Let me be blunt; I want a simple life.
Episode 2
I want to spend three or six months in Stockholm next year. My local adult education college runs a couple of beginner’s Swedish evening classes. I signed up for the Thursday class as I finish work at 3.00pm that day and can get to the college for the 5.30pm start. Tonight was the first class and I really enjoyed it. Seven of us learned to introduce ourselves, say where we are from and which languages we speak. We went through some very basic grammar and Swedish alphabet. At the end of the class Tina (the teacher) explained that because the class size doesn’t meet the college’s minimum of eight it’s likely that the class will be cancelled. If the class is cancelled we will be offered the options of: moving to the Monday beginner’s class, registering for the next beginner’s class – Summer 2009, or join the beginner’s class (level 2) which is later on Thursday evening. I can’t swap to Monday unless I know that I have the fixed term contract (mentioned above) and give up two days of my current job – which it looks like I won’t have by next week. I don’t want to wait until the 2009 summer term – I wanted to have three terms of Swedish under my belt before heading out there next June.
I can’t really believe that I’m even considering throwing myself into level 2 albeit beginner’s level 2. I haven’t attempted to learn a language in 26 years (and that attempt was ‘unsuccessful’.) but it seems like I have little choice other than to take on level 2. After all level 2 beginner's has got to be better than arriving in Stockholm without a word. Hasn't it?
I want a simple life. How can three relatively simple things have become so complicated?
Why have they all happened this week?
If it is a sign – what is it signaling?
….
Let me be blunt; I want a simple life.
Episode 1
Almost everything that has happened this week seems designed to make my life complicated. Not simply complicated but complicatedly complicated! The new part-time job has become complicated because the post needs to be advertised and I need to go through a selection process, in the meantime they may be able to offer me a casual contract to start the job, however there is no guarantee that I will get the fixed term contract (even if I accept the temporary casual contract). This would be simply complicated if I didn’t have to give up one of my current permanent part-time jobs in order to work the days the potential new employer want me to do under the casual contract.
We have been very fortunate with our studio, we have very loose arrangements with our landlord and while we all pay our rent they pretty much leave us alone. That was until they converted the previously industrial building in front of ours in to flats. Of courses they had to be re-assessed by the Valuation Agency Office for domestic ratings (though I Council Tax had replaced rates). During that re-assessment the VAO noticed our building and realised that it wasn’t registered for non-domestic rates. Seven artists occupy the top floor, some share spaces, some have locked doors but have access to other studios to use the lift, kitchen and toilet. Due to this the whole floor is rated as one premises (rather than five distinct individual premises). On Monday I received a non-domestic (ie. business) rates demand for £1940.40 for the current financial year. The demand was addressed to me at my home address. I called Lambeth and asked if this was a personal bill or for the whole floor, it was explained that it was actually an old calculation based on a previous rating and that a new rating would be issued within a month. The new bill would be for the whole floor (approximately) twice the old bill and would be sent to “whoever is the lease holder”. I explained that there we five leaseholders (though we don’t actually have leases). The woman at the council said that as the floor is rated as one business premises there can only be one leaseholder (or head-leaseholder) and the bill will be sent to them. She couldn’t confirm who that was but as they had my name already it could be addressed to me. I am not leaseholder, head-leaseholder and certainly not prepared to take on the rates bill for whole studio! This is complicatedly complicated.
cont./….
Eeek!
I'm falling way behind – had a very full week with lots I want to write here but haven't had time (because I've been busy being an artist).
And yesterday on the way home from talking about my work in Schmatte Couture I came off my bike – so I'm typing even more slowly (my wrist is a bit bashed, my knee is even worse but that doesn't effect my typing).
i, finish Nordisk Kunst Plattform dairy
ii, Cy Twombly
iii, Banks Violette
iv, Farnham
v, Studio rates demand …
As I type this Radio 4's 6pm news is reporting on the forth coming Hirst auction. The news also featured the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
Nordisk Kunst Plattform
Day 2
Photo-call: At 8.30 precisely the photographer arrives. We all have coffee and talk about the work. She snaps away as I sprinkle silver glitter along the edge of the track.
The rest of the morning was spent making sure the electrical components had survived the budget airline journey. It was only when they initially failed to work that I realised that I had no idea how the transformer worked let alone to repair it. Thankfully it was a very simple problem with the track connector.
There are three rooms – it was always my intention for the model train component to be in the old ticket office (the middle room). This room has two windows that over look the platforms. Although the station has been decommissioned the line itself has actually been upgraded and has new higher speed trains with ticket sellers and conductors on board. The train service from Stavanger to Egersund stops, others like the Oslo and 4.00am Express don’t stop.
I took two series of embroidered handkerchiefs for the other rooms; one ‘baby blue’ series and one ‘gold’. It made visual and narrative sense for the blue series to be in the first room and for the gold series to be in the third room. It took considerably longer than I had imagined to work out how to show the handkerchiefs in the final room. An idea that looked great on paper look awful in reality – thankfully Liz was on hand to offer advice and practical assistance. Although the handkerchiefs are basically square they are all slightly different sizes and some have distinct ‘leanings’, this meant that we had to try various handkerchiefs in various positions to maintain the grid format. Each handkerchief has four possible orientations and nine possible positions in the three be three grid – we started trying to work out the total number of options this offered, we gave up and got on with the job in hand!
Another coat of paint, a nice dinner and a glass of wine.
In the evening we discuss the idea of the Brief Encounter edition. Liz had suggested it weeks ago and although I’d had a few ideas we decided it would be nice to produce it on-site. It also solved a potential transport issue. The installation itself packed and folded into my small suitcase (if it hadn’t been for my concern about the transformer unit I could have taken the whole thing as hand luggage).
The five days I spent at Nordisk Kunst Plattform were a kind of mini-residency. Liz and Kjetil are committed to working with the artists they show. Living with them for nearly a week meant that I had time to work out how best to install the work, it also meant we had time to talk about art, living abroad (Kjetil lived in London for many years and now Liz lives in Norway), and making a living.
Day 1
At a little after nine in the morning Kjetil came downstairs to the gallery where I was starting to unpack. Jaer Bladet’s arts correspondent wanted a phone interview for the region’s daily newspaper. Liz and Kjetil have worked hard to promote the space and the artists they show, they are recognised as bringing something new and exciting to an area which is best known for it’s significance to the history of Norwegian landscape painting. (The landscape and the light are stunning and I often found myself just staring out over the platforms across the fields towards to the distant but perfectly clear mountain range.)
The Brusand Palette: NKPlattform is known for it’s wallpaper! The interior retains the wallpaper that was put up when it was station and much of the paintwork dates from the same time. Unfortunately some wallpaper was badly damaged by careless telecom workers. In another room a new wall had been hastily thrown up to separate the control room the railway still uses. These areas needed repainting and I was invited to choose the colour. We opted for a colour that already existed, taking our cue from the ceiling in the smaller room. Armed with the fuse unit from the strip-light we headed off to the renowned colour mixer at the hardware stores in the next town (the smear of ceiling paint on the fuse unit was enough for him to create an exact match). And so developed what we came to refer to as the Brusand Palette.
Late afternoon the newspaper calls to say they are sending a photographer at 8.30 the next morning – they want a picture of me with the work.
(Apologies for editing and re-posting this entry – I got things out of synch in the previous one and wanted to get things on the right days! Sorry)
