I’m preparing to return to London and make a new installation for MOCA (London). I’m excited and nervous – this is a big show for me and I want it to be a success for MOCA too. MOCA is Michael Petry’s gallery and project space, he has been running off-site projects for the last few years and my show will be the first gallery show in quite a while. Getting the show has been a great boost to my confidence, I admire and respect Michael’s own work and his curatorial acumen.
The show is an installation made from old vhs gay video tapes. I mean the actual magnetic tape – the wonderfully black shiny stuff inside the cassette boxes. The tape is so reflective that the closer you look the more you see of your own eye – which also means that it’s really difficult to photograph.
My hope is that the piece is both beautiful and thought provoking.
www.mocalondon.co.uk/forthcoming.php
Stockholm Stockholm Stockholm
This fulltime work is very time consuming. Actually this is the first week of a month without paid work. I’m back in Stockholm. This time last year I had just started the WIP residency. What am I doing now?
I have a show in London in September – an installation piece that I need to work towards. More details later.
The two months I had in London passed very quickly. It seems that I am finally making some progress with getting the situation with my replacement windows sorted out. An independent surveyor will inspect the pre-manufactured units and my flat and report whether the windows are suitable or not. If they are suitable they will be installed before winter. It’s good to feel that things are moving forward on that front!
I’m very excited about the show in September – it’s a great opportunity. The show will be a significant step for me … another one. It’s very good to have something to focus on, especially right now when I’m between studios, and between countries.
I’ve really enjoyed spending time in London – it’s been good to catch up with friends. Now I’m here (in Stockholm) I’m getting anxious about how it will be when I move properly. I know it will be fine and that it is the right thing to do … I know that I am already starting to see London with the rose-tinted spectacles … anxious is OK. A good friend forwarded advice she received from a friend –don’t say “frightened” say “excited”.
Yes I’m very excited about moving to Stockholm!!!
Back in London for three weeks now – the time has gone very fast.
I had very good feedback from Charlie at Charlie Dutton Gallery. Although there was a lot of interest in Tender it didn’t result in a sale. I should have been at the opening, and around after … In future I must make sure that I’m in a position (financially and geographically) to attend openings. One of the things I enjoy about the openings in Stockholm is how keen the gallerists and/or curators are to introduce people to the artist(s).
It’s been good to catch up with people in person – keeping in contact with email and facebook just isn’t the same. I’ve become more relaxed and confident during my time away from the London scene, and this makes it far easier for me to deal with situations that I used to make me anxious. I’m not talking about anything major, but perhaps some of that Scandinavian attitude has rubbed off on me.
The weekend at Dartington was great! We (the three friends I went with and I) got on very well – amazing to think it must be about 12 years since we were all together. In many ways we haven’t changed – just matured! There were a few other Art & Social Context students from other years but not many. It was good to see our tutors again – even if it took them a while to remember us. Listening to Lyd, Bridgit and Louise made me realise how particular my experience of college was – I’m convinced that going to Dartington saved my life – in one way or another. I loved being there – it was a perfect place for me.
A friend has offered me the use of her studio while she’s away. I need to make a decision about it – it would be good to have a studio but it would take over an hour to get there from here, and I really should be concentrating on getting my flat ready for sale ….
An email from an artist with a studio at wip:sthlm reminded me that I haven’t mentioned the outcome of my PhD application. I didn’t make the short list. I also didn’t get a place on the Professional Artists’ Project Programme. Wrtiting both these things feels bad, not just because I didn’t get the places but because it goes against my intention to focus this blog on positive things. At the same time I don’t want to censor what I write (any more than I have to!).
The process of writing the PhD application was useful in itself. It certainly suggests a positive direction and way forward for me to pursue (albeit outside of an academic context). I have to admit the idea for the other programme was a bit forced and probably didn’t come across very well at all.
In two weeks time I’ll be back in London (I’m risking mentioning another thiing that I’m less than positive about). I hope that I can quickly resolve the outstanding issue with the replacement windows and tidy the place up for a quick sale. It’ll be strange to be back in London and not have a studio there – I’ve had various studios for the 15 years I’ve lived there.
I’m posting a couple of pictures I took when I delivered my work to Charlie’s gallery. When I downloaded them from my camera I found a few pictures I’d taken at the British Museum where I met a friend after leaving the gallery. It both amused and upset me that the British Museum shop had a 3-4-2 promotion. It seemed particularly odd as the promotion was for silk scarves or silk ties at £30 each (and it didn’t appear to be a mix’n’match type deal). Standing there it felt like I was in a branch of Tie-Rack* rather than the British Museum.
*or whatever the equivalent shop is called these days.
Tonight an artist friend from London, who has residence here at Malongen Studio, is holding his first Salon Malongen. He’s invited artists to bring along work, wine and nibbles ….
Hazard Perception (part ii) opened this week. Which means that this time last week I was just back from a very brief trip to London. It was good to see Charlie again. My work is in the gallery window and looks good (I think!). The show closes after my return to London in June so I have time to go and see it then.
www.charlieduttongallery.com
It was interesting to finish reading Gregor Muir’s ‘Lucky Kunst’ as I was (literally) flying out of London. The final chapters give the definite impression that the energy and opportunities that created YBA scene is something to be viewed as history – recent history, but history all the same. For me it was interesting that Muir (now director of Hauser & Wirth London) quite matter-of-factly documented the seismic shifts in the (London) scene – it’s something I hadn’t really thought about before. It is absolutely amazing that British artists became globally recognised and hugely successful not simply in their own lifetime but in about ten years. Muir himself went from barely surviving to directing a world-class gallery. What I also realised by the last page was that I wasn’t then, I’m not now and I never will be ‘that’ kind of artist.
Before I read Lucky Kunst I was a little worried that leaving London (I mean moving away) was some kind of failure on my part. Now I think to stay there would be a failure – a failure to recognise who I am and where I need to be.
