Eek what a week
It started with a trip to Castlefield Gallery to listen to David Medalla speak about his art, his life and how the two have intertwined in the most astonishing ways. I could have listened to him for hours: not only were his stories fascinating (I can’t even begin to convey “Bambi shitting dollars”); but he really relished the telling. Being a poor public speaker myself (wibbly voice, sweaty palms, ballsing up the punchline), I was mesmerised. Also, it struck me that given the ubiquity of communication devices, it’s surprising how few people actually think about how and when to speak to best effect. Our machinery makes us lazy. Medalla, on the other hand, is a master communicator. He finished by taking off his belt, lining it up on a sheet of paper, dropletting ink into the holes (leaving a spot pattern behind) and then shining a torch through the holes of the belt onto the paper… a new constellation came into being. Silence. Magic. Communication.
I had arrived at the gallery late and by coincidence I ended up sitting next to Yu-Chen Wang, as the seat next to hers was the only spare. “I hope you don’t mind,” she said “but I couldn’t decide between you and another artist for the studio swap and so I wondered if the three of us could work together?” She needn’t have worried. Mind? Why would I mind?! It’s bloody brilliant news. Not only will I get to swap workspaces with Yu-Chen and work in the fabulous Chinese Arts Centre residency space, I will also get to work with Geoff Molyneux. He’s done loads of collaborations in the past and he is a wise man. Yu-Chen said she thinks she could learn a lot off both of us, but it’s me who’s going to be spoiled the most in that regard… our swaps and the resulting exhibition/presentation/whatever-it-turns-out-to-be will take place in late April. And all that was only Thursday.
Over the weekend I went to London. Ai Wei Wei’s Sunflower Seeds were beautiful, poignant and overwhelming. In fact, they made my eyes well up as I walked towards them… and then my whole head boggled: delicacy was strength; sameness was difference; fake was real; small was big. I don’t have the skill to express what the work did to me, I can’t put it into appropriate words… it was just brilliant. (However, “Modern British Sculpture” at The Royal Academy was not so satisfying. My main gripe was more with the way works had been displayed, rather than with the pieces themselves… call me Mrs. Fussypants, but if you’re going to stick loads of sculptures in rooms together, at least think about how they work off each other. Some of the sculptures looked like they’d just been left in the place where they’d been unpacked…. but why impinge on the lovely memory of the Sunflower Seeds?)
I came back from London to surprising messages. One was from painter Iain Andrews – he would like to discuss possible collaboration. I’ll be very interested to talk to him, as trying to work with an artist who has such a strong signature style is going to be incredibly challenging. The other message was from Katie at Untitled Gallery (who kindly negotiated my forthcoming installation at John Rylands Library, Deansgate in December)… it seems they want me to keep going after December and show in various rooms round the library over a 6-12 month period. This is an amazing opportunity. I’m feeling all inspired by Ai Wei Wei’s work with the people of Jingdezhen, so I’d really love to do a project with the “Friends of John Rylands”, if they’d like to… we’ll be meeting over the next couple of weeks to discuss.
Finally, Darren Nixon and I hung his show at Rogue Studios’ Project Space – it’s all ready for the opening tonight…
