Second chapter. Westminster Reference Library.
In reverse it started with an opening and performative collective reading. It made me realise how much I have worked on in the first part of my residency (November 2013) including large scale installation photographs, (my first) animation and (my first) public performative reading. In fact, there is a lot to digest and revisit before moving on. Call it Debriefing. Two weeks to go.
Being surrounded by aisles and aisles of books feels occasionally overwhelming yet at the same time bizarre to sit in an offline archive. Although, computers are around and in fact, many library visitors are equipped with a laptop. Like me. Anyway, it makes me slow down, read and appreciate this extensive resource on-site.
Working right opposite of my site-specific installation photographs make me look at them a lot. One it titled ‘One can counter an argument with an argument of one’s own’. Depicting two chairs in the library with uneven piled up books. The second installation ‘Continuous evidence’ is portraying an (un)interrupted pile of books raising from the floor across a chair up into the shelf. Temporary, performative, sculptural.
I have photographed various chair – book installations; double-acting as the work and simultaneously documentation. A method that is inherent to my practice and that has forced me into learning about photography. Another skill I have managed to apply in my practice. Working multi-disciplinary is ever challenging maybe it be media, skills, people and places or even one’s own self-imposed rules. It makes me knowing and understanding some areas to a certain extend.
I function as artist by being inititator, connector, organisor, communicator, maker and contributor. I like working independently, often impatient to adjust. Yet, I do call on specialist expertise with almost every new project. It’s like connecting and sharing resources – drawing and connecting a map to make projects happen. Mostly, I think it is ok to work this way.
Now looking back from writing at my large scale photographs is reassuring (and thanks to my photography expert who insists I am undoubtedly capable of shooting these on my own).
