ARTISTS TALKING

# 10 [12 August 2010]

I wrote this on the 19th, when leaving I-Park. But have only just posted it up now....

19th July

And suddenly its all over, I’m back in New York, sitting in a café on the lower east Side drinking coffee and feeling bewildered by the noise, people and buildings. Back to city life, even if its not my city. We ended the residency with an Open Studio day, in which people came to I-Park to see our work and to walk around the beautiful grounds. It was great to see and interact with everyone else’s work, and feeling the kind of collective spirit which had developed amongst us.

  Unbelievably I managed to finish my film, and despite my usual massive reservations about whether or not its any good, I’m really happy its done. Despite being sorely tempted I’m also scared to look over it again, to edit things in or out, now that I’m away from the place. Its so strange being so absorbed in a place and making a video which now on reflection is completely about the experience of being there…the video is more of a diary then I had thought initially. The other thing that has changed is the addition of the strong narrative element which seemed to divide opinion amongst the people who gave me feedback. I find it hard to resist narrative elements (which makes it sounds like donuts or something, which in terms of the lean conceptual style expected in video art, it probably is). Still trying to decide how to end it- I even did some just-in-case filming at Grand Central Station, which is very ornate and boasts impressive Art-Deco architecture. Of course that would change the whole thing, having a little ‘woman returns to city’ moment, and it would probably intensify the narrative element. So I may never use it.

 Apart from all this, was the sadness of leaving the wonderful land of I-Park. One of my video clips was entitled ‘leaving on a rainy day’, it was one of the more sombre ones; in a case of life imitating art, the morning we left there was a cataclysm (is that a Greekism?) and I found myself leaving in the rain and feeling sad to say goodbye. But happy about the new friends and the memories!

# 9 [11 July 2010]

The deluge has finally struck, after days of humidity building, and the rain is coming down in solid sheets, making a wonderful melodic percussion on my roof and windows. I tried to attach the umbrella to my video camera but it was impossible to film in this kind of rain and I got soaked within about 1 minute of being outside. So, I’m hiding indoors again. At least it means the air will be clear and light later on, which should make for some good sunset skies I could do some filming in.

  We did a group activity this week, which involved a visit to the casino, Mohegan Sun, which (like most casinos in America) is run by the native American Indians, and its built on their reservation. This gives rise to some weird rule-flouting, like smoking indoors, and (obviously) gambling, which is mostly illegal here. The interior is purposely mind-bending, an enormous circular cavern with a pathway that seems to lead around it but veers off in places, and true to cliché, there are no clocks, and no sign of natural light. They even bring you beers at no charge when you sit at the slots, which gives the impression you are being lulled into a suitably numbed state necessary to blow $50 without thinking. We all bet about $15, which didn’t last long, although one of our party, Matt, managed to win $19.50. Its pretty depressing really, especially as its all made out in faux-native furnishings and ‘sculptures’, including several animatronic wolves. Something that made an impression was during the fireworks and band playing (up on the roof, after the truly impressive sun had set) that hardly anyone was drinking, and there were no beer pulling stands, unlike what you would see in the UK. It seems like Americans get their kicks from food, rather than booze.

 Other than that fun, its been work on. I’ve been filming every day, and uploading every day, which gave me the idea of doing this as short term film project, which is only online and tells a kind of story over the course of a time period. Its funny how being here, to start with I just wanted it to be a record of every day, mundane activities, but as time wears on, I’ve been more tempted to experiment with more bizarre, unusual and ‘gothic’ tableaux, I suppose just to see something different visually. And also, it amuses me. But it also becomes like a story- everything starts off normal, and then, through being in solitude in the woods, stuff starts going a bit weird…the resident becomes a captive of the woods and their imagination. I have decided to call the project ‘The Resident’, to reflect this- it’s a record and parody of the residency in nature experience.

 Suddenly the end seems in sight, but I’m trying not to focus on that. There is still a lot to do, and incredibly I’ve not been back into the Devil’s Hopyard properly, which I definitely want to go before leaving. There is also the cemetery where the Willeys – a local family whose sad story ends in multiple murder and suicide- are buried I could visit, this will probably give my project an even more sinister turn.

# 8 [7 July 2010]

  Today the heat was unbearable. The mercury hit 110 Fahrenheit, which is 43 degrees, and definitely the most intense heat I’ve ever experienced. Filming outdoors during the heat of the day was out of the question: I did try, got as far as the lake and then had to come back to the cool of the air-conditioned studio. It means I’m having to do my filming at night or get up really early in the morning to try and catch sunrise plus the hours before the sun hits. Everyone is pretty much hiding indoors.

 I did attempt filming at night, having looked up a few night time taglines- unsurprisingly they are mostly within the sad/ scary/ spooky spectrum. The actual filming is quite tricky as you have to carry torches, candles and the camera kit, but more than that it’s the bugs: they are a plague in this evening heat, constantly circling and buzzing. I got bitten all over my arms during this filming attempt and am now too scared to go back out there, meaning today has been pretty unproductive. Having looked over the footage I realise how hard it is to avoid the Blair Witch/ schlock horror movie clichés. It might take a little experimentation, and of course I may never use any of it, but I try not to worry too much about that- every time you try something out, there is a movement of the cogs somewhere at the back of my mind and you can never tell what will come out of trying random ideas out.

  Meanwhile Francois, one of the artist here, said that the videos of the woman wrapped in fabric and with fabric on her head had reminded him of the debate happening today in France’s National Assembly discussing the proposed ban of wearing the veil in public places. Interesting connection.

   Anyway, being trapped in the studio has meant time to do a bit of reading, I found a book called ‘the writing on the wall’ which is all about text in art. Its interesting because (so far) its talking more about the interface of the graphic/ conceptual in written language (rather than other aspects, such as spoken word/ image relationships which you come across in discussions of video, or instruction/ score in art works). It mentions for example the mistrust that existed in Plato’s time about the written alphabet, that it was a dangerous technology would lead t the degradation of memory and to factual inaccuracies as well as deception being passed down throughout the ages through the distancing of author from reading that written language allows; then the separation of the act of writing, i.e. its performative aspect and its origin in the body, from the alphabet through mechanization and the printing press. There was an example of a protestant altar piece, where visual depictions of holy scenes are eschewed in favour of written descriptions, using text that was meant to be as undecorative as possible- the idea of the visual as sensual, as seductive, not to be trusted, and of the word as purely conceptual, therefore closer to God. In terms of the project I’m working on here, the relationship between word and image is more important; there is a sense of battle for supremacy between the ‘instruction’ (i.e. the tagline) and the resulting ‘action’ i.e. the video, the image. The question is, can the image stand alone? Or is it precisely about the two together, the meaning the two generate against one an other. More on this later.

# 7 [6 July 2010]

Happy Holiday! It was a day off on Monday following July 4^th, although it didn’t affect life here very much. We got into the spirit of things as best we could, by staying up beyond 12 for the first time and going down to the lake to light a fire and listen to the bawdy bullfrogs. I’ve revised my earlier assessment and now would describe them as sounding more like a chorus of twanging rubber bands. Except for one who sounds like a donkey.

 Other than that I have been hard at work filming and editing, as usual it’s the latter that takes ages, runs into problems and is more boring. But there is pleasure in having a daily overview of all the footage I’m shooting, and the fact I’m uploading it all to Youtube means I’m having to organise and correctly label every clip, then cross it off the list of instructions so I don’t repeat it. Some of the more generic taglines are being repeated, for example those that involve yoga, meditation, and reading because I tend to do those every couple of days. Others are much more specific and take a certain amount of location scouting and lo-fi prop planning: like the ‘woman wrapped in fabric sits in the sand’. It was absolutely roasting hot when I did that one, and being cocooned in heavy sheet fabric was quite an endurance test. Obviously with those actions there is a purposeful misinterpretation of the description, which was probably  aiming for a kind of deluxe, sheer fabric and a sandy beach setting, rather than mud green bed sheet and gravelly sand. However I must be doing something right as someone contacted my channel to say the videos were ‘awesome’ (clearly American) and did I want advice on how to get featured on Youtube? Not sure I do, but it made me think I could have success with selling the footage.

  The daily routine of organizing footage, charging batteries, making lists, crossing things off lists and then filming and repeating the whole thing again if there’s time means I haven’t been considering the ‘final outcome’ film very much. At the moment I’m looking to get the database as full as possible, with the intention of then writing a script from the taglines, so that the text becomes a kind of storyboard of which the video footage is the illustration. But I was contemplating working the other way round, so that I start to hone in on the final text and then make sure I have the clips to go with it- that way there is a definite set of instructions that must be carried out in order for the film to happen. Also I like this idea of hidden labour, since the clips I’m uploading are mostly fragments from the whole piece of footage, particularly so for the mediation and reading ones. Of course the viewer takes that on trust- I may have just sat down for 30 seconds and called it a wrap. But that’s part of the fun.

 Finally one thing which is winding me up no end is the lack of visible sunset. I can’t find one anywhere and if I were to cycle it would mean returning along unlit roads which everyone has assured me would be dangerous. I am going to peruse some forums to see if there is any mention of good sunset points in East Haddam- otherwise it will have to wait til I get to New York.

# 6 [3 July 2010]

Had a productive day, both on the filming side and on the editing/ computer side. A word of advice for technophobes out there: working out how to use these new cameras, with only internal or flash memory, is quite a hassle; they don’t advise you that you’ll also need to spend $40 on some conversion software, and that you’ll need to be willing to faff about with preferences and compression rates once you’ve got it. Or maybe they’ve just made it hard for Mac users.

  Anyway I am attempting to upload all the videos I’ve made to Youtube, since this software (Voltaic) has a nifty setting which sends everything you convert straight there, and of course I still have a channel on there from when I was doing my Facebook diaries. Unfortunately it’s failed so far, and, as usual, no reason given as to what the problem is. Cue another 2 hours reading forums to try and make sense of it.

   But IF it succeeds, I was envisaging a kind of diary/ bank of videos, all replete with appropriate title plus instruction, showing the results of my interpretation of them, like a score with corresponding action. This would allow me to use the footage in different ways, firstly as already mentioned in a kind of daily database fashion, then also shortened into 20 seconds fragments for selling to stock video sites and finally as footage for the separate film I’ll make as a result, which will have no audio but will have a voiceover instead. I think that’s the plan so far. See below for one of the videos, and also to go to Youtube channel.

   Meanwhile, yesterday we went on a day trip to New Haven, home of Yale- and IKEA. We even went there for lunch as Sujin, one of the artists, had yet to experience the specific pleasures of IKEA. Lunch was pretty good though.

 New Haven was pleasant enough, we went to Yale Art Museum which was also pleasant but hardly exciting, there was quite a wide (but not especially extensive) range of work, from African to 20^th Century American and European. The visit paid off though, as I got an idea related to the stock videos and titles of paintings. Will think about this more and return to it later on, as it could be my plan is about to change beyond repair.

  Finally, its Independence Day here this weekend. Americans get to gloat over getting rid of us, we get to gloat that we don’t even need an Independence Day…the joys of petty national rivalries. Not that anyone here actually gives a toss, but it’s a great excuse for barbeques, hot dogs, burgers, beer, corn, you get the picture, and in fact we are starting early since that’s what’s on today’s menu. Especially corn since our chef, Bob, inadvertently ordered 8 bags of corn (instead of 8 ears) so our kitchen resembles a corn-field and we will be eating it til next week. Lucky it tastes so good then.

  I’m off now to try and catch the sunset for one of the video clips, which might involve a bit of a hike since here, deep in the forest, the trees cut out the sun’s descent. There must be a vantage point somewhere though, up near the falls.

# 5 [2 July 2010]

It has now been a week since we got here, it actually feels like less, I don’t know, times keeps changing- to begin with the days seemed longer, now they seem shorter- maybe it means I’m settling into a routine now. I passed up the opportunity to head back to the supermarket yesterday, meaning it will be another whole week before I see any kind of civilisation again. I went back to the waterfalls yesterday though, and will do so again in a minute- the weather is perfect for walking, its clear and crisp and no hint of the mugginess that has characterised the preceding week.

At the moment I’m carrying out one of the taglines- ‘girl writes on laptop in park’ or something like that. I've also done jumping- alot of it seems to go on in this starnge world of happy people, but its actually damn hard to capture it on film successfully (see my attempt on the right). There is still the laptop by waterfall one to do as well, which does make me wonder in what context someone would desire such a video: what could it be used to illustrate exactly- connectivity in nature…industriousness? Maybe I should check the keywords as they often indicate the overall attitude of the video, for example you can have ‘girl walks in field’ but with ‘happiness’ or ‘depression’ being the keywords. One of them was described as ‘depressed hours’, which I liked the sound of, although I’m not what time of day its referring to. Perhaps its just the hours you feel depressed in, whichever they might be. The main difference I’ve noticed is that the ones corresponding to ‘sadness’ or ‘despair’ are mostly staged in rain, or least cloudy skies, whereas the more cheery key-worded videos are more sunny or blue skied. So no surprises there then.

  On the wildlife front, a rabbit just bounced me, again they too are cartoon perfect (like the chipmunks) with cute little bushy white tails.

Oops, the battery just cut out while I was in the middle of recording, and its now decided not to recharge. So this battery is also a dud, what are the chances of that? Can’t face ANOTHER trip to BH to exchange it, I really was a bit hasty in giving them good publicity. It means I only have one hour of battery, which is pretty crap.

  But as result of heading back to the studio and then out again I can now add another critter to the list- a beaver! We scared the shit out of each other, as I thought it was (large) stone on the path until it moved, I screamed, it looked at me and froze for a minute before scampering off in terror. It was huge, and had the wide tail to identify it as a beaver. Apparently they are a real nuisance here, constantly trying to dam up the overflow mechanism they have installed in the pond (more of a lake actually), which would result in the water level rising and flooding the forest. Or something along those lines.

  Anyway enough about the wildlife (for now). What I also started collecting was just straight nature taglines of stock video material, for a little variation. These could provide interludes, for example “dolly shot of a swamp area, close-up shot, revealing a frog at the end”. Just have to find that frog again, there is one who makes a twang noise, like someone intermittently strumming a bass guitar. I can add him to the video I shot earlier of a chirping red squirrel….. I guess this is going to turn into a wildlife video after all.

# 4 [29 June 2010]

I’ve just had my first thunder storm experience here at i-park, there has been an almighty downpour following a really gloopy, humid day where you almost feel choked when breathing in. It’s a strange and uncomfortable type of heat, like something is crawling on you (which doesn’t help the general tick paranoia). At least sitting in the studio is both cosy and cool, meaning I can watch and listen to the downpour form the safety of my hut, while playing radio 4 over the internet.

Anyway today has been somewhat more productive than yesterday, where I felt a little lost and unsure what to focus on. Obviously it didn’t help that the day kicked off (excuse the pun) with the dismal football result, and then developed into a very muggy, close day again, which means being continuously dive-bombed by insects while walking in the woods. We did make use of the common room though, watching a silly film (Art School Confidential) which was fun. As for working on the film, I started with collecting the taglines, and then today I’ve been organizing them- some of them are really quite amusing (“Woman goes around tree”; “The girl in the bush”; “girl with laptop by waterfall”?!). The idea is to use them to write a loose story and then act out each instruction as a scene, thus enacting the experience of being in nature and using the taglines as both instruction and description.

I am also considering including taglines which aren’t just restricted to ‘woman in nature'- possibly by using some of the ‘couple in nature’ tags as well, as they tend to be very descriptive, almost approaching stage directions: “They are holding hands, walking and hugging. She is acting playful and is jumping all around the man.” For now though I am concentrating on filming the ‘single woman’ ones, starting today with ‘woman dances in the rain’ (see picture). I have to get over the sheer stupidness of it, then it becomes quite fun.

 I like the idea that these taglines have created a kind of template of stuff for me to do, a score even, for me to interpret within the given guidelines, meaning that my experience of being in nature, becomes the work and is structured from the outside by a set of descriptions whose conception is purely commercial. From the research I did before, they always advise how the stock video creator must avoid being artistic, must avoid poetic titles and must think only in terms of what will sell: it’s a really utilitarian form of image making.

And its also important that it’s a form of image which is inseparable from the text- since it is the keyword and tagline which makes it searchable and therefore sellable/ viable. This also relates to my ideas on the average, in that these stock videos are both searched and databased through probability, according to the inputted keywords, but also since the one you are most likely to see first is the one most viewed by everybody else- creating a kind of feedback loop of information. I suppose it will also end up as a kind of diary as well, a kind of snapshot of the time spent here so that the record is the document.

# 3 [26 June 2010]

I was warned, and its true, I am already losing track of days and its only been 2 or 3- what will it be like in 2 weeks?! I am in the studio now properly, i.e. for more than 1 hour at a time, and just acclimatizing, arranging things and even doing a bit of drawing. Nothing new- just a continuation of my written drawings which are something like diaries but end up being graphic/ visual rather than legible. I decided it would be good to have a routine of sorts, something to start the day with; there’s no schedule here, especially on the weekend when we don’t have dinner cooked for us so there’s no timetable to work around.

Actually today is the last of the scheduled events, following yesterday’s site visit and Thursday’s supermarket visit, which was fairly comic: Rich, the New Yorker, trying to pry us foreigners away from the garish packaging and huge variety (my favourite so far: Cholula hot sauce in chili and lime- definitely taking some back). The site is massive, taking 2 hours to traverse in full, including time to admire the environmental artworks as well as the wilder, more remote parts. This evening we have ‘Artists Exchange’, meaning a brief intro to everyone’s work, which I suppose I should be working on now. I’m also starting work on the writing- first of all I need to collect lots of phrases used as taglines for stock video as these are going to be the basis of the film. It’s hard to focus on one thing- so many other ideas come up once you’re actually in the environment. But then I thought, I’ll start on this and see what happens, rather than trying to work out in advance what would be the best project to focus on- too much pre-determination usually ends in tears for me.

Meanwhile, in news that is not strictly art-related, on a bike trip to Devil’s Hopyard state park, I saw chipmunks for the first time. They were incredibly cute and made high pitched kind of ‘peep-peep’ squeaking noises at each other, so that I thought they were birds.

Dinner times have been entertaining, I’m finding out so much about life here- who knew that the top tax rate in New York state is 55%? And I thought there wasn’t much in the way of social contribution here. We have been talking politics, economics and education so far- maybe time to talk art or something.

# 2 [23 June 2010]

After a sweaty, muggy commute dragging wheelie suitcase, backpack, handbag and massive sketch-book first to BH photo store (the battery was a dud) and then up to East Harlem to meet the other artists, followed by a 2 hour drive out of New York and into Connecticut, we’ve finally arrived.

This is settler territory- we passed through Essex, Middlesex, New London, and Stratford amongst others on our way to Devil Hopyard’s park, which is roughly where i-park is situated. Its surrounded by lush greenery, towering trees, little wooden paths and a wild variety of bushes, flowers and plants: absolutely beautiful. The house we’re staying in is New England style farmhouse, with the studios more like outhouses. They took us on a little walk around, all of us oohing and aahing at the beauty of the place and getting excited about walking into the woods.

Of course I’m paranoid about ticks, which they seem to accept as just part of life here, assuring me that I’ll definitely get a tick at some point, but that’s its not such a big deal and loads of people have had Limes disease and recovered ok- !!! Anyway I’ve bonded a little with the Korean girl over football, we managed to get the TV working to watch the American pundits savouring their last minute win and their historic progression into to the last 16. We are going to watch the matches together this weekend.

Just returned from a slightly lengthier walk into the woods. Its not dissimilar to England, except everything is bigger somehow- including the bugs, which buzzed around me continuously. Its hard to imagine exactly what I’m going to make here; really all there is a lot of trees, and wildlife, so I have to be careful it doesn’t turn into a nature documentary (especially as I saw a ruby red  bird on my walk, as well as a flock of black geese and a couple of rabbits). My walk also revealed the fruits of other artists’ residencies- strange, large-scale environmental sculptures constructed from mostly natural materials like mulch, wood, leaves, and the odd bit of chicken wire. One of the sculptures is made out of inner tubes, and hangs between 2 trees, reminiscent of Geiger-type alien spawn. I doubt I’ll be making anything like this, although I’ll have to work out a way to get the best out of this amazing natural setting and not end up hunched over my laptop all day.

Anyway we are about to have our welcome dinner, now that the remaining 4 artists have also arrived- the chef has made a giant turkey in the Thanksgiving tradition, which smells really good- I’m starving!

# 1 [21 June 2010]

This is the start of my blog from the wonderfully named Flushing Avenue in Bushwick, NY where I am staying with Julie. Its technically about the residency I’m going to be doing at i-park, in Connecticut, but as I’ve been doing some ‘research and planning' (i.e. galleries and shopping) here in New York, I thought I’d start with that.

Today I sampled the joys of good old fashioned face to face sales at the bizarre photography Mecca that is BH (thanks to Eirini for directing me there). They don’t call it the BH Superstore Experience for nothing: besides its arcane process of choosing your product, getting a receipt, then lining up to pay, then lining up somewhere else to pick up your stuff which arrives via a chute, then lining up somewhere else to get the bag you had to check on entrance, the place is a strange sight to London eyes- its run almost entirely by Hassidic Jews: not a community I have had much opportunity to meet, talk to and do business with in London. Good stuff though, and good second hand department.

www.bhphotovideo.com

Apart from the fun of buying a new (used) camera, the galleries. Well, from my English perspective I can’t help be dazzled/ bamboozled by their production values. The first show I saw was by Darren Almond, at Matthew Marks. The finish, even before you get into the screening space, is immaculate: the crispness and almost glowing quality of the vinyl lettering, the cool blue spotlight illuminating your passage into the total darkness of the room…no expense spared. As for the installation itself, incredibly creepy and dark, 6 screens hanging/ floating in the gloom, following the movement of a monk walking through a forest, attempting to complete a ritual of purification that has only been managed 46 times in the last 4 centuries (this is the piece of info that stayed in mind most clearly- obviously his chances of succeeding are limited). Although I’m not sure it communicated the immensity of the task and the mental strength I assume it requires, the work did create a sort of meditative and lonely space in which you could maybe begin to empathise with the monk’s experience and his silent journey into the woods.

Beyond that- so many others. And almost all of them equally crisp. Lots of paintings- 5 rooms of Roy Lichtenstein still lives at Gagosian anyone? Or, in his other space, Monet’s something or other. Gagosian gallery is basically a museum. Eye Beam is great though, they had a show called Re:Group: Beyond Models of Consensus about models of participation in art which I enjoyed; good books in the foyer and even, the football playing on a telly. It is the one space which seems to touch directly on issues of public space, social relations and participation, and inevitably it felt much more familiar, a bit more DIY, a bit more text to read and absorb, less visually striking than the other galleries.

Finally- the World Cup. Contrary to received wisdom, people over here are following it, its been playing in bars all over the place, and there are plenty of Argentinean and Mexican flags draped across restaurants and shops (although this could be usual practice, considering the US penchant for flags). So hopefully I’ll get to see the finals after all and not be reduced to only reading the Guardian football blog.

Next time: a report from the woods.