Emerging from an unhealthy bout of work, making things for 'others' (14 days continual at 12 hours a day) I feel like I've been holding my breath underwater and have no idea what has been going on . It seems that Jonathan has been housekeeping the project nicely, even getting round to adding a bit about my task to:HIS BLOG
Jonathan's kind words will of course oblige me to warm-heartedly push him off of a ladder at some later date. I say this because I am convinced that he had to search long and hard for alternative words for obscure, irrational and pedantic (stimulating, lateral and warm-hearted). But to be fair we both sometimes look at each other as though the trolley has come adrift, while secretly recognising a shared sense that we are both still getting away with it at our age, and dreading the day that we might have to decide what it is exactly that we do for a living.
All I can say is that if you ever get a chance to work with Jonathan Swain, jump at the opportunity, you'd be foolish not to.
Another bubbling undercurrent has been the technical details of how Vincent intends to construct his sculpture – I raised a few concerns about the structure a month or so ago, and since then a few e-mails have crept between us (via a translator as my French is sub-kindergarten). Vincent's absolute professionalism and sheer determination has proven these concerns to be trivial – so now I am really looking forward to the build, and overcoming any problems that may show themselves in a spirit of adventure.
The major part of my concern stemmed from how badly methods of making can translate, not just verbally but in the different available materials and tooling, for instance;
Zinc sheet in the USA is a very different substance from the galvanised steel that seems the obvious UK alternative.
It is possible that the dowel that Vincent's structure relies upon may not replace well with the ubiquitous B&Q/Homebase equivalent.
I also wondered if Vincent was familiar with PU glue and biscuit joints. But I remembered that in France you can still buy acid in supermarkets, and that it is the UK that has been modularised to a safe, creativity excluding, IKEA norm.
I am sure that I was being too cautious, but then the verbal translation of the french for dowel into 'spandrel' is enough to cause a cold shudder.
It could be worse, as a very dear friend found out, when she tried to offer some giclee print reproductions of her mono-prints for sale in a French gallery and was greeted with howls of laughter.
Giclee translates as 'spurt' and is used in normandy at least, as a euphemism for ejaculate.
Perhaps in a form of inverted snobbery we should label our inkjet prints on the continent as 'cum gravure'.
