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

Looking at the departure board at Arlanda airport, we mused about where to go next.

Collaborating with other artists, is not just about exhibiting in their home town, it’s about swapping cultures, lifestyles and building friendships.

It was only four days, but we managed to pack a huge amount into that short time.  I don’t think I could fit the whole experience into just one blog, so I’ll try to condense it – revisiting at a later date.

We arrived Thursday night, met by artists Susanne Torstensson  and Sophie Elmen. We had collaborated with Susanne several times already, having initially meeting her and members of ArtMobile at Supermarket, the Stockholm Art Fair.

There were 3 works of theirs in our cases when we arrived, reminders of a past Liverpool Biennial exhibition – too heavy and delicate to post back.

Sleeping at Sophie’s, we were picked up Friday morning by another two members of Artmobile – Emma and Tapani, eager to show us the museums, galleries and sites of Vasteras.

Friday night saw the most bizarre and strangely intriguing exhibition I have ever taken part in.

We are so used to installing a certain way – measuring up, standing back, checking…taking into consideration what is either side of the work etc….  But artists arrived throughout the night, banging a nail in the wall, and hanging their work wherever there was a gap.

A toolbox lay in the middle of the floor all night, with everyone politely walking around it.

Music began. A deadly serious male, who looked like he had come straight from the office, playing what sounded like feedback and loud buzzing for an eternity, before rudely being interrupted by a man jumping about wearing a lace tablecloth and pith helmet. The second performance had begun.

The 2nd musician began his electronic sounds (which I liked a lot!)  merging into Susanne’s alter ego,  Barbie Swe, roller skating (badly) around the gallery area, urging us all to dance to Kraftwerk with her.

I seriously don’t think I have enjoyed a private viewing as much as this.

The plan for today was that I have a really long sleep, sit and relax for a few hours, then leisurely make my way to the airport.

In reality, my bedside clock is telling me that its 6.55 and I know I have been awake at least an hour.

I’m stressing about my work.

Instead of the tried and tested work I usually travel with, for some unknown reason, I decided to try something different.

I have three, very fragile, cones of tea.

Not only that, I have a perspex cube to display them in.  This was a last minute decision as I found the cube and it seemed a waste not to use it.

Fitting it into my small case though, along with the tea PLUS two pieces of work the Swedes had left when they exhibited here, means that I have very little space for clothes.

I’m hoping for good weather…

A few days from now,  I will be on a flight to Stockholm, along with fellow SCI ( and AIR ) members Elena Thomas, Jo Brown, Michael Borkowsky and Catherine Harrison.

I have been trying to find the time to write more about it, but you know how it is… working 6 out of the last 7 days and finishing off my work for the exhibition in the evenings, blogging is really low on the list of priorities.  I feel out of practice as well now, so I’m hoping this blog will be easier reading than my writing of it is :(

But here I am, sitting at the kitchen table on my one day off before we leave. I’ve started packing and done a heap of washing, and although the sun is beckoning me to go outside, I’ll try to get things up to date on here first.

Sooooo…

This will be the 4th International SCI (pronounced SKY) exhibition in as many years. (The first being at Small projects in Tromso, 2nd The Stockholm Art Fair – where really, this whole collaboration lark really escalated, Jamestown NY -as a result of meetings at the Art Fair  …and now this one – again through networking at the fair)

I set up SCI as a sister group to the long established Soup Collective and the collaborations, exhibitions and projects have escalated over the years. More info here    and on my other blog

Hopefully the others will be blogging about the exhibition too, but if not, I will update on my return.

It is a little nerve-wracking and will probably take some of us out of comfort zones – especially as we will be expected to talk (while being filmed) about our work to the audience.  Nothing ventured though I guess…

Newspaper  links:

http://vlt.se/kulturnoje/1.2929229-konst-fran-liverpool-hos-artmobile

I had a few hours in the studio today… more time in there than I’ve had for a while.

The wind was howling round the building and I could see the protective roof sheets rising and falling as the wind gusted up through the gables. I felt like a portion of the roof would go at any moment and it was incredibly distracting.

Odd as it sounds though, I wasn’t there so much to work, but to just think. A quiet space away from home.

A lot of exhibitions are coming up that are slightly out of my comfort zone, so I will need to adapt my work to fit.

I think that’s a good thing – to move in a completely different direction, even for a short time, to set free the rust that’s been clogging my brain.

I did a little drawing – Following a pattern I found on a really old piece of lino that I’d found on one of my walks. I’m going to be painting patterns on something, so this was quite a lucky find.

It’s less than 4 weeks till I exhibit in Sweden and despite being told what they would like us to show, nothing has surfaced.

The Swedes (who we met at The Stockholm Art fair in 2012) are more relaxed and spontaneous than I am. They have pointed out several of my works that they like, but still no guideline.

The work is to be performative and they will be filming it. Not having ever done a performance and dreading the thought of being filmed, I’m asking myself – ‘Why on earth did I agree to this?’

I seem to have longer and longer gaps between postings about my work. I AM working, it’s just that I’m quietly doing it in the background and not shouting about it.

As the studio has been freezing and there’s a scary mould growing on things because of the damp, I’ve been working a lot at home.

Our landlady (at the studio) has been totally sympathetic to our choice of mediums (3 of us work with paper) and has given us a free rent period to make up for the conditions.

Most appreciated!

So while at home, I’ve had to adapt to the smaller space and the fact that things need to go away between bouts of working activity ( my dogs like chewing my work )

Sooo… my recent work came about while absent mindedly putting teabags to one side, ready to bin or compost them. The tea represented my state of mind.  When trying to work something out, I make tea.  I didn’t realise I did it so much until I saw the growing stack.

Realising it was such a huge part of my working life, I wanted to incorporate it into my work.

The first attempts were simply glueing them together and painting on them. Ideas are developing, the more I work and I’ve recently put a stack together to be made into a book.

Early days yet (after all it has taken a while to go through over a 100 Tea bags ) but the pages are almost ready to be sewn together.

I’ve enjoyed this – it has been really therapeutic .