Me Then Now is quite demanding and its strength is showing forcing me toward a difficult decision: persevere or give up? I believe the work has value. The most readily accessible part is the making of ephemeral portraits on a street as I pass through to which the majority of the passive audience are indifferent, a small minority jeer and another minority enquire or compliment. In my earning capacity I am being pressured to dress in a conventional manner for such is the strength of the work that I have been told it will compromise my professional credibility. That my attire is part of the work that gets its meaning through longevity would be undermined by this and the work would end. My forays into the Live Art network have met with little interest and it has not been possible to make a connection with an established body or by my own efforts bring in a sustaining income. There are so many shouting for attention and my voice does not carry. Nonetheless I believe in the work.
So I am beginning to confront the possibility of ending a work that I am confident has much potential for addressing the role of history in culture and society whether in Architecture or Art. My aim is toward a deep understanding of Then through immersing myself as much as possible in Then. This means giving myself over to the work and in drawing out from within, giving that momentum and then allowing it to change me. In that is a work and from that comes work.
Watching “Scenes from an Execution”, written after my time but the choice of a friend and a very good choice, I was taken with the wonder of theatrical performance for the first time in quite a long time. It is so very creative, though outside my own practice I was buoyed by the performance. Standing before the Corot in the National Gallery I feel much the same. The play raised questions of the artists’ right to expression under patronage. This applies to Architecture as well as Art and seemed to conclude that taking the risk may cause embarrassment to the establishment, may bring censure, but an enlightened establishment will in the fullness of time recognise the value nonetheless.
