I have been asked to be in a show in Blackpool at the end of the month and by some miracle will be able to organise myself into it between returning from Linz and going to YSP for first part of the project! A fellow a-n blogger is in it too and some faces I know from Liverpool.
This exhibition might be quite a pivotal moment for me: the work is one I have shown before! The work still exists, it is not in a skip, damaged, stolen. It is infact in the boot of the car where I left it.
I have been thinking about this for a while, since I thought about how often one of the artists here was exhibiting (along with other people I know) and how that might be acheived with the help of making films and sending DVDs. Not that I’m saying film is easier, not by any means! But it is easier to transport, replicate and I want more of that. Enough spending £200 driving places with a car full of wood and tools, more spending £10 on posting some things in a box please.
I have spent the last eight ish years making site-specific works that no longer exist when the show or residency or whatever is over. Documenting things brings other problems, particularly that of skewing the way people view the work. Plus I don’t show photographs or re-show works so that doesn’t help too much either. Last time I tried to do this I ended up remaking it anyway.
I have a couple of (small!) solo shows coming up in 2010 and I was thinking that if either were bigger, I would never be able to do it, unless they gave me a year to work for it. I have no stock, for want of a better word.
For Drawn In at the Bluecoat space in April I made a piece about heights, danger, voids, the unknown. It is called ‘From the Mountain to the Abyss’ – see pics. As this was made in the studio and not in response to a site – actually is was made in response to a paper at a conference the week before – it was different. I can keep it, it is transportable. So, it will get its second outing this month and I will pack it with pins and diagram and go to the opening for drinks. This is good.
I don’t think I want to make all my work like this, in fact I know I don’t, especially as I need the deadlines of exhibitions and other things to act as important kicks up the bum and I love responding to new places and histories. But for my own sake, my bank account’s sake and to be able to apply and take part in more opportunities, I think I should be doing this more often.
