Three flags completed and installed in the room on the fifth floor. The room is not how I had expected it to be … it is far better! Sorcha is also presenting her process(?) … outcome(?) … material(?) – I shall have to ask her how she describes what she does. She begun placing things in the room while I made the flags which I then took upstairs. We chatted as we worked in the room. I leaned one flag against a wall and was struggling with placing the second … it would need fixing to the wall and/or floor if it was going to be adjacent to the first. I was reluctant to make such a permanent placement while the room as a whole was still evolving. Sorcha mentioned that she prefers to utilise the architecture and features of the room rather than additional fittings in order to position pieces – being guided by the room itself. She left the room temporarily … and then it occurred to me – ask Sorcha to include my pieces in her installation/curation. She was obviously a little taken aback by the suggestion that I immediately and perhaps too enthusiastically presented on her return. Concerned that I might not like what she might do I assured her that I was interested in handing over control and was very interested to see what she would do. In talking with her about the idea I realised that an opportunity to try something like this is exactly what the residency offers – to be honest I probably would not ask such a thing if it was a gallery show, but here it feels right to take risks and to play. The more we spoke the more convinced I became that it was important for me to do this. Sorcha quietly warmed to the idea and subtly moved to where an unattractive bundle of cables hung against the wall dangling form half removed conduit circumferencing the ceiling. We had not reach any conclusion as to what to do with the cables in out earlier conversation – we agreed they were ugly and distracting. She put an arm through the bundle, bent her knees and I think I saw her bounce a little. She was testing the weight she explained … she thought that I could use the cables to hold one of the flagpoles. It is not something that would have occurred to me … and the it works brilliantly.
The third flag, which I had ’assumed’ would lean against the same wall, in now on the opposite of the room resting on a radiator. It was my placement but completely inspired by Sorcha’s approach. I was pleased to see that later on she was re-arranging the way in which the fabric laid on the floor.
Yesterday I washed four loads of found fabrics: promotional fleece blankets, a shawl, a double bedsheet, a piece of net curtain, and three quilted mattress protectors. I was excited to make flags from all of these … first I thought of single colour flags – red, black, and white, then I favoured cutting the fabrics and assembling stripes and/or triangles. This morning I thought it wise to check existing red, black, and white flags. There was nothing particularly alarming but paying attention to my own need to know if I could be reproducing a national symbol made me realise that other people would probably also read the flags as referring to somewhere or something – which is not my intention. I took a step back and returned to the idea of single colour flags – that was until Andreas (Andreas Ribbung – the third visiting artist) said without hesitation red for socialism, black for anarchy, and white for peace. It was not difficult at all to decide that the red and black fabric could be excluded.
I would not, could not, say that these two episodes can be called collaborative – well perhaps the first was a little collaborative but they are interesting in testing out inviting other artists in to my process(es).
