Rebuilding and Refocusing

After a couple of weeks of stripping wallpaper, washing walls and painting the walls and floor, Katie and I have transformed our studio from a 1970’s looking-office space into a clean a shiny new workspace that we will be happy to work in.

The space looked quite depressing a couple of weeks ago, it was raining outside, we were both feeling quite ill and using a steamer to strip the walls. It wasn’t very nice. But today the space looked great. We can now move in properly and get on with some new work.

I have a few ideas for new work, one of which is for an exhibition that I am involed in in August, so I am going to need to make some big stuff (in a small space) pretty quickly. Planning and time management will be the key here. There will be more on this in my next post I expect.

A New Studio

I have taken another positive step towards rebuilding my practice. I have a new studio space! I am sharing a studio with Katie Goodwin, with whom I worked with successfully in the past during the MA. We curated a project or two last year, spent a week using the Centre for Drawing as a studio and then spent the Summer working in a space which became our MA show space. I am glad that I am able to share a space with somebody who knows my practice well, and we already know that we can work together. She will also kick my ass if I am not making good work.

We are now based at ASC studios in New Cross. We signed the contract on Tuesday. The space isn’t massive, but we needed somewhere to at least make a start, and we have plenty of room to make work and experiment. It is our hope to move on to a bigger studio further down the line when circumstances allow us. There is a window for a bit of natural light, and also high ceilings, so ideal for long hanging paper pieces and towers.

The key things that made this studio location so desirable are that it is close to my flat, just one direct short bus ride, and it’s also within easy reach of London Bridge which is my station of choice on days when I work. It has been 7 months since I last had a proper studio, and that kind of feels like forever without a dedicated work space. I am one of those people who cannot work for home. I need a separate space to live/sleep and work.

So far in 2012, I have relocated back to London, started a new job and now I have got a space to work. Getting this studio space is a big step forwards as I continue to rebuild my practice. Now comes the more challenging phase, managing my time effectively and blanancing my life and studio time in a way that prioritses my practice. I have done all this before of course, but this time it seems a little more daunting.

Before I get too carried away though, we need to get into the space over the weekend to strip that wallpaper, paint the space and put some shelves up. Then I can start on a new series of works.



Relocation Relocation Relocation

A big part of rebuilding and refocusing my practice has seen me think about where I want to be based. The questions that I have asked myself have been what is best for me? What is best for my practice? Where do I want to be?

Two weeks ago, I moved back to London, started a new job in an art gallery and re-connected with some of my fantastic and supportive artist friends. It’s been an extremely hectic couple of weeks, but I’ve been made to feel really welcome being back. It’s a totally different feeling to when I lived here last year, and this is a really, really good thing. Although London is expensive, I felt that it was important for me to base myself here for the time being, as this is where my peers from last years MA are. I felt that it would be a waste to be away from them after spending so much time and energy building up good relationships.

The first week was pretty crazy, especially as immediately after moving into a new flat, I took part in the second roving post Wimbledon MA salon, which took place at James Petrucci’s and Alex March’s studios at Space Studios in Vauxhall. I showed my ‘Ascent’ piece from earlier in the month and got some good feedback. It was also good to see what the others had been up to since September. The plan is to hold another of these salon/crit things in another two months.

I finally made it to a Zeitgeist Art Projects DIY Educate talk, the A – Z of surviving after art school last week. We had talks on this topic before, during the MA, but this one was the most realistic and down to earth I guess. It was a good evening and it was good to meet Rosalind Davis and Annabel Tilley.

I took the opportunity to explore my new local neighbourhood of Peckham during the South London Art Map last Friday which was good fun, and really good way to find out what galleries and events are happening on my doorstep. My highlight was Anton Zolotov at the Hannah Barry gallery. There was also free beer. It is funny how you recognise so many people at private views in such a big place as London, and it was also fun bumping into lots of Wimbledon BA alumni too.

My head is all over the place at the moment whilst I settle in. The plan for the coming weeks is to gather my thoughts, and make plans towards finding a studio space. Then it will be a case of getting myself organised and prioritising my practice. This first quarter of 2012 has been really positive though, and I feel as if I am moving forward and taking strides towards rebuilding my practice. 

Hijack! was a success. The whole experience of the exhibition was pleasant and rewarding. Something that I am now very aware of when taking part in group exhibitions is the need for my work to be shown in the correct context. This was certainly the case here. The show was well curated with a dialogue between the all the work. It all fitted well. The exhibition looked really great, and the turn out for the private view was really great, the venue was packed and there were some positive comments and good conversations. It was also really great not to have to pay submission fees and to have my expenses paid. It made me as an artist feel much more valued.

For this exhibition, I showed two pieces. An older hanging drawing piece in the main space, and a new tower piece in the second space. I had planned for my tower piece to be somewhat different to how it panned out. Initially, it was to be titled Descent, and in appearance would have emerged from the damaged ceiling, smashing and breaking apart onto the floor. Due to technical limitations with the space, and a weak ceiling, my idea had to adapt slightly. There is no lean on this tower, nor is it falling apart. My idea shifted to something being built rather than falling apart. This funnily enough ties in with my current state of mind quite well, as I am attempting to re-build my life and practice, as a friend of mine pointed out.

The idea centred around the damaged ceiling, as I’d originally planned. However, rather than having a tower descending from this hole, the ceiling was used as an obstacle, I thought of this:

As the tower builders got to the ceiling (atmosphere?), they attempted to cut through, to continue to build, this however failed to happen. Perhaps this was too big an obstacle, too strong a boundary, or maybe something happened before they could escape through to ascension.

It’s still quite Babelesque, and also reminded me of failed designs of a space elevator that I had read about over the Summer. From earlier research, I became fascinated by the ideas of failed attempts of ascension, and this tower piece represents a failed attempt of ascension, a last desperate attempt to escape the confines of this reality. The piece was called Descent in the handout, but I’ve since re-titled it to Ascent, as it seems to fit better. Thinking more, maybe Failed Ascent is more appropriate. I’ll have a think. I did like the idea that this piece was essentially a drawing with a ridiculous support. It was quite a simple piece that glowed in a dark space.

Next week I will talk more about how I have been rebuilding my practice, and what is coming up next to make that so, which is the aim of this blog of course. There is potentially some exciting times ahead.

The last week or so has seen me planning out my new piece of work for the Hijack! exhibition. The new work is still based around the idea of an inverted tower, with the top of the tower smashing into the ground as it enters ‘our space’. Planning this thing has all been through drawings in my sketchbook and by building small models out of card and matchsticks. The actual making of the piece has been split into two stages. Working outdoors I have precut all the sections of the tower, so that it should hopefully be assembled in sections. In theory, this should go smoothly. It’s been a different way of working, having relied solely on drawings and small models and then my measurements and maths skills. I haven’t actually seen the built work yet, so tomorrow afternoon should be interesting. The tower is currently in two flat packed bundles awaiting transport to the space tomorrow.

This is a different way of me making this kind of work. As I made the previous towers, I was in the space and had the luxury of weeks to play around, alter and add bits. It wasn’t a very efficient way of working, it was all very hapzard and the towers took on a life of their own as the evolved over the Summer. It feels more clinical working everything out on paper first but hopefully I’ll find a more happy medium in the future, but this more planned route is definately (and obviously in hindsight) the way forward. The proposals that I have recently been writing have been put together with this mode of working in mind. This hopefully allows me to continue to make large work in a more manageable way.