No More Days and Counting

The ALAS artist residency exhibition opened on November 8th from 6-9pm.

I’ve included a couple of pictures of the exhibition-taken by my generous fellow ALAS resident AnnaMaria Kardos (including an image of her audio installation in our show). She does great work, please see her blog:

Also see link to watch a short video of my installation:

Here is a description of my work that I handed out during our exhibition private view and the Susan Stewart quote was given to me by Marion Michell, a-n blogger:

Exhibition week of 5th November–notes:

Sunday afternoon: Went over a friend’s house and borrowed her paint brushes and rollers. Had a cup of tea, waved goodbye and walked home. On the way I past the local hardware store and thought I should buy smaller paint rollers, just in case. Also masking tape. Rubbish bags. Glue, gloves to paint in. Went into newsagent to buy snacks as my son is off school on Monday and will come with my boyfriend and I to the gallery. Must charge his Nintendo and bring paper and pencils to entertain him…

Sunday night: Hunted for old clothes to wear to install work, and packed paint, dolls house, furniture, scissors and today’s purchases.

After reading the following article I found the guardian website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/may/09…

I thought more about small details and realised that I needed more dolls house furniture. Like a miniature version of Denis Sever’s House in Spitalfields, in which all the furniture, food, clothing etc., are laid out in a way that it still looks as if a family lives there.

So, I ordered a mini toilet. An oven. Two kitchen chairs, another kitchen table which also came with small drinking glasses, tea cups, plates, teeny-tiny spoons and even a pumpkin and a carrot . A tiny outdoor fountain and bench. And two very small welcome mats! I had no idea they even made things this–well this obsessive. But I’m turning into one myself…oh, and I ordered a second mobile phone, more on that later. Some things will arrive with guaranteed delivery on Tuesday by 1pm, perfect as I still will have two days left to set up.

I also need another two small trees brought from the architectural firm: Blueprint in Bethnal Green.

Monday afternoon–made it to Matt Roberts Gallery at about 3pm with boyfriend to help paint and my son who had an inset day at school. Turns out that the Flint’s Theatre Black paint had excellent coverage–it’s as thick as custard. My boyfriend painted my small room and floor while I put two coats on my plinth. We left the gallery late.

Monday evening-hot dogs and chips. Not a great dinner. My son and boyfriend will be having similar ones this week-no time to cook. Got my son’s uniform, P.E. kit etc ready for school tomorrow.

Tuesday morning: Waited at home for deliveries. Everything came in trickles. Then 2pm arrived and no mobile phone. Totally unlike Amazon. It was still in transit. They did refund me the extra charges for delivery, but when will the phone arrive?

Tuesday afternoon. We returned to the gallery to find that some areas needed a second paint touch-up. What to do about the cavernous ceiling that was quite high? Maybe something lower, maybe a cloth to make a lower ceiling. Need to make a trip to John Lewis.

Tuesday evening–left gallery late, missed John Lewis closing time. Frustrated, went home, ate and fell into bed, but not before looking on line for examples of lighting in a black room/theatre stage. Can’t really figure out how/whether to light the dolls house, the bulb that is in the space is too boring. Maybe a spotlight…

Wednesday morning: Mobile arrived, hurrah! Got to John Lewis later than I wanted, found black fabric for ceiling covering. Spent ages in lighting dept, debated with boyfriend about whether we should wait to buy a light. I won. We bought it and then carried it to the gallery.

Wednesday afternoon: Glued fake grass on plinth. Tricky for boyfriend to contort himself on wobbly stool to hammer fabric to wood shelf on wall and to fit spotlight–but he did it. Hours later, the room was ready.

Thursday morning–exhibition day.

I returned to the gallery to put the furniture inside the dolls house. That took over 2 hours, as I looked through all the items. The toy tv speakers and table I have look amazing. My mobile had a downloaded version of my video, and I placed it on the table. Swept black floor, put down large welcome mat.

Read next blog entry to see the results of my video installation and exhibition pics!

There are only 5 days left until the ALAS Autumn group residency at Matt Roberts Arts gallery on Vyner Street. The preview is on Thursday, 8 November from 18:30-21:00: http://www.alasautumnresidency.org/?p=24

I can’t believe the exhibition opens so soon…

In my last post, I was going to request a crit by Matt Roberts, who runs the ALAS residency. I’ve decided to start installing on Monday and then discuss the artwork as it develops.

I will present the video installation in the small, closet-like space I requested to use in the gallery.

The dolls house has been harder to choose what to do. I still want to destroy it, maybe graffiti all over it (Not my skill set, but a former classmate and graduate from Central St. Martins, Mike Ballard would have been amazing to work with): http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article…

As there is less than a week left, I will be courageous enough to contrast the newness of my plastic house with the demise of my old Flint, Michigan neighbourhood in my video. It’s a brave decision (at least to me) as it’s easy to try and impress people by making the dolls house look like an abandoned relic.

At the moment, I will not make any physical cuts. The dolls house is already accessible, as it’s side has been left open during manufacturing-i.e., the whole back of it folds out. The removal of borders is what Gordon Matta-Clark did to real houses. Peering inside as a voyeur. Or perhaps it depended on the kind of space that he chose to work with.

Matta-Clark was quoted in an interview by architecture critic Donald Wall: ” The thing about the doll house is it’s not so much being a voyeur as being in control.”

I will be in control and present the dolls house as it is. You may be able to see inside. Or perhaps just through the windows, which is still a bit Peeping Tom-ish.

I’ve decided that my installation space needs to be painted to look more theatrical, emphasising the spectacle of childhood objects.

So, yesterday I searched in the dark to buy a big 5 litre paint can from Flint Hire and Supply Ltd, a short walk from Elephant and Castle tube station. The shop and on-line sales website caters to the theatre industry: http://www.flints.co.uk/welcome.html

After the weekend, installation begins. I will take pictures of the props that are being used (and have included a link in today’s blog of a small (fake) television I purchased)–this may be the most important item in the installation.

When searching over the internet I found a plasma minature t.v., which is much bigger than the Sylvanian twee ones and is 1/12 the size of a real plasma screen.

However, the television screen wasn’t quite large enough, and so I finally had a reason to go to the laser cutters. Although I had to find one in Berlin, Germany as I was recently on holiday.

My Berliner friend Sabine gave me a great tip about a shop called Modulor Material Total, and it’s like a combination of a British Paperchase store, with a model shop, hardware materials, amazing textiles, tools, furniture, etc. They also have custom and laser cutting departments and the laser cutters carved open my plastic t.v. screen for me. As I am not very handy with tools, my boyfriend used a handsaw to cut a television screen out of a metallic plastic sheet from Modulor Material Total. I now need to see if the new “television” actually fits inside the dolls house, hmm.

My job over the weekend is to make a list of tools and equipment needed to take to the gallery along with any last minute purchases. Between the 5th-7th of November, I hope to upload pictures of the installation in progress. However, I may include images of the props, with very little text as I don’t want to give away the final result. Everyone is invited to our ALAS Autumn Residency Exhibition, please come along if you happen to be in London.

http://www.mikeballard.co.uk/

http://barkwall.wordpress.com/matta-clarks-childho…

http://www.julie-anns-dolls-houses.co.uk/dolls-hou…

http://www.modulor.de/shop/oxid.php/sid/31003a5e6d…