I am very excited. As well as getting ready for Unspooling my solo show at Tap is also coming together (at least in my head). I have decided on the title which (in part) is already up on the TAP website. I have located a chair (in need of a little repair) on which my novel will be placed and chosen the other works (mostly) that I wish to show. I have also made a new piece for the show which will be erected by the AA on the site marked on the photograph adjacent.
The title of my show is:
I was continuing to shrink, to become… what? The infinitesimal? What was I? Still a human being? Or was I the man of the future? If there were other bursts of radiation, other clouds drifting across seas and continents, would other beings follow me into this vast new world? So close – the infinitesimal and the infinite. But suddenly, I knew they were really the two ends of the same concept. The unbelievably small and the unbelievably vast eventually meet – like the closing of a gigantic circle. I looked up, as if somehow I would grasp the heavens. The universe, worlds beyond number, God’s silver tapestry spread across the night. And in that moment, I knew the answer to the riddle of the infinite. I had thought in terms of man’s own limited dimension. I had presumed upon nature. That existence begins and ends in man’s conception, not nature’s. And I felt my body dwindling, melting, becoming nothing. My fears melted away. And in their place came acceptance. All this vast majesty of creation, it had to mean something. And then I meant something, too. Yes, smaller than the smallest, I meant something, too. To God, there is no zero. I still exist!
The last two days have been taken up burning DVDs for Unspooling. each of the Pearlville films must be looped several times with varying volumes to allow them to come in and out of aural focus (I think I made this up) In reality as they are all different lengths and I have no desire to get into the drudgery of precise cueing sometimes they will all shout together or all whisper. Whatever happens I am sure it will seem planned though I do fear for the sanity of the invigilators. I also made a trip to the studio yesterday armed with a can of expanding filler. I had hoped to conjure something magical with a few well aimed squirts but as usual my manual skills did not quite match my imagination. It is fearfully sticky and sloppy stuff and my studio now has fungal growths where it previously had not. Still I made a couple of sculptures which I hope M will like
I have been searching for a style for my neon sign. A few years ago I derided the ubiquitous neon artworks to be found at Frieze. Now I find myself quite excited by them although I don’t like any of those pictured here. In addition to this I have been getting a quote from the AA for yellow sign for my show at Tap. I haven’t told Amy McKenny yet.
We are home now listening to a karaoke sounding rendition of a Rolling Stones classic emitting sporadically from the local pub. The lifestyle here is very different from that at Islington Mill and to some extent Miss Dover and I miss it. At our talk in the Cornerhouse Annex Mr Moisander and I were asked about our feelings about the Mill, we paused. This is not to say we had a bad time, we did not. We had a fabulous intense time and were looked after impeccably and generously by our hosts: Mr Carlin, Mr Campbell, Mr Bracey, latterly Mr Griffiths and also Miss Perks, Mr Harold, Miss Chan, Miss Leech and the other members of the team at Cornerhouse. But we did create for ourselves a sort of living hell. Here and now after a long sleep and a hot bath I am almost at last relaxed and beginning to pick up the strands of other projects and the loose ends that will need to be tied up before Pearlville can be unveiled.
Going through my photographs I have realised that I missed out many things in previous reports. I shall catch up with these details over the next few days.
I laid out my clothes for the day this morning. It was a complicated choice because they would have to last me until my In Conversation this evening. I opted for grey tweed trousers, black socks and a light blue Seersucker short sleeved shirt. An outfit I deemed both comfortable and smart. Seeing the clothes laid out reminded me that I had returned two nights ago to my room to find Miss Dover sitting up in bed wearing the very same shirt. She had said she was cold. I put it on and noticed a red tomato stain down the front. It seems Miss Dover had been hungry too.
I am now waiting in a little cafe waiting for Mr Bracey. We are to visit the Chinese Arts Centre before heading to the Cornerhouse.
