Around and about in Linz

For some reason on some days you get out of bed and your head is still in sleep mode and you never quite wake out of it. After having a very productive day yesterday, today has been opposite. I managed to finish one piece of work today – and it’s probably the best so far but has increased a lot in complexity. The plasticene rolling out is taking it’s toll on the hands – I think I am building up some seriously strong fingers. Anyone need a lid opening?

It’s surprisingly stiff to really blend the plasticene properly and I am hand mixing from a fixed palette of 5 colours – a pink red, bright blue, canary yellow, lush vegetation green and grey black. I’ve decided to stick with these as I’m a bit concerned how they will all work hung together. Limiting the palette to these colours and any derivatives mixed from them, at least gives me a sense of some comfort that it may all come together aesthetically. A position of faith at the moment it has to be said.

I’m starting to wonder if my over-ambitious goal needs to be downsized, but I’ve decided that rather than think about this too deeply I’m going to try my hardest to produce as much work as I can and see where that gets me. Too much deliberating mid-process can paralyse me a little bit. I have found I work much more effectively in concentrated bursts and then a little period of reflection to weigh up where I find myself. Reflecting before I really have a quantity of work to really dissect and think on was a bad habit from a few years ago which I no longer can afford. I don’t think I can know anything from making 1 of something.

Slow day was gladly cut short by a meeting with the wonderful Beate Rathmayr, artist and curator who I hosted in Liverpool in April and became part of Shane and I’s extended family really. She is a woman from whom I have already learned a lot. She’s passionate about people and about excellence. I find the combination proper inspiring (normally it’s one or the other). She is also a Director of MAERZ (www.maerz.at) the Artist Association in Linz and also one of the venues hosting the show opening here on the 6th. It was good for Robyn and I to go and discuss some technical issues around our work, and imagine it in situ. It was even better to catch up with her, Gerlinde and Claudia over coffees at Cafe Meier after.

Last night I had a late realisation that I actually have a lot of work to do whilst I am here. This has been slow to dawn on me, but shouldn’t really come as a surprise as fairly typically I have set myself a serious task of completing 30 new pieces of work in this 10 day residency. After taking a day to make half one I realised I had to seriously up my output starting today. So I wish I could tell you all about the Linz Triennial which I am determined to see before I leave – but it twas not to be today…

I did however, get out for an early morning bike ride beside the Danube this morning. The Salzamt have very thoughtfully provided bikes for visiting artists – or at least I think they have as I borrowed one that wasn’t locked up. On second thoughts could have belonged to someone here but the novelty of a unlocked bike for someone based in a city (any city) in the UK is such that I presumed it was there for me. Clear crisp air and some good headspace. The challenge of cycling on the ‘wrong’ side of the road drew some comments from fellow cyclists, the meaning of which was pretty clear despite the language barrier!

I got me thinking about how POST have come to take part in this residency and how important the fact the process has been artist-initiated. POST really formed out of mine and 6 other artists frustrations – fed up with waiting round passively for someone to ‘spot’ our work we decided to set up an international artist exchange. We wanted to be more active internationally and we decided to get together to make it happen more. I am really proud of the group and we have achieved so much more together than we ever could have seperately. It’s been a pretty turbulent year for some of us in our family lives – but when one of us needs to sit out for a couple of rounds someone else steps in. Artists need to work in teams more. Constructive collaborating is a strategy that as artists we need to taking a lot more seriously in the UK economic climate.

I also managed to get out the studio at lunchtime for a delicious sorbet with Robyn (www.robynwoolston.com) and Gerlinde (www.gerlinde-miesenboeck.com). Gerlinde is one of the Austrian artists we are working with and she along with Beate and Claudia, has been totally key in organising things at this end. She is a remarkable photographer – passionate about using film and not digital means. We are all building up to the two exhibitions opening here on the 6th of July. One at the Salzamt and one at MAERZ Artist Association.

I did manage to get 5 pieces of work underway. I’m working overlaying the record sleeves with plasticene, mixing the colours and rolling out the little rows to add texture to the surface. Sore shoulder now.

Forgot to mention in yesterday’s post one of the most remarkable features of the day. I managed to get through airport security with 7 kilos of plasticene without anyone raising an eyelid (is that a phrase or have I just made that up?) I’d been having slight concerns about it’s resemblance to plastic explosive – but obviously they weren’t shared by airport security staff.

I’ve got stuck into work today – settled into the studio after a morning wandering with Robyn to collect materials. I’m working with record sleeves and the aforementionned plasticene at the moment. We managed to re-find the record shop I discovered when I was last here in March with LPs from the 60s and 70s for 1 euro each. I’ve got to finish 30 by the 30th ready for the exhibition here which opens on the 6th of July. Forgot how tough plasticene is to work – you have to warm it up to get it malleable. By the end of this I think my hands may well resemble hams even more than they do already. Joy.

Robyn went off to explore the Linz Triennial this afternoon whilst I cracked on with plasticene gripping (they’ll be more on this topic over the next few days…) The studio itself at Salzamt is exceptional. Massive and bright – strong clean smell of warm pine from the floorboards – and with a view directly over the Danube which flows just below the window. I felt very blessed sitting here this afternoon. It felt almost like I was sitting on top of the river, and it was flowing right through me. Some of the challenges and pressures of recent times lifted off a bit. The surface of the water is truly mesmerising, hypnotically shifting as the light moves over the ripples and eddies. Watching it flow makes me want to make films. The sort of scandinavian films that play with light beautifully, pan ever-so quietly and make you feel luxurious in slowness.

Robyn and I have met some more of the artists based here today – Volcan “as in Volcano” from Istanbul is here on a month long residency. He is finding Linz far too quiet in comparison to Istanbul. I can imagine it is quite a strong culture shock. Linz is quiet, almost secretive. Not how I imagine Istanbul to be at all. Haruko is hosting a Japanese/Korean cultural evening in the arty bar next door later this evening and I am looking forward to some more conversations with artists here.

German for today – eins, zwei, drei, vrei, fumf (1,2,3,4,5). Fumf has to be one of the best words for 5 ever.

So Robyn Woolston (www.robynwoolston.com POST colleague) and I have arrived at the Salzamt this evening. The otherwise rather grotty Ryan-air flight was brightened by a coincidental meeting with a Linz artist returning home. Peter Arlt (www.peterarlt.at) has just done a 6 month residency with Liverpool Biennial part of the same ‘Urban Intervention’ program that has supported our residency in Linz. Strangely there has been little crossover between Peter and us in POST, Robyn and I were keen to rectify this by making best use of our plane flight. Peter is a fascinating artist/sociologist and we had a very interesting discussion about some of the pitfalls of the cultural regeneration agenda, so often imposed in a top down manner rather than emanating from the ‘locals’. Liverpool particularly has been scarred by the housing market renewal agenda – where vast swathes of housing have been subject to wholesale demolition. A questionable idea in my book at the best of times, but now large chunks of these areas are looking as if they will remain barren for some time as the bottom of the economy falls into oblivion. How as an artist do you start to engage with the damage this causes communities without resorting to trite, cliched or short-term novelty?

It was wonderful to arrive in the Salzamt and see Maeda Haruko, a Japanese artist based in Linz. Haruko is part of POST’s exchange with artists based here and has a studio in the Salzamt just above our room here. It feels such a short time since she was in Liverpool for the opening of the show at the Bluecoat – I feel a bit like I am operating in accelerated time at the moment. Another day gone. Another week gone. Another month gone.

Robyn and I have a compact room flat to share which is just upstairs from our studio space in the Salzamt. One of the last POST ladies here left us a little note and bar of chocolate as a welcome welcoming present. I even got a chance to practise my German tonight “einen cheesecake bitte” – should be fluent soon….