Last night i returned to Swansea from London, and i am still tired!I have so much information and opinions in my head, so many new visual memories and blisters on my feet from pounding the pavements!
I managed to find "A Nice Man with a Van".24 Hour service, local and national,offering student discounts.Bonus.He was willing to pick up the bath tub and deliver it to my university for £25.I am so thrilled that everything has worked out so far for my installation.The process of hiring a van is extremely difficult.I am 21,therefore the majority of companys will not rent to me.The ones that do have a rather high insurance fee.So believe me when i say,i was 100% pleased with my van man.
So at 11am i had a bath tub,yes!I then set on my task to make the bath ready for fiber glass.I needed a water tight bath, unfortunatly the plug and all then fittings were missing, so my answer was to cover the hole with fibre glass and resin.Though maybe it would have been wiser to buy a plug and fittings?
Visually i would have liked some overally polished taps, or extremely rusty ones.But conceptually i currently feel that the lack of plumbing plays a role.At present the concept is winning the race of importance.
Harold helped me in the resin room,he mentioned an "interesting article in a-n magazine this month".Which i immediatly assumed was my blog being quoted.He continued to say that health and safety was not the only issue, but also the ethics.
The ethics!?!
From what i understand there is talk about wether or not students and the university as an institution should be partaking (at any level) in unethical activities.I understand that the UK needs to give generalised rules and regulations to the masses, but seriously?
Unethical art,who is to say what art is unethical?My view point is that art is a part of a conversation, to encourage and develop opinions.If art is to be controllled and directed externally then how can a conversation flow purely,naturally and honestly?
My feeling of being restrained and controlled with what i wanted to do followed me to London.I went to the Tate Britain and paid to see the Cildo Meireles exhibition.I wanted to see "Through 1983-9" a wonderful installation among the many that were present.However, the art work had been altered from what i knew.The floor of broken glass was different.
By chance,I ended up speaking to a gentleman that had worked on the exhibition and asked him why the installation had changed.He was direct and said that it was due to health and safety reasons that the floor had safety glass placed over it for the UK exhibition.Turns out, when "Through" was exhibited back in Brazil they never had health and safety 'problems'.
I felt so disapointed, I laugh out of disbelief.Maybe its not just in University that my art practice will be limited,maybe the UK is no longer a good venue for Art?Which breaks my heart.
