Two weeks ago I found a wonderful old slide projector in a charity shop, a few days later and in another charity shop I found an old portable manual typewriter. Except for needing to replace the ribbon in the typewriter both were in good working order. Both are now sitting in the studio. I have no idea what I will do with them but they were such appealing objects. The typewriter was obviously made for the Swedish market as it has keys for the additional three vowels (they fall outside of the ‘qwerty’ logic that puts the commonest letters in the most ergonomic position and are in the bottom right corner of the keys. If I were a real typist I would use my “pinkie” finger to strike them).
There is something very satisfying about the warmth generated by the projector and the ‘clacking’ of the typewriter keys. At the moment they are on the opposite side of the studio to my new computer. As I think about possibly buying ‘The New ipad’ to compliment my new(ish) computer I can not help thinking of the idea that everything has an equal and opposite force …
I am truly upset that a-n will stop publishing it’s magazine this June. For me it is a question of form rather than content. I do not enjoy reading online and am worried that the move to a purely digital platform simply will not appeal to my old fashioned reading habits. Perhaps a new ipad will change this. Part of me thinks that it is wholly appropriate that a-n develops to suit the needs of artists who enjoy using technology and who know how to use it. I recognise that I enjoy, and understand, how libraries and material resources operate and that this makes me old fashioned – I am middle aged after all! Part of me hates that I am starting to sound like a luddite, I have nothing against new technology and I use it when I need to, but I also recognise that the word ‘need’ reveals quite a lot about me.
One of my foundation course tutors introduced me to a-n (which I think was called Artists’ Newsletter back then) in 1986 and I’ve been a pretty regular reader for the 26 years to date. I feel as though a dear old friend is about to undergo radical cosmetic surgery and I’m really worried that I won’t know how to deal to with the results …
The studio continues to become more organised now that I am starting to make things again. The shelves that a neighbour at the flat was about to throw out have made a big difference and I have almost completely unpacked all the boxes from the UK. I still want to put up wall shelves so I must speak with Alex whom I am subletting the studio from. We need to start discussing what happens when the sublet finishes (sublets are only permitted for a maximum of one year and another artist already had this studio for six months before I moved in). As spring arrives the rate at which the weeks pass seem to be accelerating.
I am getting on with my piece for this year’s Pride exhibition at the Clifford Chance offices in London. All artists who have shown in previous Pride exhibitions there have been asked to produce a portrait of a sports person who they find inspiring (I guess that a lot of shows might have a sport theme in London this year!). Portraiture is new to me and as a non-figurative artist I am taking a rather abstract approach. It is interesting for me to think about what a portrait is (or can be) and how I can make one
