How We Live | exhibition:incentive:project

CONTINENTAL DRIFT

Much time has been given over recently to making drawings of images on a computer screen of places that I have never been. The images are of friends houses that live in far off places. As a way of truly getting a feel for a place that I may never actually get to visit I have decided that I will be placing myself in the pictures; the question is how to do that accurately with no frame of reference as to scale or positioning. Facebook has proved a marvellous invention with its access to old friends and a chat facility; strange text conversations have provided me such information as to my friend’s height, the height of his doorway and whether or not his street is flat or inclined; now to try and translate these facts into the drawings.

As an aside I have decided to try and include the participants in my drawing project into another idea that will run in tandem over on this blogs sister page at www.howwelivecollective.blogspot.com. I will be trying to get them to all send me an image or two taken at the same time on the same day wherever in the world they may be. Hopefully the resultant blog will be posted late next week for this.

For now back to the drawing board – quite literally!

B x

The first time I tasted roasted beetroot was with fresh potatoes from my horticulturist friend’s allotment in central Leeds where I used to live and walk every day: I remember the taste – I also remember her generosity too. There was never too much of an exchange apart from the company and conversation and plans to make innocent people steal wine for us from the co-op: occasionally however drawings were made, given to her for her trade – as it were.

It is this form of exchange that we are currently exploring as we now live with the whole of Northern England stretched before us. The days of traversing from one end of Hyde Park to the other for my feed have gone. We have the odd phone call but that’s not enough. There was a moment where a gratin was made in my home town, we had wine and shared a few records of the Mac: but there was little fresh produce in use, just odd bits and bobs collected from my parents garage/larder/rubbish heap – and the scratch of the disused 12-inch.

She began to talk of another drawing she wanted. A commission for her friends’ engagement present: I mentioned money and she turned away her face.

We had just finished our meal and were on pudding – but all I could think of was the redness of her allotment grown beetroot. I said – just as Sarah had wound in to action on the greatest hits of Fleetwood Mac record – in exchange for a drawing she could send me packages of freshly grown produce through to my address in Scotland. Here face lit up – perhaps it was the wine but it reminded me of the beetroot again.

I’d have gratin and beetroot in my flat in Glasgow: fresh organic fair without the expense of the West End where I reside. A good steady flow of food to cook and enjoy – just like the drawing would pass through her hands and be send over in gratitude to her marrying friends. She’d bestow the best present at the party and I wouldn’t have to shop for a month!

This is not something that I consider a favour for a friend. It’s a serious embodiment of creative exchange – she uses her allotment like she sews and collages organic forms on the pictorial textiles she exhibits. The allotment is a private place in some ways. Sometimes you get invited to help burn wood and stroke the rosemary but deep underneath is where the red beetroot lies. Its as if she enters a world of her own to draw it out. When it is drawn its like the end product of a creative process, it enters the oven to roast like a drawing of mine would set itself within a frame.

I have now begun to frame the drawings with the measurement – size and intellectual visualisation of found architectural material. That’s Fleetingwood Mac for you.

IT’S LESS ABOUT ARRIVING THAN IT IS ABOUT THE JOURNEY

What seemed like a fait accompli five months ago has now become an ongoing concern.

At first it seemed simple – do away with anything site specific, audio visual or built that would wind up as piles of scrap material in the basement after shows over. Create something that would result in a small finished piece that would still be a finished piece when the exhibition is done with.

Well that was the plan behind How We Live at The Midnight Bell last December, my contribution being a small series of framed pencil drawings concerned with the built environment. Along with Sarah and Richards work that also looked at how we shape the environment we inhabit it all seemed nice and compact – complete even, a little snapshot of three peoples musings on life.

What was a small display of drawings and textile pieces by three artists that would last for three months has become a group effort involving four artists, collaborative work and blogs that will dissect working patterns over the course of the coming year. An overnight stay at The Midnight Bell has been just what was neccasary to re-invigorate the idea and set us on the road again . . .

LANGUAGE – DESCRIPTION – NOTATION – CONSTRUCTION

I am sat in Leeds in a flat that belongs to someone, someone who I don’t know: I am listening to radio four and they had some kind of feature on how material produced on tax contributions contains difficult and impenetrable language. It made me think that much of what I write is equally as problematic and at times isolating… How much does an artist need clarity in how he writes about his work… and what sort of (and how many) contexts does he need to consider (yes I am a he, so this can only mean I am one of two in this group of four).

At times I am deliberately unintelligible as I enjoy the paradigms that arise between thought and action and making and how these tie together in a neat little knot: the knot of grammar and sentence structure and paragraph formatting. This notation within intonation is a happy space for me, it allows me to be descriptive as well as sculptural with my words.

I HAVE THIS NOTE BOOK. THIS NOTE BOOK IS JUST FOR NOTES AND NOTHING ELSE. I FIND MYSELF BEING VISUAL WITH THESE NOTES AND THERE IS A FINE LINE BETWEEN BEING DESCRIPTIVE WITH LANGUAGE AND THE MAINTAINING OF A STREAM OF CONCIOUSNESS. I have given myself a rule that prevents me from drawing within this notebook. I take it to work with me. It fits in my bag. And almost, just about – with a bit of a squeeze – fits in the pocket of my burnt orange fat face hoody.

Within this I find myself visualising my drawings through the interactions of people that I see and also through attaining a description of the spaces that I inhabit. My drawings then, they are constructed through written thoughts – a tangible and recorded language that takes on many a form and then ends up as a drawing – perhaps a further recording.

I am working on a commission. I am finding it difficult.

As four individuals with an underlying connection of having sustainable working practices and methodologies, this small collective will work with each other’s strengths and weakness in realising new work which may take the individual out of their comfort zone. Through the act of openness and collaborative spirit that is emerging, partly as a by product of the internet interaction going on between the four artists this will enrich their experience of collaboration and the development of new skills.