An unexpected development, a meeting with my mentor and a birthday party
While I was working back in June or July, I was unexpectedly put forward for an opportunity at Phoenix Arts in Brighton. Things progressed and excitingly, I have now been offered the chance to curate an exhibition there in 2014/15 as an extension of my artistic practice. Everything about this seems to be fitting together very neatly. My proposal is that the exhibition will be a culmination of my research into a question arising from my LIFE Now project which is: “What difference would it make if we never died?”
This is exciting for many reasons. Firstly, ever since working as a Gallery Educator on the Grayson Perry curated show, Unpopular Culture at the De La Warr Pavilion, I’ve been aware of the potential for artists to tell their own stories by putting together collections of art and artefacts – even more ably demonstrated by Grayson’s second adventure in curating at the British Museum. Secondly, I’ve always struggled with how to represent all the research that is the background to my practice and this seems to be a way of doing that. Thirdly, I feel that my own work is in a state of transition at the moment and this project in some ways removes the pressure to produce and allows me the freedom to experiment unselfconsciously whilst developing a solid research base for future work.
Last week was the first chance to meet one to one with my mentor and talk through these things. I’m looking forward to meeting her again, perhaps on her home territory next time rather than in my shed!
At the end of a busy week there was a lovely opportunity to get together with old friends and celebrate the 10th anniversary since four of us, still wet behind the ears from Uni, set up Blue Monkey Studio in an abandoned light industrial space backing on to the railway line in Eastbourne. Lots of friends joined us at the studio to wish happy 10th birthday to Blue Monkey. Wine flowed, cake was eaten and a good time was had by all.
