Re-reading my application for the Project Programme has helped settle my somewhat overwhelmed mind. I started to wonder if the project I proposed (aware of my suspicion of the word ‘project’) was still relevant to me as it was conceived many months ago and before doing the artistic research course. That course made me realise the importance of my sense of integrity in my practice. I made the application to Mejan thinking that it would be interesting to develop (re-engage with) more sculptural aspects of my practice – exchanging the installations and second-hand materials for independent objects and more traditional materials. Since enrolment the validity of this switch has given me much to think about:
Is doing something quite different advantageous or disruptive? An opportunity for new learning and experiences, or a distraction and dissipation of energy and focus?
Re-reading led me to wonder if I can have/be all these things at the same time, and if any anxiety I feel now is actually the excitement of knowing that I could be on the brink of something new and unknown. I took out the sketches that I was making when I made the application – shadows of my childhood soft toys. I had also made a few sketches where I drew mirror images of halves of the shadows, these created more abstract drawings that almost resembled those visual illusions where you can see different things depending on whether you focus in the white or black image. It was during this re-looking that I began to wonder if my sense of not knowing the value of my proposal could, and would, only be resolved through doing it – though the making processes.
And so I have started to think of this time/work as an open process rather than as the realisation of a proposal.
How great to allow myself to say “I will not know until I make it”!
It is most important that the work (“the project”) makes sense to me – I do need to remind myself of this no matter how obvious it sounds.
Meeting with my supervisor on Tuesday. Looking forward to second session of Making Matters course at Konstfack tomorrow …