For an introduction to this post see introduction to entry 70
4. In what ways is the blog part of your project and how keen have people been to comment on the work?
The blog has become a very important part of the project. It has become a daily notebook for the residency and a way of noting down developments in my thinking. Not requiring the structure or editing of a (hard) published document it leaves me free to post a variety of types of entries that, together, can lead to unforeseen connections. The growth of the blog as a document that evolves through time can be as organic, as wilful or as arbitrary as the processes that I go through when making artwork. The presence of an imagined reader or readers leads me to be more thoughtful in what I am writing than I might be if I were just noting things down for myself. I feel a responsibility to the reader to try to be interesting, to keep things relevant and not be too obscure.
Originally, I thought that I had wanted to set the blog up as a kind of conversational space hoping that others would join in and add their comments. It was to be a kind of repository for my own and other people’s comments about the Hirschhorn banner. When this didn’t happen and I realised that only one or two comments every now and then would be forthcoming I think I kind of resigned myself to the idea of ‘talking into the void’. Then of course, I realised that I really enjoyed this: the notion of there being no audience other than the possibility of one. That gives me a wonderful sense of freedom. To be myself, whatever that is. And to have to answer to no one. Because to worry about what I am writing, whether it is erudite or informed enough, for example, would stifle my voice altogether, so, far better to get on with it and try some ideas out.
I do get verbal feedback from people that they are reading it and this is extremely encouraging and exciting. Lisa, who works at Fabrica, has told me several times that she always reads it. To think that there is at least one person who is following the thread all the way through is just so incredibly exciting. It’s like having a witness to the workings of my mind and that is such an affirmation of my thinking and such a gift of the generosity of another human being. I find it extremely moving and it gives me great strength and it strengthens my voice too.
