More details are here - thank you for your help!

www.philillingworth.com/3dproject.html

# 70 [4 October 2011]

Here's a question: Are artists the driving force in the dialogue about art?

# 69 [26 September 2011]

I have had some really good news lately. Firstly, I have had work selected for Salon 2011 at Matt Roberts in Vyner Street. This is for the second year running, and is another experimental drawing. The work hasn't been seen in public yet (in fact it isn't even on my website), so I'm pleased it has been given this level of support. Secondly, I have been awarded an ACE grant for research and development. This is a first for me, and is hugely significant in many ways. The project is now well under way. More info soon.

# 68 [30 August 2011]

A few months ago I made a little note in my notebook about an idea. Nothing special, just an experiment, but I thought I might explore it one day. Yesterday evening, going through one of the new art books I brought out here with me, I came across the work of an artist who had had the same idea and made it the focus of a major part of his practice. There is nothing particularly noteworthy in finding out that we are touching on already-chartered territory, but what is it that keeps us pressing on regardless? For some it may be akin to a drive to turn base-metal-into-gold for glory or wealth, but for most of us, I suspect, it is a very, very personal alchemy.

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Yvonne, the old lady here, has small fields dotted about all around. She hasn't worked them for a long time, and rarely ventures far now. A couple of years ago she came by and told me she was taking me for a walk. I wasn't given much of an option, but it was perfectly pleasant (if a little slow), and as we walked she told me little bits and pieces about the area. One of the fields we passed was hers. She described how the apple trees (which were quite mature) had grown from where she had fed apples to her cows and they had 'deposited' the seeds. She held on to two cows until recently - to give her something to do, she said, but finally gave them up when they became too much for her. These cows didn't get on with each other. She would drive them back and forth between the field and the barn one at a time. Naturally I got roped in to help on a few occasions. Although she certainly knows the local patois, her french is clear and precise. "Stand there" she would say, "and stop them from so-and-so". Like I knew what I was doing.

She once told me how she fell through some rotten floorboards into the cow-byre below. "I landed on a cow. It just stared at me."

One of the fields in which she used to keep the cows is on the dog-walking route. It too is becoming overgrown. There are small oak trees springing up, about knee-high now, but beyond that there are enormous drifts of wild thyme. In places it is not possible to set a foot down without stepping on some and releasing the smell of the oil. The scent this morning was unbelievable.

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I have been working on the roof again, putting slates on sides of the dormer windows. I'm well outside my comfort zone, but it is so peaceful up there.

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My scribblebook is my friend again. I'm looking forward to turning some of the ideas into reality.