It is the final weekend for M. On Monday morning I shall drive a hire van over to Uppsala and with the help of Henny, the Art Cube’s artistic leader, pack it up and bring it back to Enköping. It suddenly struck me that I could recreate it at Glitter Ball over the Easter weekend when we might be having Open House at the studios. That could be good fun and give people here the chance to see it (-thank you blog, without you I might not have made that connection)!
Being invited to show in the Art Cube has been great. Not only has it introduced me to a range of new people in Uppsala, it has also enabled me to try new materials and ways of working – some of which I will pursue and some of which I may not. The two days installing in the cube itself reminded me how much I enjoy working in specific spaces and creating things in conjunction with particular physical environments. This afternoon at the studio I continued sketching out ideas for a piece Östhammar this summer. I am one of five artists invited to make new work to be shown in a Victorian era community Hall in the coastal and summer resort in the north of the county. To call it a community hall is not quite right but there is no easy translation or term in English as the concept of the societetshus is peculiarly Swedish. It was a venue for afternoon tea, dining and dancing, as well as for playing games and sports. They were often build on the coast where there was bathing in the summer months, and the building themselves were usually financed and run by the town’s regular summer guests – those with summerhouses in the area. The building in Östhammar has recently returned to being run by an association of local residents after years of ownership (and neglect) by the council. We will be exhibiting there for three weeks from the being of September.
Through a process of sketching, looking at the photographs that I took there on a ’study visit’ and period photos, and thinking about M I am going to try out some more abstract installation ideas than I had initially thought of. Until today I had been thinking about making sculptural work to place on and around furniture in the glassed in veranda. The veranda is in desperate need of restoration, as are the two floors above it, however this will not happen before out show and it is therefore one of the rooms where we can fix things directly to the walls and ceiling. Having hung camouflage net from the ceiling of the Art Cube, and remembering Play, I am interested to explore possibilities of working on the ceiling at Källör.
