My work, reasons behind it and what happens to it.

I feel like my mind is working like one of those films that don’t start in the beginning…or the end… or the middle really. Just snippets are put together in the hope of it all making sense.

The last three weeks have just been crazy – I can’t even think of any other words to describe it.

To try to remember it all, I’ll run it backwards…

Haleh Jameli, the artist in residence for the ‘Translating the street’ project at the studio, left yesterday. She stayed at my house for the week.

Born and raised in Iran, she had been living in Scotland for a few years before moving down to Sheffield.  Although it was important that a Farsi speaking artist such as Haleh, could converse with the shop owners, the ACE funding we received, would not stretch to overseas travel.

It worked out really well. Haleh went to the Grocers daily, to document and record conversations – some of which of which she would relate back to me in the evenings.

I learnt so much myself from the project….about daily life in Iran for instance, even though I was really only a bystander.

By working six days last week and taking just one day leave this week,  I was able to spend a few days in the studio with her and also have the freedom to get out and about. My short working week though was still tiring as I was asked to prepare for a Matisse talk (which I will give tomorrow) I just couldn’t get my head into that study type of mind set though with so much going on around me.

My day off today was spent running through the talk again (in my head) while trying to get through things I’d put aside  -like getting through the mountain of washing that I couldn’t tackle in the week while I had a visitor.

I still haven’t posted the work back to everyone from the ‘Doesn’t look like a book’ exhibition at The Williamson that ended a couple of weeks ago. Its now mostly packaged up and all of the artists have been contacted to say that the work will be with them shortly…  that’s all I could manage.

Before Haleh came, I had a day out to Manchester with my friend. I hadn’t been there for absolutely  ages. As well as the Christmas markets, which were fun (but way to early to celebrate Christmas!) we went to the Manchester art Gallery. What an amazing building! I just loved the glass atrium, with its Anthony Gormley figure dangling precariously overhead.

While there, I also wanted to check out the Portico Library, as they had been advertising for artists to exhibit.  The library was beautiful, smelt of burnt wood for some reason and the guy showing us around was super friendly.

I was disappointed then on getting an email after I’d applied to say that they had received hundreds of applications. I was also a little surprised and wondered how many artists had actually checked it out before applying?  It wasn’t a ‘no’ though, but now I’m wondering if it was really what I wanted anyway?

This is the problem. Too many artists…hardly any opportunities.

The rest of time preceding this is a bit of a blur. I’ve worked, I’ve had a bad cold, I’ve been sorting work for a small group exhibition in a Theatre in January…..and I’ve been tired. Very tired.

Images from the ‘Translating the Street’ project can be found on the studio facebook page : Alternator Studio

I’ve finally made a start in sorting out my spare room ready for the artist to stay. (one of the 3 that will be resident in the studio soon – http://www.artinliverpool.com/international-artists-to-translate-the-street-for-alternator-studio/  )

I do have quite a small house, so this ‘spare room’ if you can call it that, is very much used for everything – it has a bed in it for  any visitors, it’s an extra studio cum storage space for my work, its somewhere to dump my washing,  and its also an extra space for the dogs (better not mention that bit to the artist I suppose)

It was while condensing boxes and boxes of my paper installations into less boxes, I discovered older works that I hadn’t thought about for a while.  It was such a thrill taking them out and reminding myself how I had made them – but also reminding myself of the endless, tedious months of sitting and cutting and glueing and the very reason I took a break from making them.  I realised though, how much I wanted to work on them again.

Stashed at the bottom of the boxes were two hard copies of a-n from 2011. I flicked through them again and I remembered how much I used to enjoy sitting down to read them, as I don’t read so much online now.

Budget cuts I suppose…

I took down the book exhibition at the Williamson Art Gallery on Friday – 5 days after it officially finished. I have to work round my days off.

Its always sad taking down an exhibition, but this one had gone really well. I hope all of the artists were as pleased with it as I was . I’ve got into the habit now of getting a review of the exhibition published as it always draws people to the website. Its had loads of hits and is still continuing to do so after the exhibition  https://sciartistprojects.wordpress.com/2015/10/28/doesnt-look-like-a-book/

I haven’t had time to send all of the work back to the artists yet – I need a full day to package everything . It’s on my very long ‘to do’ list though.

What else? Oh yes, I went to pick up my ceramic works, which had now been glazed and fired for the 2nd time. I can’t begin to explain how excited and thrilled I was to see them . I expected them to have exploded or at least cracked in the kiln (me being such a novice at it and all that) but they were perfect.

I didn’t enjoy the process so much at the time because I felt it was all out of my control. I’m used to planning a design and having a rough idea how it should look when finished, so this was uncomfortable for me having to ask what to do next all of the time.

I know now though, so I think I will pursue it further :-)