TAKE A BUTCHERS
29.09.09
Yesterday was the beginning of Invitations d’artistes. I arrived at Madame Noel’s Butcher shop at 8am where I met the lady herself, her husband Michel and their son Eric. I did a lot of filming in the first two hours, Monday is the day to prepare meat for the rest of the week, Many sights and smells were caught by my camera, including the sharpening of knives and whole animal carcasses hanging from meat hooks.
There was a second room I was led into which held a walk in refrigerator. Inside of it hung a huge husk of meat hung, I think it was a part of a bull. Eric, one of the butchers got to work, armed with a knife various chopping tools. As I filmed it was like watching a sculptor carving a piece of stone, quite astonishing.
After a few communication problems the butchers were happy for me to help. I was given sections of meat where the skin and fat needed to be removed. This is an art in itself and I had to quickly learn to respect the knife. I have never come across a knife quite so sharp, my fingers have the war wounds to prove it.
06.09.09
THE SHOW- BEFORE & AFTER
Initially I was experiencing a mixture of excitement and nervousness prior to the opening. On the morning of the exhibition I was a little worried about the clock piece which consists of a 5 inch tv scrren showing a film which would be inserted behind a glass panel in the clock. I had my suspicions that the power cables may be a little faulty so I thought it would be a good idea to replace it with a more reliable cable to rule out any problems. Richard Negre, the French artist offered to drive me to a DIY store in Pont Saint Maxence- 8kms away. The store luckily stocked the cable and when I brought it back to the chateau it seemed to be working well. I installed the piece at lunch time and it had been running for around 2 hours quite perfectly. After documenting the work I realised that it wasn’t quite straight so adjusted it. However when I moved the TV the cable somehow disconnected itself from the machine – I re-inserted the cable, pressed the power button and nothing. It would seem that the inner pin had been damaged and this had been the cause of the faulty connection all along. Now the TV was completely irreparable. I tried everything to fix this problem put to no avail. Richard even kindly offered to take me back to Pont St Maxence to see if an electronic store would stock the TV. Sadly there were no TV screens of this kind so I had to show my piece ‘Trapeze Time’ on my lap- top. This was a big compromise yet I felt that it was important for people to see the work as it was mentioned quite extensively in the catalogue. It felt as though luck was not on my side.
My performance that was scheduled for 5pm went well. It lasted for 1 hour, much shorter than previous performances yet some interesting things came from it and hopefully I can push the work forward.
I shall return to Sacy-le-Petit in 2 weeks to work on Invitations d’artistes where I will be working in the local butchers with a lady called Madame Noel. I shall be recording the sights and sounds over a 2 day period where I will be helping out in the kitchen,
EXHIBITION, TRACE & INVITATIONS D’ARTISTES
04.09.09
Since I arrived in France I have been re- installing my work ready for Saturday. This morning disaster almost struck as I dropped one of the DVD’s on a concrete floor and of course it cracked. I managed to burn another so no crying over spilt milk thankfully. The French artist arrived today so we will have to negotiate the extension cable, we are both showing work which requires power supply – we may have to buy some more. Because the opening is quite short – 4pm-6pm I do wonder how my performance will develop, it starts at 5pm so ideally should be finished by 6pm.
I mentioned in earlier blogs an extended project that I had applied to do. It was very uncertain as to whether this would take place due to organising community members of the village to agree. I spoke to Madame noel from the butchers yesterday and she has agreed that I come and work in the kitchen for 2 days preparing the meat. I will be recording the sounds and images that occur in the shop and I shall be making my own apron in the weeks before this work.
RETURN TO FRANCE
01.09.09
After an amazing holiday in the United States I have come back to England with a bump, the realisation that I need to turn into an application writing machine in the coming weeks is not a pretty image. Moving house just before the residency was probably not the wisest decision as I am still unpacking boxes, moving the studio around and working out what art work I want to make once I’m through with the France thing. It’s almost as though I have to re discover my work, a lost feeling which I don’t think will disappear for a while. Enough of that for now though, I return to France tomorrow to install the exhibition at Chateau de Sacy which opens this Saturday. The catalogue will also be ready for the exhibition too, however it has been difficult to communicate my thoughts and ideas of how I would like the catalogue to look over an email. I wonder how I will respond and react to the work once I re-install it. I spent so long mulling over the tiniest detail so my hope is that I will relax when it comes to the actual showing of my pieces on Saturday. The performance ‘Charcoal Skin’is something I am really looking forward to, most of my performances have been long (maybe 4 hours in length) in the past however this will probably only last for one hour at the most, depending on how the performance develops.
