The Supermarket team is same as last year – with the addition of one of last year’s volunteers. It is so nice to see everyone again, it all feels so familiar. And it great to say hello to the exhibitors that I know. I am getting more used to how Supermarket is behind the scenes – it’s a bit messy but it works! The office is its usual jumble of hastily unpacked irritable printers, orphaned cables, and grubby coffee machines, along with remnants of past fairs’ merchandise and a couple of already cluttered desks … there’s something wonderfully homely about it … it’s an honest and friendly space.
It’s nice to be back in a familiar venue, though this time we don’t have the run of the building and as a result of that the meeting room is a little oddly located at the foot of an unused staircase. I say unused – it’s actually an emergency exit but only when the music venue on the floor above has an event. I might see if I can find some semi opaque fabric for the inside of the glass doors that separate the room from the fair entrance. I was rather anxious about the space … as were several others of my colleagues but we have been re-assured that it’s okay … so that’s where I will be. It was good for me to realise that if any issue arises it’s not something that I have to solve alone … I am part of a team.
I flipped thought the catalogue/magazine – it’s always intriguing to see what graphic magic has been worked on the basic unformatted texts that I proofread. I feel bad that there are some typos in Alice’s editorial … I remember reading it at least once but it could have been one of the texts that was finalised too late for me to manage a second or even third reading … it’s a bit of a blur. Alice is being philosophical about it.
My task for the day is to speak with as many of the meeting moderators as possible. To introduce myself in person after the weeks of email correspondence and to go through some ’housekeeping’ … remind them to ask questions, to encourage discussion, and for everyone to swap contact details.
Inger, the other artist staying the apartment, and I had a lovely conversation over breakfast yesterday … she’s not here for Supermarket and will head home (north) before the fair opens. It is hard … and perhaps even unnecessary … for me to stop thinking about how much better and more enjoyable my life is going to be when I am spending my time with artists rather than dealing with local council bureaucracy.
John asked how the rest of the Black Hole, Riga residency worked out – he was the first of three visiting workshop leaders – I was delighted to be able to tell him that it really opened things up for me and re-engaged me with trusting my practice. Niamh mentioned speaking with Sorcha and hearing how well we got on with each other on the residency. It was great to bump into Kristian who I follow on Instagram but haven’t had contact with since Riga.
It feels things are definitely moving in the right direction …
