six week residency

for the record, the legacy of the residency are the photobox galleries listed below and a little film made through collaboration.

http://www.photoboxgallery.com/shambala

http://www.photoboxgallery.com/blackbackground

http://www.photoboxgallery.com/post_pub_images

http://www.photoboxgallery.com/now_with_intention

the result of a collaboration

while in the process of tidying up the end of the residency, i’ve had the following comment. thank you rob for the comment, please see below for my responses…

“The revolution began on the 21:09:06? Is the revolution the avant gard? and the counter revolution just, what you want to make art about?

posted on 2010-09-10 by R T”

thanks r, you’ve asked some really good questions that i will answer after some meaningful time getting my thoughts into order, shape and meaning.

posted on 2010-09-13 by andrew martyn sugars

i wrote somewhere that the resistance began on 21:09:06, or at least in my world that had happened. it referred to resisting the political nonsense that was going on with my degree course, i was on my fourth day and not impressed with what was happening. i was resisting being drawn into the discussions and moaning about the course. i stuck with the course for about a month before i transferred to another.

the revolution i speak of began in a hotel room in sapporo. my drinking partner said “what england needs is a revolution.” i was immediately horrified as to me revolution equated with bloodshed. i thought couldn’t revolution be something other than bloodshed?

since that night in the hotel room, which incidentally was a year before the resistence, i have continued to think about the notion of revolution. the model that seems to be common with revolution is that of regarding some other’s position relative to one’s own and deciding that one’s position is better than the other’s so therefore one has to remove the other’s position to then place one self in the gap left by the removal of the other. what if one’s position is merely fueled by the psychological state of one self. what if one’s psychological state was different and because of that viewed the other’s differently so instead of looking at removing the other, channeled energy and resources into one self to consider why the removal was necessary of the other. in so doing a personal revolution is possible with the potential to have a more informed view of the other’s position and hence a more intelligent approach to the other’s position is possible.

i’ve been considering this notion of revolution for so long now that it has started to affect the way i view the world at large. however, taking one step back for a moment and applying the traditional model of revolution that is meant to challenge the status quo, anything that doesn’t challenge the status quo can be viewed as counter revolutionary, ie in favour of the current status quo. so paintings made by an artist of a car park at night is counter revolutionary art as their intention was merely to paint a series of paintings of car parks at night. no intention to challenge anything. how much art produced at the moment is pro status quo, ie counter revolutionary?

in terms of avant garde, it’s only recently that i feel i have a handle on what the avant garde is. for me, it’s about being myself, making what i want to make and part of the process of that making is to make things that are experimental in some way. that’s quite easy at the moment as there is a very huge counter revolutionary movement, certainly in derby where i currently find myself on a regular basis.

i’m not going to answer the question, “Is the revolution the avant garde?” instead i invite comments.

the residency is complete. the studio have been really lovely and encouraging during a time where i have gone through a fair amount of movement in attitude and aspiration.

i know if i had got the residency in liverpool, that there would have been a fixed point to work towards, and actually what i needed was a break from fixed point journeying. as i work towards setting up my own fixed point to aim at, i have started to do things that i can do while striving to get to the point in the future. doesn’t sound earth breaking maybe, however for me it is. for me it’s a realisation and admittance of me and where i see myself relative to an undefined and ever present norm.

what i feel about me and the world isn’t possible to write down accurately.

so how to conclude this blog, i feel i need to. i have some uncompleted work that i’ll add to this blog, some unresolved investigations that i’ll add to this blog.

i feel optimistic that i am entering a period of time that will not have the kind of mentally dark horizon that i have been feeling until recently.

i am beginning to accept my limitations as i understand them slightly better now. i’m understanding that i also don’t have to broadcast the whole of the time. i’m actually not that clever enough to.

i accept that rules that i thought applied don’t anymore, as i am now in an evolved state from where i began, where those rules applied. if the rules don’t apply to me, how many other people don’t they apply to either?

i’ve recently uncovered the idea of counter revolution art. where revolution stands for challenging the status quo, counter revolution is against that, it’s pro everything staying as it is, with nothing being challenged or questioned. how much counter revolution art have you seen in your local dance centre this week?

where do i stand on revolution or counter revolution? well the projects i started persuing over the course of the residency can be viewed as counter revolution as i’m just making images to be enjoyed and inviting purchases of the work to be made. i still have some work to do the establish the channel of communication about purchase. i’ll add that to this blog once i’m done.

so the residency may be complete, however i still have work to do to complete the construction of this blog and i look forward to completing that construct.