I stopped writing this blog some six months ago with the intention of freeing up some time for a big ‘sort out’ in my studio. Up until this point, I’d been having conversations with other artists about the importance of archiving my collections. I’d hoped that cataloguing the collection of stuff accumulated over many years might be a solution to not feeling quite so overwhelmed by it; hoped that once the sorting and labelling had been done, I’d be able to return to my creative practice – more effectively, more efficiently – everything to hand.
In actual fact, nothing much has happened in the studio in terms of sorting stuff out – nor in terms of documenting, either. There was a certain amount of shifting around and opening up of the boxes when I needed to find things for the recent group exhibitions I was a part of, but I just haven’t been able to apply myself to the kind of proper sorting in the studio that I’d envisaged.
Retrospectively, I think it was a bit of a tall order to think that I could get so organised in such a short space of time. After all, I’m talking about a vast amount of stuff here, collected over some 20/25 years.
The collections are what provide me with the raw material for my creative work and it’s through them that I’m able to tease out the various stories from my life, ones which, for whatever reason, I feel compelled to tell. I have a good memory for what I own and what’s stored away in the boxes in the studio, but it takes time and patience to locate the required items. It’s why the idea of archiving my entire life collections (still) holds so much appeal for me; who knows, maybe one day I will find the time and motivation and it will happen.
In the meantime, I’ve managed to keep on doing what I love best – to keep making the work. I’m pleased that, despite the chaos, I was able to access enough materials in order to create new work for two group exhibitions I was a part of in the last couple of months of 2013. Being a part of the first one, The Beginning of History, was a really positive and rewarding experience for me -the Q-Art one, too, in a completely different way – and the fact that I ended the year showing alongside other really talented artists has been one of the highlights of 2013 for me. More about this another time …
I’ll be back in the studio next week and I’m feeling positive about my return, largely down to the optimistic response of an artist friend who came to see The Beginning of History exhibition in the ASC project space, attached to the studio I rent in New Cross Gate. My friend described my studio space as looking ‘really alive’ and there being a ‘real energy’ emanating from it. Crucially, she felt it had a different feel to it since her last visit.
I think what my friend saw was the effect of me loosening up my control in the studio. I’ve been too busy to keep it tidy and have actually been enjoying working in a different kind of environment – one that isn’t quite so organised and orderly.
How ‘organised’ does my studio actually have to be is a new question I’m asking myself. Who’s the organising for? And if, at the end of a working day, I’ve been feeling compelled to tidy things away, who am I tidying away for? I don’t yet know the answer to these questions, but what I do know is that while the boxes in my studio are closed and neatly stacked – closed off, effectively – there’s not a great deal of creative energy around; once they’re open and their contents exposed, however – that’s when the real work begins for me. Consequently, I’ve been feeling a lot more freed up and creatively inspired – surely a good start to 2014. Well, let’s hope …
