Writing the letter of support the artists showing with Glitter Ball at Juxtapose Art Fair made me think about what my ambitions for Glitter Ball really are. It took a couple of days, some cycling between home, gym, and studio, and some post gym stretching and some cooking to come up with this:
Our aim is to support, expose, and facilitate engagement with and across, practices that might otherwise remain annexed or isolated.
I think that quite neatly sums things up! It is explicit without being restrictive. It creates structure without limiting possibility. It encourages thinking and defines terms for framing activity. I feel that this is a sentence that I will often return to.
Participating in Juxtapose is exciting. I don’t really know what to expect in terms of outcomes. Being there is an outcome in itself, however I am curious see what opportunities might arise and what trains of thought are set in motion. Focussing on projects makes sense now that I don’t have a regular showroom. I like the idea that one or maybe two projects per year is something that is sustainable with my minimal resources, and that no two projects need be alike.
Participating in an art fair is a project, so would be an exhibition exchange programme, or facilitating a residency, or starting a reading group.
I am reminded of the characteristics of a/the physical material glitter ball – it is multi-facetted, reflective, in-motion. It is precisely how I want to work. When I chose the name Glitter Ball it was because I wanted something fun – Glitter Ball showroom & projects (2018) came several years after creating the first glitter ball artwork (2009) and a few years after my attempt to establish ’glitter as methodology’ (2014/15). Now I can see that beyond the trashy, brash, kitch, and camp there is something intelligent, sensitive, necessary, and hopeful in those little sparkles of light in an all too darkening world.
