Today I am exhausted. My son finally recovered from chickenpox, only to develop conjunctivitis and to top it off last week was half term. I had to go to work through all this as well, and with a horrible nasty cold myself and some other stressful things the family has been dealing with, it has not been an ideal 3 weeks. But he’s back in school this week, and today I have the day off so I am doing nothing…except, apparently, burning my lentil soup.
In the midst of all this, I have somehow managed to have some great art conversations with some new and old friends, some talking about projects, plans and proposals we hope to collaborate on in the near future and some talking about inspirations, ideas and what the future holds for us generally. I’ve applied for a few things and have a few others to apply for in the next couple of weeks. It feels like a time where things are bubbling up underneath the surface, a time to get the ‘house in order’ before good things start to happen, because they will happen soon. Whatever these ‘things’ are. Contrary to the whole ‘2012 end of the Mayan calender doomsday state of the world economy disasters and riots left and right scenario’ , it feels like it’s going to be a good year… for me personally anyway, and a lot of my close family and friends seem to feel the same way. I’m actually excited about the future. Finally. Because, let me tell you, it’s been a long 7 years. Now lets hope I haven’t jinxed it.
This week I have been thinking a lot about space.
I went to two exhibition openings one night after work last week, couldn’t stay for long because of said previous chaos, but I did manage to get out. It was really interesting because they were two very different shows in two very different spaces. I’ve seen many shows in both spaces before and exhibited in both as well and one in particular is always much more difficult to exhibit in, to curate…Comparing the two installs has really left me thinking a lot about the nature of a space, about the relationship of a group of works, the relationship a work has to the space that surrounds it, and how to successfully manouvre through all of that and create an exhibition that looks well thought out, finished, somewhat resolved. It wasn’t until I saw the second group show that I realized how much less successful the first one had been, and how much more difficult the process is when using an unconventional space. It felt like a real eye opening moment.
At work for the last few weeks some of us having been making things for the window display in response to the horrendous roadworks and loss of parking spaces directly outside the shop. It’s been really fun actually, how many people can say that they spent thier work day making gigantic orange and white traffic cones out of cardboard? The week before it was a cardboard city bus, This week it’s ripped paper collage portraits of certain city council members complete with email addresses! It’s odd, these window display items are not a part of my personal practice because of the context they are being made and shown in, yet there are still a lot of similarities involved…especially because I tend to garner inspiration from window displays to then filter and use in a contemporary art context, and now it feels as though I (with the others I work with of course) am filtering those ideas back around into an actual window display for a shop, a specific space, with a specific purpose and a specific message. There seems to be something within this exercise that actually might help me develop some new thinking surrounding my work and the spaces or context it’s show in….
On another note, I will be having a small solo exhibition at HERE Gallery in Bristol, in October 2012. I will be creating a room installation in their amazing bunker-like basement gallery, underneath the bookshop! Something to look forward to!
Unfortunetly, I’ve just heard my dog barf all over the carpet in the other room, so I guess it’s back to the real world for now…
