Simulacra And Simulations

Last night I was invited by Beacon to attend an event at The Hub in Sleaford, a follow up to Melissa Bliss’s Hinterland project for SEAS.

Initially I was interested in the SEAS project, but a job interview was unsuccessful, and I became busy with One And Other and The House Of Bling and never quite got round to going to Skegness, as I was told; “in the hope I could meet the artists there”. I didn’t want to meet the artists. I wanted an opportunity to work and I felt fobbed off, it was patronising. I went along to catch up last night because I was invited and there was a free coach.

My antipathy wasn’t changed much by having to watch a talk by an artist from outside of Lincolnshire, telling me all about my own cultural heritage, stuff that, being a Lincolnshire born artist, I already know. It’s in my genes.

I guess it’s the Yellowbelly in me. We can be very defensive at times.

But hey, all my plans this week have been skewed by my youngest son being ill and missing a meeting, plus the fact that most people don’t seem to realise that it’s half term and I’m having a week off. The only important thing for me was the Enterprise inc meeting earlier today.

I’m glad the a-n forum is going well – I hope that this blog will revert back to being professional, instead of me moaning about how work tries to infringe on my “holiday” period – I can do that elsewhere!

I’ve finally received some belated bursary funding for the LAN!!! My bank account no longer looks like a black hole where all money disappears forever!

I seem to have loads of events to attend all at once at the mo – I have an introduction to the AA2A scheme meeting next week, an Enterprise Inc meeting, and plan to attend the Beacon / Melissa Bliss Hinterland thing in Sleaford the following week – Beacon very kindly put on a free coach, so apart from having to take son with me, it should be good to go….

I’ve got all my plans together to attend AIRTIME and Air Open Dialogues next month. This has taken me a lot of logistics considering that AIRTIME is from 3-5p.m. which is a bad time of the day for parents, and Open Dialogues is later, and I live an hour away from Nottingham…

This is the plan. My eldest will go and hang out his friends, my youngest will go to Kids’ Club after school until 6pm (this will cost me childcare fee) then will go home with his friend Ollie until I get back.

This will be approx 9.30p.m. – a bit late on a school night, but it’s only a one off.

Melissa Bliss Hinterland event is 7-9.30p.m. – another child-unfriendly time….

I’ve just set up on Twitter – never saw the point in it, but I’m hoping it might prove useful to synch all my networks…….

So last night I couldn’t make it to the private view for Magne Furuholmen’s Alpha Beta Exhibition – not on a school night!

Luckily some people did go and have shared stuff http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh8naCH_KU4&fmt=22

Guy Berryman buys a lot of Magne’s work – that’s him there.

Tinged with the surprising news that A-ha will retire next year, we can’t get rid of them that easily – it means that Magne will devote more time to his other projects and his art, and I do hope to be able to attend his next exhib.

I will still go and see his work, just won’t be until next month though.

I was just browsing through the comments on the One And Other website, now that the Plinth is sadly empty, when i received a phonecall to confirm that I’ve been accepted onto the AA2A scheme, so now I’ll be able to (legitimately!) go into University and access facilities to create a body of work, get some costs covered, and this will also enable the LAN to have a presence, a point of contact instead of having to hold random meetings – excellent!!

I’m starting to feel as though I’m getting somewhere – i just wish it hadn’t taken so long!

It seems odd to go on the One And Other site and see instead of someone there, a red square of text instead.

I was asked by BBC Radio Lincolnshire about artists such as Damien Hirst selling expensive work in galleries, how the Plinth compares with that….. there is a shift away from capitalist art, but I’m not so adverse to what Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin do – they make a very good living from what they do, just far more than what some people consider justifiable. I just wish slightly that applied to artists other than the YBAs……. I wouldn’t want things to go too far back the other way, where artists are being taken advantage of and expected to work for nothing….. there needs to be balance. But I do like the way art is engaging with audiences, becoming involved with the community, it’s something I want the LAN to achieve, and something the community should invest in, instead of arguing about money being put to better use elsewhere. Is it possible to meld the YBAs and Gormley? Or would that create a monster??!

What I noted on reflection about the Plinth was that it engaged with people that otherwise wouldn’t experience art, or be interested in art. I read comments from many people from America and Canada, who’d been watching the plinth from across the pond – where else do you get an opportunity to exhibit work globally?? I knew that although there weren’t all that many people in Trafalgar Square while I was there, the audience stretched as far as Broadband.

But I haven’t received a rash of emails offering me commissions yet. My Redbubble account hasn’t yet made any sales. Nor have I experienced some kind of SuBo effect and had to go into rehab for my new found celebrity status!!! No one stops me in the street and says “hey, you were great on the plinth!” They ask if I tell them, or if they knew anyway I was taking part, but otherwise no one seems to have noticed much!! Which suits me fine, because that wasn’t why I did it – I did it for the experience, yes, to promote my work, and because I’m a fan of Gorm! Most people agree that the Plinth will never be the same again. And I wonder if the words “plinther”,”plinthing”, “I plinthed” will be added to the dictionary??

Yesterday I was invited to take part in a follow up interview for BBC Radio Lincolnshire to discuss my experience on the Plinth, so this morning I was on the breakfast show, and the producer has given me her email address, so hopefully future LAN group activities will receive wider attention locally, so that’s good.

Plans for the Christmas Market have hit a glitch, as we haven’t booked an official stall through the Council, we were hoping to have one in the faculty of illustration at the top of the hill – 3rd year illustration students usually use the Christmas Market to raise funds for their degree show, and we were hoping to have our own stall latched onto that… but apparently they’re not likely to do it this year. So I’m going to have to look into some other possibilities.

We’re working on proposals for a potential Alice In Wonderland themed exhibition for March 2010, and I emailed the local Odeon cinema with regard to hosting it there in collaboration. I’m expecting a phonecall about that. they won’t offer us sponsorship, but if we can use the venue during the premiere of the Tim Burton film I plan to tie it in with more dolls possibly – everyone’s coming up with proposals for their own work, and then we’ll seek additional funding.

My Arts Council grant proposal was returned – I’d got some dates wrong and a few things need ironing out, so I will have to resubmit it again, but considering it’s my first proposal I’ll get there eventually – I did post it in a bit of a hurry.

I’ve been invited to take part in AIR Open Dialogues in Nottingham next month, I need to sort out some kind of childcare for that.

I’m missing out on the private view for Magne Furuholmen’s Alpha Beta exhibition at Paul Stolper gallery in London because Thursday night is a school night and I can’t really get to London for it, I would’ve loved to go, I do love Magne’s work, but I’m slightly biased, being also a fan of his music!

I will catch the exhibition when I go to London in November for A-ha’s 02 gig, where I will be “exhibiting” some work ;-)