and she’s off…

since standing in the mall not performing i have been scanning the photos i took for the skulpturen park project. both films came back from processing in the USofA, and i was v.happy with the results-the colour of the old film was slightly odd, the yellow seemed to be the most affected, so they have an old quality about them. so they are scanned and uploaded to http://www.simonfaithfull.org/MobileResearch1/blog/category/1-1/aliceson-carter whilst i had use of a scanner i dug out some of my ‘work’ slides from the last 3yrs too, it was good to review them critically and find they still stood up. the past week i have been submitting/applying/entering, it all feels like entering the lottery – something inside feels that there is a chance of wining a place, and then its the wait til the balls are drawn. need to stay positive.

additional thought whilst in bath……. wrong analogy more like a horse race. no, greyhound. lots of time/effort put into honing a piece of work/dog and then you put it in the post/starting gate contraption, and then it has to do it all by itself. there are lots of greyhounds.

the mall showing went well, i think. it was interesting to do and it brought up a few things to ponder…..

i was not seeing it as a performance, i just wanted to show my work, the location was site specific to the film and i wanted the film and location to work together as one – what you see in the film you can see in the street. also i liked the play with the notions of ‘outside the gallery system’ but…. can non-performance be possible if the artist is so close to the work? – i had a portable dvd player on my back. also i was really interested how people would behave around the film/me, being outside the realm of gallery etiquette and behavior towards street busking, plus i did’nt know if i would be asked to move on by an oversensitive member of the police force. anyways i can report that most people walked past, glanced backwards and smiled, quite a few asked me if i knew that my thing was open at the back, 1x lady to fella “it is contemporary art dear”, 1x “how do i get to victoria station”, 1x dad to son “it’s supposed to be art”, 1x young couple (girl with flu mask on) “what are you doing?” “im showing my video art” “oh very good”, and the best of all 1x warm smile and a thumbs up. a few friends/family visited and chatted about the work over a coffee and a welcomed sit-down. all in all it didnt really matter if it was a performance or not, or how people reacted to it. what was important was that i showed my work and got direct feedback from the general public and that was a jolly good thing to get back.

no film back yet, i hope it comes soon, eager anticipation brewing.

i did my 1st installment of showing my film in the mall today. it went well, some stopped, some looked back smiling when walking past and alot of people were concerned by backpack was open and i had a dvd player in it that could be nicked. and one lady said to her fella “it’s contemporary art dear”. im looking forward to wednesday and sunday .

im back from berlin. i managed to photograph the border using the u bahn & s bahn stations and saw alot of berlin. so much and in such a short space of time, that i became very disorientated and went a bit bonkers. i sat on different sides of the train going and coming back so the two views didnt add up to one place, not like in the car where you get one view. added to that coz i was traveling alone i didnt really communicate with anyone for three days, apart for from when i had the map upside down and asked for help with directions, so id sometimes find myself talking to myself in strange woods and alleyways. i also have gained the legs of an athlete after all the walking. after i had done with racing around it was good to meet up with the other artists and see what they had done, talk about their journeys and consume some beer. i posted the film off to be processed but because its old kodachrome it has to go to switzerland and then to kansas so it will be an exciting wait. im going to convert it to digital and upload to the blog… http://www.simonfaithfull.org/MobileResearch1/blog… when it returns.

another submission no. luckily i keep applying and so with every no there is always a possible yes on its way. good plan.

met a curator/critic and art mag ed yesterday, they got in contact after seeing my goldsmiths web catalogue – http://art-exhibitions.gold.ac.uk/bafa2009/ and website – http://aliceson.co.uk/ so it was really enjoyable to show and talk about my work to people. the ed asked for copies of work n photos, so will wait and see if anything comes of it. it makes the no’s so much more bearable.

now this is now a bit of project blog, im off to do a project. yey. been invited by my old tutor (other artists that took part in sept have also invited students/postgrads) to join phase II of mobile research station – www.simonfaithfull.org/MobileResearch1/blog

. got books and maps and stuck dots on them, which seemed to help with the sense of planning. im going to take some 20yr old slide film and photograph the berlin boundery via the metro stations, then convert pics into digital – i think- will wait and see when i get there it might change. exciting opportunity and so chuffed at being asked. i have had a mad couple of hours of guilty baking – so i can leave nice things to eat for the kids/bf, so they will be too busy eating apple cake to notice ive gone. might work cake is a solution to many a problem.