Project Me

I definitely want to spend time looking at residencies. How can I get … organise … host … one?

I am very keen to see if I can’t make the residency* at Hospitalet more active and useful to those of us who are studio holders. Speaking with Maria at Fabrikken, Copenhagen was very inspiring – their set up in fantastic and there is much that we could learn.
Is it a residency studio at Hospitalet? Or a recent graduate studio? I need to check that out! Either way I think that it could be improved. Why shouldn’t one of the studio holders be paid to be a mentor? Is there even a residency coordinator?

What I really need to do is work out how I want to spend my time – the time when I am not earning money. How can I continue with my own practice at the same time as developing the necessary opportunities for it. Perhaps this speaks of being in the wrong place … that is a scary thought … might I have to move?

If the studio group that I am in does not operate the way that I would like it to do I a) work to change how it operates, or b)change the studio group that I am in? Up until now I have more often than not tried to change the organisation that I am already a part of … perhaps this is not the best use of my time and energy.

Juxtapose

I have thoroughly enjoyed deepening the conversations with those who I have gotten to know over the past few years (through both Juxtapose and Supermarket) – and, if I really think about it, for far longer than that in some cases. This has been exactly what I needed – and the timing could not have been better – I have been distracted and cared for, focussed on something very specific and intense … something that means a great deal for me … something that gives me so much … something that supports and celebrates so much of that which I hold dear.

Lydia asked me about the highlights. I am thinking about a text that has been around the fair – a definition of the word juxtapose – something along the lines of: placing things close to each other so as to better understand them.
I (start to) come away with a better understanding of myself … a confirmation of that which I find significant, meaningful, and essential.

Juxtapose

I need this energy … this input … this connection … THIS!

I need the give and take … the exchange … the space for new thought … for re-imagining and re-positioning of ideas and knowledge … I need this stimulation

This is genuine artistic research. Here are artists challenging themselves to push the boundaries of knowledge … knowledges. Here the methodology is juxtaposition – placing different things beside each other in order to better understand them.

Juxtapose

It all came together! Our presentation is up and open. It was a wonderful day!

From the ’reverse Q&A’ in the morning, to the forrest walk and waterside meditation in the afternoon, through the opening and after party in the evening, it was a truly wonderful day … I mean a day full of wonder … that gentle, supportive, generous, kind of wonder that excited the senses and the mind.

More time spend with my art .. second(?) … family. My mother was right – this is exactly where I need to be – this is my place of love and care.

I cannot, and do not want to, imagine my life without the artist-run. This is where things make sense. Here are my kinfolk. Here are we who are making sense of things beyond the conventions and outside of so many systems that encourage us to produce and consume what is an inherently limiting and divisive understanding of capital.

Juxtapose 1

I thoroughly enjoy seeing Glitter Ball take form. Coming here is a significant step in my re-engaging with … re-activating … re-imagining … Glitter Ball. I see the presentation come together – with familiar visual identifiers from the Enköping showroom days. And I hear myself introducing Glitter Ball to my fellow exhibitors and the fair guests.

It is also very exciting for familiar professional colleagues to see me as an artist – several have mentioned this. To many I am the (Supermarket) Meetings coordinator, and they imagine that I my world is one of discussion, management, and curation. Now they are seeing me with materials, objects, and forms – the world that I would call my first world.

Roberto asked my why I do this … not just Juxtapose but my involvement … commitment … to the artist-run. It was/is a good question. What I find so appealing about the artist-run is its incongruity in an increasingly capital-driven and individualistic world. There seems to be in integral politic that I feel very comfortable with. We are doing this because it needs to be done. We are interested in where it (whatever this that we do is) touches other spheres … where it is in relations to other spheres, what opportunities it offers – not only to those of us directly engaged in it but also in wider contexts … what ripples can we make … what ideas can we test … what edges can we push … what spaces can we create …

There is a generosity that I do not recognise elsewhere.

For me the artist-run is not just familiar – it is family.
And it is so very very right that I am here now