I have been struggling with the lack of unity in my work recently – the fact that this blog and the things I believe in for artists, do not fit neatly with the work I make. In titling the show at YSP ‘Make Shift’, I think I have been starting to see links, but I don’t even know if it’s necessary. I just have the feeling that sometimes people are disappointed my work does not match my blog more overtly.
It’s not that I write off all things relational aesthetic either, but that kind of practice does not come naturally to me and I would rather do things well than for the sake of it.
A Japanese friend gave me a good phrase recently: ‘Hippari dako’ meaning a kite pulled by lots of people in different directions all at the same time. I think I am pulling myself in lots of different directions to be honest.
All of the above doubt and worry probably points to the fact that I am tired! I was down in Cambridge last week building a structure on wheels for ‘Small Scale Survival’, Aid & Abet’s first show. It was fun and somewhat of a prototype – two days to build on my own does not a refined sculpture make! My woodworking skills are self-taught and haphazard to say the least but it works. The video is a test run filmed by Rosalie Schweiker, who is running the Emely Cafe there. One of the best parts of being in this exhibition has been the chance to meet her, engage in discussion about the economics of art and ways in which artists can survive. We have made a series of posters as a conversation, and I think they might appear in a book somewhere sometime….
The work pictured is really a reading room (on wheels). Inside there is a copy of ‘The Box Man’ by Kobe Abe, along with a cup holder for coffee and a little red seat. The idea is to get in, wheel around until you find a spot where you feel safe/content/really able to concentrate and then begin reading and drinking. This is all. I’d like to make it again, althought with some more planning so it becomes more of a flat-pack kit and has a little more longevitiy.
http://emely.wikispaces.com/Emely+Cafe+Small+Scale…
http://aidandabet.s700.sureserver.com/projects/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Db%C5%8D_Abe
p.s. As itunes is being it’s usual awful piece of software self, I can’t upload the video at the moment. Pics for now, film to follow….
