Publicity (six weeks to go until project Eigg begins)
With precious little time now to do much more than prepare myself for the residency, I am still interested in having some form of publicity for it, so that art audiences might travel to Eigg during the residency and participate alongside Islanders and tourists. I have got contact details ready for regional BBC and radio, and I have made contact with in flight magazine companies that fly to the highlands.
Actually, to be honest it is not really getting people to Eigg I am interested in (there will be an estimated 3,000 tourists during the six week period plus the 70-odd islanders), it is more that I would like to have press coverage of several of the activities. Someone once told me that if you want a performance documented you should call in all your favours, get every cameraman and photographer you know to come and help. I suppose I am stretching this philosophy to the press.
Despite all of this publicity talk, I am slightly unsure that it is actually necessary or that valuable to my artistic practice to have this project paraded for the press (even for art magazines). I'm sure that many of you diligent readers who are still following this blog, have wondered the very same thing with your own projects… Some part of me wonders if it wouldn't be better simply to put out public information leaflets on the island and post them to all of the islanders, and otherwise keep the whole project relatively secretive…? Releasing only the images I am completely happy with further down the line. It is a shame to miss such a good opportunity for international outreach, but if the work isn't even made yet, I may be slitting my own throat. I will focus back on the project itself instead and send images out to the press after the project. It might also be better to create a talk or exhibition in Glasgow following the project's completion and to publicise that instead.
That's it decided, I will get back into the studio and focus on preparatory artworks and drawing for the residency, the project will have to develop it's own myth!
