(Written on 18th April)
Re-reading my last entry, I find myself wondering about the term ’emerging artist’, which I see so frequently I had not thought enough about it as a term until now. What are we emerging from? Obscurity? Education? Does the continuous present tense imply that we are definitely going to complete the process and emerge as art-butterflies (or moths, probably), ready to fly around pollinating gallery-flowers? Is there a limit to how long we can take to emerge, and if we take too long, are we written off as deformed and stunted, limping round with the remains of our chrysalis hanging from our partially developed wings?
This is all probably very silly. But it has made me think about a project which would involve portraits (video?) of artists emerging from a physical place of their choosing – their house/bed/studio, etc. I realise this is somewhat at odds with my usual ‘rule’ of not making art about art…but maybe it’s worth breaking. I don’t know, maybe I’m just in a strange mood today. I’ve had two coffees, that probably explains it.
Brighton is a lovely place to be in the sunshine. I’m excited that the part of Brighton I live in has its own carnival in June. And I got a flyer through the post the other day about May Day celebrations Queens Park, not far from me.
On Saturday I went to Bexhill, to the De La Warr Pavilion to see Every Day Is A Good Day – an exhibition of visual art by John Cage, and the accompanying exhibition A Nod To Cage, of artistic responses to Cage’s work and philosophies. The latter features work by some of my fellow MA students – Hugh Fox, Steve Thompson, Joseph Long (I did send in a proposal for this, but was not selected – I’m not bitter about it, though. I mainly sent in the proposal, which I was aware was probably a most impractical project, in order to know that I’d given it a shot.) as well as a piece by Charlie Hooker (MA course leader). I had wanted to go to the opening night on Friday, but was unable to as I was waiting in (and madly cleaning the flat) for a visit from my landlord. So I made up for it by going to see the exhibition, along with a discussion on Cage’s work, and a concert of some of his music by Margaret Leng Tan, a pianist who had worked with him in the 70s/80s. It was, all in all, a very good day.
