En Place

cloudy

overall uneventful
went to shop
for bread and paté
for cheese and peaches

spend a cloudy afternoon
on the lawn
playing with my
64m of wood
leaning it
on a tree
on me
on the wall
add a length of fabric
a mirror
not sure anything
exciting is happening
but there is
something interesting
going on
kind of casual
none-making
not sticking, screwing
or constructing
just propping
placing, leaning
balancing
…blasé

H offers me a glass of rosé
hard to resist
it’s cool and refreshing
and distracting
I film her once again
for a short while
she is reflective
and expansive
but am just looking, listening
for something
to get the ball
rolling …
to find something
to expand on
…fishing for ideas

an abbreviated kind of day
that unfolds
in a list-like way
french toast
uses up
stale bits of bread
warm rain is falling
have been here a week
time seems
to shrink and expand
in weird ways
flip and flick
through journals
still raining
decide to make
a zine
small, simple-ish
reproducible
been on my mind a while to
make one, it fits somehow
takes all day and night ‘tho
ideas come and go
ambling, then rushing
through my head
by mid afternoon
the rain has gone
and for a break
visit the graveyard
…pastime of many a family holiday !
sentiments are kept to
a polite minimum here
most graves
have only names and dates
some are engraved
with regrets
or au revoir
understated n’est pas
the china flowers though
are memorable
pansies, chrysanthemums
and roses
chipped and faded
pinks and mauves

listen to the radio
as I work
a John le Carreé story
that is hard to follow
and I drift off into
a place of concentration
where everything else disappears

a day of catching up
am easily distracted
wandering the gardens
is good for thinking
but the danger is
little else gets done
eat, drink,
make lists of useful words
objets trouvé
casual
nonchalant
propped
…a photograph in b & w
of Charles Ray pined to the wall
by a plank of wood
springs to mind
leaning
balancing
offhand
blasé
to apply to objects

then it’s
early evening
D the builder
delivers my wood
it’s unexpectedly yellow
nice and square
smother than imagined
cheap

there is
another bbq
and I’m kind of invited
but really
there is work to do
I’m not on holiday
for goodness sake !

cycle slowly to the village
ponder on a few things
Morris and his interactive objects
that encourage
a kind of self conscious
seeing oneself seeing things
‘a kind of phenomenological mirror’ as he calls it
am rooting around these thoughts
looking for some traction

and what about shutters?
all the houses here have them
so multifunctional –
why don’t we all have them?
are curtains a female equivalent
mediators between inside and out
rather than definitive shutters-out
of heat, light, voyeurs, thieves
Hilde Heynen has much to say
on modernity and domesticity
but little on shutters v curtains

return
with croissants, a baguette,
plus a lemon, cheese, melon
the diet is limited
but mostly I don’t notice

in the cool of the workshop
I add to my construction
taking time to measure
angle and cut carefully
countersink, drill, re drill
and re-make when it doesn’t work
but there is a long way to go
practically and conceptually
it’s all a bit intuitive for now

afternoon
an elicit hour lying
in the shade of a tree
reading, dozing…
then have to go
to write up some text
for the présentation in 2 weeks
there is some translation needed
– my french is poor
and realise
simple-ish things are expressed
in a convoluted way
so address the meaning
in the most straightforward way
then refer to google-translate
which is better
there are a few errors
to sort later

a fire is burning at the back
for a bbq
at the village hall opposite
there is a party
with mostly unmemorable music
but it sets the scene
sausages, potatoes wrapped in foil
cook away
we collect wood
drink wine
chat away
eat
in a convivial and summertime way

Friday 7 July

early morning
cycle to Pont-Sainte-Maxence
bob along
behind H in a yellow hat
down country lanes
sandy alleys
alongside heavy lorries
…its been a few decades
since I’ve done this
it’s quite far
15km
I get
tomates rose and pêche plate
from the market
pink umbrellas shield
pale melons
nestling in magenta tissue
we enjoy coffee and croissants
before we head back
legs ache, sun is hot

the afternoon drifts
make phone calls
touch base with home
answer emails
write, talk, think
but mostly
stare out of the windows
with their superior and vertical proportions
the long french fenêtres,
…according to Perret
‘reproduce an impression of complete space’
in other words
you can see at once street, garden and sky
this is true I can see
fore, mid and back ground
Le Corb on the other hand
preferred his windows horizontal
the gaze is lead far away …..
allowing us to dominate what we see
….anyway

there is no urgency to the day
so it wafts by on hot air