9 days to go
I have mixed feelings about how helpful this bank holiday has been in helping me to prepare for the quickly approaching Art Week in Riihimaki. Part of me wants to do whatever a normal 24 year old does at these times (see friends and drink beer). And then i realise that in 9 days i’ll be in Finland, as an artist, doing my best to be composed and professional.
The bank holiday got off to a slow start work wise as i caught up on sleep following my recent trip to Berlin. I attempted to write my paper for the seminar, something, anything. nothing came out so i stalled by reading the work of others i admired. still nothing, this upset me. i read Roland Barthes, Carl Andre, Anni Albers, Eva Hesse, Richard Long and Sol LeWitt and searched through old sketchbooks to rediscover the things that inspired me last year during the Masters.
“Conceptual Artists were intuitive rather than rational. In other words, to discover their idea – the main idea, the instigator or whatever it is – a leap of faith or a leap of aesthetics had to be made otherwise it was just another rational step. To avoid a rational step, intuition is important”
Sol LeWitt, Art Monthly Issue 164 March 1993
Today, Tuesday, was better because i had an extra day off work, and a better mentality. I imagine that everything that i had been reading finally sunk in and made sense. I went to the studio for a very structured day of working, mostly writing. The studio was beautiful and calm, why hadn’t i come here sooner? To my amazement 2500 words came out, discussing my concerns and processes, and new ideas came out too, completely unexpected. My paper is about the traces left behind as a town changes, and how i respond to these. As the work is going to be site responsive, i don’t feel that i can write the whole seminar now – but at least i have something. I felt like an artist today; not an “outreach officer”, or a sleepy 24 year old, and i look forward to feeling like an artist for a whole two weeks when im in Finland. I think its going to be okay now.
