Designer Labels
I have started my Manchester cotton trade research online and have been really impressed with the MOSI website. Searching through all the menus I am really excited to see how big the collections are and how creative they are at communicating them. From looking on the website I would like to look at the working manuals and trade literature from the mills. I would love to handle samples of printed cotton and was really taken with the woven labels. Each woven label is a picture, aesthetically much more sophisticated than a clothes label you might see today. The picture represented the trademark of the exported goods, which reflected where the products were sent. This meant the products are instantly recognised with less need for too many words or language. I have fallen in love with this Behrens shipper’s label. It reminds me of my performance characters and I wonder how they researched the details within the image with no google search to tap into. From the markings it looks like goods were transported to China.
I intend to create a costume that will mash together traditional and modern design references from Manchester and Finland. The most famous and well-known fabric designers in Finland are Marimekko. I was introduced to this fabulous world of colour and print by my Finnish artist friend Anna Puhakka and visited the flagship store in Helsinki in 2011.
‘In 1962 Armi Ratia, the founder of Marimekko, defined Marimekko as “a cultural phenomenon guiding the quality of living”. She built a utopia called Marikylä (“Marimekko Village”), whose aim was no less than to house the staffs and to function as a laboratory for product design and to develop new ways of life. This year Marimekko will bring to life the Marimekko Village of today.’ (https://www.marimekko.com/marimekko/history)
Marimekko Core Values
Living, not pretending
Fairness to everyone and everything
Common sense
Getting things done together
Courage, even at the risk of failure
Joy
How do I make a proposal to the institution?
Where to start? The obvious way is to look at websites to find out contact details of who to approach, however this is not always visible. For my project I want to aim high as I don’t want my work to be lost in a fringe event. Although I love the independence of making performances in public spaces they have no legacy or are not marketed/documented in the right way to allow this to happen. I feel working with a large institution will offer research benefits, resources and potential links into other events. I have started sending emails to my wish list of institutions I would like to work with. At the start of the process it was quite depressing with being sent back generic emails and no crystal clear process of how an artist is meant to make a proposal. It seems that the local artist has to simply wait around and hope that someone might notice your work. I was most shocked by a response from someone in marketing from Manchester International Festival who was quite rude and unhelpful. I had a better response from the Gallery of Costume, although they are programmed up to 2016. The most helpful contacts have been at MOSI who have a specific application form to fill in, with particular deadlines for the work to be reviewed throughout the year. It has been really helpful using the MOSI form to get as much detail down before I put in an ACE application in the New Year.
Alongside getting a partner involved in Manchester I am looking to research and develop my performance in Tampere Finland. This has been just as challenging with my emails getting a bit lost in translation. My plan is to visit the International Theatre Festival in August 2014 to research potential venues/partners for my final performance in 2015. It took a few weeks for contacts to get back to me and understand my research and development needs. However, I managed to get a spark of interest from Eevamaija the PR Manager of the International Theatre Festival who wants to help me make contact with the producers of the event. Hooray! I can’t tell you how happy I was to get this personalised response. Finally I have someone to converse with who gets who I need to speak with to make my project happen. She said I was lucky as they are inundated with festival queries and thought my ideas sounded pulsating and humorous. I feel a short research residency in Tampere would provide the ideal support network to develop the project. I was surprised to find many artist residencies in Finland although from the few I contacted, they do not accept children to stay. I have now managed to find a place to stay for my family called the Tampere Artists Association, which has living and studio spaces for independent research. I have made an initial booking to go in 2014 for two weeks. Finally, it feels like this project is starting to build some momentum.
Gold
I feel now is the time to make it happen for myself as I have been struggling to get support for a larger scale project. Manchester has been very good to me and has a vibrant live art/performance circuit, however it does feel like a bit of desert for the mid career artist. Its great starting new projects, although longer research and development periods are also needed. I have been lucky the past year and been paid mostly by artist led spaces to perform. I recently participated at an a-n focus group on artists getting paid and this discussion has really kicked me up the bum to get my own funding. From this meeting there was a huge sense of institutions and events organisers getting most of the funding whilst the artists are underpaid or not paid at all. I also feel there is a massive gap, I could go as far as saying an intentional gap for the famous artists to get paid and rewarded with big shows whilst keeping artists in an emergent state which justifies them not getting paid. Becoming an artist was never a strive for a well paid career, however we cannot make work out of fresh air. I am now eight months pregnant and this has really changed my view on what kind of projects I want to make. Thinking more long term feels like the right way to create something new on my own terms.
