It’s been a while again since I updated! Partly because it’s all behind the scenes stuff right now and I have been simultaneously working on three other projects on top of Made in Korea: my current public art commission, a tile commission for a private house and several new permanent installations at The Ceramic House. So, I have been a bit busy!
Obviously, the commissions are great, as it is how I make a living. However, I concede it is not ideal timing to be attempting to make three new external floorpieces and a grand new entranceway into The Ceramic House! In fact, I even have /(had) plans to make a ceramic water feature too, but I think I really might have to throw in the towel for that one at this moment in time! I have been planning, for quite some time, to have the house ‘finished’ (if that ever really happens!) by the time of this Korean show, as it is my biggest project so far and celebrates the seventh year of curating exhibitions here. Next year I plan to take a year out, so I really do want to get it all done now!
Another plan that has been in place for quite a long time now is to remake the website, and, again, this must happen by the time the show opens in May. So, I really do have my work cut out for me (as does my web designer).
So, what has been happening behind the scenes I hear you ask? A lot of admin mainly. I have been writing to the artists and gathering all the information I need to get this show on the road. Predictably, one artist has dropped out. There is always one. But that is fine, because I had a lot, maybe too many, already. So now I have a neat number of 15 Korean artists in the two exhibitions (Brighton and London), plus me in the London one, plus two artists in residence who will be here during May and June. (And that’s not including any of the sound artists, but that whole aspect of the project is pending a successful funding bid.) All the artists have been sending me all the things I have asked for – statements, biographies, photos, captions, and I have been duly chasing people up, re-writing or collating or sometimes actually writing statements for the website because they have been clearly translated from Korean in Google Translate (or some other such programme) and don’t make much sense at all! The website updates are done, with a page for every artist. You can see it all on www.theceramichouse.co.uk
I have been preparing text and images for various brochures that will feature the Ceramic House show. The good thing is, the quality of all the Korean work is consistently excellent, which helps to get media attention.
I have been having meetings with my web designer for months now about redesigning The Ceramic House website. The problem is, it is so content-heavy, that it is a mammoth task to port everything over, and so merely investigating how best to do this has taken all the time available up until now. I just don’t have the kind of budget required to build the entire thing from scratch, that is a lot of work for a designer to do. I’m getting a bit nervous about whether this will happen on time. I am also discussing the flyer/poster, which is imminent as I need to get postal invites out within the next few weeks.
I have been liaising with Sladmore Contemporary and discussing what needs to be done in terms of getting the show ready for them. I think this will be a good learning curve for me, to see how a commercial gallery operates. Already I have been sent a spreadsheet that requests minute detail about every piece of work that will be in the exhibition. Sometimes artists provide me with this kind of detail, and sometimes they don’t and I just have to wait and see what is in the box! So already I am learning to be a bit more assertive.
I have decided not to rush my new Korea-inspired work in time for London Craft Week, when we are having a mini preview of Made in Korea at Sladmore. It opens the day before my exhibition at The Ceramic House, so although I will curate it, to be trying to finish work that realistically needs more time is, quite frankly, mad, as I need all the time I can get just to get it done by the opening at Sladmore in July (on top of all my other obligations).
I have written the press release and have been sending it off to all the ceramic magazines I can think of. Next on my list are all the art magazines. There is a PR company who promotes the Artists Open Houses and sometimes they focus on my house and when they do, it works, and I get loads of press on top of what I can generate myself. So hopefully they will again this year… I’ve sent them everything they asked for. I reckon an artist-led sound and ceramics project about Korean and British work involving multiple artists, exhibitions, a new residency, new commissions and a geo-locative sound app in Stoke and Seoul merits the interest, so here’s hoping. Today I got my first positive response from the press I have been contacting. Ceramics Monthly, the foremost magazine on ceramics in the USA is going to do a feature!
