Project Me

Oh how wonderful to watch the sun stretch across the glittered door that is now propped up against the studio wall! I had not imagined that the low spring light would extend so far as to cover the entire surface.

The piece needs at least a few more layers of glitter. I am learning how to apply the binder. It is interesting to see how the glitter builds up, my hope is that as the surface becomes denser it will also become less regular and therefore catch more light from different angles. Brushing off the loose glitter after the first coating revealed that nearly all the glitter that stuck fast was lying flat against the door. After the second coat it was noticeable that the glitter was beginning to fasten between and over the first layer which created a slightly more uneven surface, which in turn has improved how it sparkles.

Propping the piece up like this is the first time that I have seen it without an immediate relation to the floor. The intention has always been to wall mount the pieces as ‘landscapes’ so as to defer the moment when they are recognised as doors. The panorama-ness of the proportions is rather pleasing. While sitting back and looking at ‘it’ (I want to stop calling it ‘a door’ now that it is becoming an artwork but I have not quite found the right alternative expression just yet,) the idea of two pieces mounted so that their (respective) right- and left-hand edges meet in the corner of a room crossed my mind …

Yesterday evening I went to the opening of the group show Thinking and Speaking at Nordenhaken. The work was very academic and theoretical, which seemed almost at odds with the incredibly social bustling crowd. It is the kind of show that makes me feel that I need to read (at least) the press release to have a chance at comprehension – I was very glad to find a couple of pieces that ‘worked’ without additional information. It is not that I am against reading, but I have adopted a strategy of going to shows ‘blind’ and seeing how much I can glean from the exhibition without reading about it first. It is an excellent ploy for me as it forces me to look at the work, as opposed to looking for the confirmation of what I have read. At Christian Larsson’s neighbouring gallery Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmusen’s Mobile Mirrors opened. The show includes two performers in mirrored morph suits – the gallery was awash with reflected light splatter from them and three mirrored mannequins. It was both reassuring and unsettling to see this so soon after leaving my own sparkling and light reflecting work in the studio on the other side of town. Seeing another show for the second time, and just before the gallery* closed, I wondered about how the paintings might look in a darkened interior (something like a church), I mentioned this to the gallery director who smiled and invited me to stay while she switched off the lights. I felt immensely privileged to be given this private viewing. In less than half-light the paintings in themselves became even more luminous and ethereal, and the experience of being with them even more intimate. Light became an unexpected subject for the evening.
*(It feels odd not to name the gallery and artist but I do not want to upset anyone by making something inappropriately public.)

Meeting and chatting with another artist/student for lunch yesterday, and with others this morning was really good. It was good to get feedback on what I am writing for the research course, and also to hear what they have been thinking. Much of the discussion was in Swedish and even if I could not express myself as well as I wanted it felt good to see what I could say. I continue to be excited and delighted by the opportunities that there are to meet other artists in this city …

http://www.nordenhake.com/php/current.php?bID=184&…
http://www.christianlarsen.se/





After what was starting to feel like an eternity I actually did something practical towards a new artwork yesterday – and it was wonderful!

Amazing how much joy some glitter, glue and an off-cut can bring!

As a counter point to both my courses this brief moment of hands-on art was a very welcome relief. The distinction between artistic research and artistic practice is alive and confronting me – well, it is at least presenting itself to me. What was yesterday’s activity, research or practice, or both, or neither … whom do I need to define it for?

And ultimately does it matter if it is artistic research or artistic practice?

Are qualifying words such as ‘research’ and ‘practice’ devises for avoiding other thorny subjects such as quality and aesthetics?



The word ‘claim’ continues to occupy my mind. It is such an interesting term, and ‘what is the claim in your work?’ is a very interesting question. The question can also be phrased: what is the significance of your work? Which in turn seems to be a polite way of asking why anyone else should care what you are doing! Articulating an answer to that is probably the key to many things, and I am almost a little embarrassed that I have never asked it of myself before.

My own preconceptions of research (science) and applicability (design) direct me to think about answers that do not ring true in terms of my practice. If I need to find a field beyond, or possibly even within, the fine arts then I need to look elsewhere – I think I need to look to places of ideas, places that are as nuanced as an artistic practice is.

Transubstantiation comes to mind (which is a little daunting!) when I think around mutability – an idea that has some relation to the work I make, nearly making one thing another. I have often referred to art as some kind of faith, I have never thought of it as any kind of science (and nor do I want it to be). So perhaps it is inevitable that bringing together mutability and faith would lead me to think about transubstantiation. I remember learning the word at school and being fascinated by it. Not only is a wonderful word to pronounce, it also sounds so complex, difficult and nonsensical as to be almost unbelievable.

I am wondering if the claim in my work is located in something to do with seeing objects as some kind of belief system, something to do with finding meaning in objects – I mean meaning that is not restricted to their usefulness, something to do with making meaning in objects. Am I searching for the soul of objects?

Saw the ‘Life of Pi’ this week – if a tiger does not have a soul then a cake tin, shirt, length of vhs video tape and abandoned door certainly do not have them either. But perhaps it is interesting to see if I can make them reflect a soul. If that is not a claim then it might well be the aim of the work … Have I (unconsciously) been hoping that traces of soul might somehow have attached themselves to the second-hand materials I use?

The Swedish equivalent of the Job Centre has a special office for artists, actors, musicians, dancers etc. I went there this week to register and get help with finding some paid employment. Next week I go back with evidence of being an artist from the last three years so I am very glad that I produced the Ljusfältet booklet, and that Birgitta invited me to submit the idea for the piece in the first place. It is the perfect complement to the things that I have done in London and, I hope, demonstrates my ability to be an artist here too.

It is an amazing experience to go to the job centre and be taken seriously as a practicing artist. Once I am fully registered I have the opportunity to upload pictures of my work to their ‘Image Bank’ that is used by people (councils, companies etc.) looking to commission and purchase artworks! The look of sheer delight on my face amused the staff and I tried to control how many times I said “fantastic!” as they explained their range of services and advice seminars. Registering with the ‘culture office’ has the benefit that they help you seek work as an artist at the same time as they help you find more regular and easily available paid employment (fully aware that you are really an artist and will drop it as soon as you get project funding or a commission).

Altogether a very different experience from my visit to the job centre on Burdett Road (east London) where the Jobs Advisor, with a completely blank expression, told me that I meant “teacher” when I answered “artist” to her question about my profession.



I am starting to get that ‘itchy’ feeling that I get when it has been too long without getting my hands dirty with the actual making of art. I thought that this week, being half term at my language school, would be an ideal opportunity to be at the studio – which it has been, and it has been very productive however not in the sense that I thought that it might be. What I have produced is space and order, well a good few steps in their direction with a new set of shelves. It is amazing how different the studio feels.

New work needs space to come in to being and the studio, particularly the floor, was so cluttered with boxes of books and materials that it was not an effective working space. It is as if I need space in order to fill it (with new things).

I also spent a great deal of time on an assignment for the course at Konstfack. Each of us was asked to work with another student and make a short presentation about one of six ‘key concepts’ in artistic research. As one response that I received about my presentation of my work was that I failed to make any “claim” for it, I decided that claim would be my subject. It turned out to be an unexpectedly interesting and fruitful topic. Having been out of the academic context for a long time I am no longer used to explaining work in art-school terms and certainly not in artistic research terms. I now think that I have a better understand of the term (though no means exhaustive), but almost more interesting to me was thinking about language – I feel as though I am learning two new languages at the moment; Swedish and 21^st century academic language. Thinking (or content) is the easier part, the harder part is being able to use a language appropriately to communicate those thoughts. The things that I got wrong presenting my work ‘through the lens of claim’ today are not dissimilar to things that I often get wrong in Swedish; attempting to translate words rather than meanings, trying too hard, a lack of familiarity with the language making me sound like a foreigner … The more that I use the languages the more integrated they become and the more natural my way of speaking will appear to the natives!

Looking at what artistic research might be, compared to artistic practice, is fascinating and I really do not know if what I do is research or not, nor do know if I want my work to be more research rather than practice (if I accept the distinct between the two has something to do with improving outcomes and testability).

The art fairs already seem to have happened in some distant past rather than just two weeks ago. The stands at Supermarket continue to be a truly eclectic mix that probably quite accurately reflects the diversity of what might constitute an artist-led initiative and demonstrates the breadth of artistic ambition. Participants include ‘membership galleries’, radical collectives, theme based spaces and thrusting young artist/curator projects that could easily turn commercial as their artists become more established. For the most part though, they are groups of artists working together trying to find ways of surviving outside of the market. As the European economic crisis deepens even in Scandinavian countries (obviously not in Norway!) it is becoming apparent that funding art for art’s sake is becoming a tougher and much reduced field, a (sub)text of transferable and applicable skills is almost tangible.

Interestingly Market, the commercial fair, felt less exciting than it has done. A sense of cool despondency pervaded many of the booths. I was delighted that Galleri Andersson Sandström took the opportunity to show Alyson Shotz’ The Shape of Space piece that they had previously shown in their Umea gallery (in northern Sweden) and which has also been at the Guggenheim in New York.

The days are getting lighter and it feels as though spring is on the way …



On Wednesday I finished looking at two ‘papers’ for the Artistic Research course. The first made very depressing reading and lead me to question the validity of an ideology that appears to be so desperate for institutional approval that it twists itself into some quite unnatural shapes. The second thankfully restored my interest in the progressive possibilities offered by challenging and creative investigative processes.

I wonder when, how and even if the course will consider the socio-political context of higher education, its institutions and awards. The first paper came from a professor at one of the (no longer so) ‘new’ universities in England, and this made me think about the aftermath of John Major’s conservative government’s abolition of the polytechnics. How might artistic research be if art schools and polytechnics had not been forced to adopt methodologies and assessment criteria that were not ever intended for their areas of expertise? Perhaps twenty years after the systematic destruction of the UK’s practice-based education it is a good time for look at how it might be able to re-establish its own identity. (In my mind I have an image of an adopted child coming of age and realising that it has the option to be itself rather than trying to be an unachievable facsimile of it’s non-biological parents. Adoption might be a useful reference.)

For me there is something very human and contextual about theses relationships. This is something that I struggle with – wanting external approval (institutional approval) and at the same time wanting to pursue interests and lines of enquiry that do not sit easily within the academic structure for one reason or another. Are there other arenas in which artistic research could be conducted, presented, validated, appreciated? Scientific research is not restricted to the university laboratory, it also takes place in large multinational pharmaceutical and petrochemical companies for example. Are there artistic equivalent ‘companies’? It would be very interesting to find places where the objective is the research and not the award, places where the research can develop as it needs to rather than inline with prescribed methodologies. I want to listen again to some of the Nobel winning scientists as I am sure I remember one of them mentioning “hunches” that were followed, and assistants who through a “mistake” discovered something remarkable.

During the process of my Master’s dissertation I came across references about how the scientific world (in that case medical research) is adept at making the results of chance and accident look decidely more intentional and designed. In striving for some kind of ‘scientific’ approach I wonder if the artistic researcher is sometimes attempting to ape a myth.

How much time do I want to spend countering arguments that I disagree with and how much time do I want to spend thinking about developing ideas that are positively engaging and challenging?

It is Stockholm Art Week! The annual art fairs that take place this weekend are being complimented by activities at some of the city’s public institutions throughout the week.

To take advantage of it all would be physically impossible! Yesterday I was at Supermarket (the artists’ initiatives art fair) with Birgitta. It was the first time that I have been around the fair with someone else, not only that but we had particular things to think about as we are putting together a proposal for the future of the exhibition space at the studios. For me the idea of some kind of programme is important. I am not exactly sure what I mean by this but it has to do with presenting art in a context.

The word ‘context’ keeps coming up. This afternoon I am going to listen to a couple of the talks about the value of small arts organisations, and questions about their visibility. And afterwards it is “Gallery Night” in the contemporary gallery district ….

www.supermarketartfair.com