ARTISTS TALKING

# 8 [1 April 2010]

After much deliberation and almost combining challenges I have selected the following challenge for March:

"To list and act appropriately towards all the people to whom you owe apologies.

I am not challenging you to write letters to every single person you owe apologies to, in some cases this may be inappropriate, and re-approaching someone you have hurt in the past, may be upsetting for them again. I trust you to have a degree of discretion about who you choose to apologise to. I would like you to think of and write down, everyone you may have upset, hurt, wronged, stolen from, angered or done other activity that could warrant an apology, however great or small, and to write these down, along with dates, names, activities etc, that can be remembered, in a fashion as to which you see appropriate. These needn't be exhibited in their entirety, again, discretion would be a necessity. Some form of public statement should be acknowledged for every wrong-doing/occasion; the published details of the wrongdoings are at your discretion. The apologies must not state that they have come from a challenge, or that I have told you to do this. The apologies you do make, if any, must be genuine and honest.

This might be quite a horrible thing to have to do. So I will add one additional condition: that you can stop thinking about this if you start to feel uncomfortably anxious or guilty. While it might be interesting to work through times like these, I think it is important that you have the option to stop when you need it.

Challenged by Tom Duggan"

I am rather hoping that I haven't already gone against the challenge by announcing it. I do think however that this references the apologies them selves as not stating they came from a challenge.

This challenge has to be the most moral to date. I also think that my teenage self will have a lot to answer for in, but discretion is imperative.

I almost combined this challenge with one from my next door neighbour which would see me performing at bus stops every Monday and Wednesday lunch time. I found this challenge interesting, and thought the two could work well together, however have since realised its not really appropriate to combine challenges, and I found the challenge interesting and not necessarily challenging.

Another challenge I pondered was to create a new set of YBA's, for me this challenge had potential but wasn't necessarily in-depth-ly challenging, although it really depends on interpretation.

So my logic for choosing this challenge rests on several levels. The first that giving an apology is actually a challenge in its self, and apologies are some what hard to come by because of this, and in depth apologies even more so. The second reason is that to declare these apologies in public shows what kind of a person you are or have been, and that isn't always pretty. My final reason is that in my older age (not that old I may add) I attempt in every way to be honest, and if apologies are to be made they are likely to be trivial. This is not the same for my teenage years where there is probably the majority of apologising to be done.  

# 7 [31 March 2010]

This Monday saw the completion of the January challenge. In essence the challenge was to invite certain people to my studio and talk about what it is that I do. These guests were then rated.

I created a guest list based on the categories that were stated in the challenge and then set the list back to the challenger to score, the results were:

18 points out of 576
3.125% successful.
1.125/36

Guests in attendance:
Steven Ingman
Next door neighbours x2
James E Smith
The Lady Mayor of Nottingham, Councillor Jeanine Packer

To some of my guests amazement the event actually went well. I used the presentation as a tongue in cheek commentary about the ridiculousness of the situation, ie: inviting celebrities to my studio, which is now located in my house. The presentation its self was informative, but the character of myself that I portrayed and the cheap OTT additions to the event made it some what more ambiguous.

I have now solidified how I am reacting to the February challenge of not thinking about art for a whole year. I am making some 2D work and a video, inspired as I previously mentioned by, The Game. Im using the website for The Game as a starting point.

I have been questioning wether people will find my responses to these challenges disappointing. The fact that I am now creating art from them, perhaps not in a way they would like to see. I find this interesting, particularly when I think that a lot of the challenges seem personal to the individual, and some what challenging to them and not necessarily to me.

I have less than 24 hours to choose a March challenge! Im currently wavering between bus stops and apologies, once again I think an external mind may help in the decision making process.

# 6 [2 March 2010]

After a lot of indecisive moments and questioning wether the impossible was challenging I finally settled on the February Challenge:

I challenge you not to think about art for a whole year.

Challenged by Paul Matosic

I questioned this challenge, it was obviously impossible, once you know not to think about some thing, you begin to do just that. I questioned wether this was in fact challenging because it was impossible, or wether it was incredibly challenging because of its impossibility. The decisions came when one of my friends suggested that the impossible is challenging if it is feasible that it could happen, and was less so if it was certain it could not. By the law of psychology it is possible.

As I mentioned before I am going to make a work in response to this, referencing the mind game 'the game', at this moment in time I think the wok will be photographic, which is a whole new medium for me. As I have already failed the challenge, it is important to make a piece of work from the situation and not to conclude the challenge empty handed, with out effort.

I have also finally pinned down James my incredibly busy photographer, to assist on the January Challenge. It will happen by invitation only. The event will be an OTT commentary on its own existence, pushing and questioning the scenario I have been challenge to create. Red carpet, Lambrini, false eye lashes. Sven isn't coming, probably because Notts County FC have just gone bust and everyone's left! 

# 5 [18 February 2010]

Just fixed a date for the January challenge to happen, phew. I had thought it would happen in February but that's not the case. This doesn't matter too much but I dont want to get a backlog of challenges to have to quickly fufill in one lump.

Im nervously excited about the January challenge and have begun compiling a list of VIP's to attend the presentation, there are some Nottingham favorites on the list including Sven! I think I am going to send the list back to the challenger to score me, seeing as he set the score system. I dont have great expectations it has to be said, perhaps I can get some radio DJ's to come, Svens a long shot!

The invitation letter is a bit of an odd one, it needs to be suitably formal and well presented, not too waffley and not too much detail about contemporary art. Its all about writing for the appropriate audience. I can remember when I was a student organising a small scale show, and a lady complained as she had traveled a long distance to deliver her work with no one there, my tutor had said that I was good at making things seem more important than they were, so perhaps Im good at writing things up, although it doesn't feel like it in the letter.

I have also started to get February challenges in. One challenge I have received is actually impossible, I reference 'The Game' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_(mind_game). Even if I were to accept this challenge I would automatically fail, its not that I am scared of failure its that I dont know if it presents a challenge when I know the out come, on the other hand it is so challenging it is impossible. I think there is an adaptation that could happen here, although what it is I have yet to discover.

I think it is inevitable that people will seek to challenge me to the impossible or to the obvious in related manners as above. Whilst remaining true to the challenges, and selecting the most challenging I remain hesitant about what the year has in store, and how the project will change, maybe its time I got in contact with Danny Wallace.

# 4 [31 January 2010]

Its the last day of January which means I have chosen a challenge to be carried out. Despite having a few exciting challenges, the most truly challenging was from Alexander Stevenson and is:

January Challenge

Invite local celebrities, national celebrities, local government, local clubs and societies, local press, important people and less so, to come to your studio and have you explain what it is that you do / are doing. It will take all of your cunning and tactical skills to get people to actually come, and you can rate the exercise based on who you manage to get (ie. the mayor = 10 points, head of the local hells angels = 4 points).

I find this both really exciting and really daunting. For a starter I recently gave up my studio and re-located it in my house (it was time to learn to drive and the studio was relocatable) meaning the whole event will have to be in my living room which is tiny. Getting local celebrities etc to my front room is going to be a challenge in its self. although if The Institute (www.twoaddthree.org) can do it then I can give it a damn good go.

Task number one is to make a list of appropriate people and go from there.

Its also time for the February challenges to begin being submitted.

# 3 [24 January 2010]

The project has hit a minor slump recently as I am having major trouble posting to arts jobs, the free online listings of arts jobs and news. It would appear the website keeps logging me out. I have tried this with three email addresses and on three different computers which run off different IP addresses, short of hacking the website I have no idea how to get any news up there, and apparently nore does the site managers. Its obviously a limited problem because there are other posts on the listings. Strange I have done it in the past (on the old site)

This really means that I need to utilise other online information portholes to get information about the project out there. Im not uncomfortable with the amount of challenges for January it will give me something to get my teeth stuck into, and I am hoping the project makes steady progress through out the year. Its a bit of a waiting game now until the end of January, and then full steam ahead.

# 2 [12 January 2010]

I have spent some time organising the structure of how people will interact with the project over the past week or so. There are now some guidelines in place, I have a feeling however with the nature of the project they may become adapted.

Last night I sent a short mail shot out to begin to raise awareness of the project. I am now blogging with excitement from the out comes of that. So far I have received three challenges and they are very different and very exciting, each one is a completely different style of challenge, two verge on being illegal and one has a very high chance of me looking ridiculous unless I am cleaver enough to make it a success.

Until a few days ago I had thought that I would choose the challenges from those I receive, however some one put to me that it should not be me that selects the challenge. I find that a really interesting notion but there are two sides of the coin. If I were to choose however objective I attempt to be, there will always be an element of subjectivity choosing challenges that interest me most over those that are the most challenging. However these challenges are personal and if some one were to choose for me I may not find the selected option challenging. The question of authorship is then raised, if some one else chooses the challenge then my authorship is only in initiation and fulfilment, and not in being an objective selector.

I feel in truth to the project structure I have put in place so far would be for me to choose the challenge objectively, perhaps I say that as I have set the structure of the project and am not as open to changing that structure as I would like to be. The challenge however is to remain objective. I need to make the decision about this before the end of the month which is achievable, however what I choose should then become another project rule. I am also actually quite scared about another person selecting my challenge for the month, comes with the territory!

You can now become a part of the project on Facebook.

# 1 [1 January 2010]

Toady had to be the day to start this blog and really begin work on the project. Although at this stage there is still a lot of planning to do. The project however has a definite start and end so here it is.

Challenge 2010 is a project which will see people set me challenges through out the year, one a month. At the end of each month I will select a challenge out of the one's people have sent me to be carried out, there is no limit to what the challenges could be as long as they fall with in an artistic discipline, which leaves it quite open to interpretation. In other words I am not fixed by a title of curator / artist / critic etc, or any one medium and it is individual imagination that will make the challenges interesting and diverse. I could of course have set my self challenges each month but they would be subjective and limited to my own thought processes.

The reason for starting the project is simple, I believe in challenge and fear that with out challenge practice and indeed life can become stale, challenges help us explore, take risks and fail, but with out challenge we can not excel our potential.  

The project has been in development for some time but until today I have not allowed any work to happen in relation to it, in keeping with the time restraints of the project. So presumably January will be the hardest month as I configure the project structure and the methods people will use to interact with the project as well as getting submissions for the January challenge. There are still unanswered questions about the project but they will be answered in time, or else drift and become irrelevant.

I aim for this blog to be an honest documentation of the processes the project undertakes and the situations that come from it. 2010 is by no means an empty year, but there is nothing foreseeable which would cause the the project to not be carried out accordingly. So I set out in search of a true challenge.....