Colin of Alaska

I haven’t seen an English newspaper for two months, since the 7th of June in fact. I don’t expect to see another until mid-September. I get the gist of what’s going on in the world through the BBC news page on the web, which just about satisfies my urge to know. I had bought the Sunday Times on the ferry to pass the time during the crossing, and kept the magazines to read later. Ordinarily I read only a small number of articles thoroughly, flicking through, or past, or ‘speed-reading’ the rest. Why I imagined anything should be different later I don’t know. Perhaps subconsciously I thought that they might provide a link back to my other life.

I picked up ‘Culture’ last night – the section about the arts which is mostly the TV guide. Let me quickly run through some of the items which caught my eye: Britney (cover story); AA Gill on television; Richard Long’s Tate retrospective; A review of a book on Grace Kelly; ENO’s Così Fan Tutti; Tuesday’s TV Pick Of The Day: Sarah Beeny’s ‘Property Snakes and Ladders’; and for Wednesday: ‘Celebrity Masterchef’.

AA Gill reviews ‘Katie Price: The Jordan Years’, in which a surgeon reverentially produces Jordan’s first breasts from a drawer (the implants, that is), and the camera asks “can I touch them?”

It strikes me that we have ‘Culture’, ‘Popular Culture’, and ‘Culchah’. The last one is also the first one, and the one which the man or women on the street refers to as being for posh people. Yes, that is a sweeping generalisation, no, I’m not being patronising (you know exactly what I mean). What I am driving at is this: a straw poll in the High Street will undoubtedly show that everyone has heard of Jordan and no-one has heard of Richard Long. I will also wager this: a straw poll among the art community will show that everyone has heard of Jordan but not everyone knows who Richard Long is; and, a straw poll amongst certain sections of the art community will show that no-one will admit to knowing who Jordan is, but everyone knows who Richard Long is (however, strap these same people up to a lie detector and you may not get identical results).

Art is not democratic: there are sections of the art world that prefer it that way – exclusivity (as in relation to exclude) is good for prices. Even the more socially aware tend to refer to popular culture with a kind of knowing irony. We are obliged to use language to describe our work which is the syntactical equivalent of a secret handshake. The sad thing is, there are homes all over this country that do not have anything on the wall, just as there are households that do not possess a single book.

Colin of Alaska’s blog is at http://colinofalaska.blogspot.com

So far about half of the handful of people I invited to join the Colin of Alaska Facebook group have done so. Not bad, now I have to wait and see. I was particularly excited this weekend to see a new member, who, unless it is a great coincidence, must have found the group through this blog, and happier still that it is one of the people whose blog I regularly read. I won’t embarrass you by naming names, but thank you! It shows that the viral thing is working, it tells any doubting Thomas that people do read these blogs, and I don’t feel quite so deluded about the project any more.

Colin’s blog is at http://colinofalaska.blogspot.com

I remember, as a kid, cycling with a friend to one of the Palmerston forts overlooking Portsmouth. As a skinny 12-year old, squeezing under the enormous gate was no problem. There was a rumour (which persists to this day) of a tunnel leading from each of the forts out to an island in Langstone Harbour. After scouting around the deserted grounds and buildings, we found a tunnel. It was extremely dark, so I was feeling my way along with my feet, following the wall with my right hand. After only a short distance the daylight had gone – I have never experienced such absolute blackness, before or since. Nevertheless, there was a palpable sense of thrill and excitement, because we could feel the floor starting to fall away, down, in the direction of the harbour. Then, suddenly, I could no longer feel the wall with my hand. Another tunnel, an alcove perhaps, who knows. I reached out, as far as I dare without moving my feet, but could feel nothing. There was now real uncertainty mixed with that feeling of great exhilaration.

That’s my analogy for today.

I have started a Facebook group for Colin of Alaska. I sent out invitations to my FB friends to join the group (as a newcomer to the site I am still a bit of a billy-no-mates, so there aren’t many). It occurs to me that Colin of Alaska is going to be a marmite project. The feedback has been great, but there will surely be those that hate it; there will be those that don’t think it is art; and there will be those that just don’t get it.

The Facebook group is called Colin of Alaska.

Colin’s blog is at http://colinofalaska.blogspot.com

I have conceived this character, Colin d’Alaska, as a new work. I saw that his blog could give me the opportunity to explore new ideas, new ways of looking at images, new ways of communicating some of the issues that preoccupy me in other areas of my work, new ways of expressing those ideas.

So, here I am, creating Colin’s life. Consequently, I am spending time inside Colin’s head. It is a strange place; OK to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.

Colin d’Alaska is part art experiment, part social experiment. He is obviously fictitious, but I wonder how ‘real’ he and his family and friends can become? How will his character develop as his story progresses? Colin is already someone who doesn’t quite understand the world, who lives on the fringes of his own life. At this stage I have chosen to let him evolve naturally, rather than to predetermine a path, and an outcome.

Having said that, I have set a few broad parameters: I am using photographs, but none of these are staged or taken specifically for the blog. I have elected to use only existing family snapshots (or rather reject snapshots, occasionally cropped but otherwise unretouched), then create a brand new narrative to transform a mostly useless image into the basis for Colin’s story. This reinterpretation – or reinvention – of an image is core.

Secondly, I wanted to introduce the ambiguities and the shades of light and dark that I aim for in other areas of my practice. As a blog there is an element of entertainment, but there is also a serious side to reflect my other work. I am excited by the potential of this contrast. Finally, there should be substance, if not also sustenance.

I am enjoying ‘blog’ as a medium, with it’s own idiosyncracies: the reverse chronology, for example, may have limitations, but I am learning to exploit it to advantage.

There is another intriguing aspect – the idea of an artwork that people can return to, whenever they wish, to see a progression.

I want to see how word will spread – it has already started to happen. Will Colin have a large audience? Will he have dedicated followers? I will be considering ways in which this could be taken beyond the internet. I wonder about taking the blog to another audience.

By the way, Colin d’Alaska is French for Alaskan Pollack, or Coley (fish). We have some in the freezer.

I hope to have cause to talk about further developments here on Artists Talking as they happen. The final twist as that now I am talking openly and comfortably about a work in progress….

Colin’s blog is at http://colinofalaska.blogspot.com