So my feeling that I need to improve my “web presence” has been compounded by a friend contacting me through Axis Web yesterday saying that it is about time I updated my status. Well I have taken it all on board and here I am concentrating on this aspect of my working life.
The main presence I have on the web at the moment is on Ebay. What did we do before we could just log on and find people selling what we need on Ebay. Skips, Help the Aged Shops, Car Boot Sales. But on Ebay there it all is, whatever you want, quickly.
I am buying National Dress Dolls and Glass Domes. The Glass Domes are quite hard to get cheaply and buying on Ebay does run away with you, until you get a credit card bill.
Buying dolls on the internet is more interesting. A large part of my work is concerned with the phenomena of collecting and collections. Buying these dolls on Ebay plunged me into a new world of doll collectors, I could feel myself beginning to display collectors traits, bidding furiously for “that Bolivian doll” as I didn’t have one in my collection. MY COLLECTION, what is that all about. Anyway, I am buying in bulk now, cheap as possible. I was filled with delight when I went to my studio yesterday to pick up several packages. Less delighted by the decreasing space I have, definitely not enough to do what I want with all these dolls.
I do feel that this buying is part of the work, a performative element if you like. Maybe I should be documenting this process in some way. Maybe I should just be noting my thoughts about this virtual life. A virtual life where I recieve these parcels of treasured collections that have been in pride of place in display cabinets or have been forgotton in musty attics. Imagine the years of holidays that this parade of Greek Evzones and Thai dancers represent. In this virtual world I communicate with people all over the country and get gold stars and good feedback. I win some and I loose some.
I actually wanted to talk about the Sublime and how it relates to my work. However it seems that on a Friday morning when you realise that you have forgotten to place a bid in an auction that is now ended, (for a rather beautiful Spanish Flamenco Doll) that only the Ridiculous can describe what I am doing.
What is all this frantic buying leading to? Several sculptural resolutions, apparently, and some photographic work. It has taken several years of fiddling and photographing and leaving on the shelf to reach a point when I think I know what I am doing with all these dolls and why.
I have decided that the older I get the longer it takes for me to digest and develop an idea, there seems to be a slow burn process throughout which ideas coalesce. But once they do it all seems chrystal clear. So I hope that I can start MAKING soon.
