Project Me

The week in London went very quickly. It was very different being there with someone else – I am not so used to traveling with a partner …

My piece at Clifford Chance looked good. They even pressed it before it was hung! I was very pleased to see that it was hung on one of the polished plaster walls rather than the one painted with matt emulsion. The opening was an enjoyable evening, towards the end I met a lawyer (who had previously been a doctor!) and was both delighted and surprised to learn that he reads this blog. It was the first time that I have met and ‘unknown’ reader.

This is exactly the kind of ‘gay’ exhibition that I like – with work that can be openly gay or lesbian but which must be interesting and high quality. I find it very difficult to write (or even think) about ‘gay sensibility’ in my own or others’ work. I have the sense that many of the artists exhibiting would not call themselves a gay or lesbian artist, rather an artist who is gay or lesbian.

Seeing the catalogue made me realise that I really need to work out what I am going to do about images of my work. The picture in the catalogue is not very good at all. Perhaps it is time that I started to have my work professionally photographed. I certainly need to look again at how other installation artists photograph their work. My work is often an awkward size and a difficult material … maybe I should try to make work that is easier to photograph!

Henry Moore’s Late Large Forms at Gagosian was my favourite of the other shows I saw. It was wonderful to be able to be so close to sculptures of that scale and beauty. Tucked around a far corner of one of the enormous galleries was a modest acrylic wall mounted cabinet containing maquettes, models and natural forms Moore referred to – a brilliant and subtle piece of curating. Thinking about it now, it was really nice to walk in to a gallery and see the work without labels, without a press release, without any (noticeable) text.

I am very pleased to say that I passed the SFI test, and that I have found a part time course to continue with. The new course is two mornings a week which I think will suit me – I can have some full days here at the studio and I know that I am far more alert in the morning than I am in the evening! I have to find ways to keep practicing my Swedish over the summer break as I already feel that a week in London has ‘corrupted’ what I have learnt.

It was great to arrive back in Stockholm and find that the authorities here have validated my British degrees. I was genuinely concerned that the lack of documentation regarding my Art & Social Context degree could become a problem, thankfully my own account of the course content and the few traces I found were enough and now I have an official Swedish document when I apply for work and funding etc.

Staying with an artist friend in London gave us the chance to talk in way that I just can’t/ don’t on the phone. We have been talking about art, in one way or another, for the 15 years we’ve known each other. I also visited an artist friend who was my tutor over 20 years ago. They are both wonderfully inspiring and interesting people (in very different ways) and I want do more to keep in touch with both of them. I am starting to make friends here however I really appreciate chatting with people who know me well.

My first time at the studio after what feels likes ages. I discover that I have nothing really for lunch here. The last ten days have been blend of friends coming to visit and what hopefully will be my final tests at SFI school. It is good to be back here even if I am (only?) sitting at the computer and writing this blog. This week is also busy with a couple of social events and trips to degree shows, and then I’ll be in London for a week for the opening of the Pride show at Clifford Chance.

I have been thinking a great deal about how should organise my time once I am finished at SFI. There is a further ‘introductory’ language course that I want to take however I think that the part-time evening course might be the best option for me. Ideally I would like to be in the studio a couple of full days every week so that I can focus more of my energy on my practice again. I am also going to see if I can get a half time work placement with a gallery or museum. I want to start learn a bit more Swedish art speak! This is all on the assumption that I passed last week’s tests!

We, Alex and I, are waiting to hear back from the management board at the studio if Alex is able to extend her subletting period. If she is not able to she has suggested that we share the studio which is a good idea although I have become very used to having the place to myself. Sharing my studio in London with Jodi worked very well and I am sure I could easily share with Alex – I just need to find somewhere to put all my stuff!

Any new course I do will start in August at the soonest so I am looking forward to at least one month with more and longer days here. Right now I want to see I can find some interesting glass objects so that I can have a play with the packet of Sunography Paper I picked up at Moderna Museet …

My piece for the Clifford Chance show is all packed up and almost ready to go. I have bought a couple of small hooks and want to spray them white but it is not easy buying spray paint here. Which in itself is interesting, however it is even more interesting to me as I live in the flat directly above a man who has just written a book about Stockholm’s zero tolerance strategy towards graffiti. So if I see him this evening I will ask if the strategy includes making it virtually impossible to buy spray paint.

My six-month term of subletting is almost at an end and I have been talking with Alex about what to do. It is a tricky situation. According to the studio’s rules Alex does not have the option to sublet for more than one year (which she has already done) however her university course is not yet finished, and as soon as it is she wants to have her own studio back. We have talked about sharing the studio when she comes back (which is relatively easy to arrange). Of course the rules about subletting can be changed however it requires a meeting of the management board and although it is only the end of May people are already starting to take holidays. We hope to work something out which suits everyone. I am quite pleased to learn that the board has time limits on sublets (as many housing associations here do too) as it stops people becoming kinds of private (absentee) landlords. Is it perverse to appreciate a system even if it does not work in my favour?

Next week I take the final SFI (basic Swedish language course) test. If I pass then it means that I can choose to take a more advanced course, if I do not pass then I can take the test again in August. I really hope that I pass, it has been great to have all this tuition for free (for which I thank the Swedish tax payer) however it feels like time to get on with being in the studio and finding some part-time work. Some of my school friends have said that if they do not find work that they will continue studying half a day throughout the week and part of me thinks that I should do the same. However I do have a job – being an artist – and studying every morning from 8.00-12.00 is not good for my studio practice. I need to remember that even if I do not make money from my practice it is still my work.

I want to get on with my work.

I need to get on with my work!!

I have just finished the visible side of the piece for this year’s Pride show at Clifford Chance. It is not exactly how I first imagined it would look – it is much simpler. I need to secure all the loose threads of the reverse side before I send it to London however I can now take the photograph that will appear in the catalogue.

This year there will be two openings for the exhibition – unfortunately I am only able to attend one. I feel bad about this as I made a promise to myself that I would not miss my openings after doing so a couple of times a few years ago. I have already booked flights to go to the first opening, which due to the large number of artists showing and the number of corporate guests, I can only invite one guest to. A few weeks after this opening will be another event for the all the artist’s guests and this is the one I cannot attend – first there is the cost and second it occurs during my parents’ visit (to me here in Stockholm). There is also an artists’ talk that I cannot attend.

My attempts to find some documentation of the course content of my degree have come to nothing. It is truly amazing that such an influential, unique and ground-breaking course can just disappear without a trace. The former tutor who moved to Falmouth with the college recognised my difficulty and offered to write something – I hope that he does not have to and that the authorities here are satisfied with my account of the course and the online article written by the former head of department. The experience of trying to find course documents has given me a lot to think about …

1, the scale and pace of change in British higher education, particularly in terms of what has happened to ‘art schools’.

2, the importance of documentation!

3, how old I am.

I have also been thinking about friends of mine from Dartington who do not already have M.A.s – what position would they be in if they wanted to do an M.A. here and could not prove that the B.A. they have is genuine?

The Friday before last I went to a talk by Briony Fer (University College London) at Moderna Museet. I have heard her speak before while I was at the Slade and used to go to the art theory lecture series but I am out of practice of listening to serious academics. Sitting there amongst a predominantly Swedish speaking audience, who seemed fully able to follow the very complex text, made me very (VERY) aware of just how much work I have to do in terms of learning Swedish so that I can really participate in the art world here.

I attended the Slade at the same time as a very brilliant student who has been a well respected writer and editor for many years now, he commented once that no art theory lecture was complete without the phrase “always already” being employed. I smiled to myself as Briony uttered those words as she concluded her argument ….

It is amazing that my degree course seems to have disappeared without a trace. The authority that converts (‘translates’?) foreign qualifications to ones that Swedish institutions (and employers) recognises is having a hard time with my Art & Social Context degree.

And in turn I am having a hard time with it too as they have asked me to provide them with ‘documentation’ so they can assess my degree and give me ‘credits’ for it. I am trying to tracking down any information about the course that could provide them with information about the actual course content and ultimately what my degree actually means!

Here are some of the challenges:

· The college that I attended no longer exists. Dartington was subsumed by Falmouth University two years ago.

· The course that I took no longer exists. A couple of years after I graduated the course moved from Dartington to Bristol College of Art where it ran for a number of years before being significantly altered and renamed.

· The CNAA (Council for National Academic Awards) which validated Dartington’s degree no longer exists.

· Bristol College of Art is now part of University of West of England.

I graduated in 1990 from a curiously unique course at a wonderfully alternative college of visual and performing arts. It is the kind of place that simply does not exist anymore – to be honest it barely ever existed, it was always a little like a fairy-tale – a fantastic place where artists, actors, dancers and musicians lived in the grounds of an old old house deep in the countryside ….

Yes we were remote, “isolated” some would say, but we were all there because we wanted to learn rather than to get degrees. I can see now that I was very fortunate to go to college before students became paying customers, before maintenance grants were abolished, before league tables, before everywhere had to be a university, before research profiles were more important than being a brilliant teacher, before degrees were achieved by collecting a number of credits. And this is the real problem I am facing now, the authority here wants to equate my 22 year old degree with the current credits system. I want the authority to be able to equate my 22 year old degree to the current point system – because if they can not do it I might not be able to apply for academic or research opportunities.

So far I have learnt that Falmouth have no records of the course and that the Open University which holds the CNAA archive does not have information about the courses it validated. I am waiting to hear from University of West England. I also sent an email directly to my former theory tutor who is teaching at Falmouth. I remember that he was very involved in getting the degree validated and I hope that he is sentimental (or should that be professional?) enough to have kept some of the official papers that he and his colleagues wrote. It is these papers that might not only help me but that might show just how innovative and necessary the first art course to engage with social context was …