Glorious day – I ummed and ahed about doing the front garden or going to the studio and opted for the studio. Took the dog with me who was no doubt a bit fed up but he had had a good run in the morning.
Played with installing my drawing as a floor work.
Networks and networking – there are so many of them. Do we need another network; what is specific about all the different networks. I seem to be in a world composed of networks within networks. Yesterday DAD organised a networking event over brunch at Turner Contemporary in partnership with the National Federation of Artist Studio Providers to guage interest in a Southeast Kent studio providers network. We couldn’t have had a better day or a lovelier setting. And with no empty seats at the table, there does seem to be a definite level of interest.
One of the many interesting points made was that Kent does not have the empty industrial building stock to set up large studio complexes – we are limited here by the existing architecture which results in relatively small studio groups, each with its own operational model: not for profit, commercial, mixed commercial and not for profit …. some providing CPD support and so on.
After the event, Joanna and I went to look at the Turner and the Elements exhibition in the main galleries. There were some stunning paintings – especially those where the horizon disappears and sea and sky are one.
In the afternoon we did some shopping – and stopped for a drink. I was feeling pretty much conferenced out!
Lots happening all of a sudden: Bunting Forever is getting big and I’ve been asked to register it as a Line the streets project for London 2012.
http://www.dadonline.eu/node/332
Thanks to a professional press release and marketing document the project profile has become sharper and better defined and we’re getting the response we want. There is a lesson in there somewhere. If any of you reading this are occasional knitters, please do get involved. It is fun.
DAD is also gearing up for next week’s public preview of Watermark, a 90-minute feature documentary about a former paper mill in Dover.
What else? Oh yes, went to a Kent Economic Board creative sector consultation event which was pretty dire though the good thing perhaps is that it brought subsidised and non-subsidised organisations/companies together. Dire because yet again delegates were treated as passive absorbers of mainly dull information and given hardly any time for the supposed main purpose of the event which is to be consulted and to make a meaningful contribution.
And, have managed to walk the dog and get to the the studio again.
Clare Smith's mixed English/Chinese heritage informs her perspective on issues of identity and categorisation. Her nomadic childhood and early adulthood have meant a somewhat ambivalent relationship to place, reinforced by the sense of ambiguity that comes from her mixed identity. Smith works with drawing, print media, collage and moving image to investigate this ambivalence, with references to craft, the importance of labour and the handmade. Through her choice of materials and approaches, she creates work which attempts to create a sense of unity, an interpretation of Homi Bhabha's "Third Space" - seen as a space in which different parts can come together to challenge dominant ideas of wholeness. Collaboration is part of Smith’s practice and she is also co-founder of Dover Arts Development (DAD) together with painter, Joanna Jones. This involves working with many different artists, curation, organisation, event management, creating networks across East Kent and influencing the public realm in Dover. Clare works from a studio in Dover. She has an MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins and has exhibited nationally and internationally.
