How to find out what's going on when in Berlin:
You can pick up these first two for free at cultural institutions in Berlin:
Berliner Galerien – this has mainly big or commercial galleries, it is a paid for listing so is not necassarily and indicator of quality.
Index – handy fold out postcard format with maps and listings of a more select range of galleries including independent and commercial. It apparently used to include artist lead spaces, but they no longer seem to be listed, perhaps because the artist led scene has grown so rapidly.
Zitty – a fortnightly magazine with arts listings that include artist lead spaces for 2.70 Euro.
Tippy – I have been told that 'Tippy' has a good listing but not encountered it yet, I will update here when I have.
(what it it with the names 'Tippy' and 'Zitty' – does anyone remember the children's programme Rainbow…?)
On relationship:
My new German friend when he came to my studio looked for a few seconds at my work and said "it is all about relationship".
The works I have pinned up span the last 12 months and so far I have been unable to see in them a satisfactory unifying theme, not that there need be one, but I sensed that there was and somehow I was missing it.
Of course there are the themes that I expressed in my proposal for this residency –
my current work explores a collective forgetfulness, a subtle evolutionary shift from feathers, fur and dirt to shrink-wrap plastic
and whilst these remain valid, I had often felt that there was something else going on under the surface of my work that I was failing to see.
Apart from my artwork, I have in recent years been undertaking a thorough and unrelenting investigation of both my own personal psychology and wider family history. In the process I have uncovered 'artefacts' which give pattern and shape to aspects of my character that had previously seemed like 'random aberrations' from the normal course of my behaviour.
My ancestors have a wonderful (hidden)history including affairs, elopements, 'illegitimate' children (I hate that term), bunny boiling stalkers (love in a hall of mirrors bent to insanity) and bigamy. One day when it is safe (and considerate) to do so, I shall write it all down.
And just as these hidden artefacts were shaping my approach to family and home, so I now see their undercurrent tugging at the feet of the work I have been making:
birth, life, death, love(fear) as experienced inside(outside) of the frame of relationship and home.
Some flowers to my new German friend for his clarity of insight.
"What I've really enjoyed is having time with other artists and time for reflection. The studio feels more playful – last week I caught myself sitting back and smiling at something I'd made with bright ribbons, materials I'd have been far too stressed to allow myself a couple of months ago!"
From the blog 'Project Me' by Stuart Mayes.
On discerning the underlying motivations that shape my practice:
My work is developing slowly around my language course. I have put out some feelers about getting whole game products to use in my videos (I would really like a hare), the process of obtaining permission is interesting, but convoluted and slow.
At present though I realise, the thing that excites me most in my studio is two cardboard boxes, a paper bag, some drawings I made of parrots and petals some months ago, and the possible ways in which these elements might combine.
I am beginning to understand that sometimes (not always) my use of video is motivated by a reluctance to commit to and confront the physical presence of an object, and all that this makes us/me feel.
In a roundabout way this has been one of the motivations for my recent work, which has involved skinning rabbits and plucking ducks: a desire to connect with flesh, the body – to explore physical presence.
As I look at the cardboard box in my studio, I recollect a similar impulse that when I first started making art, carried me towards sculpture.
Postcard from Berlin 2b:
Last weekend I went to two openings. They were in independent or artist runs spaces very near to the very large and very excellent Hamburger Banhof
www.hamburgerbahnhof.de
For all take the S Bahn to Hauptbanhof on the main East West axis. The two galleries below are on Heide Strasse, a commercial / industrial street with warehouses and offices, that runs up the side of the Hamburger Banhof.
The first opening was at Speilhaus Morrison Galerie:
www.spielhaus-morrison.com
This is a large former industrial space that has been sensitively converted for the showing of art. I found the whole space a little ‘swish’ for my taste and didn’t really feel at home. However I imagine that it would be possible to see some good contemporary artists work well shown in this very spacious and bright gallery, and I wouldn’t mind seeing some of my own sculpture in there too (just don’t ask me to dress for the occasion).
The second opening was at ‘Fruehsorge – contemporary drawings’:
www.fruehsorge.com
I had much more fun here – this is a gallery dedicated to drawing and the group show I saw included a cute little robot making a floor drawing, animations and papercuts in a show that aimed to "experiment with how far the medium can be extended sculpturally, architecturally and linguistically".
The exhibition was linked to, and culminated in a joint publication by, two publications for drawing:
www.dmagazine.org
www.fukt.de
