I’m starting the last of the ‘big jobs’ on my flat. Over the last two months I’ve allowed myself to be totally consumed by decorating and other DIY. Having said that I went to a wonderful talk by Dorothy Cross at Frith Street Gallery the other week. I’ve known Dorothy’s work since a friend (and former tutor) took me to a show at the old Frith Street Gallery back in the 90s. She is a fascinating artist and a great speaker (talker?). It was really good to hear how she works, especially how her focus and projects have developed over the years. I left feeling inspired and encouraged.
I’m desperate to get back to the studio – well, to get a studio! I know that everything I do is a step nearer to establishing myself in Stockholm and taking a studio there. I don’t know exactly what I want to do in the studio I just know that I need to be there.
A local print workshop runs short courses in screen-printing and I’m thinking of doing one. Some friends did a course there and listening to them made me think about what I could do. I’m intrigued by the idea of working on paper and by making something that could (potentially) be commercial. I say that because my friends are selling and have sold the prints they made … my work has never been commercial so why would prints be any different?!
One of things I really appreciate about spending time here (in London) and there (in Stockholm) is how it insulates me from distraction. It is my nature to get involved in things and sometimes this is detrimental to my own practice. It is also my nature to absorb the atmosphere around me and this too is sometimes detrimental to my practice. With all the stresses and frustrations being felt in the arts in the UK I really appreciate the distance that thinking “internationally” affords me.
I feel guilty admitting that, however I want to be honest. Of course the threats to the arts are serious and demand attention, however after years of attempting to do things about it and seeing minimal results I need time out. I also see that I need to approach it from a different perspective. With the phrase “rats leaving a sinking ship” ringing in my ears I’m making my flat ready to put on the market … and wondering why I grew up thinking those rats were wrong. Rats work damn hard to survive. They adapt and evolve but they also know when enough is enough.
Spending time abroad has shown me different ways of doing things. More than that it has forced me to focus on who I am as an artist – an artist in a broader context. As my context has broadened my practice has focussed. Shedding local concerns (distractions?) has enabled me to do what I need to do and as a result I have made art that operates at a level that seems to give people so much more than the stuff I made when I wanted it to be meaningful. The less I ‘understand’ the more I trust the creative processes. The artwork that comes out of this is more than the sum of the parts, and it therefore has more to offer. The most ‘accessible’ art is not necessarily the easiest to explain, it could be the art that’s the most artistic.
Can I really attribute this shift in approach to working outside the UK? To an extent I think I can say that being away from the intensity of the London art scene has given me space to think about what is important to me at a very fundamental level.
Good quality affordable studios
Hidden agenda free children’s projects
Equality between arts and other professions
Time and space to take risks
Faith in the process
I love art
I love art. Art saved my life. As an isolated overweight gay boy attending a tough comprehensive school in Essex in the late 70s and 80s art showed me something else. Beyond the joy of the art rooms there were trips to galleries. I clearly remember seeing work by Hockney, Judd, Caro and Naum Gabo at the Tate, I remember Anish Kapoor, Ed Allington and a huge pink tiled cone with a ring of matching pink hand-basins around it outside the Hayward Gallery. These and other artists showed me form, scale and colour. They showed me things way beyond my life. They showed me something beyond the world I saw every time I stepped out the front door. They gave me hope
Today I still want art that makes my spirit soar. Art that releases me from mundanity. Art that takes me somewhere else, that enlivens me, that challenges me. Art that makes things better. Art that believes in the future.
I want art that takes my breath away, and art makes me wonder.
Perhaps that is why I felt so flattened and disappointed by British Art Show 7. Did I miss something … ?
Supermarket Day 4
This is the first day that the fair is open to the public. It is immediately and surprisingly busy. A friend is supposed to come during her lunch-break, unfortunately she is delayed and arrives just as Michael and I are heading off to the Market fair. (Market is the commercial gallery fair held at Akademien – the art academy – a 15 minutes walk from Kulturhuset.) Going around the fair with Michael was good, he had arranged to meet one of the galleries he knows to see the work of an artist he is interested to work with in the future. I was also pleased to be able to introduce him to the galleries that I know here. As we reached the end of the fair Michael commented on how ”cool” it all was, not cool as in trendy but in other senses – the confidence, the palette, the feeling of the work. It is remarkable that this coolness is almost consistent throughout the fair. To me this is one of the most appealing aspects of the Scandinavian art scene – an alternative to so much flash and spectacular work. It’s not only the work that is cool, the galleries and gallerists are cool too. This kind of cool is something that I think (I hope) has the kind of integrity that I have been looking for.
It was interesting to see artists from last year’s graduation shows being presented at Market. I’m sure that galleries at Frieze show their new artists too, however with so many less graduates (and galleries) it is easier to spot them.
There isn’t any coverage of the art fairs in the national newspapers. Roberto’s Mosquito Choir are pictured in the local morning paper which is great however the text says that they will perform tonight, when they actually performed last night at the opening.
After Michael and I come back to the stand Roberto and Cecile go to Market and also to Magnus Karlsson galleri where an artist Michael has worked with is in a group show. The show also includes an artist from the gallery where Roberto works part-time. We play ‘tag’ one more time and when they return from the fair and show Michael and I make a quick trip to the gallery. I really liked Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s paintings and she’s a really charming woman too! We – the MOCA London group – planned to meet with the gallery group for a drink after their dinner but the dinner lasted longer than the pub hours so it didn’t happen.
Supermarket Day 2
Day 2 did not start well. After such a successful day installing Play I was expecting a similar enjoyable and productive day. Almost as soon as I arrived Pontus (one of the Supermarket organisers) told me that there was a problem with Play but that I should not worry, he said he would come back when everyone was there so we could talk about it. He went to do something else. Then Estella from Kulturhuset arrived on the scene and said that it was likely that Play would have to be taken down and could not be shown elsewhere due to the combustible nature of the videotape. After explaining that the installation had been cleared by Supermarket we decided the best thing was to get everyone together to try and resolve the situation. I was more confused than stressed. It is good that I am a calm person.
Eventually, and after a less than helpful phone conversation via Estella, the chief of security arrived. The problem was not actually my work but its proximity to the glass surround the spiral staircase. The concern was that in the event of the fire the heat generated by the burning videotape might cause the glass to crack. It was explained that the glass is original (from the 1970s) and therefore not up to today’s standards. I understood that however I was a bit concerned as it was also explained that the spiral staircase is a principle exit route in case of fire. It still doesn’t sound right that a large public building can have a fire route that does not meet fire regulations, the glass in question is only ‘georgian-wire’ glass it’s not as though there isn’t a modern version that would look identical.
In the end I agreed to move Play so that it was never closer to the glass than 1.2 meters. It was either that or not show it at all. Moving it significantly altered how it worked and how it looked in the space, however I felt as though I did not have another (viable) option.
The rest of the day went well but my mood was rather flattened by the morning’s events. Roberto and I had done everything we were asked to do in advance of installing the piece, we’d sent details of the materials, dimensions and the proposed location. It seems that there was a break down in communication between Supermarket and the security department at Kulturhuset.
News of the controversial artwork spread around Kulturhuset – Hampus met a former tutor of his who was working on an exhibition in another part of building and she asked what he knew about this “dangerous artwork”. Part of me feels that I should not have compromised, however the greater part of me feeling that I took the best decision in bad circumstances. I am also aware that should I want to work with either Supermarket OR Kulturhuset again I will have far better chances than if I had been angry and difficult.
I ran in to Estella many times over the course of the fair and she was always friendly and went out of her way to help me with things that she was not really responsible for.
I am aware that artists can easily gain reputations for being difficult to work with. I always try to avoid this no matter where and with whom I am working. However in Stockholm I am (perhaps too) aware that I am also a foreigner and don’t want to risk scuppering international artistic relations! Once again I am very grateful that Hampus was there with me to translate.
After helping me with the installation Hampus also helped Roberto and Cecile. I was concerned that Roberto’s sauna was very absent, and was then amazed at how quickly he was able to create it.
