Project Me

Yesterday evening I attended the my friend Mireia Rocher’s opening at Galleri Duerr, Stockholm. I am of course biased but the show is great. It was also great for me to be reminded how much work goes in to producing a good show … seeing and hearing Mireia down the corridor from my studio has kept me focused these past few months. Next Saturday I have the opening of a two-person show with Klas Hällerstrand so a not quite last minute reminder was very much appreciated.

Our show is somewhat different – not only is it a double-header rather than a solo exhibition, it is also at an art association’s gallery* rather than a commercial gallery … and it is in Enköping rather than Stockholm. Nonetheless it is a big occasion for me as I previously was on the associations committee and it is where I do the majority of my art workshops for children and families (part of my job at the local council). Even without these two factors it would be a big deal and a significant show for a number of reasons.

Many of the pieces that I am showing are new, and they seem to be taking my work in a new direction. This is exciting and maybe even a little daunting! Alongside pieces fashioned from second-hand clothes and vintage fabric are three large works made in new material: two single flags and a pair of flags. I have thoroughly enjoyed making these new pieces (all of which are currently untitled, and which may well still be so come the show). New materials and new processes – the flags were made on my new (new to me) sewing machine. Previously hand sewing things has been an integral and time consuming part of my process. Did that though give me too much time to think? There is very different energy around these most recent pieces, and I am enjoying their lightness.

On holiday my friend from art-school and I asked ourselves two questions when looking at other artists’ work: 1, did they play with the material(s)? and 2, did they have fun? We acknowledged that these questions might not always be relevant however they opened up space for the two of us, both of whom are prone to over analysis, to start looking at things from a different (unusual for us) perspective. I think that despite my starting point for the works they would receive a yes/yes.

Klas and I have three days to install the show and have decided that we will both arrive with between eight and ten pieces from which we will curate ’the best possible show’. I much prefer this idea of working together with the pieces in the space, to having a predetermined vision of where particular things will be. Both of us work on quite large scales with very particular materials and it is important to us that the show works as a whole as well as allowing individual pieces to shine. If the success of the image for the exhibition is anything to go by then this way of working should be good for us.

The image – a diagonal composite of a work by each of us – is a thing in itself. We hope to achieve something similar with the show. I was a little nervous when I suggested the collage image to Klas; it is not every artist who immediately accepts someone (especially another artist) cutting their work in half. I am very grateful that he not only liked the idea but actually produced the image – photoshop and such packages not being my forte. And it amuses me that I wrote the short text for the association’s autumn brochure. With a few minor grammatical corrections my text, written in Swedish, was approved by both Klas and the association. Interestingly I found it tricky to translate the text into English for my bilingual mail-out. I wanted the texts not only to say similar things but to be similar lengths so that they looked neat side-by-side. Hopefully I achieved this.

Tomorrow I will pack up the pieces that are here at the studio in Uppsala, and drive them and some tools over to Enköping. There are a few things that I need to finish and fine tune once I know where they will be placed. It feels as though we have a good amount of time to make a good show. It really helps that we know each other well and in addition that we are both calm and considerate people. This evening I will think about prices … and perhaps while sitting quietly with them some titles for the new works will come.

Rest, Stuart Mayes & Klas Hällerstrand
Opening 27 August, 12 – 3pm
Exhibition continues to 18 September
Enköping’s Art Association, Tullgatan 18, Enköping, Sweden
Saturday & Sunday 12 – 3pm, Wednesday 5 – 7pm

*I feel the need to apologise for, or explain, the website; it was made by and is maintained by an elderly member of the association who also designs all of the publicity material. Unfortunately the website is not a reflection of the rather elegant brochures, posters, and invitation cards that he designs.  Please do not judge the gallery by its website!

I am excited and bit nervous to return to the studio on Monday. It’s been too long since I was last there – save for simply dropping off some materials a few weeks ago. An intense two weeks of summer-holiday activities for children were followed three weeks of (re-?) decorating my apartment in preparation for its immanent sale, then a week away, and then getting the apartment ready for the estate agent’s photographer . Although I was very disappointed that my trip to the UK, the first since well before the pandemic, was cancelled at the last minute those ten days I suddenly and unexpectedly had here were put to good use tidying up the rather rushed painting, fixing small but important details, and starting to take things to re-cycling and charity shops. The arrival of my old college friend three days before our planned week away camping was great as she enthusiastically got stuck into sorting out the neglected balcony.

The day after my friend left the stylist (!) came by to look at the apartment before returning on Thursday with a van load of cushions, throws, flowers, super fluffy white towels, and even bottles of very good olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The ’styling’ was good fun, the photographer arrived, took photographs, and was away again in half an hour. As soon as he was finished in one room the stylist swooped in and began de-styling (?), she was packed up and leaving thirty minutes after the photographer. I am very curious to see the photos, and very keen to get the apartment on the market.

So with my work here all but done (I ’just’ have to keep the place as neat as possible, ’thin out’ the stuff the cupboards that potential buyers are mostly likely to look in, and ’re-create’ the styling to the best of my ability – I’m not rushing out to buy a dozen cushions,) I can now switch my focus to my very upcoming show – opening Saturday 27th August.

There are three new pieces that I want to make: two of these are similar to previous works so although being significantly different feel familiar in regard to the process (and challenges). The third requires a bit more attention – it’s the piece that I am installing outdoors and it therefore needs a bit more ’resilience’ testing. It is this piece that I am going to start with tomorrow.

Supermarket
My head is spinning with so many thoughts … thoughts that are closely related to being at the fair, and those that have a less direct connection but have been sparkled by something that I have seen, heard, or found myself talking about. I am well and truly overstimulated!

What to do with all these thoughts? How to keep them live? How to give them time and space? How to understand which (if not all) have substance?

Something that runs through, or perhaps is a foundation to, my thoughts just how ’at home’ I feel at the fair. I am very conscious of how important the artist-run scene is to me, and how strongly I believe in its role. Half jokingly and half seriously I suggested to another artist that artists who show (t)here five times should get a PhD. The truth in my suggestion is that what is on show at Supermarket is genuinely research. What I see and experience at the fair is artists doing what they have to do – finding news ways of making and communicating – without the imposition of academic/institutional/commercial conditions. I may not ’like’ everything that I see but I admire, applaud, and will defend every artists’ right to do it and keep doing it. It is vital that there is space for artists to get feedback from their peers, to articulate concerns in ways and means that make sense to, and belong to, their own sphere(s) of activity and engagement. It might be called a fair but I think its sole is an exposition.

exposition
/ɛkspəˈzɪʃ(ə)n/

noun
noun: exposition; plural noun: expositions

1. 
a comprehensive description and explanation of an idea or theory.

“a systematic exposition of the idea of biodiversity”

Similar: explanation, description, elucidation, explication, interpretation, illustration, account, commentary, study, article, essay, thesis, paper, treatise, dissertation, disquisition, critique, criticism, appraisal, assessment, discussion, discourse, exegesis

Music
 the part of a movement, especially in sonata form, in which the principal themes are first presented.

2. a large public exhibition of art or trade goods.

“the exposition will feature exhibits by 165 companies”

Similar: exhibition, fair, trade fair, display, show, presentation, demonstration, exhibit, expo

3. 
archaic
 the action of making something public.

“the country squires dreaded the exposition of their rustic conversation”

Origin: latin; exponere – exposito – exposition

Middle English: from Latin expositio(n- ), from the verb exponere ‘expose, publish, explain’.

Yesterday over lunch in the little (half) kitchen beside the studio Mireia said something that set me thinking: you work with layers.

As I sat here sewing, as I was driving home last night, as I made dinner, as I washed up after breakfast this morning, and throughout the day I have been thinking about that seemingly simple statement: you work with layers.

Layers is not a word that I would have come up myself but it feels so appropriate. Layers are exactly what I work with – sometimes literally but nearly always conceptually. I like the imagery that comes with the word – bethat layers of clothing, geological layers … even the layers of an onion.

When I make and talk about my work there is layer after layer. Each one having its distinct and separate character. The physical layers might be sequential, the theoretical ones not necessarily. The talking could easily be as much a stripping away of layers as it could be a building up of them.

As I sit here now I am struck by Mireia’s choice of preposition: with. I look up a brief definition of ’with’ – accompanied by. A shiver runs down my spine. This too seems to be so appropriate – the layers, especially those layers of meaning, are things that accompany me. I like the immediacy and proximity of ’with’ … there’s a closeness almsot an intimacy. ’With’ even suggests something collaborative. I have described my practice as a collaboration with materials. There is something both active and open about ’with’.

While I am in this vein – the verb: work. It’s activeness, it’s physicalness, it’s everydayness all appeal to me.

In its entirety Mireia’s short phrase captures the essence of what I do. It is both specific and open for interpretation. For the moment at least it feels as though it is the sentence that I have been longing for – the simple definitive statement that describes what I do without either complication or reduction.

Thank you Mireia!

I work with layers.

Starting to think about the presentation that I have to make next week for a short course (can two half days really be called a ’course’ at all?). I do not know where to start, this morning while washing up after breakfast my mind flitted between different styles of presentation, different starting points, different focuses … as I said I really do not know where to start.

This feels uncomfortably familiar, and I am sure that the intention with the instruction to prepare such a presentation is exactly to wake these feelings in those of us who do not have a clear vision of who we are or what we do.

What is the intention with this presentation? Is it to present ourselves to the course leaders and other artists/participants? Or is it an exercise in how to present oneself to a prospective commissioner – the course is about how to apply for public commissions. Am I over thinking things? Should I have one way of presenting myself no matter the audience?

I am pretty sure that I am over thinking things – that is what I do. And I would really like to change that. Over think and overload … those two have a symbiotic relationship – one leads to the other in a viscous circle. Maybe it is time to empty out things … by which I mean empty my mind and my work. Empty out all the thoughts and ideas – all those ’learned’ things. If I empty my work then the audience has the opportunity … the invitation … to if not entirely fill it then to at least contribute to the filling of it.

Do I have the courage to do ’what feels right’? I think that the overloading has to do with justifying and accounting … explaining … piling things on to and in to artworks that should stand on their own. And if they don’t stand on their own then something is not right with the artwork rather than not being right with the account, or the justification, or the explanation. An artwork should work as art and not as an illustration of ideas.

Perhaps in my desperation I overload things in the vain hope that the more things that there are the greater the chance that one of them appeals to someone … trying to be all things to all people. What this seems to result in however are very overloaded works and a fractured self.

Despite being quick to reassure other people that things are far more complex than simply being right or wrong I find myself worrying that I will do the wrong kind of presentation. That said I shall re-read the mail about the presentation, and then I shall trust my intuition and make the presentation that I want to make. One that hopefully is not so overloaded that it stifles and suffocates the audience, rather one that excites and intrigues them.

Let the crazy out and let the light in!