It almost seems that Stockholm is a distant memory now as we have well and truly returned back to earth.
The ACE funding arrived the day after we got back, so credit cards were maxed out to fill that interim gap. If things had been different and I could have filled in that application form earlier – I would have done. But things were as they were and the application form was filled in when it was, so we had to manage as best we could. More artists went across there than we originally planned, so we helped as many out as we could financially.
We’d booked two rooms in a hostel, so we could accommodate almost everyone. Others stayed with friends or decided on a cheap hotel on the other side of town. I think they regretted that, as our hostel was really quite luxurious. I’d never stayed in a hostel before, so was expecting the worst. Our rooms were really quite nice though and with us 3 females sharing a 4 bed room, it gave us plenty of space. With exorbitant prices in Stockholm, the large kitchen downstairs was well used by our group – but strangely, not many other people.
Kimbal had arrived from his long journey well ahead of us. Bike riding until it got too hard and hitchhiking the rest of the way while sleeping out in freezing conditions – his experiences were played out to a large audience at Supermarket. They’d given us one of the lecture theatres for his talk and he received a large cheer when he’d run though the images and finished talking.
I still haven’t returned all of the work to the artists. I had to go back to work the day after I got back and every day after that has sort of blurred into another. I know that I have been chasing up venues to tour our exhibition to during the Liverpool Biennial ( as has Bruce, with Leeds venues) and I know that I have been working flat out to finish work for an installation I am doing for the Chapel Gallery, Lancs., which will open in 3 weeks ( Cripes!!) ( Journeys)http://www.chapelgallery.org.uk/current_exhibitions.html
But the rest of my time is anyone’s guess.
If only I could win the lottery, I could structure my days much better than this : /
