I’ve had a very productive afternoon doing all of the little jobs ready for Finland – its just the big jobs that are left now such as tightening up my Seminar paper.
I had a sneak preview of the NUCA MA Show today, its always motivational to look at other people’s work and to see the effort that is put into the exhibition. It was my MA Show this time last year, im not sure how i feel about that, slightly disjointed from the student experience which i loved so much, whilst also knowing that im ready to go it alone. I suppose like many artists, i just crave contact with other like-minded people and value the dialogues that can happen as a result of it.
Edwina has sent me an image of one of the possible sites for my installation / performance (see right). Every glimpse that i get of Finland is precious because i have no idea what the landscape is going to be like. I imagine the colours to be muted, and for there to be strong lines – this picture would confirm that theory. It could just be that i seek out muted linear sites and there are plenty of other things going on around me, just i don’t notice them. Im excited about this site, with its non-colour and utilitarian aesthetic. I wonder what i will do there…?
This is beginning to feel real now.
My application was also accepted to take part in the “Urban Spaces” workshop led by Lisa Torell, an Artist from Sweden who asks her workshop participants to consider “in between places” that are often overlooked, such as footpaths or overgrown verges. This workshop is part of the Art Week and will act as a useful catalyst i think in producing my own installations, i am also very much looking forward to working with a group of people that i don’t know yet, to make art up against a time limit, and have meetings and crits. It will be like those tentative first weeks of Art School all over again where everybody is very sensitive and excited at the same time.
9 days to go
I have mixed feelings about how helpful this bank holiday has been in helping me to prepare for the quickly approaching Art Week in Riihimaki. Part of me wants to do whatever a normal 24 year old does at these times (see friends and drink beer). And then i realise that in 9 days i’ll be in Finland, as an artist, doing my best to be composed and professional.
The bank holiday got off to a slow start work wise as i caught up on sleep following my recent trip to Berlin. I attempted to write my paper for the seminar, something, anything. nothing came out so i stalled by reading the work of others i admired. still nothing, this upset me. i read Roland Barthes, Carl Andre, Anni Albers, Eva Hesse, Richard Long and Sol LeWitt and searched through old sketchbooks to rediscover the things that inspired me last year during the Masters.
“Conceptual Artists were intuitive rather than rational. In other words, to discover their idea – the main idea, the instigator or whatever it is – a leap of faith or a leap of aesthetics had to be made otherwise it was just another rational step. To avoid a rational step, intuition is important”
Sol LeWitt, Art Monthly Issue 164 March 1993
Today, Tuesday, was better because i had an extra day off work, and a better mentality. I imagine that everything that i had been reading finally sunk in and made sense. I went to the studio for a very structured day of working, mostly writing. The studio was beautiful and calm, why hadn’t i come here sooner? To my amazement 2500 words came out, discussing my concerns and processes, and new ideas came out too, completely unexpected. My paper is about the traces left behind as a town changes, and how i respond to these. As the work is going to be site responsive, i don’t feel that i can write the whole seminar now – but at least i have something. I felt like an artist today; not an “outreach officer”, or a sleepy 24 year old, and i look forward to feeling like an artist for a whole two weeks when im in Finland. I think its going to be okay now.
