The live/durational part of Bed was completed at 4.55pm on Saturday (started at 12.00 noon). The day was really good and I’m really pleased with way the piece turned out. The completed drawing surprised me with it’s beauty.
The process was both formal, in that I had a pre-determined task to complete, and informal, in so much as I chatted with my ‘audience’. Conversations ranged from the sizes of people’s bed and sleeping habits to the expectations one brings to looking at art. A woman stall-holder at the nearby market came three times to see the piece. On the second and third times she brought different friends – she initiated a heated discussion about what is and what isn’t art.
I hadn’t given much thought to how the finished drawing would look. It’s beauty caught me unaware and I found myself smiling and feeling very proud if it. There were a few moments when the drawing had the same quality as the sky above it. It was almost as if it stopped representing something real and took on a realtionship with light and space.
The piece will now be left to weather. I will go back and take periodic photographs of its erasure.
This was my first live work in about six years – I want to do more ….
