Project Me

Knowing that I usually take far too much time writing a new post is preventing me from writing any posts at all! This is an attempt to write a quick post before too much time passes and the thoughts and events that seem so urgent become superseded or simple lose their shine.

I had a very nice evening in Uppsala on Wednesday when I was presented with my award. Daniel Werkmaster, director of Uppsala Art Museum, gave a brief presentation of why I was selected, I received the actual award and a bouquet from Maria Fregidou-Malama (who sits on the culture committee), and then I was invited to give an acceptance speech! I am proud to say that I managed to do it un-prepared and in Swedish. There were awards presented in dance, music, and literature, as well as honorary awards for history and theatre design, and a two-year ‘development’ award for a musician. It was lovely to one of a truly diverse and interesting group, and to feel part of the cultural community in my adopted county and land.

I was also in Uppsala the evening before (Tuesday), with two other members of the steering committee at Enköping’s konsthall, for the regional arts’ associations annual general meeting. The meeting, as well as the discussions in the car on the way there and back, made me realise that I have quite different approaches and ambitions for the kind of exhibitions and events that I am keen to work with. It will be a good test of my abilities (and language skills) to find good ways to suggest extending and expanding the scope of the konsthall’s programme. I find it hard to judge if the difference of my opinions are based simply on being who I am, or on my not understanding the role and function of a konsthall. No doubt it is a combination of the two (and probably a great many other factors too). I look forward to seeing how my ideas go down!

Friday Klas and I spent a very enjoyable day cleaning and chatting in our new studio. Klas had already made a start during the week however there was/is still plenty to do to make the former garage/ car repair workshop into the kind of place that we (both separately and together) want as studios. Economically it makes sense to see if anyone is interested in subletting the smaller third room, though both Klas and I spoke much more about the exciting possibilities of it being a showroom and/or project space for visiting artists. Our discussion rounded off with us considering the idea of it being principally a showroom with the possibility of artists hiring it as a ‘clean’ working space between shows/projects. It is fantastic to talk things through with Klas, for every similar and shared idea we have he offers something new or adds something else – I only hope that he feels that I do the same. One thing that we both are keen on is creating an active and lively place – the kind of place that other people want to engage with, a place for ideas, discussions, dreams, and of course art. I have a good feeling about this!

Before going to the studio I had a meeting with Johan in the parks department. From the 18th he will be my boss when I begin as one of the team of extra seasonal staff taking care of the various parks and gardens in and around the town. On Friday though we met to discuss the well-established annual ‘Gardens’ Day‘ that Johan co-ordinates. He is interested in introducing visual art to the day – ideally he would like to see some land-art and site-specific installations as these are particular passions of his. Thankfully he is thinking more about 2018 than 2017. Though he would like artists to get involved this year too. Without a budget it will be tricky (nigh on impossible!) to pull off something spectacular this September. I can imagine that a good many local artists would be interested in the possibility of an ‘art-fair’ as it offers opportunities for both promotion and actual sales. So I proposed that temporary fencing be offered for artists to hang their work on – in an outdoor type of salon-show/fair. I was thinking of Urban Art in Brixton, and even the paintings hung on Hyde Park’s railings along Bayswater Road. It would be great to find some artists who might be more inspired by Joshua Compston’s ‘Fete Worse than Death‘, I am not holding my breath but I am prepared to be surprised!

At just after 8.00 this morning I signed a contract on a studio that Klas and I are going to share.

The space is a former garage, and has most recently been the clubhouse for a motorbike club! It needs cleaning and painting but is a good solid building with the basic facilities that we need. It will easily accommodate two medium size studios and in addition there is amble storage, a small kitchen, and toilet. We might sublet the largest ‘store room’ to another artist who is interested in having somewhere “dark” to work, if he is not interested then we could perhaps have it as a shared workshop area, hire it out on a daily or weekly basis, or even have it as a gallery/project room.

Although it is not as central as I might have liked, it is very affordable(!) and right next to the train station which makes it more attractive for Stockholmers to visit. The contract is on going with a notice period of three months which means that I/we are not too bound. There is another vacant space directly above, and hopefully some of the other artists who expressed an interest in having studios will take that on.

It feels like a significant step forward not only for me but also for establishing a bigger and more accessible ‘art-house’ in town. Cycling away this morning I noticed a rather large and completely empty industrial unit not far away – the sort of place that could easily offer fifteen good size studios, material workshops, an exhibition space and education room ….

This time last week I was at Supermarket art fair. I was there as both a participant on their PNP (Professional Networking Participants) programme, and as part of the Talks and Performance programme. The two, quite distinct, experiences were both incredibly enjoyable and rewarding.

The PNP programme is in its second year and is aimed at individuals working independently and those who do not have (or do not wish to represent) a physical gallery/project space. There were about twenty of us on the programme though we rarely if ever were all together at the same time. Those of us with shared interests and ambitions quite quickly found each other and spent a great deal of the fair in each others’ company at the various talks, discussions, and meetings. Being actually involved with the fair’s programme and other attendees is very different from simply being a visitor. Being a ‘PNP’ gave me a framework for speaking with the various exhibitors, projects, and speakers that initiated conversations that went far beyond the often awkward dialogues that I have had when approaching them as an artist – the awkwardness is entirely my own and probably stems from feeling that I should talk with them rather than wanting to talk with them. It perhaps also reveals that I find it easier to present myself as a ‘professional networker’ than as an artist!

I particularly enjoyed meeting, and speaking with, Jasmin Glaab of Kunsthallekleinbasel, who runs a gallery in her apartment. Having listened to her and several other artists who use their homes as showrooms and project spaces I am seriously considering running a similar kinds of thing here. It could be a nice way to continue working with other artists once my year with Konstfönster Joar is done. I really appreciate all the tips and advice that I received as opening up my home to both artists and the public seemed a bit daunting to start with, but I am starting to imagine how it might be possible. It would be very interesting to see how it works in a town such as Enköping. If I do do it then the number of venues for contemporary art here would have increased by 300% in two years. And if Klas and I show other artists at our studios the increase would be 400%. If nothing else that should be newsworthy and perhaps generate even more artistic interest in the town!

My participation in Supermarket’s talks and performance programme was as one third of The Artistic Researcher – along with Antonie Grahamsdaughter and Karin Gustavsson. We proposed, and did, was something that we called ‘Hothousing‘, which was more live research than performance art. Each of us was interested to invite people in to our ‘research process’ so we devised ways in which to do this. We each had our own greenhouse that we re-fashioned according to our particular interests or project. I created a quite private space where my guest/visitor and I made mono-prints directly from each other’s bodies. The guest selected where we would take our ‘companion’ prints which give them authority to determine the level of intimacy that would occur between us. Having said that the close proximity that we had to each other in the small interior – curtained in vintage bed-sheets – evoked (in me at least) a heightened sense of intimacy and gave making even the simplest hand print a very particular sensibility.

The piece was the fourth iteration in the Following Eugène series. Although I could not name my expectations for the event my feeling immediately after the first time were somewhat mute and subdued. However reflecting on it during an early morning run the following day I was able to identify thoughts and ideas that would not have come to me without the evening before. In this the piece functioned exactly as it should have done – opening up previously unimaginable possibilities for development and extension.

The second time I did it my first guest turned out not only to be a very interesting curator but also someone who works part-time at the Royal Library and knew of the archive that I referred to (without naming) in my introduction to what we were about to do. We continued to have interesting conversations over the subsequent days when I was not in character (Mr Dandy Blue).

It was only on the third and final time, on the Sunday morning, that I had two men as guests. Immediately that we established that they wanted to take part I became very aware of how different I felt about what we were about to do. I did my best to behave as I had done with my women visitors however I think that I was very unconsciously conscious of another kind of feeling knowing that I would be speaking about and touching these men’s bodies. Both of them chose places that required different types of interaction than any of the other visitors up to that point (my last visitor was a woman who chose to do prints of the upper middle part of our backs). As the print process is mutual the choice of where the print is taken is experienced both actively and passively, as both artist and model, as both subject and object. Neither man chose particularly intimate places, the first chose the outside of the right ankle, and the second the soft area just below the elbow on the inside of the right forearm. However both these places resulted in us resting our limbs on each other as we first applied a light lotion, then the ‘ink’, as we took the prints, and as we removed the excess and drying ink after taking the print. I did not ask any of my visitors / collaborators for feedback on their experience – though many freely gave it by saying ‘that was fun’, ‘that was interesting’, and by thanking me for spending time with them, one said that it was something she will remember for a long time. For me it has been interesting to reflect not only on doing it with each person but also on doing it with different people on different days.

Two children and one adult decided to keep the print of their own body, the others elected to take the print that they made from my body. Those prints are now out there in the world, and here beside me I have a collection of prints of those people’s bodies – traces of a few moments that we spent together one spring weekend in Stockholm ….

Wednesday evening was a rather late one too – Ken told Julia how things were progressing with the installation, and then we chatted more generally about what still needed to be done and how they wanted to work the next day.

It felt a bit odd to be a home on Thursday morning knowing that everyone else was working away at the window. It was also the first time that I had been alone and quiet in ten days. I spent a couple of hours completing the on-line application to renew by British passport. Doing this in the light of seeing that almost every article in Ken’s copy of the Guardian (from Monday) referenced Britain leaving the EU was an odd experience. Depending on how things turn out I might have two passports in the future, I imagine that it might be easier to use a British one when traveling to and from the UK, and a Swedish one when traveling in Europe.

Everything was close to finished when I arrived at the library in mid-afternoon. There were of course some last minute things to fix and it was good to have time to talk about Ken and Julia’s public presentation in library after the opening at the window. That evening there were also four awards being presented to upcoming talents from Enköping in the fields of music, dance, and photography – these were scheduled between the opening and the artists’ talk. The awards were re-instated last year after several years’ absence and those receiving them would be the first of the new awardees. I know the woman who received the award for photography from my gym – I had always thought that she was a gymnast but I was wrong she is studying photography in Stockholm. It was great that she was selected and lovely to see how proud her family and boyfriend were – they are an amazingly creative and athletic family all of whom train at the gym, and her mother is a designer specialising in recycling denims. A family that trains together (obviously not all the time but quite often) would seem very peculiar to me in Britain, but here it seems quite alright. I am getting ahead of myself – back to the opening.

Everyday Fragments.  At five o’clock there was a good size group of people standing outside of the project window, including a reporter and photographer from the town newspaper. The reporter was interested in their artwork but also how they came to be in Enköping, both Ken and Julia are good talkers and their enthusiasm for Sweden as well as unusual art projects kept her pencil actively darting about her traditional reporters notebook.

See Maria Hedenlund’s article here

It being Sweden (short) speeches were made; one by Klas welcoming and thanking everyone (I mean both the audience and everyone involved in the production), one by me give a little background to the show, and one by Ken and Julia about their work. I really like these types of speeches and see as vital in terms of accessibility. Not only is it just polite to welcome and thank people for coming to an exhibition it acknowledges their participation, it also lets them know a little of process involved in putting a show and how many people have been involved. Furthermore it puts the visual material in context and (hopefully) offers some ways to approach it. Last but by no means least it identifies the artist(s). All of this makes it far easier for someone to feel more able to engage with the work and even to speak with the artist(s). This is something that no matter where I show in the future I will include in any opening.

Following the speeches people chatted away and looked more closely at the artworks. I saw that the chair of the Konsthall (the town’s publicly supported but voluntarily staffed gallery) was speaking with Ken, while Julia was talking with members of the arts department who are not directly involved with Konstfönstert Joar. Other people joined in their discussions and as it was getting close to time for the award ceremony a group of us were discussing the recent appointment of former V&A curator Kieran Long as director of Arkdes – Stockholm’s architecture and design museum.

Both Ken and Julia are consummate professionals and very experienced educators – their presentation was perfectly pitched and gave an incredibly rich picture of their individual and collaborative practices through the context of the m2 gallery that they run in south London.

m2 Gallery

There was plenty of interest in their practices and their ways of making them sustainable. Even after we rounded off the evening’s question and answer time people were continuing to ask things and wanting to speak with them. I was pleased to be able to introduce them, and Klas, to Ann who runs a private gallery in a beautiful building between here and Västerås. It was good to see Ann again now that she is preparing for re-opening the gallery after it being closed over the winter.

Målhammar Gallery

I had an excursion planned for Friday. Both Ken and Julia are fans of Ralph Erskine. Ken has a particular interest in him and his buildings, and as a young architect he worked on Erskine’s famous Ark building in Hammersmith, London. When they were here for Open House Stockholm in October we had discussed the possibility of an outing to Erskine’s former home and studio (a private residence that is not the easiest to locate after its relatively recent sale), however there was not time that weekend. So when Friday was forecast to be a fine winter’s day it seemed an ideal opportunity to take a look at it as well as one of his housing schemes on the outskirts of Stockholm.

We had also been invited to a visit the Konsthall here in Enköping which is not usually open on a Friday but Ken and Julia had struck up a lively conversation with Bo Sundqvist – chair of the art association who run the gallery – at the opening at Konstfönstret Joar, and as they were leaving before the weekend a ‘private view’ had been arranged. We were running a little late after stopping to take some daylight photos of Everyday Fragments. Thankfully Bo waited for us and gave us not only an interesting walk through Gudrun Westerlund’s exhibition but also a little of the building’s and the art association’s history.

The weather was perfect for strolling around Ekerö. Having found a great little café for lunch and the traditional Swedish lent bun – ‘semla’ we had a very enjoyable wander including a look in the library and the even the local branch of the state off-license (not strictly part of the Erskine experience but we were passing it was a good opportunity for Ken and Julia to see something truly Swedish)! En-route to Stockholm we made a minor detour to Vällingby – another example of a particular type of Swedish town planning that made it a living model of international interest in the 1940s/50s, attracting architects from other European countries as well as the United States.

A lovely dinner in a small independent restaurant not too far from their hotel brought a great day to a very nice close. We said our goodbyes and I headed back home.

On Sunday I was back in Stockholm! While Ken and Julia were at Marina Abramovic’s show at Moderna, Karin, Antonie, and I met to discuss our upcoming research-performance/performance-research for the Supermarket Art Fair. This included constructing and re-constructing one of the temporary greenhouses that will feature in our ‘Hothousing‘ event. Now that Everyday Fragments is installed my attention turns to my contribution to The Artistic Researcher’s first public presentation – there is work to be done!

As I walked through the doors that separate ‘arrivals’ from the body of the airport I immediately spotted Ken sitting, as we had arranged, with a cup of tea at the cafe. His plane from London arrived half an hour before mine from Fuerteventura. This was late on Monday evening last week: Ken was here to begin installing his and Julia’s two person show in Konstfönstret Joar, and I was a returning from a much needed week away (my first ‘real’ holiday in over six years). Our chat on the bus ranged from the highly political to the highly personal. Large wet snowflakes began to fall as we walked from the station to my flat. It was gone midnight by the time we had had some tea and were heading off to our beds.

I had been wrong when I said that the snow would not settle. We woke to good few centimetres of that heavy soggy kind of snow. It took a while to (re-)pack our bags with the tools and materials that we would need for the day. Klas and Sam were waiting for us when we got to the window (Konstfönstret Joar), so too were the panels that Ken had designed based on my measurements – Klas had been able to work with the carpenter at the museum to cut the boards and their various apertures. Now was the moment of truth; had all of our conversations and planning come together, did the panels meet Ken’s expectations and did they fit the window. Leaning up against a wall outside of the window they certainly met Ken’s approval, however as I feared the restrictive ‘vertical turn space’ in the ‘gallery’ area behind the window prevented them from being put in place. Having worked many hours in the rather limited confines of the window while stalling my own show, and being somewhat able to visualise in three dimensions, I suspected that diagonal length of the full size panels would be greater than the distance available in the window. The relatively neat resolve was to cut 40 centimetres off the bottom of each panel and install them as two pieces.

By the time that we had set up a makeshift cutting bench and marked up each panel it was time for the (early) lunch that we had been invited to – Enköping council’s first ‘Lunch Beat‘.

In the midst of talking with Ken (though adhering to the Lunch Beat manifesto and not discussing work), dancing, and eating a very tasty vegetarian wrap, a man whom I recognised came and spoke with me. He is responsible for finding new members for the Konsthall’s management committee and wanted to know if he could put me forward. His question was quite unexpected and caught me off-guard. Thankfully I had the presence of mind, despite the distraction of the seductive funky beats, to say that I was interested but wanted more information before giving a definite yes. He seemed genuinely pleased that I had not said an absolute no, and with that disappeared into the swaying crowd of council employees and curious townsfolk dancing away in the room usually reserved for political debate and decision making.

By the end of the day the four of us: Klas, Sam, Ken, and I, had made good progress not only with the window exhibition but also ensuring that everything was in place for the presentation that Ken and Julia would make in the library following their exhibition opening immediately outside of the window on Thursday evening. We finished up with planning what Ken and I would do the next day – Klas, Sam, and their colleagues in the arts department were on an away day so it was important that we made sure that we had access to the tools and materials that we would need and that we knew who to speak to should we need to get access to their offices. Our plan was simple: to give the panels a top coat of the blue paint that Klas and Ken had gone and bought, to mark up the back of the panels so that hanging, and changing, Ken’s prints would be easy (the prints will be regularly changed over the period of the exhibition).

Over breakfast on Wednesday morning we looked out at the snowstorm. Our idea to paint the panels outside would have to be seriously revised. At 8.00am I felt that it was not too early to call Klas – he is usually in the office by then (like most Swedes he works the European 8–4 rather than the Anglo-American 9–5). Finding somewhere to work has become trickier since I prepared the glitter-panels for my show as the health and safety officer has specifically prohibited anyone working in the vast empty former restaurant/nightclub area due to its somewhat derelict condition – something that most artists are more than familiar with but which frightens those in authority and (understandably) those responsible for public safety (and the council’s public liability insurance too I expect). Luckily one of the former kitchen corridors is still usable and Klas was able to get us permission to be there for the day. I got my second workout of the day as we carried panels, worktables, paint, and tools up and down stairs and through various parts of the library and non-public bits of the building in order to get to our new temporary workspace and avoid everything getting covered in the dense snow that was blowing and swirling about outside.

The storm eventually cleared in early afternoon by which time the panels were a very delicate shade of blue that I remembered from the 4xm2 Gallery pavilion that Ken and Julia showed in the parade ground at Chelsea School of Art in 2011. We were able to carry everything back to the window by the much more direct outdoor route. At lunch I noticed that I had missed three calls from the same number that morning (I use the ‘silent’ function when working on anything that requires concentration, and/or two hands). I returned the call but no one answered, I left the volume turned on as we began fixing the smaller panels in the window. Not long after my phone rang and I learnt who had been trying to get in touch with me and why – my phone rarely rings. I have been selected for one of the county’s culture awards and they wanted to let me know before going to the press!

From Enköpings Posten (Swedish)

I am absolutely delighted to have been chosen – it was a total surprise. I made my application last year thinking that it would be good practice and that I should start to be seen to be actively applying for things. But as a relatively recent arrival in Sweden, and a very recent arrival in Uppsala county I had no expectation that I would come through the initial selection rounds. It means a great deal to me to get this award, it might not be a huge amount of money but it is a significant sum, not only that but it means that I have made progress in becoming part of the Swedish art world where awards from authorities and public institutions are important validations. It is in fact the first award that I have received for my own work (I do not consider my degrees and educational qualifications to be similar – though obviously they are awards based on my work in the strictest sense). The award is made in order for me to pursue my practice – as simple as that! I remember seeing a group exhibition by several artists who had received various grants and awards at the artists’ information evenings that I attended in Uppsala late last year so there might be a similar opportunity for me.

So it was with a somewhat dreamily happy mood that I continued helping Ken with the install of his show. As dusk fell it became unrealistic to work the increasingly dark window – Sam and Klas had set-up new LED light-tape around each of the four sections of the window however the transformers would not be cabled in until the following day. Instead we marked up centre lines and various other ‘keys’ on Ken’s photographs. The library staff helpfully reminded us that we would have to be out of the building shortly after they closed as they set the alarms when they left. Back at my flat there was just time for dinner and a chat with Kim in London before heading off to the station to meet Julia from the airport transfer bus.

This morning [Friday] was my last early morning cycling past Go-Go. The piece continues to be on show until Sunday the 19th however I am away next week so I will not be riding past three times a week on my way to the gym for their 6.00am class and home again afterwards at just gone 7.00. Going past it so regularly has given me both pleasure and anxiety (if that is not too strong of a term). Seeing those twinkling orbs and their blue light splatter cast about the square makes me smile and hope that other people have enjoyed the installation during it’s three month residency in Konstfönster Joar. Seeing it only half lit, or with a motionless mirror-ball feels me with concern and questions – how long has it been like that, has anyone else noticed, do I have time to fix it today, how many lamps will it get through before the end of the run?

The piece has worked really well not only in activated ‘Enköping’s new art venue’ but in enabling me to speak about my ambitions for future projects – both individual and collaborative. It has generated a considerable amount of press interest in me. It came as a surprise when the director of the town gallery told me that he had put ‘my’ article up on their notice board beside the interview with the artist whose show opened last Saturday. I did not know that anything had been written or published. The article is based on my presentation and the discussion that followed about my ideas for an artists’ house. I am very grateful to the journalist Gunilla Edström for such positive and enthusiastic writing, and not least for quoting an established and respected artist’s support for the idea. This will be good to have when I start putting together a serious proposal.

[see the full article here]

I am looking forward to seeing someone else’s work there and I am delighted that it will Ken and Julia (whose m2 Gallery inspired me and was Go-Go’s original showcase). As soon as I am back I will be assisting them with their install – and I do mean literally as soon as I get back, my return flight arrives at 8.50pm on Monday evening, Ken’s flight from London arrives half an hour earlier so we will meet each other at the airport and make our way to Enköping together – ready to start work bright and early on Tuesday morning.

There has been lots of discussion, sketches, revised sketches, further discussion, and even more drawings in an attempt to make sure that the install goes well in the limited time (and space) that we have and that their work looks fantastic. Ken, being an architect, is able to produce wonderfully detailed, and beautifully hand-drawn, sketches that have been a great help when I speak with Klas in my ever improving artist’s / curator’s Swedish.

Once again Klas has been great in taking on all of the ideas and challenges that Ken and Julia’s show presents – I think that it helps that he is a practising artist too. While I am away he and the brilliant carpenter at the museum will paint and cut apertures in the boards that will give the show’s films and photographs the distinctive m2 look. It is good that the window is going to look so completely different.

The other thing that has been occupying me recently is my now annual task of proofreading for the Supermarket art fair. The catalogue entries for each exhibitor are becoming easier which could be the result of one or two things: the exhibitors are becoming more international and used to expressing themselves in English, or my English is become more European – a friend who recently proofread something that I had written commented that sometimes my sentences sound a bit ‘second language’! The longer articles though provoke both interest and frustration. The interest is genuine as I get to read texts by artists and curators engaged with fascinating ideas and projects. But so too is the frustration as I have to try to justify and explain why there are some rules that simply have to be followed – this is not unique to English, all languages have a grammar and syntax that just is as it is and needs to be accepted. I openly admit that I am not a professional proof-reader, nor have I studied language however as a mature native speaker and former (theory) lecturer I think that I probably have a better grasp of basic English than an aspiring foreign artist/curator. My role as proof-reader is ensure that the text is in the best possible English and is as comprehensive as possible. It is no secret that I am in favour of complex ideas expressed simply, however I am careful not to turn the texts into something that I would have written – as far as possible I maintain the author’s style. Should I really have to justify inserting determiners (‘a’ or ‘the’) before virtually every noun in six pages of dense writing? Or that it sounds wrong to play ‘pick n mix’ with phrases such as ‘touching a nerve’ and ‘striking a chord’? Proofreading documents in shared Google Drive folders does not make matters better – particularly in Sweden where everyone is welcome to share their views. Late last night after several hours of writing lengthy explanations for too many simple amendments and alterations that had been ‘rejected’ by the author I came up with a three letter acronym that I will be using next year – NFD: Not For Discussion.

(I am only too aware that my own writing often contains typos, mistakes, and sometimes in my enthusiasm to get a sentence out I omit vital words – that is the point of having a proof-reader. Anyone who wants to do this for these posts will be welcomed with open arms!)