A really lovely linkage has just happened. Former studio mate at Core Gallery, Mo Negm just commented on my post #5 about the This ‘Me’ of Mine blogsite, he said:
“Interesting blogsite Jane, and an intricate subject matter – the nature and nurture, and circumstance. The delicate subject may bring out the vulnerabilities of the artists involved. Look forward to reading more.”
It is so curious because I left this comment for Anthony Boswell earlier today:
“These connections are wonderful and are the things which nourish us. It is an interesting question, do our memories ‘feed’ us as much as our live interactions? Memories form us and so do interactions; but where is the boundary between them and us and how do they affect us? Are each of us already a ‘museum of life’?“
Anthony and I have been corresponding recently about ‘subject’ and finding the subject of a practice when influences and subject matter are already defined. As Anthony expressed in his blog, he is grappling with finding the subject of his work because of the fear involved in facing it; vulnerability.
We all face feeling vulnerable and exposed, something Mo suggests in his comment. Certainly, all the artists in This ‘Me’ of Mine, including Anthony, are dealing with this vulnerability in their work. Sarah Hervey, who is also in the show, said to me once, ‘I really admire people who let their vulnerability show, it’s their strength.’ She’s right. To be alive is to be vulnerable, to accept that vulnerability is the strength of living in truth.
www.thismeofmine.wordpress.com
Curating brings everything together for me. Not only do I get to look at, consider and analyse art (my own included) but I get to write about it too. I will be interviewing all of the artists for This ‘Me’ of Mine, which is going to be such a pleasure. Excerpts from the first interview with our own David Minton is on-line at www.thismeofmine.wordpress.com I hope to raise funds to publish an exhibition catalogue which will have the full interviews with all the artists.
Many thanks to Annable Dover who is in the show, for posting the interview with David on the Market Project website. Thank you to artists, David Riley, Kate Murdoch, Sandra Crisp, Anthony Boswell, Hayley Harrison and others who are helping to spread the word. Visit their blogs here on an and their websites to find out about the wonderful work they are doing. And many thanks to all of you who are taking an interest in the development of This ‘Me’ of Mine, it’s really encouraging to see so many of you watching.
In addition to these interviews, I’ve asked the artists to give me a reading list; these are the books they have read and have influenced their practice. At the end of each interview will be their reading list with links to The Book Depository where you can find out more about the books and make a purchase. Each book purchase will help raise funds for the show.
I’m very excited to see the two articles posted on Anthony Boswell’s post yesterday about the return of abstraction. I’m looking forward to reading those. Through curating and reading, I’ve seen an emerging trend to abstraction. I think this is a really exciting thing (of course, since I’m an abstract artist!) and something worth watching. I’m fascinated by many artists’ desire to return to abstraction but on new terms without the high voltage emotional content, it will be interesting to see this develop.
I had a wonderful studio day yesterday. I really like being surprised by my own work and I was. I also received a mention on twitter yesterday from Donnalee Downs, which sent me to her blog, Gone Postal. I had browsed Donnalee’s blog just the other day and saw some interesting ideas in motion. It’s lovely to know you’ve inspired someone, especially to think about things in a new way. Thanks Donnalee!
Lots of things are floating around in my head at the moment, not least of which is the debate on Andrew Bryant’s blog, Self and Others. Can art be not art? It’s a curious question and one which I think influenced my output today. In an equally curious way, the interview I’m doing with David Minton for This ‘Me’ of Mine is bound up in this too with a discussion of intention, intuition, repetition and self. This interview will be posted soon on the TMoM blogsite. David was/is the primary protagonist in the debate with Andrew. I think Sarah Rowles, who took part in the debate, was inspired by it too because I noticed she launched a new blog called, Rethinking how we communicate will save lives. I look forward to more thoughts from Sarah.
I’m also working hard to find/make more exhibition opportunities to show my work this year and that is swirling around in this Sargasso Sea which is my head. Angelika Studios is launching their inaugural open competition and the work I made today is going to be my entry. It’s such a relief knowing what to send. I’m delighted too because it brought me back to a work I was experimenting with, which I had just about decided to abandon. I’ve retrieved it seeing the quality which appealed to me in the first place, made rational by new ideas. That is something I’ve come to accept; sometimes I just have to put a thing aside until I catch up with myself. I can easily make work that is just way out in left field and relates to nothing. Given time though, it usually finds its place – it’s the Sargasso Sea thing.
Speaking of debates, David Riley and Jon Bowen had a great one here on my post #4 about ‘belief’, well worth a look. Thanks again to you both. You guys can debate on my blog anytime you want! David has two works in This ‘Me’ of Mine and he very kindly talked about the show and his participation in his last post on his blog A D V E R T I S I N G ?
So many other things too; complex 7-10 page written tutorials on how to start a career in art for a Rebecca client, exhibition proposals for This ‘Me’ of Mine, applications, promotion, marketing, blog posts, planning, budgets, grant eligibility – so many things…
I’m working on a new curatorial project. This ‘Me’ of Mine explores self in relation to context and questions whether we can effect change in our context or are we bound by it. The context specifically undertaken is memory, socialization and limitation, such as ageing. These three things, so defining in their influence on us in life, take on a sinister control within the exhibition. The works themselves are not disturbed on first appearance, but with contemplation, a sense of unease becomes evident and the struggle between self and context comes into question.
Philosophically based in The Fold by Deleuze, this exhibition also considers questions of psychology, sociology and the impact context has on our being, physically and emotionally.
The artists in the show are: Aly Helyer, Edd Pearman, Julie Cockburn, Hayley Harrison, Melanie Titmuss, Annabel Dover, Kate Murdoch, David Minton, Anthony Boswell, David Riley, Sandra Crisp, Sarah Hervey, Shireen Qureshi, Cathy Lomax and myself.
The new blogsite is www.thismeofmine.wordpress.com and you can follow us on Twitter @ThisMeofMine. We hope you will visit the site as it continues to develop and engage in discussion with us there.
