TALK-EXHIBITION-PERFORMANCE
09.08.09
So… it was my artist talk yesterday. This is not something that I have done for some time so I was a little anxious in the sense that I wanted to represent my work in the best possible way. Of course I have done talks before but over the past 2 years I am more au fait with talking to 16-18 yrs olds, (due to my teaching) than French locals. Another obstacle to overcome was the language barrier. One of the Wwoofers had very kindly offered to do the translation. I was a little concerned that this might look disjointed but on reflection it worked out pretty well. No hiccups to speak of. As Sacy is a very small place I was concerned that nobody would show up however I had a healthy audience of 10 including a local journalist who interviewed me at the end. My audience were also comfortable with questions which was great, a lot of quite difficult questions such as, ‘Does it make a difference that you are a woman and doing performance art’? I hadn’t really expected that one in this small arena. It certainly got me thinking about why I make the work I do and what I learn from the making process. There are times here when I have felt completely despondent about the work however I am grateful for having that time too. I leave this Thursday and I have no doubt that this feeling will creep in again before I leave. One thing (I think) that gets me through this is just to keep making the work even if it is unsuccessful one has to keep doing it.
Today I have been spending time in my exhibition space, which has also been my studio during the residency. As I have only 2 monitors to show the two films it has been tricky deciding where in the space to place them. Do I stack them one on top of the other, do they face each other or should they be positioned side by side. Another few days and I will have to come up with a solution.
Finally my tightrope walking has been coming along quite nicely. Since my time here I have become very interested by the idea of balance and wonder will I explore this concept further. Watch this space!!
