Something?s happening

My love affair with literature has cooled a little this year but I have been introduced to the world of graphic/illustrated novels. In order of preference:

Stitches – David Small

Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth – Chris Ware

The Complete Maus – Art Spiegelman

Fun Home: A family Tragicomic – Alison Bechdel

Blankets – Craig Thompson

Logicomix: An Epic Search for truth – Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos Papadimitriou

I’ve just finished Logicomix. It is based on the philosopher Bertrand Russell’s quest to find truth by establishing ‘the logical foundations of all mathematics’. I have understood/realised the following:

1 doesn’t necessarily equal 1; mathematics is just as poetic as any other language.

Russell’s Paradox is about something that is self-referential. An example given was to imagine a book listing all books that are non self-referential, the question being would the list include its self ? Headache. Italo Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveller would be an example of a self referential book – great book as well.

There isn’t ‘a’ truth. There is a forever shifting revealing and understanding of our selves and the worlds around us.

Logic is using what you do know, to find out what you don’t know.

I am no closer to being logical and maths still makes me angry.

New Painting! With little effort I could make it ‘better’ and ‘perfect’. However I think its strength lies in its rawness. I may change my mind.

There seems to be an ever growing list of possible titles. Working title at the moment is, Her.

This isn’t what ‘I’ want to title it. Once again I’m back to the dilemma of what do you do with individual experience. How much should or shouldn’t be removed for the viewer. It’s hard to get a balance that allows the right amount of space for the viewer without losing a social or political message, or without losing the importance of the message.

Some images from life drawing.

Was at The Artist as Citizen talk by ResCen hosted by The Wellcome Trust last week. Artist/performer Graeme Miller suggested that the arts are special when something is created that is a world in itself, but at the same time refers to the world outside. At another panel he was invited to talk on, he included a live video feed of the outside street. The idea being the speakers and audience would be reminded of how real time passes, and he hoped this would be reflected in their responses and solutions. When walking out of a London Tube station and finding himself infuriated by the sea of free newspapers, he decided to take action. It resulted in him standing next to the free newspaper distributors, and politely asking passers by not to take a newspaper. That’s brilliant. He often returns and finds it anxiety relieving.

Doreen Massey, a Professor of Geography, suggested that we need a crisis of ideas to sit alongside the world’s financial crisis. She finished by saying her strength in pessimistic times was ‘an inability to stop fighting’.

Something’s happening was 3^rd in Octobers Top ten Artists talking blogs. Which is nice!

After a lot of umming and ahhing I have decided to move studios. I’m not moving far. It’s the studio next door, in the same ‘Space’ building, and still two doors down from my flat. I will have a larger space for less £’s, and studio to myself for majority, as other artist I’m sharing with won’t be in much. Disadvantages are I will lose the frank yet useful feedback I was getting in previous studio share. I have every intention of turning the new space into a haven, a den, ‘my shed’.

Recently I’ve been concentrating on meeting other artists. The building I am in only has six studios and it’s very quiet! I have found some lovely communities in the SE London area but struggling to find regular groups or events in the hackney area where I am based. There are bits and bobs but its all a bit sporadic – am I missing something, anyone out there? It is early days and perhaps it is something I should consider setting up myself.

I did attend an Artist Speed Networking event last week. In pairs we had 10 minutes to discuss each others practice and then you moved onto the next person (there was a bell and a horn!). Scary, challenging, and interesting having to find quick sound bites for my practice, give useful feedback whilst trying to find a common interest.

It made me think about the word ‘networking’ I think we borrow this from the business world and in ways it defines what we do. And the artist’s practice often is a business. However it instantly brings to mind white collar workers or a corporate world – which feels artificial and not necessarily something I want to be part of. Here’s a Wikipedia entry for business networking.

But what was I doing if I wasn’t networking?

Visited Grayson Perry’s exhibition The Tomb Of the Unknown Craftsman at the British Museum. A clever and thoughtful exhibition. Alongside his own works were treasures he had chosen from the Museum.

I brought the exhibition catalogue and a teddy bear. I am not solely responsible as I was being supervised by my other half. Yep a teddy bear. Somewhat out of character and not quite the god Alan Measles but a possible ally. I’m going to go with it. Alan Measles is Grayson Perry’s fifty year old teddy bear ‘benign dictator of my childhood imaginary world’. This is my third book of his – it smells really good. If autobiographies are your thing Grayson Perry’s, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl is beautiful.

Grayson Perry is my hero and fellow lover of objects:

‘… seeing oneself, one’s personal concerns as a human being, reflected back in the objects made long ago by fellow men and women with similar, equally human, concerns… One thing that connects all my choices is my delight in them’. [1]

‘In my own modest way I offer the Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman as an example of devising a ritual to satisfy a set of emotional needs, conscious or otherwise, that might be shared with others’. [2]

‘Though I subscribe to few superstitions, I enjoy the charms, talismans, shrines that are made by those that do. The very idea of the relic, of an object imbued with spiritual or mystical power, seems a close kin to contemporary art.’ [3]

‘Shrines to me embody the essence of what I do. I put significant artefacts in a special place for us to contemplate. The special place could be your pocket, in a corner of your house or by a roadside, it could also be a contemporary art gallery or the British Museum.’[4]

‘My own creativity and art practice has been a mental shed – a sanctuary as well as a place of action – where I have retreated to make things. It gives me a sense of security in a safe, enclosed space while I look out of the window on to the world. The shed was where I first learned how to make things, where my subconscious was schooled in colour, texture and the concept of making, I still have that excitement now, of being glad that I’m a maker and that my internal shed is always available.’ [5]

[1] PERRY. G, 2011, The Tomb Of the Unknown Craftsman, London: The British Museum Press, p.11. [2] Abid p.20. [3] Abid p.23. [4] Abid p.73

[5]JONES.W, PERRY.G, 2007, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl, London: Vintage, p.23.