UNIT 11 STUDIOS

2 new artists are now working in unit 11 studios! they are jess ross and caroline mcpherson – both well known to us as they were students with us at solent. both painters – so the walls are getting painty and the work is stacking up. it really looks like a work space now!

we had a “community art intervention” moment on saturday to have some fun with and through art in these dire and dreary economic and weatherly times! we did post a facebook event to ensure we had some people turn up, but it was mostly about inviting the general public of portswood to come and enjoy. at a demolition site on a busy junction there is a pink hoarding which has been beckoning me since its construction several months ago. we went down the road of no permissions and reversible artwork – thus were 103 (yes really, i’ll say it again ….. 103!) portswood people silhouetted on the pink hoarding – along with 2 dogs, 2 cars, 2 umbrellas, 2 bikes and other sundry articles. it was a day of joy and brilliance – all the unit 11 artists were flat out for 5 hours, the police only took a little schmoozing before they decided we were only enhancing and everyone was loving it. it looks brilliant in the day and at night, the cheap curling ribbon glints enticingly in the headlights giving a ghostly representation of the people. so beautiful.

next event is our opening event – afternoon tea at the studios. we are expecting a high turnout and will be baking accordingly!

we have been open a week. steve has made paintings for a book cover commission, helen has brought stuff in, placed it in her space and been frustrated at life requiring her presence elsewhere, sam has sized (?) a couple of canvasses and started some prelim sketches. sarah came in to show her dad her (empty) space, libs – no sign at all! i have made a promo trailer for our exhibition and found a dead pigeon (which now hangs in a bag outside my studio window between photo shoots).

i have a sense of not knowing how to make work. i have images laid out, i have all my sketchbooks and notebooks in from the last couple of years, my computer is loaded with podcasts from tate events – i listened today to a brilliant Toril Moi discussing how she (amongst others) “is not a woman writer”. such inspiring feminist theory. made all the more pertinent by the fashion students at my old uni raising money for their degree show with a calendar of themselves in bikinis. i have emailed various solent powers to express my anger and will be interested to know how they respond. the lack of feminist engagement in young people today frightens me sometimes. there is such mainstream acceptance of objectifying imagery that we become numb and thoughtless about what our bodies are and how to respect them and the people they house. and the others that our bodies represent.

i hope our studios can be a site of feminist integrity. bring it on.

today, dec 7th 2010, UNIT 11 STUDIOS are officially open.

how exciting. right now, i am in my studio at home deciding what stays here and what goes there.

it has been a whirlwind process – although at times it has felt to be quite the opposite! we left university in june and now steve, helen and i have some work space, 3 tennants, strong links with solent uni and local arts organisations, an active membership of NFASP, a good working relationship with our landlord and the building manager, an exhibition planned for the end of feb and so much energy and hope and positivity that i am actually bursting!

wish us luck as we embark.

i have mentioned this in my personal blog. but now, this studio space creature has unfurled to reveal itself as a demanding individual in its own right. so it gets its own blog. i think i am assertive but this creature wins me over every time.

where are we at?

still no space. today, we are looking again at our two chosen but fallen through spaces. both have come back to us for further negotiation after we decided they were financially non viable. the other two are newbies – so who knows what they may yield…..

will update later.