Two weeks ago I began writing a post. Since then it has been sitting on my desktop. Why didn’t I finish and post it at the time? I am sure that it felt somehow incomplete, now I am overly conscious that it must lacked something but I have no idea what and in addition it feels outdated! So as a reminder to myself to get things done I am going to publish it as it stands and repeat these three words to myself three times – ”little and often” …
Last week I became aware of the scale of the Konstkube (Art Cube) project that I am working with. It is definitely the largest project that I have been involved in as an artist. I am one of three artists each of whom will have a three week show in the Konstkube – a shipping container redesigned as a mobile gallery – at one of three locations in Uppsala city early next year. There were ten of us sitting around the conference table fine-tuning the schedule and looking at the associated public programme. The group consisted of artists, the artistic coordinator, the head of arts for Uppsala county, the head of public arts for the city along with two post-graduate placement students, the head of programme at Uppsala Art Museum, and the city’s cultural stategist – two men (both of us artists) and eight women.
Initially the shows had been planned to be slightly shorter and span the Christmas and New Year period. However the feeling at the meeting was that things might easily get lost in the festivities and that pushing things back to February March would be in everyone’s best interests. This was also thought to be more readily agreed by the police and other authorities that are required to give permissions for siting the quite considerable cube in various parts of the city centre. My particular site is the Main Square in the heart of the retail area. I will really have to create something spectacular to compete with the lure of the shops and restaurants in this bustling intersection of shoppers, cyclists, bus passengers, tourists, and students moving between the university’s many disparate campuses. This location was not one that I suggested when we were asked which two of the three options we were most interested in – I had selected the small but central park or the train station. However the coordinator together with head of arts for the county reasoned that my work was the most visual and best suited to grab attention in the already dynamic and vibrant environment.
