I'm overwhelmed with work at the moment. The money-earning kind.
I just got some pictures back that were taken on disposable cameras at the White Night debate, that seems such a long time ago now.
I've chosen this one because of the incongruity of the silly pose, my cheesy smile and the word 'revolt'.
What is the difference between taking a stand and taking a stance? Striking a pose?
I am lost somewhere between the blog that was about my Hirschhorn residency – which is now over – and the need/(desire?) for a blog anyway.
Before I can move from one to the other I have to define for myself what I mean by 'making art politically'. I am amazed that I haven't done that yet – and that you have let me get away with it.
I'll try.
I'm back in Fabrica today holding one to one sessions with artists for the arc scheme. It's good to be back here and in a different guise. I see that my blog has slipped to the third page of Projects Unedited and my last entry was on 19 November.
Where did the second half of November go?
Of course, Hirschhorn's banner has long been taken down. The war is over. But of course, it's not.
War is over.
I just fancied saying that again.
The artist I have just seen showed me work about protest. She had made contact with me during the residency so it was good to meet her in person and see more of her work. We talked a bit about Greenham Common and the legacy of feminism. I talked to her about my undergraduates and about how much the teaching of feminism now so often means starting from scratch and how The F Word is such a dirty one now among younger generations. We spoke excitedly about collecting the memories and the insights learned from earlier forms of activism.
I never went to Greenham. (That's a good title for a book). But I had some friends who did. I was too chicken. Scared of policemen and 'perimeter fences' and of what I might realise about the world. But it was, it is, an example of successful protest. And we need those examples.
I need to reflect on the residency and on everything I learnt. And I need to carry on writing, every day, or as often as I can.
