University of Dundee

Big Blog ten

This week, I feel like my days have been groundhogged. My inner self has been spirited away and I am pretty much a floating head.

The past:

Friday night:

4:30pm- Kemikal, beatboxer fails to show either himself or amplifier system. (necessary for other two acts). Do not stress and deal with. Source from Derek Lodge, half of performing duo. Cab it get it

5:00pm- Derek forgets guitar, cab it get it. Set up baby drum kit and rehearsal with new amp

5:30pm: put unsensible shoes on in toilet, find bottle opener

6pm: Friends arrive

6:30: guests arrive- space is completely grid locked. Drink wine, look at people looking

Derek Lodge and Michael Mallette perform: wigs, comedy lyrics, drumming, guitaring; fascination

8:00 Michael Jackson, Glasgow/France, rocks my show, transforms chinstroking well-behaved into boisterous, cheering rabble; truly quality, especially slo-mo falling and wolf swinging. Kinetically erupts in small confines of performance ‘stage’ without damaging blobs/kicking anyone in face. His movement+sonic awesome against backdrop of Trampoline, projected large scale.

11pm+ Raining. Show friends Dundee in rain. Happy

Saturday, hungover, pack heavy stuff. Friends transport stuff north-west England- vehicle toppling over. Dad cannot make it : transport has botched up from England. Shout at transport company; no use. Dad will not see show. Sad.

Sister arrives from Amsterdam. Chinese meal. Full.

Sunday, show show to sister, pack.

Sunday Evening: pack, sister leaves, disturbed sleep; must leave flat soon

Monday, invigilate, weird. Busy. Sat in space. 9-8:30pm. People see only your art. Competition grows- painters- who has most red dots stickers? Personal reality: blobs will never seek mantelpiece glory

Tuesday: pack, leave flat. Invigilate. Society of Scottish Artists interest

Wednesday: Stay at friends, pidgeon poos on arm whilst riding bike to physio. 888. Uni buys two doodles for collection. Give talk to seven suited men from Dundee Guilds Association. Approached with offer to create artists books for a six part event in well known bookshop; non funded.

10:00pm Comforted by Big Brother wrong reality, throw objects + swear more than turrettes bloke at contestants. (Beg your pardon officer.) Missing own home

Thursday: Acupuncture at hospital 8:30am.

10:00am Chinese Arts Centre PAD Scheme co-ordinator flys up from Manchester to visit my show. Spend day with her. Lunch treat at DCA, discussing mentor scheme, opportunities for me, my future and tailor made plan of action. Is fairy artmother and has semi-magiked black art hole away. Lovely day.

18:52. Typing this. Eyes closing.

10:30pm Friend begins National Express journey from Brighton. 11 hours. Is very good friend. Will arrive 9:30 Friday. Will show show and hug Scotland till Sunday evening.

Very tired. Must sleep. Cannot syntax, am wrinkly. Computer suit door broken- cannot access images for this page. Will add images when door unbroken. Cannot bear thought of invigilation space now, legs must carry to friend’s home. Must stop typing. Goodnight 7:23pm. Thought enters: tomorrow last day of term, next week deinstalling, goodbye blobs, Dundee Uni etc. Big boot, tender backside arrive. Will not deal now, must fail to register.

Hope to refuel,—————————– —————————– Dream: time do nothing me soonish please thanks . speak next time

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Heelo.

I am Wabbit and I’d like to express my regrets that Jay can’t join you today.  She asked me to apologise for her neglect of you blogerees this past week.  Things have just been a little busy for her and she hasn’t had the chance to qwertyuiop catch up.

You see, since beginning of the assessments last Wednesday, she has been putting her belongings into little boxes in preparation to move out of her current abode. She has also been lying down with 15 needles stuck into her ankle and back. The physio says that Trampoline really catapulted this mechanical nerve failure, but she will not need to construct a small walking frame with go faster stripes just yet; the “alternative therapy” is working.  He can tell by the fact that the area surrounding the needles are going pink.  Hew hew, that will be the gushing blood sir, ready to erupt.    

Excuse my glitcheroids, I am afterall a splaty plaster blob.  Do you think my smooth sleek ball is too polished? Sometimes I wish I were less tall and more like Utter! Nob, he has such a nice doodle atop of his flathead. 

Anyway, Jay is smiling a lot today since she is making last minute preparations for this evening.  It’s degree show opening of course and she needs to make sure the guests all feel welcomed and cared for.  That is why there is much bottled and tinned liquid arriving in boxes and also why she is making sure the performers (beat box, dance and lyrical ruse) are all on form.  Moreover, she’s looking forward to greeting her close ones that are travelling from afar over the next week to discover me and my clan, and to absorb some of the noisy moving stuff going on in her space. 

Anyway, I must go now and shuffle into my position.  Can’t be caught out of place now… must also orchestrate Hoodie, his hood keeps sliding down, and as for Ftumptch! Stop fidgeting!!!

P.s Jay says that she will have more time to blog you next week for sure.  Oh, pssst, she found out yesterday she got a first class honours.  Me oh my, must have been me, yes, look at how delicious I be. 

The show mush go on. More family pics next time

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Blog *888****

Apologies for the late posting, this was written on Sunday 7 May but have been slightly preoccupied with a certain show.

In Chinese, 888 is the ultimate lucky combination of figures because eight is pronounced “ba” which rhymes with “fa”; meaning prosperity in life- both health and fortune. Chinese logic reveals when you repeat fa, prosperity and luck must proportionately triple. And you know how we Chinese are in spreading love in that area; just look in any chinatown shop window. Next to that white cat with rigormortis of the left paw you will find countless golden statue sets of long bearded old Chinese blokes with shiny bald heads and money slots in their back. Typically, there are three of them, one carrying an exotic oriental fruit to symbolise health, one a scroll displaying Chinese characters of fortune, and I can’t remember what the other guy did- just hung out. Anyhow, you get the picture that alongside casino culture and dim sum, lucky tidings of such nature play an important part in our culture.

The importance of 888? As follows.

Dearest blog, please excuse me if I make you nonsensical today. It is afterall, Sunday at 4:18 am. What? Yes, almost half four in the morning and I have been rudely awakened by the heating going off. That’s how sensitive I am at the moment, the past week I’ve been waking up at 6am… The heating then prompted me to recall my dream; a conversation I was having with my tutor about what I was going to do after uni. Can you believe it? I mean, I’d much rather be flying or running away from a grizzly panda with no arms. Ok, before I go into the conversation, (Freud said, never tell others your dreams- they may be interesting to you, but bore others to death. Ahh well.) Let’s deal with the waking up at six first. On Thursday 4 May I had a conversation that ran as follows (tweaked names and swearing to protect the innocent)

Me: tap tap (on keyboard, uploading blog 7)

Mary: Fick fick, let me check that computer. Fick, there’s no disc. Fick, let me check your desktop a sec.

Me: er, sure. Have you lost something?

Mary: Fick, stressed. Thank fick, it’s still on there. Fick.

Me: Good stuff

Mary: Are you going to be long?

Me: Well if you let me get on with what I am doing I shouldn’t be. (forced laughter)

Mary: forced laughter

Enter Mary five minutes later.

Me: All yours

We embrace, curtains fall.

Saturday,:

Studio ‘General Course’ next to Upper Foyer:

Me: hey Noah, Eve. You two are awfully quiet, usually I can hear hysterical laughter.

Noah: We’re absolutely shattered.

Me: Where’s Herod?

Eve: He had to go home because he’s feeling a bit ill and can’t physically do anymore.

Me: Fair enough

(We go out for a fag break. I don’t usually smoke, but have taken up taxing occasional rollies because it’s a break from the upper foyer and into daylight, so have others e.g Abraham/Moses join us)

Moses: A few of us went to the pub last night but all sat in silence because we were too tired to think

Me: great

And so on.

Read following aloud in Lloyd Grossman voice if desired. Clearly, degree show is taking its toll and turning us into irrational zombies. I hope its temporary.

Back to Freud. Waking up at six, in Freudian terms must symbolise a few things. I am really almost there now. Tech Pagoda is in place, all audio-visual is at the ready, suspended projector is suspending without risk of decapitating viewer (best delete that bit to avoid anti-888) and all that remains is the chess/stratego positioning of my blob pets- most crucial bit. Plus three days to go until assessment.

So,back to the dream conversation with my tutor; an extension of a real coversation that occured earlier in the week. He has just chosen me for a residency at Cove Park this summer.

I could not help but get a tad emotional….

Tutor: [THINKS: oh dear, the young one appears distressed]

[SPOKEN]: “What’s wrong?”

Me: [THINKING ONLY- READ QUICKLY TO MIMIC REAL TIME] Well, I really don’t know how to express my thanks to you. It’s been a seriously amazing journey and the most important one I could embark upon, coming up here after Sheffield and London to do my art. You have told me when it’s crap and pushed me that bit further each time to make it ok again. I am going to miss your teachings terribly. I have decided to get over losing your superior mentoring skills with the following self-help strategy; I will imagine you as a Yoda type figure who appears whenever I am in times of art need. You will appear sat on a cloud in Chinese emperors clothes, and less green than Yoda. You will wave a Mac G5 at me and impart your greatest teaching: ‘Follow your instinct young Padowan’. Then you will fade away.

Me: [SPOKEN] Thanks for giving me the opportunity to live the dream. (or something even worse than this Whitney Houston blunder)

Hopefully nobody will read this. The relevance of 888? Choose your tutor wisely, they are a crucial part of your development and only internally mock you when you go all gooey. Oh, and lucky Cove park that’s why. I wonder how the blobs will grow here?

Speak soon

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Lucky Blog 7?  Hmmm… disputable…

Hello blog, I am glad you’re here.  Yesterday was not great; it was in fact the first day I almost disappeared into a big lumpy grump of unproductiveness- blurch.

Tuesday evening I came across a technical difficulty concerning the sponsored plasma screen sourced from a generous local small business.  I intended to display Fruit Loops; four animated shorts, positioned so that the plasma lay on the floor on its back, screen facing upwards. Having initially been given the go ahead, I especially built a wooden platform, but was informed early Tuesday that positioning the plasma in such a manner may lead to an uninvited firework display (gas fuelled apparently)… something I’d rather avoid cost wise.  Plus, I am not for melting people on the opening evening; takes synaesthesia a bit far. 

Ultimately the plasma’s tray display is now defunct and I don’t want to use it just because it’s there; though it is all so shiny and spangly, and I am sure it purred at me…  Nor do I want to stand it up in the corner just because it’s a bit woooo, a bit waaaa; it is important for me to retain the initial aesthetic- for the viewer to look down into the moving visuals.  The thematic context of the work and its relationship to the overall installation demands so.

So, having carefully considered the options; moving it’s location, employing a horizontal tv etc… I’ve decided to opt for a projection from the ceiling directly onto to the platform postioned below.  This of course has thrown up a multitude of new challenges involving sound and general logistical conundrums that could drive any final year student 5 days away from assessment into a knotted art ball. But, I would be more worried if everything went according to plan; hitches to be expected after working with video and technology for so long now.  Plus, installation is gymnastics; you have to be bendy.

So, what made me frown more than smile today then?  Well, having to deal with unhelpful people is not great, especially when you need it most.  This, plus a skiving third year assistant (actually said he forgot to bring his dentist note, bless), PLUS tiredness signals; flashing danger lights.  At this point, artist genius is easily irritated and slippage of tolerance levels means incoherent babbling and scribbles far from A Beautiful Mind.  It does not bode a well executed suspended projector shelf.  Forget artist’s block, by five o clock, I had a whole forest going on (ho ho). The urge to snort large measures of absinthe via the left eye had overwhelmed me. 

Luckily, my tutor and a superhero woodwork technician came to my rescue and made me see the wood from the trees.  (Sorry.)  Because of the physical nature of this crucial installation stage and aforementioned plasma spanner; seeking external help from the clear thinking is very necessary. 

Seeking help.  Yes. About time.  Remedy also arrived at nine pm, when I got together with others feeling the pressure and needing a good chin wag. Good old Droothy’s.

7 ain’t so bad.

I know I’ve done all I can today and I am still on track in the big scale of 5-day deadline.  Hello tomorrow, ya gonna be sunny coz I saw a glimpse of one of my videos projected alongside Wabbit! I thought, hey, I did that.

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Hi Blog,

It’s been a tumultuous week in art Labour politics for me and my Blobs, albeit without the jeering, two shags (not seen boyfriend for a while) and threat of deportation. Wednesday was the first day that I really began to spend time in the Upper Foyer Gallery- my allocated degree show space) to finish animating my Blobs and Wooden Skaletrix. This is the Photoshop/pull cake out of oven to decorate stage. However, the first day was also spent battling internally as I adapt to the practical limitations/health and safety stipulations of the site itself.

Artists have strange ways of working; some like to build fortresses and set up an electric fence to ward off social interaction, others begin a knitting committee and have the whole college round for tea. I try and nestle myself somewhere in between. This week I am happy with how I’ve been able to adapt and negotiate emotions of feeling slightly exposed, trusting my work will not be knocked over and damaged (happened in year two just before assessment), and also renegotiating my work in relation to the space.

To complete my blobs, I have converted the gallery temporarily into a studio, and have had to mentally knuckle down to block out distractions. My space holds a prime position, however, it is also the point of convergence for three surrounding degree show spaces, and has a glass front. It’s like being in an operating theatre and performing a face-lift on Orlan (again) but the theatre is situated so people must pass through for the pub, toilet, kitchen and nightclub. Ok, a slightly extreme analogy (and somewhat strange) but some might say, I have been experiencing such Green Wingness. I have worked round this and at this point; the beginning of the final week before assessment, I can say it’s almost been like performing a residency in such a shop window setting. In comparison to working in the open studio, I have noticed that the closeness between myself and my work has intensified, as I imagine to be the case when experiencing a residency environment.

Maybe a bit too close. On speaking to my friend, Friday, I looked down to see a piece of fabric stuck to my hand. I was also wearing a neon pink belt with my Ipod dangling round my neck. Today I have a spot on the end of my nose (more chocolate) which will no doubt become shiny and red. I am also pasty due to being in Scotland. Please take a look at the images, I guess you are what you art.

Back to it; today, Monday, I am adding final touches and removing all the tools and waterproof sheeting in preparation for the real test: installation begins tomorrow.

Hello, end of play Mon- am on track, have finished the last stage of animation and shifted all floor protection and tools. I look and feel like I have been mining, but have faith that I will see my natural skin tone soon without gloss polish. Onwards….

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