Jane Fordham, an artist from Brighton, had an opening at 118 Gallery in Lillie. The exhibition was print work and was very interesting the space was small but nice, almost like a corridor space that you walk through that opened to an outdoor courtyard and then another space with offices and computer room. There were few people visiting from Fabrica Gallery from Brighton, people from L’H du Siege, some other artist and curators so the night turned into an amazing party with music, drink and food.
Much more productive day at work, today in my studio I managed to do and finish few things and also met two interesting curators visiting from Brussels. Apparently very interesting place to visit: www.netwerk-art.be
Also tonight I met the family of a friends boyfriend who were very pleasant and nice people and had some very fine French food.
Not much has been happening with me here in France; hence I haven’t sent you any news. The last few days I’ve been working in my studio, working very hard to try and finish some of the skins before they turn and start to smell. Winter has arrived here in the north is so cold outside that even my studio is unbearable. Lucky for the skins but not for me, I walk up this morning with a very bad cold and now trying to keep and stay warm.
Couple of days ago Elsa, postgraduate in Digital Media, and me had some fun. She arrived at my place at 7pm with, an instrument that she hired from the university, ZOOM H4 – handy recorder, and we went out to try and capture and record some sounds from the subterranean of Valenciennes. I hoped that we will be able to find an entrance in one of the tunnels, I remembered the place where we wore suppose to met the man from the water before the tour got cancelled.
We had an interesting hour, we found the place and found one tunnel which was more of an under passage not an entrance to the subterranean. Was amazingly interesting what this little machine could capture, sounds that our ears couldn’t even hear. Although outside was raining and the car noises where bit loud we managed to capture something. Then after having some food we came back to my studio and we try to record different sounds from our stomachs.
I am having a complete nightmare out here everything is going wrong…. I went to the UK last weekend just for few days. I had an interview for a commission work with the Woodland Trust and Green Arc organised by Commissions East. I still haven’t heard about the results, so will see. I also had few other meetings and came back to France on Thursday afternoon.
I was given the good news about my metal structure that the company has agreed to help, that I only have to pay for the materials and they will do the work in kind, but have to supervise my self daily. Also had another good news that the Gallery has found a camera (Sony Z1) that we can hire and they have booked it for my visit to the subterranean on the 13th of November. So everything was perfect and everybody was happy.
On this evening there was also a party in the Gallery L’H du Siege. BMW has hired the Gallery to advertise two of they new minis and they have invited many people to the party where they gave lots of Champagne, snacks and sweets.
This evening I was advised or given a lecture about the hire camera and was asked that I have to be very careful with the camera because usually the artist has to give a5000 euro deposit as a holding check but in my case because I am English the Gallery has to pay the deposit! I was also asked to ‘promise’ that noting will happen to the camera!
I said that I couldn’t promise anything that I can be as careful as I can, but that I am going in a dark underground spaces and anything can happen, I may slip or fall but I was assuring them that everything will be OK. Also asked if there is a insurance for the camera, or if they can insure me through they gallery insurance?
Anyhow, next morning about 11am I had a knock on my door and Adelina came to tell me the bad news: First that my trip to the subterranean has been canceled and secondly that there is some problems with the metal works and have to go back to the factory to see the model again!!!
In regards to the subterranean apparently there is too much water to go under, but when I raised the question if the trip could be rebooked for another day they said “NO” and the reason for this is that is to complicate.
Regarding the metal structure apparently the factory has made one circle of the model and found out that is very difficult to do and now would like to revise the price or they may not be able to do the work as it is to time consuming?
So all in all a nightmare……… and the problem is that I am not sure how much aware they are of the problem this is going to cause with my exhibition?
Very quite day, it is a holiday today in France and nobody is working, everything is closed in Valenciennes and hardly a person to be seen on the streets, very strange.
I spend most of my day in the studio literally sawing pieces of tripe together. As the tripe is drying is becoming to hard to saw and join, so I’ve been trying to work as fast as I can to put them together before they go to hard. One thing is happening and I am not sure if I am happy about it or not, the colour is changing and they are going from creams to ochre to light brown. I don’t know why? If anyone has any ideas please email me?
