Well I’ve had a very busy week. After a successful interview for a studio at S1 (see last blog) they offered me a studio (yay!) and I was really surprised how big and fantastic the studio was. As it was the last one to be occupied I thought that it would be the grottiest but no, it’s really great and I’m very pleased with it. The studios occupy the mezzanine of the building and look down over the main gallery space and are open plan so all the other studio holders can see what you are up to. It also has two side walls which is great to pin up stuff and have an area to mess about and document work, exactly what I needed. The only drawback at the moment is that the building is still being modernised and the upstairs studios have no heating so it is absolutely freezing. Pippa, the curatorial assistant at S1, has been looking after me really well and lets me borrow a heater from the office whenever I’ve been in the studio. As my enthusiasm is unbounded at the moment, a little bit of cold doesn’t put me off. There is also a fantastic communal space, where the radiators are working so you can go for a warm up, a chat and a brew. The people are so friendly and nice is a pleasure being around them. There’s also an art library in the space to and it has some fantastic books and magazines that I’m dying to dive into.
I officially moved in on the 1st March, this last Tuesday and later that same day, Pippa casually mentioned that Axis were coming to visit on Thursday as they were doing a feature on the new S1 space, and would I be interested in being interviewed along with two other studio holders ? I nodded my head, but kind of didn’t believe her and kind of just carried on with things. On Wednesday as I was in the studio, leisurely milling around, taking my time and getting to know the space, I checked my emails and there was one from Julian from Axis who confirmed the interview. In the email he gave a few interview questions to think about and mentioned that as it was being filmed would I mind wearing black so that the pinned on microphone would be seen………………………………….OMG!!!!!
And that they were going to film my work in my studio!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I HAD ONLY GOT THE STUDIO THE DAY BEFORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don’t worry, the lovely Pippa said, in her calm and confident voice, they know you’ve just moved in and won’t expect a full studio and it’ll be quite nice to hear you talk about what you expect from S1. I tried to remain calm, for appearances sake (I’m very good at that) but let out a mighty internal yell. I’ve never made work so quickly. Luckily I’d been planning on what I was going to do in the studio (as I’d had a few days of art anxiety after getting the studio but before moving in) so I had things to hand so I literally threw some work together. I did want to utilise the space for kind of mini exhibitions so I came up with one really quickly. I am quite amazed at how much I enjoyed the frenzy and I think managed to pull something off.
The interview blissfully was very short and for the life of me I cannot remember what I said apart from that I don’t really think I talked about my practice properly! Ah well. I didn’t prepare because I would have got myself in such a start trying to remember stuff so I just thought I’m just going to answer spontaneously. I quite like the idea of ‘automatic talking’ because sometimes you say things that you are not consciously aware of. I read somewhere once that people don’t really listen and take on board what you’re actually saying, unfortunately as it was filmed and will be going on the website in a few weeks; this will not be the case.
I can only apologise to S1!!!
