www.chapelartsstudios.co.uk

Saturday morning, and I’m all geared up to go to work, but can’t yet as I need the builders to finish off the ventilation sysytem properly. Legal requirements and all that.

For now, I’m limited to re-arranging bits of furniture, unpacking equipment, and writing the odd email.

Good job I’ve got plenty of emails to write…

Hurry up builders!

Night time in the cemetery certainly has it’s thumps and bumps. Sitting in the Chapel late into the evening had me lit up like a beacon for all manner of passers by. The stained glass windows are illuminated and attract window banging hoodies like moths to a bulb. I’m no shrinking violet when it comes to night time and dark streets. I’ve had my fair share of squeezes and scrapes over the years (though few will ever compare with the attempted cliff-top robbery in Jaipur a few years ago!). The point being I don’t tend to rattle easily.

But last night I was. Still haven’t worked out why exactly. Maybe it was no more than being isolated and with out recourse to instant assistance: since I got my leg chopped off, I ain’t so good at running away these days!

There was something distinctly John Carpenter-ish and siege-like about the faceless hoodies staring through the windows at me, and banging. And banging. And banging. And banging.

The external lighting isn’t what it should be yet (all the more reason for this new bid to be accepted), and having to step out into pitch-black surrounds, where I can’t even see the path in front of me was a bit worrying . Like a brave boy, I just stayed indoors for another 10 minutes or so until it all blew over.

My nice Development Officer has already stepped-up, and passed the incident onto the Police. For that I’m very grateful, as I’m now under extra night-time patrol, with my own armed rapid-response team. Well, I’ve at least got a phone number to call.

Fingers crossed, I won’t be needing it…

Great day yesterday. Got the email saying Jon Adams and myself have been successful in getting through to the final interview stage for our proposed collaboration at the Walsall Gallery. Then spent a day at the Toynbee centre in London at a conference on Diversifying Outdoor Arts. Plenty of food for thought there.

Outdoor arts is a relatively new field for me, as my work tends to lend itself to the great indoors. In the past I’ve been rather protective of my dust based installations: indoors is more controllable. Stepping outside into the realm of public and environmental is potentially a significant change in direction for my work and methods of working. Not least because my work will be destroyed, and my control of it will be compromised. But this foolish notion of control is what I have been trying to eradicate for sometime now, anyway, and the whole point of the dust is its extreme ephemerality.

So, on the face of it, Outside is looking like a pretty good option if I want to push these ideas a bit further. The proposed collaboration at Walsall with Jon is likely to be in this vein. We’re both keen to be in a fluid position in terms of our response to the projects aims. This will hopefully end up with us making some fairly intuitive decisions, and relinquishing a significant proportion of this control beastie to the public. I love the sense of uncertainty in situations like that. When you have no real idea of what to expect, the level of excitement and reward are all the greater.

Had a quick trip to Salisbury Arts centre this evening to have a look at their new external lighting system.

Working in a cemetary comes, quite rightly, with it’s own set of challenges. A lot of them overlap.

First off the mark, we have Security. Always a good one this, as artists tend not to like being attacked. Can’t say much about the general public, but, speaking as an artist, I know I’m not fond of the idea. We also have the questions of Urban Sensitivity, Public Awareness, and of course that old chestnut which I am particularly fond of, Access.

The Test Valley Arts Foundation has already secured an extremely helpful sum from the police towards the Security fund. What we have been thinking is that a decent lighting system could illuminate the building, not be too intrusive to an area of great emotional importance, provide safer access to and from the Chapel Arts studio, as well as help to deter attacks and/or interference from any undesirables.

Such a system would also have a wider benefit to the local area as the cemetary links a number of housing areas. To have any degree of lighting installed is a welcome advantage to those crossing in darkness.

So the rub is, we’re trying to bring together various pots of financial assistance. These are aimed at making the local area safer, but at the same time will make our wonderful studio better seen and more secure.

While speaking to the director of the Salisbury Arts Centre, he explained that although there were, initially, a great number of concerns raised about the introduction of his sunken spotlights, the biggest problem of all was simply mis-communication. Councillors, local support groups, ecological organisations etc were accidentally translating the explanation into something that was quite different from the proposal itself. Once that was realised, and the proposal rephrased, the problems evaporated of their own accord.

Their lights work, everyone is happy with them, and we want some too. We’ll see how it goes…