Around and about in Linz

What can you achieve in a short residency?

I’ve kind of being asking myself this question. Really what in 10 days can you do that is of value in a place? It’s food for thought as POST looks to the future and developing projects in Istanbul (sadly without me as I am stepping down to be an associate member due to a move to London later in the summer). When we were first offered the 3 month residency here everyone was keen to take up the opportunity, and so we split the time between us, giving each member of POST a short residency. In hindsight, would it have been better to have self-selected 2 or 3 of the 7 of us to have a longer chunk of time?

Certainly, I have gained loads in this short period. I have worked very intensively, more intensively than I could have over a longer period of time. The time pressure has pushed and challenged me to get the most out of it. If like me, you thrive with deadlines then it can work really well. But that has only been possible I think because this is my third trip to Linz. After two earlier research trips in November 2009 and March 2010, I feel comfortable here. I am familiar with the art galleries and the city layout and not that phased by my lack of German. Since the austrian artists we have been partnering with have also just been over to Liverpool, for the first leg of this exhibition in April, there has been some strong friendships built. All this creates a sense of being connected to a creative community, one thing that I really value.

I also had a clear sense of what I was working on and what I wanted to achieve. I wasn’t waiting for the eureka moment to get started as, this most recent work is a continuation in a long line of enquiry. All of this has enabled me to get the most out of this experience.

Blisters and teeth

I have developed a blister on the finger tip of my right hand from applying pressure to plasticene – and feel strangely pleased with it. It’s the physical evidence of hard work.

After final tweaks to a couple of the new pieces this morning, I went back to the flat to see how Cecilia’s toothache was developing. Unfortunately it was going downhill and she was in considerable pain. Wielding her EHIC card (get one now from www.dh.gov.uk/travellers) and a map Holger (Salzamt director) had printed out for us we set off for the nearest dentists. Always a fear-inducing experience but particularly in another language. What followed was one of the more comedy dentist experiences of my life – as between Cecilia, the dentist, the dental nurse, the dental nurses’ friend, and me, we made sense of what was happening. Cecilia is now nursing a swollen jaw, the news she definitely needs the tooth removed and some painkillers and antibiotics – and feeling much better. Remarkably, the whole process was free because of this EHIC health card which any UK citizen can get and it means in member countries you get treated like one of their own. I was really impressed and it reminded me that it is something to think through as artists working internationally. Healthcare in foreign countries can be a very financially painful experience. I speak from rather grim Greek experience.

We returned with time for me to take all the work I had finished to the MAERZ gallery space. I managed to photograph each individually, and get some good close-ups. Beautifully example of austrian efficiency as I enquire as to whether they have a spare tripod on the off-chance and one is plucked from a techie cupboard within seconds. I am planning to compile a book of all the record sleeve pieces to date, in the hope that this may encourage some sales. Beate thinks they may sell well here. Bring it on I say.

I just had time to toy with installation ideas, and draw up a detailed plan. I want the best 12-13 to rest on a small, very slim shelf to add a sculptural element. This will be made out of a wooden baton screwed to the wall, 1.5m from the ground, 5.5m in length. This is higher than normal – and I want it to add to the strangeness of the viewing experience as folks have to look slightly up. Thankfully, MAERZ is a beautifully designed spacious gallery and there is space to play with.

I leave tomorrow afternoon and come back on Sunday for the opening on the 6th of July. It’s late and I’m tired, but satisfied.

And a little door opens…

The productivity roller-coaster continues and who knows where it leads? Today was on the up and very productive. I now have in total 18 new pieces of work, which with the 5 pre-existing ones brings the grande totale to 23. I need to draw a line there to give myself enough time to transport to MAERZ gallery, plan installation, discuss with Claudia who as well as artist is also acting as gallery technician, and document the work tomorrow/ Wednesday before I leave.

I was glad to make time for a afternoon lunch break with Ilse Purstl, who is based in Salzburg with the Museum of Modern art (www.museumdermoderne.at). We met in a strangely synchronistic moment in Liverpool, when Ilse was visiting the Bluecoat Global Studio exhibition with Austrian colleagues and we had a meeting of minds. It’s really great when you follow up these moments and get to touch base again. I was greatly encouraged by how much Ilse enjoyed seeing the work in progress at in the studio. She is also talking about introducing me to a gallerist friend of hers… which again is good news.

She shared with me a recurring dream she has. She is in her room and notices a little door she has never noticed before. When she opens it she finds herself in a totally new part of her house. It’s bright and white, and bare and airy. When she wakes after she never fails to feel strangely invigorated.

Simple. Now to find that little door and open it.

Bronze bread rolls and other artist dilemmas….

I met Beate this afternoon for coffee, cake and debate in the communal garden of her flat. These big apartment blocks come right out to the pavement, and you have no idea that behind a couple of doors is a wonderful enclosed park really. Linz is a secretive place. Nothing is on the surface.

I went to meet her cat Spok, and also to discuss a project Beate is curating. Several years ago she was invited by a new media and design agency to develop a project bringing invited artists to work alongside them. As I sat in the sunshine, enjoying the beautiful surroundings and merrily getting stung by mosquitos (14 bites!) I listened to her outline some of the experiences she had with it to date. One particular client of this agency was a major bread manufacturer, but when she went to meet with them she found that he only wanted artists whose subject matter was… bread. This anecdote got us started on a whole discussion about the difference between artists and designers. Designers are given a starting point and a brief and expected to work within it. Artists expect a brief, if there is one, to fit their work, and bring a starting point with them. Both ways of working have advantages – but also very different implicit mindsets. I am learning to be less flexible about what I will or won’t do, and about what I am interested in or not.

Meanwhile, all this was happening whilst English hopes were bring trashed on the football pitch by Germany. You can guess which way Austrian sympathies were leaning.

Robyn left today to go back for some commitments in the UK before returning in a weeks time. With Cecilia arrived, and Sue on the way I am aware of how time seems to be slipping away from me. I have 12 pieces of completed work and another on the way. Originally, I wanted to have finished making work by the end of tomorrow so that I could debate layout and installation on Tuesday and Wednesday. I think tomorrow will have to be a big work day. It is a bit of a challenge to balance the relational aspects of time here with the actual production of work. I keep having to cut really interesting conversations short in order to get back to the studio. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Hooray for a much more productive day. I ended yesterday with a late night wrestle in the studio and skyped my other half for a bit of sanity. Too much alone time facing off a piece of work and I get into a funny mindset.

In working on top of these record sleeves I am searching really for a sense of the uncanny, of something unhemlich, a strangeness that appears in the best ones. Deconstructing the faces is part of a line of enquiry into the necessity of mystery, and thinkings and ponderings on hiddenness opening up new spaces. So of the human parts, only the eyes stare out from the photos, everything else – all skin and hair is covered. I am fascinated by the relationship between audience and object, and to mask a face, is to reverse the normal power dynamics in relating. In the context of viewing these works in a gallery space, it means that the object can see you the audience, but you cannot fully know or understand what you see. I find that interesting.

I had a stimulating discussion today around some of these ideas with an Austrian artist (and techno DJ) Katharina Gruzei, in the studio next door. She is a photographer and is also interested in object-viewer relationships, masking, identity constructing etc. The best things about studios is the platform they provide for these sort of interactions, where you end of buzzing off other artists and the creative temperature goes up a notch or too for everyone. When it works well it really works.

Robyn and I have also been hanging out a bit with Volkan Aslan (yes the best name ever), an artist from Istanbul also here on a residency. We also met up again with Peter Arlt (see post 1). Cecilia Kinnear (another POSTie) also arrived this evening. Everything is starting to gear up now to the show opening in a couple of weeks time… and I’m starting to feel excited.