Invisible City – New work in Schiedam

Saturday 3 September

Today Invisible City is open during the day. 12.00 – 18.00. Today I will work on the rice paper screens that I prepared. They fit into the doorway, and are back projected. I will be inside the room, with only my shadow and the line that I draw as I follow people visible.

I have written some adapted rules for my drawing today, which have changed according to how I broke the rules on Friday.

->Pick up on one point of one person and follow (especially feet and hands)

->If that point is still then do not draw. Wait.

->It is ok to ‘collect’ a different person when they pass a point of stillness.

-> Use grey ink. 30 minutes

->Use fibre pen. 30 minutes

-> Use black ink. 30 minutes

I find that by making the video image/projection more visible from the main hall that people notice how I am responding to their movements more, and therefore play, and adapt their movements more. I can see in the projection when someone realises that I am drawing them. I can sense when they are testing me – they might move their hand, only to find that I am not following the hand, so they move differently. Sometimes they try to encourage me to pick up on that movement. Sometimes I stick steadfastly to where I am following, sometimes I give in and collect that movement and follow them.

The drawing builds up nicely, the japanses rice paper and ink giving the feel of Shoji Screens and Calligraphy.

Friday 2 September – Opening night performance.

My space was prepared with a projector inside the doorway beaming onto the back wall. The picture from the CCTV camera on the outside of the room appears on the brown kraft paper on the back wall. I have prepared the paper, by stenciling a sign post from Schiedam and three bollards – registering the correct size in relation to the projected image was a complication I had not thought of before deciding on this idea.

The opening begins, and Sigal Weissbein performs with the Rijnmondband. I wait to start my drawing until people have started exploring the space – a brass band is not conducive to people looking at the other works.

I have written some rules for me to follow when I make my drawing:

->Pick up on one point of one person and follow:

->If that point is still then do not draw Wait.

->only finish drawing that point of movement of the person when the person exits my view.

->Use Grey ink and white pencil.

->Swap medium with every exit (alternate people)

->Draw for 45 minutes. Stop. Break.

->Draw for 45 minutes. End

My notes following the end of the performance:

Need to follow feet more
Interesting how exposure to dance made the work feel more of a dance especially when the ‘partner’ was aware that they were taking part.
Following hands encouraged people to move/interact more
Very biased to R.hand side of paper because of position of doorway.
My steps felt more dance like – especially use of ‘stalking walks’
One person (Marieke) drew a smiley face.

Some rules I broke:

Sometimes I ‘collected a different movement/person when they passed a point where I was still.
Sometimes I changed the person I was drawing because the surface does not allow the ink to bleed.
I also used black fibre tip pen to create more contrast
I swapped media when required – this was an aesthetic judgement.
I only drew for 25 minutes during the second period (the audience had moved to an outdoor performance.

I’m writing this account a few days after the event, although the notes I’ve shared above were written at the time. With a little distance from making this drawing, I can say that I was happy with how it went at the time – I think that I have made some improvements to the process in drawings number 2 and 3, building on previous works and methods. However, I like the result of working on the brown paper – I’ll do it again.

Two days have passed since I last blogged – and in regarding an event that only lasts 3 days, that’s probably not enough.

It has however been a really good 2 days and I think I want to record more information through this blog than I should try to squeeze into one post. So I will break it down into sections (more for my own benefit and reflection than for yours) and then i’ll revisit the sections over the next few days and also when I get home.

Things I want to record here:

-On making instructions – overlaps between dance and performance art/interventions

-How each performance went and the results of that

– Ideas about process and product especially concerning temporary happenings and how I deal with that in my work. Including my concerns about how others see my output.

– Information about other artists works and how they have turned out for the public event.

– Conversations i’ve had with other artists about ‘what their job is’ – which reminds me of Emily Speed’s interviews with artists she met during her residency in Linz.

– about the space that we are working in, and how the shadowing cities team have brought it together – all the added extras that make this an event rather than a collection of artworks

Briefly though, I’ve made 2 drawings, both using projection, live feed and audience interaction. I’m happy with the process, and the results. I’ve met and spoken to a wide range of people (dancers, performers, artists, film makers, choreographers…) and feel that being out here for a week, concentrating on what I do, discussing it with others has consolidated some of my ideas about my work. I have ideas that I want to follow up on when I get home; drawings I want to make.

Tomorrow (Sunday 4th) is the final open day of the event. I plan to make a 3rd drawing and I am currently mulling over whether or not to include street furniture as a static point in the drawing – I think I have decided that I will, I just need to work out what to use to draw onto my third panel which is white cotton.

I’ve also been invited to take part in a ’round table’ conversation about Invisible City, so i’m looking forward to that. – that’s another post I’ll have to write!

So it’s 12 hours since I started making work this morning and I think i’ve accomplished a lot and resolved some of my earlier thoughts about trying to do too many things. I am doing lots of things, but I am refining them into separate pieces of work and revisiting methods and processes from other pieces of work – i’m not inventing, i’m recycling and refining.

As I mentioned earlier, i’ve resolved the problem of a too-small projection by using a mirror to reflect the image and extend the projection distance – genius! I’ll use that again.

I have tightened the rice paper on my screens by damping it and blow drying with my tiny, tiny hairdryer. I’ve also made sure that they fit securely and tidily in the doorway

For the rest of the afternoon i’ve been going through my photos of Schiedam street furniture and making some sketches. I’ve scaled them up and cut some stencils for me to rub graphite powder through onto one of the drawing surfaces i’ll use tomorrow.

The drawings that I will make will be too large to send home I think, but I have made some smaller studies that i’m really happy with and I think will look good framed, so that is something else that I had been wondering about that is sorted.

A brass band has just arrived in the space to rehearse for tomorrow – it’s amazing the breadth of things going on here, yet the crossovers that there are between different art works and different disciplines is amazing. It will be really interesting to see how everything comes together across the weekend.

Only 23 hours and 40 minutes left…

It’s all getting very exciting here. Elmer Koopmans and Andrea Jacobs’ sculptural chairs have arrived today and I can’t wait to climb up them. Mali Klein’s ‘City Dress’ is installed, and I caught a quick glimpse of Julieta Ortiz de Latierro’s animation.

It is great that there are so many people working here – I’ve found a solution to the projection problem (see image 5 yesterday) and have used a mirror to double the projection length and therefore the size of the projection on my rice paper screens.

I also took the opportunity to get up early and go to Schiedam Centrum station to take some 1 minute films during rush hour. It might be inaccurate to call it rush hour as there was no rush to be seen – only intermittent streams of people walking from tram to train station. I’ve got some films that i’ll use later though and i’ve also taken some pictures of street furniture that I plan to use in at least one of my drawings.

I’m going to spend the rest of the day working out what, where and if to draw onto any of my 3 pristine surfaces. All of the technicalities are sorted and it’s only drawing and interaction that I have to concern myself with now.