Received two particularly touching emails today. In one an artist that I used to know well told me that she’s being treated for breast cancer, and in the other one another artist told me that she’s three and a half months pregnant.
Make that three – I’ve just received an email telling me that the Brusand Project Space closed at the end of last year. (I wouldn’t mention this in the same breath if I didn’t know that the project wasn’t a dream of two young artists who put everything they had into it and managed to keep it going on less than a shoe-string for two years.)
I’m at home today – the replacement windows are being installed. I hadn’t realised how noisy the work would be and had imagined that I would get on with lots of things. The reality is that the loud and irregular bursts of drilling and the general chilliness of having ‘open’ windows are not making a good working environment.
Saturday will be the last day of PLAY. I’m looking forward to Bryan’s World Tea Party event. He’s mentioned that tea will be served “through” the work. The piece invites a certain kind of ‘performativity’ – one kind of performance becomes the context for another. The tea-party puts me in mind of Boy George’s comment that he preferred a cup of tea to sex. I think that each has its place, and that it’s wonderful to be able to enjoy both!
Last weekend my parents saw the show – they loved it. They were also charmed my Michael and his partner who we had lunch with beforehand. I’m surprised by how pleased I am that they liked it, I mean really liked it. My parents always say that they like my work but I can’t remember seeing them enjoying something I’ve made so much. It has been a very successful piece – more successful than I could have imagined. When my more academic friends and my parents express similar enthusiasm I know I’ve done something good!
I’m also looking forward to some nights out during the frenzy of Frieze week/end. I’m looking forward to Frieze too, I missed it last year but it’s quite nice to treat it as a biennale. Two years is a good timescale for me – much more manageable!
Back in London again …. and it feels foreign
When I was travelling yesterday I had the distinct impression that I was leaving home (Stockholm) to visit London. Over the last year more of my day to day life has been in Stockholm than in London so I guess it’s not really a surprise (being the last one to ‘get it’ is something of a theme in my life).
I’m going to start looking at how best to arrange things. Some of the timing depends on selling my flat because until that happens I don’t have much money. And from the local estate agents windows it looks like I won’t have that much money after the sale and paying off debts, so I have to get it right.
I hope to sell in the new year and to move not later than Easter. Ideally I want a studio as soon as I arrive, not least so that I have somewhere to put things. My plan is shed as much household stuff as possible and to take as many artworks and materials as possible. Perhaps there is also something about having a studio that will ground me when I arrive in this new place. A studio will be a declaration to myself that I am there as an artist, it will be a declaration to myself that I AM HERE! The studio will be own place – I think I will really need it.
This morning I received an invitation to the opening of Martin Gustavsson’s show at the Swedish Embassy – it made me smile. I love my growing relationship with Sweden!
PLAY opened very well!
I’m really pleased with the opening. It was a lovely afternoon and I’m delighted that so many people came. Everyone enjoyed themselves and I got very good feedback – so it was a success all round!
After being away from London for so long and not attending many friends’ openings I was nervous that I’d dropped off people’s radars – I needn’t have worried. It was good to catch up with people.
On the last day of the show Bryan Mulvihill – will host a ‘tea-party’ in the gallery. Bryan is a good friend of Michael, and I met him two years ago when we were in Norway for Michael’s Golden Rain project. Bryan’s World Tea Party events have been held all over the world in all kinds of venues, I’m looking forward to see how it works with my installation. Bryan and I had a brief conversation and he’s thinking of doing something with “dancing tea” which is a particular kind of Japanese tea with leaves that “dance” in the water – it sounds wonderful …
In the meantime I’ve a week in Stockholm.
web search on World Tea Party
http://www.straight.com/article-288419/vancouver/a…
Installing PLAY at Moca …
I left the gallery this afternoon. I’m really pleased with how it looks.
At 4.9 x 3.7 x 0.2 meters it’s the largest single piece I’ve ever made.
Michael saw it today for the first time – I’m delighted with his reaction – “Great!”
It’s taken almost six days to install it. I wasn’t expecting to take so long but after day one I knew it was going to be a long process. . Unspooling the tape then measuring and cutting it took a surprisingly long time. Hanging and securing the lengths of tape is far quicker. It’s amazing quickly three hours worth of tape can be hung, it’s also amazing how little ‘horizontal space’ it covers.
I’m very grateful that Roberto (Michael’s assistant) helped me with the measuring and cutting.
The repetitiveness of the work gave me a lot of time to think. I found myself thinking around the piece – thinking about how it can be approached from so many different directions: academic, aesthetic, sexual, social.
The piece works well in the gallery – it ‘sits’ very well. I should remember that other installations have been successful too – successful in terms of their relationship to their particular locations. I like making installations, I like placing objects in space, perhaps that’s why I’m a bit uncomfortable calling myself a sculptor (though I’m even more uncomfortable with “installation artist”).
The show is about 95% ready – I have to sort out some lighting. Although one whole wall of the gallery is glass (frosted) if the weather is less than sunny additional lighting is necessary. I also realised that the show closes the first week of October and by then it will be considerably darker by 6pm.
I’m extending a warm invitation to blog readers –
The opening is Sunday 19 September 2-4pm
Moca, 113 Bellenden Road, London SE15 4QY
I’m preparing to return to London and make a new installation for MOCA (London). I’m excited and nervous – this is a big show for me and I want it to be a success for MOCA too. MOCA is Michael Petry’s gallery and project space, he has been running off-site projects for the last few years and my show will be the first gallery show in quite a while. Getting the show has been a great boost to my confidence, I admire and respect Michael’s own work and his curatorial acumen.
The show is an installation made from old vhs gay video tapes. I mean the actual magnetic tape – the wonderfully black shiny stuff inside the cassette boxes. The tape is so reflective that the closer you look the more you see of your own eye – which also means that it’s really difficult to photograph.
My hope is that the piece is both beautiful and thought provoking.
www.mocalondon.co.uk/forthcoming.php
