Restarted

The brief for the work going to Athens, was that it was to be on paper, maximum size A4 and light.

I made sure all of ‘my’ artists adhered to that.  Some, unfortunately, thought they were exempt from such strict rules. That annoyed a few of us. Work was to be carried in our cases – mostly in hand luggage, so there was an obvious reason for the size and weight.

I had mainly been working on 3D  stuff all year , so I had to go through my sketchbook to find suitable works.  Although slightly in ‘work in progress’ stage, I was fairly happy with what I had.

The space we had been given was to be split into 5 ‘Plots’.  Each area headed by a different curator.   Although, I had been given the list of the other curators – Jackie Berridge , Wendy Williams/Basement Arts,  Cynthia Harrision Orr , Sean Williams / Fronteer and Rosalind Davis, I didn’t at the time recognise all the other names.

It was only when the work was unpacked and we were ready to install, I suddenly though – Ah, I know you.

It was quite a tight space to work in , with so many artworks and so many people.  Plus , the heat was terrific in the building.

It was interesting to see how different people approached the install.  Rosalind spread hers out on the floor of the free space next door ( the artists hadn’t arrived at that point) Working out from there where everything should go.

Cynthia produced a rolled up sheet of paper – the exact size of her space. On it were pencil outlines of all her works.  She then proceeded to place screws in the wall at the edges of each work. I really couldn’t figure out what she was doing, until she produced tiny magnets for each work.   How amazingly organised is that?

The works selected by Sean Williams and Fronteer were all exact same size postcards.  They had numbered each work AND had taken a photo of how it should look.  They couldn’t be there for the install but had made it as easy as possible for everyone.  Jackie, being a perfectionist, marked out the entire space with tape so that each card fitted perfectly inside.

She also did the same for her own space.  Though some of hers was challenging in that most were not on paper so had to be screwed to the wall.  Two also had little shelves to sit on.  OK, it all looked fantastic when put together, but honestly artists – stick to the brief will you!

Mine, fortunately although all shapes and sizes ( though under A4) were pretty light and could be installed using velcro strips.  Apart from Jackie and Cynthia’s all of the other work was installed with the same method.

We were hoping that it would all be done in a couple of hours, but it actually took over 7 because of the problems with certain works.

I learnt a lot from the others that day.  I would also make a lot more effort now if anyone is installing my work for me in future.

TBC…

OK, my resolution to blog more didn’t really happen did it. Things happen, I get side-tracked and generally Life gets in the way .

Absolutely nothing wrong with that. Most of the time, things are personal to me and probably not of interest to others.

However, things have happened recently that have really set my thought process in motion.

I went to Athens…..

It wasn’t the place that shifted things in my head (though it was lovely!)  It was the people I met there and the conversations had, that jolted me.

I have exhibited at Platforms Project    several times . I’ve been in person twice – curating a booth and have taken a ‘team’ across. I’ve also taken part (exhibited small works) with Fronteer Gallery and with AlisonWhitmore’s group JAW.  I wasn’t planning to take part this year though.

However, I received a message from my friend Jackie Berridge asking if I’d like to curate a ‘Plot’ in her booth HMS

OK, I thought. That would be good. But then I thought about how much I had on at the moment with other things ( including work getting done in the house) So I asked Bruce from Leeds based Basement Arts Project ( who I’d worked with several times before) if he would like to co-curate the space with me, and thus freeing me up to do other things.
I selected artists I knew and was in regular contact with :

Elena Thomas , Catherine Harrison, Sufea Mohamad Noor, Paula Fenwick Lewis , Jackie Kerr and also myself.

Bruce selected Kimbal Quist Bumstead, Jeffrey Knopf, Kristina Nenova and Sharon McDonagh .

Several conversations with Jackie later and to cut a long story short, I decided to go across with them as they had room in their Airbnb for another body. So that’s basically why I went across – at that time, for the social aspect only. Catching up with old friends as well as a bit of warm weather before winter sets in.

There is quite a bit to write about on this one, so I’m going to break it down into chunks.  TBC…..

I’ve been asked to run two workshops for young people ( 16 -24 year olds)  Any topic, as long as its something I’m comfortable with.

The first one is on making hand made books, but now the organisers think it might be ‘too old’ for that age group.  Although its not til September, I’m reluctant to change it.  It is on the Museum website, but young people generally don’t search webpages,  so I’ll have to make sure it goes on social media and vamp it up a bit.

I’ve just thrown in the random topic of ‘junk jewellery’ for the second workshop , desperately hoping that’s more appealing to their age group.

16 -24 is such a difficult age group.  Younger, and you can make ‘fun things…older, you can teach virtually any skill… but in between…. ??

So my task this afternoon is to write some blurb that makes junk jewellery sound absolutely amazing…. without sounding desperate .

On Tuesday afternoon, I took down the installation at Chester Cathedral.

Really, it was a case of just putting them all in boxes, trying to keep colours together.  Still a back breaking job though.

I noticed that some were starting to come apart. It was probably partly caused by the damp in the cathedral and partly the glue that was used by some of the people who had made fish at home.

I suspect it was pritt stick or something similar. Its great of course for doing simple, clean workshops, but not good in the long run.

Also, a few fish were squashed , despite the barriers. I guess that’s young kids running into it.  No ones fault – we all know what kids are like and it can’t be helped.

Just means extra time needed for repairs when it moves on.

Yes, its going to one of the churches I ran a workshop at.  Much smaller obviously, and it’ll be going in front of the altar which means I’ll have to re think the design again.

Suggestions have been made for it to tour to larger places out of the area, but I’m really tied to my contract and have no say in what happens to it.

Next time though ……..  !!

Yesterday was both the opening AND closing event for the #CastTheNetWide #vision project.

It was held at Chester Cathedral where they had set up four large screens which linked with several churches in the Diocese.

There was a service and each of the churches were able to say how the project went . Afterwards, everyone went to look at my installation and the wall of comments/thoughts that people had written about the church.

The aim of the project – in my eyes anyway, was to encourage people to go back to church and most of the vision cafes were to encourage people to talk about what was holding them back. What put them off.

My installation was really a chance for people to get involved and encourage conversation and then perhaps get others to come along,   look and maybe learn.

I don’t know what the outcome will be. I hoped my input helped.

One of the churches at which I ran one of the workshops, asked if the installation can be shown with them.  I’m more than happy with that as it seemed such a lot of work to be only on display for two weeks.

The only issue is though that my contract ends at the end of the month, so if help install ( which I would rather do) I would have to do unpaid.