Every now and then something happens that acts as a wake up call , makes you think that……actually I’ve been in cotton wool world and the padding has gone now and you feel the chill winds of………. ‘this is how it is now’.
I have come away from a briefing kind of meeting involving a team of artists delivering a complex project with several organisations and stake holders involved.
Ihave:
a 4 page instruction manual on how to process and share my outputs
a 4 page participant consent form to be filled in by participants I engage on the project
I have to submit a practitioner update report 4 times during the course of the project
a session monitering form to be filled in after every workshop
a practioner web material proforma which acts as a check list to make sure I have carried out the correct procedures for creating out puts
and I also have a chart which shows me the expected numbers and instances of participation and website visits. There is also a project evaluator just been appointed.
I feel like a Crimean War General fighting in a war against smart bombs, guided missile systems, satalite intelligence, stealth bombers and nuclear submarines. This is not the art world I knew. I took comfort as I looked around the table of people involved (I know many of them) and thought there is a lot of skill and experience here covering a very broad church of artistic and cultural knowledge. This is project delivery on a large scale where arts administators, curators and project managers have raised considerable funds and have already set the agendas to create high cultural impact.
A definate shift in the role of the artist, no longer creator in a universe of their making, rather a chess piece in a wider game. Which made my plywood cut outs of red Indians that I started making today feel rather self indulgent.
A Bid For Freedom
Here’s my plan: havn’t got long as Von Luger’s search light comes round every 1mins and 35 seconds.
We are opening up Tom (tunnel No.1) and pushing it beyond the tree line. We have a final briefing from the S.B.O. on Tue 1500 hours. On Fri at 0700 I shall pick up my partner Sue the forger and make a bolt for it down the A3, catch the 10.30 ferry at Portsmouth disguised as artists and arrive 40 mins later in the neutral free zone on the Isle of Wight a free man.
RV the county record office in Newport to be briefed on the Hampshire Museums Outreach Project.
Capt. Hiltz on parade and spitting his dunny out Sir!
I kept my end of the bargin and did the design modifications and just emailed them off. Yes assurances of invoice payment and contract have been given….but they still seem to be around one of those awfully long corners.
It’s an emotional headf**k as your mind is there in work, but the paperwork isn’t. I’m not prepared to invest time, energy, emotion and my resources into this.
However – other clients have paid my invoices and all you can do is transfer your energies ……let go of those particular interests and energies and refocus ideas, approches and research for the next job.
I feel like a gladiator in the arena with wild animals on every side and all I can do is systematically face the one directly engaging me.
STOP PRESS
email asking for location plans for these mosaics
Grrrr…Bears..Lions….bring them on.
I have looked at my designs for this series of mosaics today. I have to modify the lettering which I will start tommorrow. I am looking at them and thinking they will challange me big time. It’s so easy uploading drawings to cloud computing sites and creating links and saying this is my next project. Really looking at them and trying to think of ways of interpreting what is drawn using tiles is a little scary. What is of most concern is the scale I showed my neighbour Geof today these designs and he asked me how big they were? ‘1.2m square and there are seven in the set’, I replied. ‘They are big’, he said ‘how long do you think it will take,?
I dont remember my reply, but I do remember thinking they’re not big. I specified the size as well. The classic dilema where less than seven would not have the impact on the site. Seven is a lot so I cant make them too big with the budget avilable. I dont want make it an under paid job..But now I wonder if I had made them bigger would they be a lot easier to make?
May be over the years I have become formulaic with my style and approach and these designs will actually force me into creative interpretations and translation techniques? I feel nervous and wish the contract thing was sorted. I need the money for the design and concept work completed so far. This is not comfortable and my sentance is hanging heavy around my neck today. I know for every day lost at this end I am unlikely to be able to add on the wasted time at the other deadline end of the project. I am restless, resentful and cornered.
On a day with flash floods in many uk towns including Ashford not that far away from where I live where the roads were temporarily rivers.
OMG
May be OMFG, says it better!
The blockage that is holding up this project does appear to easing and I have been told to expect a contract next week. I have also been asked to submit final designs to be signed off for approvals. This means the rearrangement of some lettering, no great shakes there.
I feel Von Luger’s posse hunting me down, but I’m still free for a little while yet.
This news arriving on the same day as the offer as Lead Artist on a fantastic project that I so want in my portfolio. I really won this job with submission and interviews and its just a dream come true working with Hamshire + Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust. It’s a no brainer as portfolio and career development go and I said yes that’s marvelous news and recieved a confirmation letter today.
2 days after the death of Col. Gaddaffi and the stability of Europe again top of news….and anti-capitalist protesters still camping outside St. Pauls Cathedral. These are interesting times we are living through and it’s looking like I’ll busy busy over the winter and into next year.
