Project Me

Having now completed a ’test piece’ inspired by heraldic flags, family crests, and military standards, produced in careful and diligent applique I wonder if I am not on the wrong track.

It is the technique(s) rather than the references that I find myself questioning. And perhaps even the materials … I seem to be having an artistential crisis – what am I doing and who am I as an artist.

Uptightness has long been a part of my technical process irrespective of material. I freely admit that I rarely achieve the precis and skilful finish that I aim for, however a certain competence with the predominantly crafty techniques is evident in my sewn, cast, and constructed works. Now and for the first time I am questioning the relevance of striving for neatness and precision, and I am wondering if I dare do otherwise. Do I dare to make a mess?

Is this the shadow of Covid-19? It might equally be an artistic coming of (middle) age!

The question remains: do I dare?

Alongside seemingly cool and clean artist such as Felix Gonzales-Torres* I have always admired artists who lay bare the raw mess of life. Cy Twombly’s show at Tate Modern (2008) made me cry. There on the canvas in the gestures, in the scrawls, in the material was a man expressing himself. What do I give of myself in my work?

I give my desire to please, to do good work, to be neat and presentable. I give my desire to be thought of as clever, and my desire to be in control.
I am not sure that those things are either relevant, interesting or appropriate at the moment.

Do I dare let go of those things, let go of half-mastered skills and let the artist play wild? The few occasions when I have done this (play wild) the work that I have produced has always been well received – probably more so than for any of my uptight offerings (save perhaps the patchwork punchbag).

In the coming weeks I will put aside the rules that I set myself in advance of starting that ’test piece’: only second-hand clothes, neat stitching, durability, order, precision. I will instead play and be led by my feelings … the result I hope will be things unimaginable and unspeakable – which certainly sounds like things a bit further a long the road towards art.

*Gonzales-Torres’ visual language is perhaps so very tailored precisely because its subject is so very very raw. I do not think of his work as either cool or clean despite any initial impression that it might give of being so. It is so full of love and anger and sorrow and intelligence and frustration and hope and longing and joy.  It is so very full of him. It pained me when a visiting artist at the Slade casually dismissed an artist who ’just put heaps of sweets on the floor’ … needless to say I found the (middle-aged, white, male) visiting artist’s practice tedious and egotistic in the extreme. The man was after all designing machines to make paintings – his goal seemed to be the erasure of humanness … ’cool clean’ art indeed!

Eugène Jansson, 18 March 1862 – 15 June 1915

Eugène Jansson, self portrait, 201 x 109 cm, 1910

Eugène Jansson, I, 101 x 14 cm, 1901

Eugène Jansson, self portrait, 32.5 x 32.5 cm, c.1880

I am enjoying re-engaging with this man and his legacy … still following, still learning, still curious …

I let my mind wander and fantasise about Eugène’s Naked Youth (1907). How much can (or should) I read into the painting? The man stands in a doorway – on a threshold. This is not merely a conceit for a pose with raised arms – that could have been achieved by providing him with a barbell or similar equipment. Neither the pose nor the environment are particularly athletic. The man’s physique is muscular but perhaps not more so than any working young man’s physique would have been at the turn of the century. Is he perhaps purposely blocking the doorway – an action that at once both prevents entry and arouses curiosity as to what lies in the room that we are barred from.

Looking beyond the man we can see three of Eugène’s blue landscapes.* At the time of Eugène painting Knut – his Naked Youth – in that doorway these paintings were all unsold. From this can we deduce that the paintings were in Eugène’s studio, and that the room that we see beyond the naked youth is a part of the studio too?
Can I read the man with the raised and wide spread arms as symbolically blocking the way back to landscape painting?

• * Top left, top right, bottom right: Mille reflets [A Thousand Reflections] 1903, this canvas was unsold at the time of Eugène’s death. Motiv från Timmermansgatan/Trapparna på Timmersmansgatan [Motif from Timmermansgatan/The steps on Timmermansgatan] 1899, was purchased by the National Museum directly from the studio in 1910. Soluppgång över taken/Solnedgång [Sunrise Over the Roofs/Sunset] 1903, was given to the National Museum by a group of ’art friends’ (konstvänner) in 1915. I found different titles for the same paintings in different books/catalogues. The most intriguing is sunrise/sunset – such different times of the day. Surely sunrise is out of keeping with the Eugène’s preference for evening scenes … ?
• The painting I have been referring to as simply Naked Youth is titled Naked Youth in Doorway [Naken yngling vid dörrpost] in Nils G Wallin’s 1920 publication on Jansson’s paintings for Sweden’s Public Art Association [Sveriges Allmänna Konstförening: SAK].

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Naked Youth was exhibited at Verdandi in Uppsala. Verdandi is one of many student associations in the university town of Uppsala. The association was founded in 1882.  The association is still active and is interested in ideas around radical humanism. Have I perhaps found a group who I could involve in a discussion/event in conjunction with my show at the Artists’ Club next year?  I wonder if Verdandi is in the same building as it was in 1907?  Do they have an archive?

There appears to be an exhibition catalogue registered at the Royal Library in Stockholm.

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I was accurate in my prediction that I would not make it to the studio this week.

Sunday afternoon and while making some museli for the coming weeks’ breakfasts I find myself recalling bits of the conversation that I had with Pavel yesterday evening. He has been looking at the Following Eugène blog. With the museli baking I log in to my own blog and am soon absorbed in reading what I wrote five years ago. Chronological and geographic distance is a gift. I find it interesting to read the entries – it is almost, though not quite, as though they are written by someone else.

I did not make it to the studio last week, nor do I expect to be there this coming week. My paid employment is keeping me busy with preparations for the ’digital summer holiday programme’ – Swedish school break on Tuesday. I have four weeks holiday from late June to late July. I had intended to travel around Sweden and even though travel restrictions have been lifted here I am not so keen to be too far from home while the coronavirus continues to be rife. I imagine now that much of that time will be spent at the studio. The trial ’heraldic flag’ that I am making is almost complete. It has only just dawned on me that despite my visual references for it being the flags and insignia hanging in churches and grand halls, there is a painting by Eugène that features flags hanging in a not too dissimilar way.

Eugène Jansson, Österlånggatan, oil on canvas, 168 x 112 cm,1904, Thielska Gallery, Stockholm

Österlånggatan is acknowledged as Eugéne’s last ’blue painting’ – the last of the series that brought him (with the support of Thiel) to public prominence. It is at this point with economic security and his studio on Glasbruksgatan that Eugène immerses himself in the world of athletes and athleticism. It is three years before he exhibits the first this new body of work – Naked Youth. The naked man in question is Knut Nyman – Eugène’s lover.

Eugène Jansson, Naken yngling, oil on canvas, 1907, 143 x 89, Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm

The painting is exhibited in Uppsala (1907). Five years ago I am sure that I did not pay so much attention to where the painting was shown. Today as I develop my own artistic relation with the city it feels vital that I find where the work was exhibited. And I want to know more about what the exhibition was. I assume it was a group show, perhaps something mounted by the opponents groups to which he belonged (the group formed by artists in opposition to the authority and dominance of the Fine Arts Academy).

In discussing ways to mark the opening of the Uppsala Artists’ Club’s new premises one of the committee members suggested that artists not only bear an artwork over the threshold before installing it in a group show but that we walk through the city bearing the piece. It immediately seemed an ideal way for me to re-engage with the performative Mr Dandy Blue and to create an event that brings together various strands of my current practice in a specific historic and geographic context. It would be a very real intersection.

Exciting news – I will be taking over as Meetings Coordinator for Supermarket – Stockholm’s Independent Art Fair! Katarina is stepping down after seven very successful years of bringing together artists, curators, activists and producers. The meetings programme is a core component of the fair as it provides a structure for the exhibitors and ’professional network participants’ to discuss pertinent issues and ideas in smaller more focussed clusters away from the hustle and bustle of the exhibition halls. Over the years Katarina has built up a programme that has spawned a great many connections and collaborations between artist-run initiatives in Europe and around the world, as well as facilitating lively debate and the sharing of stories during the fair itself.

The postponement the fair scuppered Katarina’s plan to finish after the events in April which while disappointing for her is perfect for me. I am incredibly grateful that I am able to ’hop on a rolling train’ (as the Swedes say). Rather than starting from zero I inherit a good schedule of meetings, a host of meeting coordinators/leaders, and a list of exhibitors’ preferences. Unfortunately it is not yet possible to reschedule the fair as gatherings of more than fifty people are still prohibited in Sweden. The ambition is to hold the fair in late summer or early autumn, though this obviously depends on significant changes in the health authorities guidelines.

I am looking forward to being more actively engaged with the fair’s exhibitors and participants. I was very pleased to hear that Alice, Andreas and Pontus, the fair’s creative directors, all support me taking on the role – that means a huge amount to me. For the time being I will continue with the proofreading and language editing too, though it is perhaps time for me to keep my eyes open for another native English speaker to join the publication team.

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Three years ago – I was working for the parks department at the time so it must be 2017 – three old sewing machines arrived at the studio. Two were (separate) flea-market finds, I think that they were £2.00 each. The third I got from a man at the recycling centre, I thought he was throw away just the carry-case, which I wanted for one of the other machines, but as soon as he handed it over I realised that there was a sewing machine still in the case. Don’t ask why I bought two identical machines – I reasoned that it would be good to have spare parts but honestly I think I just liked the symmetry! Yesterday I finally got around to testing all three – two needed new plugs fitting as their old Bakelite ones no longer fit electrical sockets (and no longer comply with health and safety regulations). The freebie and one of the flea-market machines work perfectly, they produce nice well tensioned stitches and hum along smoothly, even the lights work. The third produced a worrisome groaning noise staining to raise the needle that I had manually wound down in to the fabric. I decided not to test it further for fear of something snapping, igniting, or exploding. That machine though has now provided the other bought one with the removable arm extension that it was missing.

In the internal pocket of the freebie machine’s carry-case I found the original instruction manual. I eagerly flipped through it hoping to establish what a mysterious third button was for. The manual however proved to be in Finnish. So I have now added the manual for the Husqvarna Automatic CL21 (or CL21A) to my flea-market shopping list, along with the range of feet. (I realise now that I know they are called ’pressarfötter’ in Swedish but I am not sure what they are called in English.)

The machines are wonderful, with a very ’vintage’ shade of green on their sturdy metal bodies. The controls feel solid and are easy to use. Stitch options are straight or zig-zag with the facility to control stitch length and breadth (for the zig-zag). There is also the option to zig-zag to the left or right of the needle’s centre position – which I assume is for making button holes. Their simplicity and durability really appeals to me.

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Thursday late afternoon I was sitting with some other artists in the studio/workshop in the new (artists’) club-house in Uppsala having just helped with the move from the old club-house when my telephone rang. It is unusual that I had the volume switched on and at first I did not think that it was my phone – a process of elimination performed by the others quickly identified that it was my phone, and the screen told me that a London number was calling. It was Michael Petry, of MOCA London, he had an almost last minute problem to resolve – one of the artists booked for MOCA’s first online private view had been forced to drop out – did I have a short film or performance that I could present on Saturday afternoon? It just so happens that I do as I recently made my first digital film piece to enter this year’s online Enköping Open. So this afternoon at 5pm UK time, or 18:00 Swedish time, I will one of six international artists presenting work to an audience from the UK, Europe and America. I am excited to take part and delighted that Michael and Roberto thought of me. We tested the technology yesterday afternoon and the piece looks good. I had to adjust the sound levels as neither Michael nor Roberto could hear the ambient sound track. Now that is fixed and almost everything is in place for the presentation. Having seen the Zoom view of my apartment I have decided to turn my desk ninety-degrees anticlockwise to so the background is bookshelves rather than the unattractive and dated beige wallpaper that I saw behind me yesterday – I have yet to decorate the living room!