I’m amazed that this is my first blog post of 2023, but then I suppose it reflects pretty accurately how much has been going on since the start of this year – life events, mainly – not art-related stuff. It feels like there’s been a shift in focus this past week and so, here I am – back in blog writing mode and also starting to feel back on the proverbial saddle with regards to thinking about and making work …
Perpetuity: the state or quality of lasting forever versus Precariousness: the state of being dangerously likely to fall or collapse
I’ve been looking through recent photographs of objects, taken in a corner of my existing studio. There’s something about the overall sense of shabbiness of this corner that frequently suits the objects I place there for photographing – the light is good, too.
Nobody’s sure of the time scale yet, but the studio building’s about to be redeveloped – knocked down, essentially – my studio with it, alongside those of yet another community of artists, being moved on. The gentrification of Deptford has been evident for quite some time now but it doesn’t seem that long ago that a community of artists was moved on from Cor studios in Creekside. I was a part of that group, too.
Cor studios, when they were there, and currently ArtHub studios, neighbour the APT gallery and studio complex. The ‘P’ in APT stands for perpetuity – the state of lasting forever. What a brilliant investment the APT artists made when they bought the building. How lovely it must be to have the comfort and sense of security of knowing that you’re able to hold onto your studio – forever. In contrast, for many artists, the P so often stands for precariousness.
It looks likely that once planning permission is 100% granted, the entire ArtHub studio building will be knocked down. I’ve been wondering if the new developers would allow me to keep a part of my existing studio – just this small, corner part of it, so that I continue with my ‘From the studio …’ photographs of objects. It’ll probably be far too impractical & complicated to manage – too heavy, probably to take away, but on the basis of nothing ventured, nothing gained, I think I might give it a shot. Or perhaps in time, I’ll look at losing the studio as just another challenge – another step on my journey of letting go, in all senses of the word. Let’s see …
