There is still so much material that I have for/from Following Eugène. This week I presented a site-specific installation and lead an artist’s walk for the end of the Take a Walk on the Wild Side course, and yet it feels as though I am only at the beginning of something far larger. The course has been great in providing a framework for starting something … I do not quite know exactly what, but I know that this is certainly not an end.
The question of how one ‘communicates discovery’ came up in our final group crit. On the train after last night’s walk I started to wonder about how I might present the material that has not yet found its form or place … a book … a film … a more traditionally staged performance … a website. Interestingly an exhibition was not among my initial thoughts.
The walk was interesting because it not only was a means of letting people into my research, it also generated new material though the discussions that unfolded as we went. The walk was inspired by key locations in Eugène Jansson’s Stockholm and it was fascinating how the route became enriched by contemporary personal stories and other people’s memories evoked by specific places. It was also a great illustration of how an outsider’s responses to somewhere are different to an insider’s experience – subjectivity made visceral!
In the past I have been quite resistant to the term ‘project’ however it seems relevant and almost comfortable now – as a way to describe what Following Eugène is. And though I still find it difficult to say the word I have to admit that I am drawn to what I see as its positive formlessness. So, and much to my surprise, I have come to think of Following Eugéne as a project, and an on-going one at that!
A few months ago, when we started planning the end of course ‘presentations’, I had thought that I would make an event rather than participate in an exhibition. In the end I changed my mind and am in the group show too. And for lots of reasons I am very pleased that I am. My contribution to the show are the glitter carpets from the site-specific installation along with brochures for each of the events. Being part of the group exhibition feels important and I do not want to separate or isolate myself, after all the work that I am showing has been very much informed by being part of the group. I enjoy seeing my pieces in the context of other people’s work. An unexpected bonus to being in the group show has been meeting and speaking with people who (probably) would not come to either of my events – I include the director of the Moderna Museum in this audience as well as friends and professional colleagues of my classmates.
