Gloucester Cathedral

My tomorrow has turned into almost two month. It has been very busy getting the work together for the exhibition in London and this has taken more time then anticipated. Although the process has been a very hard work it has all been worthy.
The work is on show at the Unit 2 Gallery in Whitechapel until the 1st of November 2008. So if you are in the area do pop in, you may be pleasantly surprised. www.unit2.org.uk

Now I am back in Gloucester again and have returned back my research work here. The last few days have been very productive and fun. I have been meeting individual people and groups, gathering information regarding the local history, materials, have been told various stories…. Have been taken on small tours around the Cathedral, specially enjoyed the hidden areas which are not open to the public.

Two weeks of holiday, which was amazing and long waited for, and now back to madness, back to work.

We drove by car to Croatia which was amazing. On the way down we got the late ferry to Calais and slept for few hours in Northern France.

Then drove strait to Slovenia, with few breaks, and about 10pm stopped in a hotel just outside Ljubljana. We were in a hurry, as we want it to spend few days with my sister before she and her kids left back for Macedonia. We spend four amazing days together, where everyday we when to and visited different locations on the Northern part of the Croatian Adriatic. We were all staying with family friends in Rijeka, which is a beautiful old city. These all area is beautiful and has incredible history.

After our 9 days in Rijeka we made our move and drove via visit to Postojnska jama and Ljubljana, to BLED and Bohinjsko jezero, two beautiful lakes in the South Alps.

Here we found a nice quite campsite and stayed for two nights.

On Thursday morning we got waken up by the bad storm and poring rain and we decide it was time to move on. We drove to Austria and found another campsite up on the northwest corner and the boarder with Germany, small beautiful place called St Johan’s.

On Friday morning drove through the a poring rain, through Germany where the temperature just changed from 30 to 12 degrees Celsius and felt like we when from nice hot summer strait to winter in less then five hours. This was a horrible wet day we drove through Germany without stopping; we stayed in a motel just outside Saarbrücken.

On Saturday morning after a small breakfast we drove to Valenciennes where we met with my friends, (which I met through my residency, and when to Adeline’s parents for gorges dinner. We eat so much that was impossible to move, we had a five course dinner… didn’t know I can eat that much.

After this lovely day we had to say our goodbyes and get to the ferry. We were very lucky our ferry was at 12.45am but PO Ferrys let us on the 10.45pm and we were home by 1.00am. Home sweet home.

Now back at Gloucester and back to cleaning more chicken skins.

More tomorrow.

Sorry haven’t written in days but not much news to say.

I have been waiting to hear on my funding application to Grants for the Arts and found out that this was not successful. The funding was going to help with the development of the work for the commission at Unit 2 Gallery in London, but as usual the ACE have other priorities, and now I have to work around the clock to support and make this work.

I did got upset about not getting the funding but what really upset me was that the ACE used a temporary officer who assessed my application and took me two weeks to track him down to get some feedback and all I got was that he no longer works at the ACE and he is not in a position to give me more detailed feed back than I have already received by letter.

New press just came out regarding this project:

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Bristol-butche…

This is my third week at Gloucester now and I am slowly settling in. I’ve managed to gather few bits of furniture for the house and have set up my studio. Feels more comfortable now and I can start working.

Every day I have been popping into the Cathedral, to look around and get the feel for the place. They have many volunteers that work and help around the Cathedral, so I have been meeting new people daily, feels like I go around and keep introducing myself but hopefully I’ll soon meet and get to know all.

I had my first meeting with Andrew Stonyer, who is my contact at the University of Gloucestershire, yesterday and when very well. We when out for lunch but this was tricky as there are not many places in Gloucester where you can get a snack, so we end it up in Café Nero.

I have, also started to work on a new project, which will be exhibited at Unit 2 Gallery in Whitechapel, London, in October 2008.

http://www.unit2.co.uk/elpida/

Tomorrow, for the first time I am going to the University of Gloucestershire, at the Pittville Campus in Cheltenham, to loot at they studios and see if there is a possibility I can use one of they spaces for the production and making of the work for the exhibition in London.

I have now moved to Gloucester and have officially started the residency. Well I actually moved last Sunday the 15th and slept in this new house for two nights but had to go back to Brighton on Tuesday. The move was good and not much of a problem, but managed to forget most of the things that I need. Luckily Gloucester is not to far and I can go back and collect things as and when I need them.

Is been a very busy time for me at the moment, too much going on. I know I shouldn’t complain I should be happy that I could work and do my work.

I was asked by the Director of the National Gallery in Macedonia to propose a project for the 53rd Venice Biennale, which will be assessed by the Ministry of Culture in Macedonia. I believe there are 10 other artists who have been proposed to give an idea and this will then be taken to a shortlist and one lucky person will be going to Venice next year. This is an amazing opportunity but am trying no to get too high about it, as there is still long way to go. I hope to find by the end of the summer who will be the lucky one.

So this is why I had to go back to Brighton to try and finish the proposal and send it to the NGM on time. The office here in the new house wasn’t really set up, I didn’t have broadband and my laptop was being cleaned and reinstalled by a friend in London.

Now I am back in Gloucester I have started slowly to get things working. I have an office and a desk in my new house with working computer and I can get on line. Is amazing how much depending we become to technology and find that we cannot do with out it. Isn’t that remarkable, how did I manage just few years back when I didn’t really have all this technology!!!!

On my first day here, yesterday I really got to know people and they new of me very quickly. I managed in 1 hour after arriving to break the front door key. It was very weird how it happen, I just put the key into the lock to open the door and tried to turn it and the key snap, but the bit of the key stayed inside the lock, so you can just imagined…. And all this happened just after I’ve been back to the office where I had a meeting and have forgotten my mobile, so I when to collect my mobile and in 5 min when back to ask for help. Luckily they managed to get the reminder of the key out without calling for locksmiths.

So not a very good start of the week but got to know few people.