Project Me

Arlanda airport – waiting for the plane to Riga where I am on a three week “experimental art” residency – I have no idea what to expect!
I am excited to be embarking on my first proper residency – other ’residencies’ have been self initiated, this is an established programme that I applied for. I even received a small project grant from my local council – where I have taken leave from my job as arts educator to do the residency.

I find myself thinking back to the Goat Island summer school that I attended in 1996. Maybe because I am travelling with clothes – warm clothes as I have been warned that it’s cold in Riga, and in the old factory/industrial building where we will be living and working – a sketchbook, computer and camera, but no materials, which is how I arrived in Glasgow for that project. The summer school was performance based so perhaps I will find myself making performance/live work on the residency. I know that we (six international artists) will be be doing somethings collaboratively, that there are some guest workshop leaders, and after reading an email earlier this morning I know that there will be some outdoor activities.

It is probably a good thing that the last few weeks (months) have been so intense, I have not had time to overthink what I might be doing. I am excited to see what happens!

Blackholes residencies

I am at the studio after having spent my first night in my new apartment in Uppsala – not that I have properly (actually?) moved yet. I got the keys to the apartment on the 6th September but won’t move there until 14th October – it was only on Tuesday this week (20th September) that I sold the apartment in Enköping. I could not think about moving until the current apartment was sold (never good to show an empty apartment to potential buyers). Now the contracts are signed and the new owners want to move in one month! I was expecting at least three months – which is usual here – and to do some decorating before I moved however a faster move has serious financial benefits so I am not complaining!

So, here I am having enjoyed cycling through town to the studio this morning – such a different experience to cycling in Enköping – feeling very happy and content about living here (albeit more like camping at the moment), and thinking that I would write a post about the show in Enköping closing or perhaps something about Brad Pitt’s exhibition in Finland … however …

Just as I pulled up a clean page to begin writing my telephone ’pinged’ – a message from the head of education at the Uppsala Art Museum asking if I am interested in some work there. She had mentioned the possibility when we met at Klas and my opening in Enköping, it seems a curious coincidence that she gets in touch on the first day that I am ’living’ here – something in the air?

We are going to talk more this evening after the presentation/discussion about the artists’ club that I am taking part in at the museum. I think that I need a calming cup of tea … my mind is racing through all kinds of possibilities from a one-off workshop to being a part of the education team at the museum … all of it very exciting and rather unexpected despite it having been vaguely mentioned before.

I must not jump the gun but it is very interesting to wonder whether I might soon be leaving Enköping entirely. My plan was to settle in here, then look for work opportunities while continuing with my position at the council in Enköping. With the impending economic crisis and likely shift to the right in the local council (election results are declared but the composition of the council very unclear) there is an inevitable question over whether or not the long awaited Culture Centre will go head. And even if it does get approved it will take two to three years to be complete. I also have quite definite views about how the Creative Workshop should be run – starting from an all encompassing concept of sustainability. That should be a given but I am already aware that I will meet resistance from certain factions. Nor I am interested in it being kitted with 3D printers (as has been suggested) which are neither appropriate nor environmentally friendly in this context.

I would love the opportunity to teach at the museum and to work with both the collection and temporary exhibitions. I like and feel at home in the education rooms at the museum, they are pretty well resourced and ordered but also sufficiently chaotic so as to feel that anything and everything could happen there. It would be the natural next step for me in terms of my pedagogic work.

Yesterday evening Klas and I made our ’Meet the artist …’ presentation to the arts association (and their guests) that runs the gallery where Rest is showing. The evening did not go as planned, and it was very successful! Klas and I had sketched out a (very) rough plan: short general introduction, ten to fifteen minutes each talking about our practices, references, education, and then some questions to each other about the social role of art. The whole whole thing lasting no more than forty minutes – tops.

We never got to discussing our practices*, the entire hour (and even the following hour of informal discussion over cheese and wine!) was very much focussed on the exhibition. We made what I now think was a very wise decision to sit for our presentation. This immediately made everything more informal and (evidently) discursive – which had always been out intention even if we were not sure that we would achieve it. Having been at a good number of Meet the artist evenings I am aware that some times there is an awkwardness in the air that somehow stifles attempts att dialogue. We did not have to worry about that last night! As we round off talking through how we arrived at, and think about, the title the member who has bought ’Kiss’ asked a question … and we were off! What followed was a very enjoyable and enlightening discussion with questions, reflections, and observations from several of the audience, Klas spoke elegantly and concisely, and I apparently spoke engagingly and emotionally. One of the most active members – she and her husband attend nearly all of these evenings as well as the openings, and they even hop in and invigilate when no-one from the committee can – came up to thank me and expressed a wish that every artist could speak to clearly and intelligently about their work. Needless to say I got a bit teary, which I had also done during the evening when speak about grief and grieving.

During the presentation/discussion I realised that I had unconsciously done something that now seems very significant. I had placed two flag works at the furthest possible distance from each other: the black flag leaning into the south-west corner of the first room is the piece furthest from the two silver flags fluttering and flying from the flag poles up the hill fifty metres north east of the gallery. I am so pleased to have had this realisation, insight, in to my own work/curation. Taking just my pieces into consideration the first in the exhibition is ’Kiss’ – two small wine glasses locked in an embrace, the second is the black flag – an undeniably heavy and intense piece, the final piece is two glittery sparkly silver flags fluttering high in the sky. It would be almost perfect if the silver flags blew away on the breeze … upward and onward to new adventures … no longer bound to the earth … released … free

*of course our practices were implicitly spoken of through paying attention to the works on show.

This afternoon’s meeting with the principle of Wiks Folkuniversitet*, Konstframjändet Uppland*, and three other artists/mentors has been postponed as the principle has Covid. So I find myself at home with nothing specific to do … I can’t remember the last time that happened. I have a slightly nagging feeling that there is something that I should be doing, and it is true that there is a pretty long to do list bouncing around my head … however there is nothing that must be done this afternoon, so it seems perfect to spend time reflecting on Rest.

The exhibition of sculptures and installations (?) across the art association’s three galleries and including an outdoor piece installed on two nearby flagpoles makes me very happy, and by all accounts it makes other people happy too (even if ’happy’ may not be exactly the right word). Klas described the first room as having a definite sense of foreboding, I agree so I guess I am experiencing a certain level of meta-happiness – happiness that the show works. Conversations at the opening were both practical and philosophical, sometimes both simultaneously: I do enjoy when someone asks ’what is it?’. Such a deceptively complex question.

I was really pleased and touched that several artist colleagues came over from Uppsala. Their support and encouragement means a great deal to me and goes (quite) some way to explaining why I value my time at the studio there. It’s been a while since I felt myself a member of a physical peer-group – the last time was over ten years ago with Crystal Palace Artists. It was also fantastic that some colleagues from the culture and arts department came, including the head of sport, culture and tourism. Other artist and creative friends were there too and it was great to finally get to introduce some of them too each other – two in particular who though very different are both committed to making their homes in to rural hubs for international events and exchanges. Both are currently living in construction sites as they redevelop and extend former industrial and commercial buildings to accommodate not only their families but also exhibitions, workshops and residencies. For all my avoidance of hosting parties I am more than pleased when an opening works in similar ways.

In the first gallery one of the two pieces that I am showing is an untitled black flag. It is a thin but heavy weave on a matt black wooden pole, the outer edge is neither hemmed nor treated in another way – it is raw and frayed. The flag on its pole leans into a corner of the room. In the second gallery the untitled blue (sequin) flag hangs out from the wall on polished metal furnishings. The navy-blue sequins are dense and the flag weighty (it took several attempts to mount it before Klas found a solution that worked with the soft brick of the old walls). The sparkle of the sequins gives lightness and glamour to what would have been a very sombre and imposing work were it not twinkling away like a disco relic. In the third gallery a vintage set of (decorator’s?) wooden steps stands almost in the middle of the space. Each tread and the platform is covered in loose glitter. The glitter changes from dark, almost 100% black, on the lowest rung to light, almost 100% silver, on the platform high up. Dazzling small pricks of light dance across the horisontal surfaces from floor to head height. The pieces stands centre stage, the other eight works in the room seem to be in its orbit.

These three pieces perhaps encapsulate the essence of my work in the show: the work of grief.

The Swedish word for grief is sorg.
The Swedish word om is a preposition meaning about, of, by, again, and even round (in a spatial sense).
The Swedish word omsorg [om+sorg] means care, even attention, or concern.

Writing this I am starting to imagine a new work: a Bruce Nauman-esque neon piece sequentially flashing:

omsorg omsorg omsorg

… definitely a piece for the ’proposals’ section of my website.

It would be wrong to finish without mentioning that I sold a piece at the opening. It actually looks as though I have sold it and a second version! The work in question is a very modest sculpture made of two small vintage wineglasses, one standing (resting?) on the other, on small enlarging (convex) mirror. The piece in the show was snapped up by one of the committee who has an impressive art collection in his apartment, the second will more than likely be bought by the art association as one of this year’s acquisitions. I am very excited by this – the collector knows his stuff and apparently expressed his immediate interest in buying it, and the association (if the committee back the chair’s suggestion) will have bought something far more representative of my practice than the framed print that I thought might appeal to them.

*the terms Folkuniversitet and Konstframjändet are tricky to translate into English because they both are intrinsic to Sweden’s post second world war socialist ambitions. Folkuniversitet is literally The People’s University, established to enable working (class) people to study the equivalent traditional degree subjects. It has gone through a number of changes since the 1940s and now offers a range of courses – one of which is pretty close to the British arts foundation course. Konstfamjändet is literally Arts Promotion, this organisation was also the product of mid-century Swedish socialism. It grew out of the workers’ movement and aimed to make the arts accessible to those other than an (upper) middle-class elite. It fell out of popularity in the more materialistic 80s but has had an upswing and found new purpose in the last ten years.

The last three days have been great. I have really enjoyed putting together the show with Klas. As I finished up this evening I had to admit to being very pleased with how everything looked. Just over four years ago Klas and I showed together at Målhammar, and just like four years ago the process of working together has been simple and inspiring – a pleasure. I could not ask for a better co-exhibitor.

There are some pieces which could belong to either of us, and some which are definitely our own. The works play off and with each other well. If there is something that unifies the exhibition it is perhaps our shared passion for materiality. In our discussion with the local writer and journalist Gunilla Edström it became very clear that both Klas and I want our practice to extend beyond whatever motivation(s) we may have had to create the work: the work has to work on its own (material) terms. And without wishing to sound too smug, I think that everything in Rest does that.

Klas’ material of choice is wood, mine cloth, though we have both dabbled in the other material. Yesterday Klas revealed that he took a foundation course in textiles including lacemaking before studying fine art sculpture. My final project at Dartington was in principle a piece of wooden furniture requiring me to learn a significant number of carpentry skills. Perhaps there is something in our histories that lends an ease to our co-curating of our shows. Again, just like four years ago, we each turned up with a number of pieces which we had not specifically named or shared images of beforehand. Of course we aware of what each other is doing but now that I spend most of my studio time in Uppsala and that Klas has been busy with other projects we have less day-to-day contact and knowledge about what the other is up to. That did not seem apparent was we quite smoothly started placing works in each of the three galleries. With just one or two re-positionings things were pretty much settled.

Each room has a distinct character – it’s just that I am not sure what that is yet … but I know that they are there. I look forward to getting to know the exhibition over the coming weeks – not that I will be invigilating, that is taken care of by the art association’s management committee. After tomorrow’s opening we have a ’Meeting with …’ evening for the association’s members and guests. This will be held in the gallery, how and what the exhibiting artists choose to present is open and the majority settle on a blend of biography and practice (inspiration, technique, working process). We are thinking of something more discursive, extending from our studio practices to encompass our broader work in the cultural sphere. Both Klas and I work in the visual arts sector, Klas as a consultant for public art agencies as well as a project leader, and I have my educator role. We both are on management committees for arts organisations, and we both have strong opinions on what is required to develop and support artists professionally. I think it might be interesting to speak about this for, and with, the association members – most of whom are art-lovers rather than being artists themselves.

The discussions that we have had while installing and over lunch have been lively, ranging from our frustrations with time demanding bureaucratic systems and our limited time handling materials to concrete ideas of how two of the organisations that we are involved with might collaborate on an ambitious project to promote artists from the region to new audiences beyond the county lines. Whenever I get together with Klas we have the most stimulating conversations. It would be fantastic to work together with him on another kind of project, it feels as if it would be a natural thing to do – and that is very exciting.