Very very chuffed: my 3 20×20 paintings have been accepted for the 20 squared exhibition in Middlesborough. So now I just need to get them packed up and sent off.
Today has started well even though I have some nasty and very itchy bites on my leg resulting from a butterfly photography session (without macro lens) organised by Kent Creative Arts http://kentcreativearts.co.uk yesterday evening as I rather foolishly went out without long trousers! Lesson learned.
Busy writing another bid having thought it was going to be written for us! How did that happen?
I hadn’t realised my husband’s job was about to end so soon – he has got himself another one so has a 3-6 month ‘stay of execution’. It will be quite strange if he does finish before Christmas. Good thing is there’ll be someone at home with the dog ….
In the meantime life continues as normal; I’ve put in a couple of submissions and am waiting to hear and I am trying to source some more of the Chinese writing paper I have been using.
Sometimes when I either can’t get to the studio or am feeling a bit stuck I browse the web and do some research.
Doing this the other day, I came across the artist Anoka Faruqee and in particular an interview by Liena Vazman called I’d Rather Be Here an Now: The Performative Verb of Painting. The title itself is interesting in that Be could also be performative, referring to really living rather than just existing.
Faruqee is interesting when she talks about gestural pulls and physicality nd I really like this:
My work needs to unravel in the moment to stay alive
Went to the Herne Bay last Friday for the first time in my life to attend the Duchamp symposium:
Every speaker had the same small amount of material to go on and so each talk was like another layer of enquiry and speculation, adding up finally to a sense of what might have influenced the French artist during his stay in Herne Bay, such as e.g. the sash windows, the wasps at Reculver, the slot machines on the Arcade, sewing machines …
The symposium ended with Jeremy Millar’s film, Zugzwang, beautifully narrated in French by Pierre Huyghe.
On Monday I went round some of the Romney Marsh churches with fellow studio holder Kate Beaugie to research possibilities for a joint proposal for Art in Romney Marsh. By the end of the afternoon, I think we had identified the beginnings of something, so next step is to write the proposal.
I have also been experimenting with painting onto dibond. There are times when I feel I really don’t know what I am doing, that my work is too subjective, that there aren’t enough references to the outside world or to topical concerns … but then doesn’t one in some way process the external through the body and into the making of work?
The most awful sculptures, if you can call them that, have appeared on Dover’s Esplanade. But, not to even talk about the sculpture’s merits or otherwise, the siting of them is so insensitive and takes no account of the existing work. It is almost as if someone thought there was art there already so it would be ok to stick some more in at an “arty” angle. It is depressing. (see also my comments on my news page: http://www.studio308ltd.co.uk/news/new-sculptures-appear-on.html)
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.
