With Ljusfältet part one (as I now think of it) out of the way it is time to work on part two!
presentation of documentation
gallery version of installation
artists conversation
booklet
There are so many things that I would like to do, however I have to bear in mind the budget and, not least, how much time I can commit to it as the work load at school seems to be ever increasing. The four things mentioned above will be more than enough to keep me busy. Once again I am incredibly grateful that Birgitta is able and willing to work with me on this.
Perhaps I am a little too aware of the situation regarding the funding the project received from Stockholm City. As I write this I realise that this might be the first time that I am so personally responsible for producing art that is publicly funded. I want to feel confident that what I present (and how it is presented) puts me in a good position if I apply for support in the future – and also the studio too. It is too late to do anything about the problems out on the field and maybe that is why I am really determined to make the night at the gallery as good as it possibly can be.
Moving to a new city (country) is like starting over again and I guess that it is gong to take me time to build up those all important professional friendships which make so much of an artist’s practice achievable and sustainable. I feel very fortunate to have been asked to do the project in the first place, it is certainly a very positive way to mark my first year of being an artist in Stockholm!
One of the members of the gallery committee here is taking a sabbatical and will stand down in the new year, he suggested that perhaps I and another artist should join in his place. Yesterday I accepted their invitation. I think that it will really good for me to be more involved: not only will my Swedish improve but I will start to learn the kind of Swedish that is spoken by artists(!), I will get to meet more artists, and I will get gallery experience. There are some very interesting konsthalls (non for profit and publicly supported exhibition spaces) in and around Stockholm and the one at wip has great potential. It has been a good few years since I was so involved with Crystal Palace Artists and it feels like the right time to take on something new and exciting.
Do I believe in luck? Recently a friend (here) said how lucky I have been to achieve so much so quickly. Afterwards I thought about it again and wondered if it is luck. It was not luck that brought me to this studio in the first place, it was research and persistence coupled with a willingness to take a risk and holding down at least three (sometimes four) part-time jobs so that I could afford to come here for three months. Over the years between my residency and actually moving here I kept in contact with the artists here (not that that was hard work!) and made the effort to come to openings whenever I visited (again it is not exactly work or a hardship but it is a commitment and an interest). More recently I took the studio for six months not knowing if I would be able to stay longer and agreed to participate in a project that was anything but secure. Is it luck that I have a contract to share this studio, luck that the project is going ahead? Luck or just how life works? My ‘work’ as an artist is hard to define (not what I produce, I mean all the things that I do that sustain my practice), many of these things are ‘soft’ and informal and sometimes I get something back (rarely money!) but it is all work. And I am very glad to be able to think of myself as a working artist!
