interview (i & ii), Supermarket 2011, printer, pictures
It’s very interesting to see Andrew Bryant’s interview with me online. Reading my words online is different from having read them in the word documents that we exchanged over the summer and autumn – due to various commitments the interview took several months. I really enjoyed Andrew’s questions and seeing where the discussion took us. As the reality of my decision to re-locate to Stockholm gets closer it has been good for me to read (re-read) some of my motivations – and seeing them online makes them more concrete, gives my own voice a credence that sometimes wavers.
I really appreciate the feedback I’ve received – thank you!
måg (the online NABROAD magazine) has asked to interview me. Audi (the wonderfully dynamic and ambitious project director) has sent me a series of questions. The questions have given me a really interesting insight in to my ‘professional profile’
It looks as though I’ll be installing Play at the entrance to Supermarket 2011 (the artists’ art-fair held in Stockholm). Roberto proposed the idea to Andreas and it seems to be going ahead. (Roberto – artist/curator with MOCA, London. Andreas – director/organiser of Supermarket.) It’s an amazing opportunity, and I’m nervous about saying too much before I have absolute confirmation …
I went and had a look at the venue during my New Year trip to Sweden. Showing at the entrance will mean that Play will be seen by everyone going to the café as well as the fair visitors. Roberto (who is Swedish but has lived in the UK for 20 years) has talked about how easy it is to create a ‘sensation’ in the Swedish art-scene. I wonder if that will happen with Play, I wonder if I want that! The most recent sensations in the Swedish art world resulted from a publicly staged psychotic episode and the inclusion of a video of graffiti spraying at the Market art-fair. Could an installation of hours worth of gay pornography in city funded Kulturhuset be next? I think (hope) I can say honestly that I would never make an artwork for the purpose of creating a sensation but if something that I make creates one then I could live with that.
This afternoon I “saved” myself over £1000! After only a couple of hours I managed to get my wonderful new wi-fi printer to respond to my elderly but (almost) perfectly useable laptop. During those hours I feared that I might have to buy a new computer in order to use the printer that I bought for £49. Seeing that first printed page pop out was a great moment. My calm persistence and ability to think laterally is far greater than my technical ability, so although my old operating system wouldn’t read the installation cd that came with printer, I found that I could download the driver. Problem solved! And (unaffordable) purchase avoided! Thank you internet!
Along with a couple of pictures of Kulturhuset, I’m adding some pictures I took from the plane to Sweden. I think it is the first time I’ve flown on New Year’s Eve, and watching the sunset I thought about watching the last light of 2010 fading away. As the sky got darker the window glass became more reflective. The last picture I took shows multiple reflections of my hands, the black camera is almost invisible on the triple layers of glazing.
I had a really nice email from a Norwegian artist that I’d included in short article for Måg – the NABROAD magazine. Writing the article was a new experience for me. Previously I’ve written several essays, two dissertations and quite a few lectures however writing a magazine article was different. I presented a brief overview of the NABROAD Artists (Norwegian Artists Abroad) living in Sweden. My knowledge of the artists came from the material that they sent me and their websites. I’m very grateful that everyone involved spoke and wrote in such good English (I speak no Norwegian at all).
The magazine looks very good, I’m amazed at what can be achieved with digital publishing. I’m even more amazed by what Audi (that’s an artist not a car) has achieved. She is the driving force behind NABROAD and is a truly amazing woman.
http://www.nabroad.org
http://www.maagmag.com/
I’m reminded that I’m someone who likes order and structure. These things have been rather absent from my life recently and I have found it very unsettling and stressful. When I look at the next few months it seems completely crazy to think that I could be ready to move to Sweden by March, but if I stop thinking and starting doing I’m sure it will be possible.
I want to find ways to keep making things. Last night I went to an exhibition and open studio not too far from home. The studio runs screen-printing courses which four friends have done and really enjoyed. I’m thinking of doing a course myself. It could be a good way to do something creative and I enjoy learning new skills. Just starting to think about printing has made me realise how material based (rather than image based) I am – it’s a challenge to start thinking about working in 2D.
• do something completely different and new
• something 2D in relation to my installations/sculptures
• just play!
• start and see what happens
It would be great to see if I can make artworks that might be more readily exhibited, or even sold!
Betweenness
Catching up with a-n and other magazines that stack up during the months I’m travelling between London and Stockholm is a strange experience these days. I’m starting to feel a distance from some of the current discussions and debates that are UK specific, and at the same time I have opinions about things and want to talk them through. The situation isn’t helped by not having a studio and not regularly spending time in the company of other artists. Online forums are not the same as sitting in a studio and chatting over coffee. I’m looking forward to settling down in the not to distant future and getting involved and active again.
I’m going to see if I can go on the waiting list for a studio at wip:sthlm. Not only do I want a studio there but I want to be on the artists’ management board – I’d like to be involved in running the residence studio.
My presence at the Supermarket art fair continues to grow! Robert Ekholm (artist and Michael Petry’s assistant at MOCA London) has invited me to one of the artists representing MOCA at the fair next year. I really like Supermarket and I’m looking forward to being there again. I’ve also been asked to be do the children’s snow sculpture again – of course I said YES!
Supermarket is in late February (18-20) and the snow sculpture project is at the beginning of March so it looks like I’ll be in Stockholm for about three weeks in total – there’s no idea to come back to London for six days between the two events, not unless I get offered some very lucrative work.
Things are coming together for next year. I’ve just received the dates for a group show – it’ll open on March 18. I’m really pleased that the date doesn’t clash with things in Stockholm.
If anyone is going to be in Stockholm before December 12 I recommend seeing “Trice Upon a Time” at Magasin 3. It’s the first time Magasin 3 have shown work from their own collection. For me it was really exciting and interesting to see such breadth and depth of work. The curation and presentation is really good, in addition to contextual information about each of the three “chapters” of the show there are texts alongside certain pieces that explicitly state that those particular artworks could, with different curation, be equally valid in another chapter. What I really appreciated was that these text (and the others) were so well written, they balanced being informative and accessible with being challenging and (dare I say it) adult. It seemed to me that the educative material in the show was intended for an interested adult rather than for child or first time gallery visitor. It was wonderfully refreshing to be in a public gallery that acknowledges the artist as part of its audience!
Frieze, phone, talk …
It felt more like Embassy week than Frieze week. I don’t remember ever being in a foreign embassy in London before and last week I was in three; German, Swedish and Norwegian. It was all art related. The second part of Martin’s show (at the Swedish embassy) was a good night, not only was the work interesting but there were proper Swedish canapés and a very friendly group of Swedes and Swede lovers. Earlier in the day Francois invited me to join him on his Frieze VIP itinerary that included a reception at the German embassy to see work by young German artists. And on Friday, after a day at Frieze, I and a few other former Crystal Palace Artists attended the NABROAD party at the Norwegian embassy. I spent most of the evening talking with Trine (a Norwegian artist who was at the Slade at the same time as me) and Jerzy (the Sir John Soane Museum curator who I have met previously and briefly through Michael Petry).
After missing Frieze week last year it felt good to be there and I really enjoyed bumping into people from one day to the next. It made me realise that I’m not as alien to the art-scene as I sometimes think I am. Or rather that I have (and am still developing) a group of friends and ‘professional friends’ (to paraphrase Nicholas Logsdail*) on, and in, the London scene. I really don’t want to loose them when I move away.
Speaking of which … a three hour phone conversation with Kim made me realise that wherever I end up staying in Stockholm I’ll need to get a good deal on phone calls to the UK. Kim and I often talk for a few hours, and it’s usually about art and/or education. Our conversation this week was a mix of Frieze review and Kim’s research for forthcoming public talks at the RA that led to a discussion the post-YBA scene in which we find ourselves. I might, in a very casual way, start to investigate possible parallels between the Hollywood studio system of the 1920s – 50s and the YBA scene of the 1990s. I could be on very shaky ground but it might be fun! The comparison came up when we were talking about the current work of some artists who were household YBA names but not so well known now or who appear to be still producing very similar work now, we wondered if they weren’t a little like the child-stars whose early fame was not without consequences. Kim and I usually hold these discussions in the morning, pottering around our flats with tea and coffee respectively, neither of us are pub-goers and seeing where our sober thoughts take us perhaps it is just as well.
The talk I gave to Jewelry & Accessory students at Middlesex was well received – which I am very pleased about. Not least because I wanted it to be good for Julia who invited me to give it. Julia is an artist herself as well as being a lecturer and running Meter Square Gallery with her partner Ken. They are a fantastic pair and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know them over the years since I arrived in their hotel room in Norway for an impromptu cocktail party. It was Michael Petry’s party really but hosted by Ken and Julia as they had been upgraded to a suite so had more chairs and a sofa. We were all in Norway for Michael’s Golden Rain project. Thinking about it now I realise just how interwoven all these connections are and how enjoyably fruitful they’ve been. I hope that one day I will be in a position to give these friends the kind of opportunities that they have given me …
(* I remember a wonderful text by Nicholas Logsdail from an old Artists’ Handbook about getting established as an artist, in it he mentions the idea of ‘professional friendships’. What he describes are friendships with people who you know and care about through being in the same of related professions – not to be confused with ‘networking’ or ‘personal friends’.)
