Show – Passage – up, open, and on-going! I am really pleased with how it looks and with the responses that I have been receiving.
Thursday’s vernissage was good fun, and a good mix of people. It gave me the opportunity to try and talk about some of my ideas in Swedish. But then doing it in English made me realise how challenging it can be to make communicable ideas that have been in one’s head and hands for over a year. In this respect my proximity to ‘Artistic Research’ is interesting, and as an experiment I decided to present a mind-map (minus the encapsulating bubbles and connecting lines) as the exhibition note/guide rather than a linear text. This enabled me to mention far more than I could have done in a more conventional text – the liberation from grammar and syntax opened up spaces. It could be argued that by doing so I have created another artwork however even if I have done that it is one that refers directly and explicitly to the objects in the exhibition (and in my mind that makes it an explanatory note).
Covering the gallery’s large windows worked very well and completely changes the atmosphere. The industrial view from the wall to wall, ceiling to floor windows with its two sets of dual carriages ways, raised level train lines, cement works, freight terminal and warehouses is a constant and restless backdrop to whatever is going on the gallery. Simply removing the view immediately produced a calm and more focused space. In addition it enabled me to light the pieces in an appropriate way.
An hour before the official opening time and just as I was removing the strip-lights from the entrance a couple of curators from Denmark turned up. They are traveling through the Scandinavian countries looking for artists for a show next summer. We had a good conversation and they were very complimentary about my work – which might well suit their proposal. They had just come from a very prestigious gallery/foundation and said that they found the exhibition, space, and atmosphere here more interesting – which was great to hear and obviously put me in a very happy frame of mind for the rest of the evening!
It is the first time in a number of years that I have presented work that could easily be shown in other places. The pieces are also some of the most commercial, potentially commercial, that I have made without it feeling like a compromise. I am really interested in developing both the door and jigsaw puzzle series and seeing where they might take me …
And just to mention that I was out-bid for the little house in the country – hopefully something else will come on the market soon!
