Excerpt from diary found a few days later
28th October 2009
This morning I set off from Ipswich my whole show packed into large case on wheels. I in turned crammed this (and myself) into a packed train to London. There was only one scary moment when a, I have to say heavyset, man decided to lean on my case. I imagined my work breaking and bending within but could do little about it. My journey to Bath went surprisingly well. I caught early connections and chose polite and helpful taxi drivers. Happily I arrived just as the ICIA Bath staff was about to go to lunch and was able to join them for a convivial orange juice (the “all day breakfast bap I had eaten on he train put paid to any thoughts of food). I sat back and relaxed as conversation flowed from relative office sizes to the narrative merits of Ben Elton’s “We will rock you”.
After a busy afternoon setting up my show in Space 1 I paid a visit to Space 2 to see Lucy Harrison’s new show “Remains”. This exhibition is a work in progress displaying documents from Harrison’s previous visits to East London and East Berlin and some new work from her ongoing residency investigating the pending demolition of Bath University’s Arts Barn. The former are introduced in highly personal ways as Harrison subtitles her photographs with memories of her childhood and mother’s death. The work on the Arts Barn includes photographs scans of documents and a highly involving set of interviews with some of the staff that work there. By the time I had finished watching I was feeling a definite attachment for what seemed to be an unloved building. Soon it will be knocked down and replaced by a new Arts Centre, which will host another show bringing together more memories and documents from Harrison’s investigations. I hope she will find people with more tender feelings towards the place.
I Finished the evening by watching Terence Davies’ “Of Time and The City” which was gripping and monumental although I have to say he does things with voice over and popular music that would make me blush.
