Answer to question 4 continued from previous post. For an introduction to this question see introduction to entry 70
I have received several comments on the work mainly via the email address that I set up as well as the blog. I then ask people if I can have their permission to transfer their comments to the blog. I will admit that I like to have this kind of editorial control, that in many ways the blog is ‘mine’ and that I want to keep an overview of it. I am aware of the politics of what this says about me as a person, I mean, this attitude in comparison say, with setting up a WIKI. But I don’t have a particular problem with that. In fact I am pleased that I can have such a sense of ownership of my work and I definitely see the blog now as a very significant part of my practice. My new website also has a blog on it on the ‘news’ page and when the Fabrica residency ends I will be able to carry on with a blog in some form there even if it’s just as a noticeboard for my activities. But there’s nothing to say I won’t be able to continue with the a-n blog too.
I record on the blog conversations I have with people about the work and I have also been typing in comments from the comments book because there people have been registering their responses in very long, considered and articulate ways. Here people tend to be very much in favour of the work and I’ve noticed that a lot of them display gratitude towards Fabrica and Hirschhorn for providing the work. A lot of people say ‘thank you’. I read from this a response that might be similar to my very first thought about the work that it was a relief to hear that someone was showing the images of war that are not usually shown, the images that show just how horrific war actually is.
I would be very interested to know the responses of those people who choose not to look at the banner at all or who look but leave quickly without wanting to talk or leave a comment. Those would be extremely valuable responses to bear in mind and consider, I am aware of that. But catching them is to trace around craters on the dark side of the moon.
