Simulacra And Simulations

I’m focussing now on my upcoming solo show in June, and have finally got a crowdsourcing pitch together, although I’ve never done this before, so I have no idea whether I’ve done it with the right time frame, but fingers crossed.

http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/investment/helen-dear…

I had an email telling me to invest £10 myself (which I will get back) to make a start, but I don’t see the point in that, so I haven’t. Call me cynical, but investing yourself has never encouraged anyone to do the same.

I would hope to get support from people anyway!!!

For the past two weeks I have been struggling with my failure to secure any funding. The NAN Futurific bursary wasn’t successful, so I couldn’t go to Berlin to see my work there. I no longer feel able to keep going with the LAN.

This is despite the fact that a small group of us are involved in a new exhibition entitled “Fictions”, to be exhibited at gallery in St. Martins, Lincoln in September 2011.

I’m now seeking crowdsourced funding for this, otherwise I may join UKUncut and occupy a bank somewhere.

But in reality, I still need to decide when the best time is for me to work with Jack and Pippa to initiate an AIR Activists event in Lincoln.

I also have a solo show to prepare for at Alley Cafe in Nottingham. I initially enquired about having an exhibition there last summer for November, but only heard back about a month or two ago. This will be a retrospective, as it was meant to be for my A-ha themed illustrations. It seems a bit too little too late, but now I have that portrait of the artist with Morten Harket, I guessed it would be most postmodern exhibited in a cafe.

Still the question of how to have copies of my comic printed remains.

It’s not quite the same as actually being able to go, but here are my submissions for Apparatjik’s Light Space Modulator at Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin: http://www.flickr.com/photos/apparatjik/sets/72157626168097445/

http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/apparatjik/page179

http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/apparatjik/page180

i’m not very happy to be categorised in photos as a “fan” and not an “artist” (by other fans). I find it ever harder to be a “fan” and the power structure that embodies this. Apparatjik themselves would not categorise us that way, they deliberately redefine the boundaries. It would of course have been better to have gone myself and had the opportunity to meet the creative forces behind this, and also because it feels rude not to attend the show.

Here’s a six minute video with Apparatjik:

http://www.nrk.no/nett-tv/indeks/258363/

They invited me to their “dissemination of information” and have been trying to avoid other people’s tweets of the events in Berlin that I should’ve attended but couldn’t. I feel so unprofessional and disappointed that I couldn’t make it in the end.

Yet I still have to hope that something good will come of it, and also concentrate on moving forward with new projects.

On Saturday, I went to Manchester to meet with Jack and Pippa from AIRActivists for the UnCut Conference. It was very inspiring – there is audio and images here:

http://madlab.org.uk/content/the-uncut-society-an-…

I was very inspired by the Lars Fiske graphic novel inspired by Kurt Scwitters

http://madlab.org.uk/content/tag/lars-fiske/

http://www.merzman.co.uk/

I met some interesting people, including Rosanna from Manchester Artist’s bonfire, and we’re hoping to organise something here in Lincoln soon.

I emailed Lincoln castle to ask about whether they would host a ‘public hanging” of artwork, (also to potentially book a meeting space) and this was included in the reply:

“With regard to the public hanging of artwork, I’m afraid this is something that we would not be able to facilitate as we are a local authority run site.”

I hope that someone will make this into a banner for the march in London on the 26th, as I hope to be in Berlin that weekend….

Today I went back to have another look at OPEM @ The Collection.

I’ve otherwise been busy making work for Berlin. I missed out on one exhibition opportunity because I had several all at once.

*edited this post because I had a bad month last month and I’m not sure whether constructive criticism comes across that way*

The LAN is no longer funded at the moment, and securing more funding to continue future projects is now critical for it to continue.

I’ve submitted an LAN NAN Futurific bursary proposal. I’m generally doing this while having mass panics at my own ability to sustain a career in art as a lone parent.

So I was making the LAN NAN bursary application, when Apparatjik sent me this:

http://apparatjik.com/bulletins/

I immediately bought two tickets, which is one of those whims you have to take sometimes, thinking I’d love to go. I dreamt of photographing Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, and added a trip to Berlin into the funding application.

Then Apparatjik followed up with this: http://metamergeunltd.cmail3.com/t/ViewEmail/r/302D16C6D64E53DB/177CD37A61094DBFD9767B6002735221

Which I’ll share here, in case anyone else wants to contribute some work for this.

I spent the weekend building a Lego Light Space Modulator for this, and have been having fun photographing the effects, just need to decide which photos to submit.

As Magne loves my work, and I’ve sent things to them before, I can’t see why my creation won’t be chosen by the committee ;-)

And then, funding pending, I can go to the Bauhaus to see what they do with it.

Fingers crossed!

I’m otherwise looking forward to working with Rachel for APT now that the ACE funding has been granted, and hope to combine this with AIR Activists at some point soon.

I was feeling quite glad to move forward and start doing something new, but when I saw this brief, I couldn’t resist lending my “talents” to it:

http://www.dontpaniconline.com//designbrief/norwegian_wood/entry/1155

The only trouble is, I probably need a hefty amount of votes in order to win and have this displayed in London for Curzon, and so I’ve been spamming on twitter a bit. I figured that not everyone is on twitter all the time, and their feeds get inundated with other tweets. Some people seem to be constantly tweeting all the time on there, but I chose not to have Facebook and twitter on my phone, because it’s enough of a distraction as it is, I go out to get away from it!!

The tactic of spamming twitter worked for a Redbubble illustration, I won! And someone bought a print! So this is my reasoning. Also, people are being bombarded with Valentines cards etc, so I need to get my own designs out there, might bring in a bit of income, would be nice.

Meanwhile, I went to the private view for OPEM, and saw a lovely painting there by Jackie Berridge :-)

I contributed something for Lesley Stableford’s video work, and it was good to see what she’s done with it.

Someone pointed out that there was a lot of mention of Nottingham. For an exhibition in Lincoln, I think Lesley must be the only artist I know that is from Lincoln, which is strange, considering there are many talented artists living and working in Lincoln. Maybe that was the suggestion?

I do feel that artists here seem less represented than artists from elsewhere, but was cheered up by Apparatjik’s kind offer.