Postcard from Berlin 3:
Last weekend I went to an opening at MEINBLAU
www.meinblau.de
This is a split-level gallery space in a complex that also houses 14 studios. The studio programme includes early career as well as established artists, international exchanges and “an office for philosophy/aesthetics/art theory”. The organisation was first established in 1997 and re-opened/re-organized in 2005 by means of European funding.
The exhibition I attended was a lively (visual) conversation between Yudi Noor (installation artist), Zascho Petkow (furniture designer) and Ingo the Wuntke (furniture designer). I enjoyed a happy half hour lounging in a big green seat, awaiting an end to the deluge of rain outside.
To get there take the U2 to Senefelder Platz, the gallery is a 10 minute walk away at 18/19 Christinen Str. – it is located round the back of the big courtyard at this address.
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.
