Berlin Residency Journal

Bits of gaffer tape and pieces of string have been appearing in odd places around the Milchhof. One day I noticed string dangling next to the loo, another day along the window sill in the corridor, then on the floors at odd junctions and so on, more and more little scraps of gaffer tape appearing. It is strange how such insignificant stuff can become a focus. Obviously it is being videoed for an art piece, but lately it has become annoying because they don't remove the bits of tape as they finish and move on to put more in another area, consequently the other discarded stuff becomes dirty and scuffed from people's feet. Is that part of the piece? To see how long before someone starts to pull it off and throw it away thus destroying someone else's art? I'm resisting the urge, not really because of any tolerance to mess, although I have a lot of that for my own messes. When I first came to London during a very cold winter I was lent a studio to share, no one else using it at the time. When I arrived it had broken glass all over the floor that I duly swept up and threw in the dustbin. After a few weeks another artist turned up at the place in Primrose Hill. Well of course you guessed it – that broken glass was their artwork. So I am averting my eyes from annoying bits of tape untidily piling up in corners and corridors.