the heart of the city

What does it mean to have a holiday?

I have a paid part time job at the university, which closes between Christmas and New Year, which this year means that from the 24th December to the 4th January, I don’t have to go to work. My first thought was: great, I can spend more time at the residency. But then I realised that I am really tired and need a break.

So I decided, take time off from the residency as well. But then why did I spend the whole morning writing a proposal for another project, and why am I now writing this??

Is it possible for a free lance artist to have a holiday? And if I spend my holiday drawing and doing watercolours, is that really a holiday??

What does it mean to have a holiday?

What do you do when the viewer doesn’t respond to your work as you want them to?

I’ve been spending time in the cafe this week, instead of in my studio, talking to the customers and trying to get them to participate in The Cubicle Project. I’ve been surprised and pleased at how interested people are and have been delighted by how many of them have filled in sheets saying what they would keep if that was their only personal space. But most responses are about the luxuries they would keep – lap tops, guitars etc. But what about the basics like clothes and shoes?? That doesn’t seem to have occurred to anyone so far. That was what I wanted people to think about. When the women come into the refuge, they had nothing except the clothes they wore, I was hoping people would reflect on that in this season of consumption.

I don’t know whether I should just accept it, or whether I should change the questions I’m asking to elicit the responses I want? Dilemma!

I’ve got the photographs from Zara, who very kindly spent Saturday morning doing shots of the sheet installation for me. I was relieved to get them done, as the installation will be coming down on 3rd Jan. I’m posting some here, and will be sending them off to some galleries in the hope…

Off to Hotbed press this afternoon to do some trial prints for a series I want to do of the buildings where the social projects were housed. I’ve also been doing linocut for the first time – really like it. That is this years christmas cards taken care of! Now just presents to get…

Almost a month since I last wrote! I simply have had no time. I don’t understand where it goes.

I want to do more research before I start making the garments for my new project so I spent a bit of time looking for collections of working people’s garments, but by a strange fluke – none of them are taking research visits. Platt Hall is reopening in March after a major restoration, Gawthorpe Hall is redoing it’s exhibits and not taking visits until Feb. The Museum of London has no spaces until April, and the Ripon Workhouse museum is reopening at Easter. June Hill has put me onto a project in Chichester so I will contact them next week.

So it looks like I’m not going to be able to get on with this work until the spring. In the meantime I’ve rejoined Hotbed Press, a fantastic resource in Salford, and will concentrate on making prints of the buildings that housed the social projects of the Methodist Central Buildings. I haven’t decided how to do them, but probably collograph or etching.

I’ve also made another installation in the Cafe. I’ve been fascinated by the Women’s Hostel that opened in 1890, so with the help of the Nexus team, have built a cubicle in the cafe, 4 foot by six foot, the size of the cubicles in the hostel, and put in a bed and a little cupboard and am asking people to sit in the cubicle and think about what belongings they would want to keep if this was their only personal space.

I’d really like to collect peoples ideas for use in another exhibition, but no-one had written anything in the first 48 hours, so i don’t know whether they will. I think instead of being in the studio next week, I will have to sit in the cafe and talk to people about the project and encourage them to take part.

Yesterday I had a wonderful photographer called Zara Harrison in to take images of my sheet installation and the cubicle installation. I’m so relieved to get this done. I have a couple of applications to do over Christmas, and need good photos. I’m picking up the images on Tuesday so will put some on the blog.

One of the lovely things about doing the photo’s was being around the sheet installation and seeing what an impression it makes on people. About half the people walking past look in at it, and lots of those who come into the cafe stop and look at it and talk about it. It was very encouraging.

I hope I’ll get time to put a few of the new photos in a presentation I’m doing about my work on Tuesday night. It is for the Creative Practice part time degree at MMU. It is a great opportunity and I’m looking forward to it.