Project Me

I realise that reflecting on this particular past year focusses very much on what has been happening for and to me. Living and working (for the most) in a small town during a pandemic my focus has been rather limited. Sweden has not endured the lockdowns placed on most if not all other European countries, the virus has however been felt across all aspects of life here too. I have not travelled or collaborated as I would have liked to have done, nor have I visited the museums, exhibitions and events that I had imagined. And while this might sound as though it would provide ample time for investigating all the online offerings, learning new skills, or even reading the many unopened books on my bookshelves, I have to acknowledge that adapting to new ways of working as well as the ongoing re-thinking and re-scheduling of programmes both at work and with numerous artists’ groups has resulted in my own practice and range of operation becoming more insular than I would like.
There have of course been a good many positive and enjoyable things from the past twelve months, and almost inevitably a good many dreams for the future!

Highlights of the year:
Under the Same Rainbow
Working on the LGBTQ+ project and exhibition was certainly a highlight. From the moment Mikaela (at the public art department of Uppsala city council) rang to ask if I would like to be involved this has been a truly wonderful, inspiring, and at times challenging experience. I am so pleased to have had the opportunity to work with both the S.A.G.A. youth group and the public art team, as well as Uppsala art museum. I really can not imagine a project more suited to my interests and ambitions.

Under the Same Rainbow: new acquisitions and artworks from the collections of Uppsala Council, Uppsala Region, and Uppsala Art Museum selected by the S.A.G.A. youth group continues through to 21 February 2021 at Uppsala Art Museum. Free admission, wheelchair accessible.

Please check the museum’s website for updates on opening times, due to covid-19 restrictions the museum is temporarily closed until 24 January 2021.
Uppsala Konstmuseum
Uppsala Konstmuseum Facebook

Uppsala Artists’ Club – committee
I have really enjoyed getting to know the other committee members and beginning to work with them to affect some much needed change at this venerable institution. Many of our initial ideas were thwarted by the arrival of the corona virus, however we have taken the opportunity to do a great deal of ground work that I am sure puts us in a very good position, and we have probably avoided making some less than successful attempts at launching new ideas and programmes too soon.
I am delighted to be among such a passionate and committed group of artists some of whom I am sure will become good friends.
Uppsala Artists’ Club
Uppsala Artists’ Club Facebook

Surprises of the year:
A là Maud
Back in the spring I received an email from Maud Karlsson saying how pleased she was to have found my website and would I please let her know of upcoming shows and events. A few weeks later she was one of a very modest audience (news of covid-19 was just breaking) at an artist’s talk I arranged for Roberto Ekholm who was exhibiting at Glitter Ball. The evening went very well and Roberto’s presentation sparked engaging conversations. Not long after that Maud got in touch again and asked if I was interested in being a guest on her live/performance chat-show that she stages at Uppsala’s concert and conference centre. We had a great time when Maud visited my studio and we planned what I would do for her ’Bubbles & Bakes’ autumn show. Unfortunately a tightening of covid-19 restrictions in Uppsala county meant postponing until spring ’21.
Bubbles & Bakes at Uppsala Concert and Conference Centre

Roxane Permar
It was a fantastic surprise to hear from Roxane this summer. Roxane was my history and theory tutor at Southend Technical College where I took my art foundation course (1986-87). I don’t know where, or even who, I would be today if I had not met Roxane in Southend. It was Roxane who introduced me to politically and socially engaged practice, and who told me about the Art & Social Context course at Dartington – she was short-listed for the position that Sheila Clayton got. Sheila was my tutor and become a very good friend. I lost touch with Roxane while I was at Dartington but became reacquainted with her several years later. If I remember correctly Vikki, a friend I made at Dartington, met Roxane at Camden Art Centre and they became friends. When I moved from Edinburgh to London (1995) I spent a great deal of time with Vikki, and if I didn’t meet Roxane at that time I certainly heard a lot about her. When Vikki died in 1997 she left money for an artist’s travel award – I was on the selection panel along with both Roxane and Sheila. I think that Roxane was already on her way to Shetland at that time so we spoke on the phone and had contact via the post (email was relatively uncommon back then). Fast forward to summer 2020 and Roxane ’stumbles’ across me on Facebook. This last week we have been messaging each other and lamenting the lack of snow on Shetland and in Sweden.

Artuk
In early November I got what I initially thought was spam email – it was not. It was in fact a very genuine and rather surprising request for my permission to reproduce an artwork of mine on an arts website. Art UK are digitising artworks held by institutions and museums, they are ’the online home for every public art collection in the UK’ and their website ’represents a collaboration between over 3,300 British institutions.’ One of which is the Ben Uri London Museum of Jewish Art who have a piece by me in their collection. I cannot imagine who many other artists have received identical emails, nevertheless it felt great to be contacted. Of course I granted permission (with certain caveats – non-commercial use, appropriate credit etc). I am very excited to see what happens with Art UK is certainly sounds like a fantastic idea – making so much available for learning, research, and enjoyment.
www.artuk.org

Intentions, ambitions, and plans for the coming year:
Solo show in Uppsala: I hope to be able to present the show that should have opened at the Artists’ Club on 16 January later in the year. The club’s two galleries are closed until at least 24 January 2021 which means re-scheduling the exhibition. It is tricky as the 2021 calendar is already full so it might have to be early 2022!

Supermarket Independent Art Fair Stockholm will take place in October next year. Usually it happens in April however a later date seems a good idea under the circumstances. A full scale fair is planned and it will be my first time running a full Meetings programme, which I am looking forward to. This years ’local’ version of the fair featuring mostly Stockholm based artists’-initiatives was a good introduction to the delights and challenges of being the Meetings co-ordinator.

Exhibitions, commissions and projects: having participated in several online courses and workshops this year I feel far better equipped to approach galleries and exhibition venues, as well as beginning to understand how public commissions and projects work here. I have already drawn up a list of potential places to show and will join some artists’ networks so that I get to hear about upcoming opportunities.

Study/research trip: postponed from last summer, I plan to spend a couple of weeks this summer in southern Sweden visiting museums, sculpture parks, galleries, and some of the artists’-initiatives that I have met through the Supermarket Art Fair,

An overarching intention, ambition, and plan for 2021 is to spend more time playing at the studio – a bit less thinking and lot more doing would be good fun. I have made some progress with this way of working during the last year. And I am indebted to Cajsa Von Zeipel who, by means of her 2018 summer radio show (which I listened to this year) inspired me to make a sign that now hangs prominently in my studio and to which I refer when momentarily questioning what I am doing and/or why I am doing it.  The sign simply states:

det har med konst att göra / it is about art

Guess what arrived this afternoon – YES, several kilos, maybe as much as half my body weight, of glitter! I am so glad that it didn’t get caught up in either the temporary suspension of freight travel between the UK and Europe, or the pre/post Britain leaving the EU freight situation that seems inevitable. If the end of the world looks any more immanent I might just fill the bath-tub with the stuff, crack open a bottle of something sparkling, dive in and wait the armageddon.

I am, as the Swedes say, holding my thumbs* for a better year ahead. Better in this context is a matter of relativity and interpretation if ever there was. Having an exhibition postponed would not usually be how I would want to start a year.  However I am far from alone in having to re-tune my expectations and to fine-tune my perspectives.  It is certainly more interesting and important for me to have a show that presents my work well and that is open for visitors. For now all I can do is hold on to those criteria … and of course my thumbs.

My first day of working from home (for my salary paying job) went well. I enjoyed the sense of freedom, not that I am not pretty free to plan my days at the office. It’s just perhaps more fun to be at home, even the task of tidying, sorting, and archiving the files on the computer seemed more enjoyable. Now though the computer (job computer that is) will be put away until January 11th – auto-reply activated.

Wishing you all a very Good Jul!

* Swedes hold their thumbs rather than crossing their fingers (apparently they felt that the idea of a ’cross’ could be construed as religious). So don’t be surprised if a Swede wishing you luck appears to be shaking a clenched fist at you – they are just showing you that they really are holding their thumb!

Suddenly things are a lot calmer. Catching up on unread emails from Thursday evening and Friday I learn that my show in Uppsala is postponed. It should have opened on 16 January but Swedish regulations regarding covid-19 restrictions were strengthened on Friday and with immediate effect national, regional, and local public buildings are now closed until at least 24 January. Though the Artists’ Club gallery is not strictly such a venue, as we are a professional association, we are funded up the regional and local council therefore follow their advice.

With Christmas immanent and a minimum of a five week suspension of activities we on the management committee have taken the decision not to make any new plans until early in the new year.

We’re not quite in a lockdown here so I can still go to the studio on what Swedes call ’the between days’ (mellandagarna). I am looking forward to being there with a healthy chunk of Christmas cake and a good cup of tea! I am still working on getting the recipe right for the Mongolian paper maché that I want to use for a couple of pieces – too much potato starch in the first batch.

I was busy in Uppsala most of Friday. Some of the LGBTQ+ youth group, their group leaders, and I recorded a short film presenting selected artworks from Under the Same Rainbow. With museum’s closure also being extended the film is a way for people to see a little of what is on show and to hear our very personal interpretations and responses. There is still the chance that the full show will be open to the public from late January to late February. Though it must be said there is also the chance that the show will never be seen in its entirety – which is very sad. The exhibition opened with a live-streamed vernissage, if it closes (in real life) there will be a grand finishage!

Working with the teams in Uppsala has been great. I had met most of them earlier either through my work for council here in Enköping, one of the committees that I sit on, or even when I showed in the Art Cube (which was nearly two years ago now), but it’s been rather different to have worked with them over last six months. In some ways it is unfair to compare it to my work here for a small semi-rural council, on the other hand it is interesting to see what can be achieved in a more culturally engaged (and engaging) situation. I hope that it is the first of many similar projects, and first of many freelance possibilities for me.

The new covid-19 restrictions mean that I start working from home tomorrow. I am really not sure how I feel about that. It is of course the sensible thing to do, but I do like to keep my ’bread job’, even though it is in the arts, separate from my private life and my own practice. I might have to find somewhere else to have my job-computer, this desk is part of my work and my practice, and I do not want to muddle that with my paid employment.

I have received two invitations to fill in an ’artists’ questionnaire’ for Region Uppsala. After crossing the rather alarming box ’age 46 – 65’(!) came a series of relatively simple questions that woke rather complex response in me.

In summary I found myself pondering the same question that I have been asking myself the past few months – albeit in more nuanced and bite-size pieces: what kind of artist do I want to be?

How many exhibitions (solo and group) have I had in the last three years. Did I receive the recommended artists’ fees for these shows.
How many commissions have I had in the past three years, and what were the budgets, including the artist’s fee.
Did I have other employment. If so what percentage of my time (in Sweden read this as percentage of a 40 hour working week) did this employment take. And what percentage of my income did I earn from this employment.

So …
Am I an artist who earns a living from showing? For me me this includes the programmes of talks and workshops accompanying an exhibition as well as direct sales.
I would have to say that I occasionally supplement my practice with an artist fee – it happened twice last year and once the year before. This year I do not (and will not) have any shows where I receive an exhibition fee.
Am I an artist that gets commissions? No, not in the Swedish context of public art commissions where it is entirely possible to make living from such local, regional, national and even privately funded projects.
Am I an artist that has other employment? Yes – that’s me! Interesting the questionnaire did concern itself whether this ’other employment’ was in the arts or not …

… Toto I don’t think that we are in England anymore …

Together these questions were a less than gentle reminder that there are viable ways of being an artist, a full-time artist, in Sweden. Although the reality for many artists here is that they have ’bread jobs’ – employment that puts food on the table – there remains the aspiration and ambition that being an artist is a job in an of itself and that it should be viable and realistic.

I needed to hear this. I need to be reminded to let go of the (mis)belief that save for a fortunate* few us ’ordinary’ artists can never expect to make a living from our practice.

So (ii) …
Do I want to keep having ’other employment’?

No! I am grateful that I have an income and that that income is regular and that it is generated from working in the arts but that is not the same as being an artist.
I want to make my living from my practice rather from my ability to run kids workshops or organise events for other people’s creativity. It is both great and daunting that making a living as an artist is feasible and realistic in Sweden. Last Wednesday listened to an online presentation about working on public art commissions. It was fascinating to hear just how many types of commissions there are – from the smaller scale to the monumental, from that state to private landlords and developers. The commission process seems generally pretty transparent with the commissioners advertising opportunities on well known websites. Artists are invited to register their interest with a few examples of their work and their cv. From the long list of interest a short list is drawn up and those artists then receive a fee to develop a sketch for the actual commission (the fee is consummate with the scale of the project but more often than not it respects the recommendations of the National Artists’ Organisation in terms of payment). Usually one artist is selected for the commission. Occasionally, as has happened here in Enköping, a project is so large (a new swimming pool in this instance) that even though only 1% of the building budget is earmarked for art it is possible to commission two substantial artworks from two artists.

It was really interesting to hear about this way of working, not least to hear about it from an artist who makes a living this way. I am certainly going to keep my eyes open for ’entry level’ commissions … and I am also going to have a good think about how I might present and develop my practice to better suit these types of commissions. After all I would rather be in my studio dreaming up ideas of artworks for libraries, hospitals, housing schemes, town squares and even for corporate offices and headquarters than be in an office dreaming up projects for children other artists to do!

*right time, right place, right family, right partner …

Writing the application for a two-year artist’s award – fantastic that such things exist here in Sweden – was a great process. Needless to say if I get it I will be over the moon. My proposal is for tailor-made mentoring, something that I feel will enable me to really engage with the Swedish art scene. I want time with someone who can give advice and guidance once that have gotten to know me and my practice. In my mind it’s the kind of support that is provided by good tutoring at art school. The word ’appropriate’ kept cropping up in my writing, and while acting appropriately at first seemed conventional and the antithesis of radical I allowed myself the word and through the writing I came to realise that being unconventional and being radical might well be appropriate. The thing is that I want and need to know what is appropriate for me, and as I still do not know the extent of the Swedish art world some tutelage would be very welcome.

It would be wonderful to work with an arts professional and draw out which aspects of my work are appropriate where, similarly to hone in how I might construct my own contexts for my practice. The potential is very exciting. So exciting in fact that regardless of whether I get the award or not I want to find ways to do many of the practical things that I included: studio visits with other artists, meeting curators and gallerists. Being mentored would (I imagine) super-charge these processes – the mentor knowing where best to point me, giving me a good pep talk before I set off, and making sure that I follow-up and stay focused.

Whilst full of enthusiasm and doing my best to be honest with my artist self I have gotten around to doing some things that have been on my mind for a while … one thing has been lolling about for at least three years. Making that application, and in doing so admitting to myself that I think that I am worth two years of support and funding, has in an unexpected turn encouraged me to become more the kind of artist whom I imagine receives such awards. That is to say one who commits to their practice and gets on with it.

I also spoke with Klas about re-arranging the two studio spaces that we have shared for past eighteen months. We are now well on our way to having one space each. As what will be my studio is revealed I can accept the compromise that Klas and Ola need to access their studios via mine. The space is big and square with three good windows, with the addition of a few shelves it should be very welcoming and workable It is definitely a step in the right direction. The new arrangement makes it far easier for me to try hanging things – and not just on the wall but even from the ceiling. This is going to be great in planning the show for Uppsala. Even though we are not yet finished with the move I feel that I will more willingly invite people in to the studio – the arrangement seems more serious which actually enables me to be more playful … in a professional way!