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

Today, I’ve mostly felt like a monkey in a cage. There’s only one thing worse than invigilating….and that’s sitting in a room with a multitude of noses pressed up to the glass and unblinking eyes staring me out.

Oh actually, there is one more thing worse….letting kids run into the unit and their parents thinking it’s OK for them to grab my work.

But that was really only a very small part of today.

Yesterday, was another story. Our private view at Tate was, for want of a better word – fabulous! I was getting used to the poor attendance at PVs in the last few weeks, so with this in mind, I went out and only bought enough wine and soft drinks for about 25 people. My poor estimation lead to someone running out across the road to the local Tesco for a couple of extra boxes! This isn’t normal Tate policy of course…… they’d given us a room to hang our work in, an adjoining one to lay out the drinks, a couple of staff for security and we were pretty much left to our own devices. To which we are eternally ( well for two weeks ) VERY grateful.

Now I am hungover and tired and not really looking forward to another day in my cage tomorrow.

I’ve just been sent an email in response to a press release I sent recently. To make my blurb sound more interesting (I assume) would I please answer the following questions?

What’s happening?

Why should we come?

What shouldn’t we miss?

Amazing art fact? (In relation to your work, either directly or indirectly)

Any special dates?

Your Biennial in seven words

Just great. As if I can think of any intelligent answers while I’m stressed out about the two exhibition openings (one tonight)

Brilliant that they got back to me though as many press releases just get deleted!

It’s been quite a tough week. With spending so much time installing in the unit on Tuesday, I asked one of the people helping with the other installation at Tate, if they would secure some of my houses on the plinth while I was working on the other exhibition. It was such a simple job, I really thought it could be done by anyone in quite a short time.

Much later that evening though, I got a call saying that my installation ‘was wrecked’. I couldn’t believe it. I think I tossed and turned all night worrying about it, even getting up at one stage to see if I could make a few more houses in the middle of the night.

It took me about an hour to repair it, so it wasn’t too bad, but I did learn a valuable lesson. If you want something doing………….



Sometime late afternoon today, I’d reached a point where I just wanted to tip the contents of all my boxes on the floor ,leave them in a tangled mess and go home.

I was so tired and agitated… sick of people staring at me through the window…determined not to look up when two teenage boys were singing ‘all by myself’ louder and louder, trying to catch my attention…. and ignoring spoilt kids who kicked the window because they wanted to come in to see the planes…

Yep – I suppose the ‘all by myself’ thing was pretty apt and I admit, It must have looked strange to an ‘outsider’ to see a grown woman ‘playing’ with planes, ships and houses for over 5 hours!

I need some helpers if I’m going to do an installation of this size again.

I’d left a gap through the middle of the installation so that I could still get to the light switch and the storage area at the back, but I wasn’t sure if broke the installation up too much. In retrospect, I could have set out a pathway down the side somehow, but I think I’d got to the point where I just couldn’t think straight.

I am off work tomorrow, but i think I’ll stay at home and have a ‘proper’ day off so that I can get my thoughts together again. I’m then in work for two days, but I’ve made plans to be back in the unit Saturday and Sunday for a couple of hours.

Really, I’d prefer to just leave the installation so that people can view it through the window, but when I set out the planes last month, I suddenly found that images of my work were appearing on flickr under ‘Biennial images’. It was hugely flattering, but I think that if they are going to take photos, I would like them to get the best angles!

Another day of trying to sort out an exhibition while on my lunch break at work…….. this one is a small group exhibition at Tate, but thankfully, there were enough of the other artists around to help install.

I’d requested a large plinth for my houses installation and was a bit surprised to see the actual size of it. I laid out 40 of my tiny paper houses in the middle and although the plinth / house ratio made them look pretty tiny, I think the balance works.

I have to go back and secure them somehow tomorrow…..while also working on the large installation in the empty shop unit. Tonight I should really work on press releases and other publicity, but I’m not sure I can muster up any sensible sentences after running around today.

This has all made me think about recent a-n tweets about open exhibitions and costs involved. I stopped entering these type of exhibitions ( the pay for ones) about two years ago. It wasn’t just the cost – though I must admit that did factor into it quite a bit ! It was just as much about losing my identify. I think one year, I was involved in about 15 exhibitions – or some other ridiculous figure. Some were open exhibitions, the others were mixed group shows. I’d paid out a fortune and put a huge amount of work into all of them and yet no one could remember my name.

I don’t know if it’s wrong or not to want some sort of recognition, but it would have been nice!

So this year, I’ve only applied for two ‘open’ exhibitions – neither of which I had to pay for. The first was for ‘Bound’ -an artist’s book exhibition, which was shown in Leeds City Library and will tour. I hadn’t really made books before, so I wanted to enter this as it really stretched my ability to produce something from different materials. The other open was for ‘Journeys’ at the Chapel Gallery, West Lancs. Again, I made new work – to their theme and was really pleased with the results – especially as I was able to show an installation and not be restricted to framed, wall mounted work.

All I had to do for both of those, was to deliver my work – they did the rest. For the other exhibitions I’ve been involved with this year, I’ve had to deliver , install, invigilate, do the press releases…..and sit anxiously waiting for feedback. It has been very hard AND very tiring, but I do feel more of a sense of achievement.

I’ve just had an email from the people managing the unit that I’m about to take over next week for my exhibition, saying that my a-n public liability insurance expires at the end of October. That’s odd I thought, as I only renewed it at the end of September.

I got out the policy and looked at it. On the address bar with my details, it clearly states that the expiry date is 30 – 09- 2013, but in the actual wording of the document, it says that the period of insurance is 1 November 2011 – 31 Oct 2012.

This is a nightmare! Although I can still go ahead and put my work in the unit, I can’t open to the public. I need to contact someone at a-n ASAP!!

If you are reading this – help!!!