Temporary Diary by Kevin Boniface
Preview
We were a bit late as usual. On our way over Tom began to speak about himself in the 3rd person. He kept it up for the entire evening which was deeply amusing and, perhaps surprisingly, never wore thin.
We had to melt an entire glue stick with a lighter to get Milk, Two Sugars' pesky mannequins in place but it worked and they didn't fall over unlike Jared's egg which only made it to about half-seven thus fulfilling its temporary brief all over the gallery floor.
There were quite a few people there including – ourselves excepted – Steve, Ann, Taome, Eden, Steve, Steve, Gus, Julian, Pav, Jenny, Joey, Christoph, Molly, Edie, Liz, Bob, Jared, and some other people who's names have either escaped me or I never knew. Everyone was, of course, very nice.
I think the show looked good, I was a bit worried about how we were going to reconcile such a diverse range of stuff but I think we just about pulled it off! Several people said very complimentary things about it (which I guess they would, but hey?) I love Natalie's drawings – I think they're amazing, I think the bunting/streamer thing also worked really well. Also, in the end I think the diversity of stuff really worked in the show's favour. People initially engaged with the larger pieces but then stayed on as they kept discovering more at different levels and scales; quite a lot of people stayed for the duration. I was talking to a man in a winter coat with a furry hood who kept interrupting himself by saying things like "oh look! another one – over there, look!" and when his companion asked him the time and he noticed Francis Elliot's clock, he wigged out!
I met Jenny (one of the volunteers) who used to work as a writer for the Huddersfield Examiner and still knows some of the staff. She said she'd read Compact News so I apologised profusely but she said not to worry as she really likes it. I thought she was going to kick my head in but she didn't – in fact she seemed nice and not the type to have kicked my head in at all, so that's definitely good.
All in all I think it was quite a good do. I always get nervous at these sorts of things; I'm not comfortable talking out loud to people who might actually listen to what I've got to say. Conversing, being insightful and shedding light on things aren't my strong points. I generally prefer drinking wine and going off on one about something I probably won't give a shit about in the morning, but I think I may have actually enjoyed myself last night. And Kevin Boniface keeps laughing involuntarily when he remembers the things Tom said about himself in the 3rd person.
Kevin Boniface, March 2009
