I feel immeasurably better than I did this time last night; even though today as usual went slower than hoped, still partly due to the rain. But this evening unlike last night is fine and mild, I’ve just walked back through the woods encountering a young folks’ party on the meadow near the end of the walk, and a hedgehog just as I entered the campsite. I think today was enormously helped by having a steady, helpful and enormously sympathetic in all senses of the word helper, Helyer. .don’t really know how it’s spelt. Rather than the testosterone fuelled atmosphere that dominated yesterday. Tomorrow unfortunately Helyer won’t be around, but tomorrow is another day. Now: time for a nice shower and bed..
Probably the hardest day of the entire project so far, and yet one in which I must remember a lot did get done. Hard for various reasons: it was physically long – I left the cabin at 7.15am and got back just now at nearly 10pm; it was frustrating since I was unable to contribute much myself so spent a lot of time seeing how much I would need to do but unable to start; the weather, which began fair but rapidly deteriorated into atrocious; and it was depressing both because I realise how far my Danish has to go, and because I see how hard it will be to do work that is anyway hard under these conditions. The only sink and running water is a public portaloo which had a heroine addict ‘s bloody syringe on the floor today, there is no hot water, and the only way being offered of accessing the upper parts of the 4m high slanting sculpture which today was running with water is an ordinary ladder. I feel guilty about leaving Zach for so long and worried I will not finish in time. What was achieved today? The main structure is up.
Lying in bed in this cosy little wooden hut, I feel a bit like an explorer updating my blog. Being Scandinavian summer it is still quite light outside at 10pm and it is perfectly peaceful in this campsite in the woods.
I arrived in Århus at 4pm, miraculously the bus arrived bang on time; for a 4 hour journey that’s not bad! I went straight to the site and was greeted by my sculpture under a billowing tarpaulin but no one else. Soon Axel Arnott, the curator of the exhibition, turned up in a zippy little bug car. Amazing that a year ago we last met in this spot just after my piece was accepted for the exhibition..how time flies. We spent about half an hour pacing out where the sculpture might be placed before tomorrow, then he was off and I set out to find the campsite. It emerged that a bus only runs on weekends so I set off walking. It was a gorgeous walk through the beech woods above the sea and I could smell fish on the air. I kept seeing pegs denoting where sculptures will be, and at one point glimpsed the circular pier which looked great. Now about to get some sleep; the day starts at 8 and I’ll be leaving at 7.20 to walk through the woods.
I’m sitting on the bus waiting to leave Valby Station for Århus. After feeling apprehension bordering on an impulse not to go, I have started feeling the tiniest seed of anticipation, even excitement. It was triggered by the thought that the bus might just go by ferry over to Jutland. I can enjoy the journey before the work starts..
She’s gone…to Aarhus. The very nice freight man turned up early, which was great. He had an enormous truck, he had intended to collect another piece in Copenhagen but couldn’t actually get into the place so had plenty of room on the truck. Lars was a dab hand with the fork lift truck, which looks little but can certainly lift a hefty weight and together the two of them manoeuvred the three pallets with all the sections onto the lorry.
As the lorry moved off I felt quite a surge of emotion, not to mention doubt as to whether it would all arrive intact, but told myself I had to trust the experts. I hope I would have heard by now if it had all ended in disaster. All that was left in the workshop were the marks from my spray gun where I had gone along the lower edges of the panels. With the space empty, the labour seemed a thing of the long distant past. The joyful job of cleaning the floor will await me on Tuesday when I’m back from Aarhus.
I felt emotional tonight as well, at Zach’s bedtime. Feeling guilt about leaving him for so long, I left him overnight once before (which in effect were two days for him because I got back after bedtime on the second day), but this will be four nights and five days. He wanted me to put him to bed, I think he was a little upset by my being upset. I’m glad I did, it helped me feel better.
Tomorrow I leave on the midday bus for Aarhus.
