Too Busy To Work…
I know I am not the only one, having read the words of my fellow bloggers, to feel that sometimes life as an artist can sometimes mean one is too busy to do the work.
April and May have been madly busy, with art-related things, but not actually in the studio making.
I had a trip up to Liverpool to see Wendy Williams and her latest exhibition; I’ve attended the presentation evening for my certificate of full membership of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (more about this later I’m sure); I was invited to become a director of a Community Interest Company run by Helen Garbett and Bill Laybourne, who I have written much about in previous posts… to which I said yes; and I’ve had all sorts of family and domestic events.
For the next couple of weeks though, I have more time to be in the studio, and more time trying to figure out what to do next. I think I need to have some idea before my trip to Sweden for the residency with Stuart Mayes.
I am also learning a little bit of Swedish in preparation for this.
For someone who loves language, I’ve done surprisingly little learning of other languages, other than my native English and I have a little bit of left over school French. I have to say, I am really enjoying learning Swedish. I can still only speak in the present tense, I have trouble with pronouns and in Swedish the definite article is trickily attached to the noun in different ways, rather than being a separate word. Word order in questions gets muddled, but I am starting to be able to say a few things and understand a few things, beyond “Two beers please!”
It has made me realise even more sharply how important words are in my practice. I think this will form part of the work I do while on the residency in Uppsala. Trying to describe my work in a different language when I have enormous limitations is a challenge!
But what it does make me do is pare down all the unnecessary frippery I hide behind in English. Not exactly arty bollocks, just all those extra words that don’t add much to the debate.
So I am pondering this while I look across the table in the studio. I’ve not really been able to get my teeth into anything since finishing and installing the work for the Candidates’ Exhibition, but what I am doing is rearranging some things in front of me. Some old stuff, some new, and a return to textiles, just to see what connections I can find… correspondences… communications… comparisons… are all these works talking to each other? Or do they speak a different language? I suppose it’s my job to act as interpreter.
Hej, jag heter Elena, jag är en konstnar som tolkar ord och föremål.
(I hope that makes sense Stuart, I had to look up “objects” but is it the correct objects? You did say something very wise to me the other day about understanding the language rather than learning the words. Very interesting.)
