Started my residency yesterday. I have keys to a studio for the first time since making use of my incubator space at Exeter Phoenix in 2010. I can’t afford a studio and it works OK for me at home – on the coffee table, in front of a television, with a cat and ever-so-simple tools: scissors, sticky tape, glue-stick, paperclips, i-phone, webcam, copier paper.
This home environment for making is what Joanna Drucker describes as unruly – in terms of the ergonomics of production (how it will be made) and the environments of labour and production (where it will be made). Sets of domestic conditions orientate the spatial and temporal nature of the work. I quite like that idea of unruly and wonder how unruliness might be tamed in the studio.
I’ve cleared a trestle table and a chair from the space so that it’s empty.
I’m looking for a broom to brush the floor.
I want to tell you about the doors.
There are two doors that unfold in the studio.
1. heavy metal exterior, rolling shutter pulled opened and closed with a heavy chain (like a bell ringer).
2. MDF, concertina, zig-zagging, fold-out door – with a weeny wheel and bolt.
There’s no window.
A single line of flourescent light above.
Light pours in when the shutter door rolls open. This opens out to the street. There’s a sheer drop – just a few feet here to street level.
It feels useful to reflect on the doors to the studio space. They are doors that invite energetic activity. Pulling and unfolding. I’ve been thinking about doors recently:
Cat Flaps
(as in I want to make a giant cat flap from cardboard that I can crawl in and out of)….I like things that flap. There is something about the movement – like the lid of a swing bin for instance.
mindfulness – when you pay attention to the present moment.
The moment you walk through a door is a perfect time to be mindful of passing from one environment to another.
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I’ve brought the glassware and the lidded, plastic food containers along.
With the shutter door open the objects are lit.
I’ve looked at the objects in sunlight.
Scraped off the price stickers from the charity shop.
Pulled off bubble wrap.
Wanted to wash the objects in soapy water – like the lady in the bric-brac shop in Boscombe – see Instagram.
Made a list of cameras and drawing equipment.
Made Instagrams – still and moving images.
Played with shadows.
Tried to push a projection of coloured light onto the wall via the glassware.
Found a dip in the floor to allow a giant red brandy glass to gently rock.
Pushed the glassware around the concrete floor with the tip of my plimsol.
Had to go to work.
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