Project Me

I am at the studio after having spent my first night in my new apartment in Uppsala – not that I have properly (actually?) moved yet. I got the keys to the apartment on the 6th September but won’t move there until 14th October – it was only on Tuesday this week (20th September) that I sold the apartment in Enköping. I could not think about moving until the current apartment was sold (never good to show an empty apartment to potential buyers). Now the contracts are signed and the new owners want to move in one month! I was expecting at least three months – which is usual here – and to do some decorating before I moved however a faster move has serious financial benefits so I am not complaining!

So, here I am having enjoyed cycling through town to the studio this morning – such a different experience to cycling in Enköping – feeling very happy and content about living here (albeit more like camping at the moment), and thinking that I would write a post about the show in Enköping closing or perhaps something about Brad Pitt’s exhibition in Finland … however …

Just as I pulled up a clean page to begin writing my telephone ’pinged’ – a message from the head of education at the Uppsala Art Museum asking if I am interested in some work there. She had mentioned the possibility when we met at Klas and my opening in Enköping, it seems a curious coincidence that she gets in touch on the first day that I am ’living’ here – something in the air?

We are going to talk more this evening after the presentation/discussion about the artists’ club that I am taking part in at the museum. I think that I need a calming cup of tea … my mind is racing through all kinds of possibilities from a one-off workshop to being a part of the education team at the museum … all of it very exciting and rather unexpected despite it having been vaguely mentioned before.

I must not jump the gun but it is very interesting to wonder whether I might soon be leaving Enköping entirely. My plan was to settle in here, then look for work opportunities while continuing with my position at the council in Enköping. With the impending economic crisis and likely shift to the right in the local council (election results are declared but the composition of the council very unclear) there is an inevitable question over whether or not the long awaited Culture Centre will go head. And even if it does get approved it will take two to three years to be complete. I also have quite definite views about how the Creative Workshop should be run – starting from an all encompassing concept of sustainability. That should be a given but I am already aware that I will meet resistance from certain factions. Nor I am interested in it being kitted with 3D printers (as has been suggested) which are neither appropriate nor environmentally friendly in this context.

I would love the opportunity to teach at the museum and to work with both the collection and temporary exhibitions. I like and feel at home in the education rooms at the museum, they are pretty well resourced and ordered but also sufficiently chaotic so as to feel that anything and everything could happen there. It would be the natural next step for me in terms of my pedagogic work.

Yesterday evening Klas and I made our ’Meet the artist …’ presentation to the arts association (and their guests) that runs the gallery where Rest is showing. The evening did not go as planned, and it was very successful! Klas and I had sketched out a (very) rough plan: short general introduction, ten to fifteen minutes each talking about our practices, references, education, and then some questions to each other about the social role of art. The whole whole thing lasting no more than forty minutes – tops.

We never got to discussing our practices*, the entire hour (and even the following hour of informal discussion over cheese and wine!) was very much focussed on the exhibition. We made what I now think was a very wise decision to sit for our presentation. This immediately made everything more informal and (evidently) discursive – which had always been out intention even if we were not sure that we would achieve it. Having been at a good number of Meet the artist evenings I am aware that some times there is an awkwardness in the air that somehow stifles attempts att dialogue. We did not have to worry about that last night! As we round off talking through how we arrived at, and think about, the title the member who has bought ’Kiss’ asked a question … and we were off! What followed was a very enjoyable and enlightening discussion with questions, reflections, and observations from several of the audience, Klas spoke elegantly and concisely, and I apparently spoke engagingly and emotionally. One of the most active members – she and her husband attend nearly all of these evenings as well as the openings, and they even hop in and invigilate when no-one from the committee can – came up to thank me and expressed a wish that every artist could speak to clearly and intelligently about their work. Needless to say I got a bit teary, which I had also done during the evening when speak about grief and grieving.

During the presentation/discussion I realised that I had unconsciously done something that now seems very significant. I had placed two flag works at the furthest possible distance from each other: the black flag leaning into the south-west corner of the first room is the piece furthest from the two silver flags fluttering and flying from the flag poles up the hill fifty metres north east of the gallery. I am so pleased to have had this realisation, insight, in to my own work/curation. Taking just my pieces into consideration the first in the exhibition is ’Kiss’ – two small wine glasses locked in an embrace, the second is the black flag – an undeniably heavy and intense piece, the final piece is two glittery sparkly silver flags fluttering high in the sky. It would be almost perfect if the silver flags blew away on the breeze … upward and onward to new adventures … no longer bound to the earth … released … free

*of course our practices were implicitly spoken of through paying attention to the works on show.