Tether

Well here is my first post for over a month. And there are many good reasons for this, the best of which being that I went on holiday for pretty much the whole of June.

The sun and sea I enjoyed for three weeks is all but a distant memory (and a photo or two on Facebook), but the feeling of renewal the break gave me is still present. Stopping art for a while did me good.

Tether itself was put on hold during this period and only in the past week or two have we been back, actively “in the game”.

Our priorities have been:

Researching and contacting artists to exhibit at The Wasp Room gallery.

Researching and contacting other artist-led groups in the UK for a ‘Tethervision’ project.

Numerous half-baked project ideas are also continuing to develop, meetings planned and so on.

The other week I hit a bit of emotional low, but then, as if by magic, a bit of unexpected and exciting news materialised- I have been asked to be a kind of curatorial assistant (described in my brief as “UK Curator”) at the Young Artists Biennale in Skopje, Macedonia. It takes place this september. It is the first time I have been asked to come abroad on arts business, a trip effectively de gratis as well. It is a great opportunity and priveledge which I am looking forward to greatly. I have been assured that whatever happens I am sure to meet some interesting people and make some international links. This could lead to more travel, more foreign adventures!

Sometimes I feel like all I look forward to in my art career is the chance to travel through work. I don’t think this makes me shallow though. Not at all. *Fingers crossed I meet some curators from Barbados in Macedonia*

Murder in the Kremlin opened at the Wasp Room last Friday, and went down very well it seems. It's amazing how much people genuinely love cardboard dens. All we have done really is realise some kind of universal, epic dream.

As well as the show opening, we facilitated and funded 'The Art Crawl', a multi-venue all night art event. It ended at Tether with bands and a screening of some videos, then breakfast on the roof. There were so many people up there at one time that it seemed as if all would collapse and many people would die. At least Tether would be famous afterwards.

On Saturday we got our show previewed in The Guardian, in which we were described as "dead cool" and "reviving Dada"! We were very pleased, as we hadn't slept for two days because of the show preparations and opening, but reading that, alongside people's reactions, made it all worth while.

We are currently knee deep in work preparing for our exhibition in the Wasp Room 'Murder in the Kremlin'. We are going into the studio everyday, and although I won't disclose what it is we are making as we want it to be a surprise til opening, it is involving a lot of cardboard.

The other elements to the show are still very much in pre-production. Time is ticking, so this week will be vital.

Good news- we were contacted by The Guardian, and apparently Murder in the Kremlin will be previewed soon in the paper's guide. We have to send a photo in this weekend, though we're not sure what we'll send them yet. Exciting though!

Antony Peskine's show 'Who Do You Think You Are?' closes tomorrow at the gallery. It has been really well received, with lots of positive compliments. One of the works, 'My Weight in Potato Crisps', is, as you can probably tell by the title, made of many bags of crisps. Which means when the show ends at 5pm… snack time!

Note to self: buy own body weight in salsa and houmous.

Ridiculous. A very very long time since my last post.

The trouble is that I'm not entirely sure what this blog is for, and previous blogs of mine have never been kept well. What does blogging do for anyone's artistic career? Or for the audience's interest in art? Does anyone care about the processes behind my work or the jobs behind running a gallery?

I guess there is probably interest in the latter from those wanting to do something similar, or perhaps someone at undergraduate level. I doubt anyone is interested in anything else I could possibly write.

I always find reading blogs of minimal interest, and without a doubt the vast majority of them are nothing more than a "dear diary" exercise- nothing worth saying, more of a "thinking through" of one's own thoughts. The obvious contradiction in this scenario is the fact that you are publishing these thoughts on to the most public of places. How genuine can your written feelings be, if you know they are open for scrutiny? There is no way I will allow myself to open up completely on this blog, as my real doubts are things I don't even say to my friends and colleagues.

Anyway, I'll keep this blog going as long as I can, but no promises as to the content. I recognise I have already surpassed the stage of self-reflexive vacuity that I hate to read in other people's blogs, for which I must apologise. Blah blah blah bloggyblogbog

Lastly, Tom Down's exhibition at the Wasp Room, which I help to run, opened last night. I have to admit- I have done very little in preparation for this show, as my Fictions responsibilities have taken up most of my time.

Liam, one of the other three Wasp Room curators/organisers texted me on Saturday to say that the trailer with Tom's work had had an accident on the motorway, and though they weren't sure of the damage, there would certainly need to be some repair work, if not total reconstruction when it finally arrives. He said this knowing that I was away from Nottingham for the weekend, and unable to see the work until Tuesday when it had already been set up. I turned up on tuesday morning (with our barrel of ale for the opening) expecting a skeleton show held together by sellotape. The bastard.