Keeping a diary usually begins well, as it has today (eating jelly babies with one eye on Facebook) but then I rarely even begin the second entry. This time, however, will be different! I intend to document my artistic activities, hopefully providing some kind of cathartic moment in which the key to my artistic direction is revealed…
This will be my last post on the a-n site…symbolic of a shift from being a contemporary artist to a museum and heritage management student!
I shall still be making work though – you can see this at www.charlottepratley.co.uk or if you would like to read my new blog, please follow me at http://charlottepratley.tumblr.com/
…I promise to make it a more exciting blog of images, photos and snippets of info as I journey through the museum sector to an unknown destination!
This year, I have been doing Trent’s Professional Certificate in Heritage Tourism and its has inspired me to continue in the Museum and Heritage sector. Ironically, this seems like it will be a more stable source of income for an artist like myself! So, I have handed in my notice as Backlit’s Studio Manager and have left my studio space (a massive decision!), ready to transfer my skills to a new challenge….
Good news – I’m going to be doing a residency! The bad news is that it will be in an old factory with no hot water or shower…and it’s a live-in residency. It will be a great opportunity to test my naively idealistic, anarchic theories though. For years my work has been influenced by unstable housing situations so perhaps squatting in a studio will be a chance to strip back my possessions to what is essential and consider whether it is possible to live outside of normal society. My accommodation will be a tent until I have built a shelter from the stacked sheets of mdf so I may approach the task as an explorer between the cracks of the urban jungle; a flaneur in my own city. While I’ve got romantic notions of watching the sun rise over Sneinton tower blocks from my window, the realities are probably going to be a bit tougher; namely a constant stream of debris falling from the ceiling and attempting to cook amongst jam-jars of dried paint and bottles of white spirit, not to mention the lack of shower facilities.
Today I’m determined to finish the article I started for Nottingham Visual Arts on Sunday’s 3 Events to Test Opinions in Lincoln but I’m struggling! I want my article to be witty and informed, but instead its sounding rambly and opinionated, not to mention out of touch with the young people I’m trying to describe in it. O dear.
I keep thinking of what a friend of mine said yesterday; “why do so many artists feel that they have to be a jack of all trades to survive?” It certainly rings true for me; it’s been several months since I’ve actually managed to create artwork in the studio and my to-do list is gradually taking over my diary. This might partly be to do with the fact that I’m going travelling next week though…self-imposed deadlines are hanging over me so i can’t complain as the trade off is 2 weeks of exploring Egyptian markets and cruising along the Nile. Instead, I’ve resolved that April will be studio month – no voluntary overtime at Djanogly Art Gallery; no training courses; no articles; no faffing about under the proviso that today is my only free day for a while and should be spent in bed watching films with a hangover…I shall complete a body of work in preparation for my Sideshow exhibition with Aylwin Lambert and Neil Dixon!
For a while now my failure in the blogging world has haunted me. I should be setting aside time every week to record my activites but the level of necessary commitment overwhelmed me and I decided, with the exception of regular Facebook-stalking session of course, to shun all social media sites.
That is until today – I’m at a Social Media in Museums Workshop, run by Mark Ellis of Sound Delivery. An incredibly enthusiastic fountain of cultural knowledge and know-how, Mark has inspired me to restart my blog and have another attempt at Twittering in order to promote my artwork, Backlit Gallery & Studios and Djanogly Art Gallery, and stay informed of art news via live feeds and Google Alerts. As a contemporary artist, I should be making use of contemporary social media!
So, a quick update since I last blogged…I have started a new body of work relating to Brutalist architecture and manipulation of the population with regards to Utopian visions. The first piece of work to be shown in this series is part of Gold; Sand; Spring: 3 Events to Test Opinions, commissioned by Amelia Beavis-Harrison. On Saturday 13th March, I will be handing out squares of gold leaf for the public to embellish a Lincoln City Council bollard with from 9am to 5pm. See http://www.charlottepratley.co.uk/news-and-events.html for more details.
It’s been a while since I’ve collaborated or worked with the public – I’d forgotten how much these things alter your work. My original proposal focused around a concrete, post-war feature but compromises between Amelia, Lincoln City Council and the other 2 artists involved have meant that the urban feature in question will now be a glossy, branded bollard. This has changed the meaning of the piece from beautifying an aging, failed architectural structure to almost graffiti-ing a modern crowd control system…perfectly fitting with the anarchist sympathies in my work that I often feel I should dampen down to avoid creating preachy or ranty subtexts!
In other news…I’m now the Studio Manager of Backlit Gallery, Studio & Project Space! As we’re currently unfunded, my main task is to fill the empty spaces and glean outstanding rent from impoverished members so that we can stay in business…as a friend once said of his dissertation, I feel a bit like I’m standing at the bottom of a giant sand dune wearing skis, faced with the task of scrabbling to the top..let’s hope I don’t sink!
Money seems to be my overriding thought at the moment…mainly the fact that I have none, severely limiting my thinking in a number of new and irritating ways.
After talking to a friend, I decided I should at least measure up the wood for the unwanted items cabinets before concluding I could not afford it. Yesterday saw me cheerfully arranging masking tape on the floor in an attempt at crude furniture design. When eventually satisfied that this was a sound concept to continue with, I worked out that the cost of the basic frame alone would be £300 and hurriedly left the studio in a sulk.
So, it looks like its back to the cardboard boxes idea with a hint of Christophe Buchel and a large dose of underfunding.
Funding has also affected Beacon. Despite gaining Arts Council funding, it will not arrive in time to fund the East Midlands Venice Biennale Pavilion and budgets are also making it more challenging to arrange Kelly Large's project. Kelly plans to create a concentration of colour throughout Sleaford by giving the 3500 teenagers high-viz vests as they leave school. Even at 50p a vest, this cost becomes enormous! How amazing it must be to have a limitless pot of money to create art with!
Perhaps it is this lack that drives me to despair of consumerism? The collection of unwanted items is steadily growing, creating a real sense of claustrophobia in my home and studio that I want to translate into the gallery space; a monument to nihilism and the replacement of god with purchasing and possession. In theory this means that however I arrange the objects, it does not matter: the objects are as meaningless as life itself and the only way, according to Nietzsche, to give life a meaning is to act as though your life is art itself. Simple enough, all I have to do now is stop worrying!
