Monday 28 February 2011
Saturday 26 February 2011
Crit comment//Every man for himself
I have lots to think about after yesterdays crit, it was more help than hindrance which is what I was hoping for. I'm not going to blog all my thoughts about how well I thought the work went etc, partly because I'm still mulling it over and partly because I doubt anybody would want to read it, but I do feel i should write about a comment I made that seems to have shocked some of my peer group. This shock has in turn shocked me as I didn't think it was that shocking... and I can only imagine it's because I didn't explain myself properly.
To add a little context... Some one had commented that they felt that Simone's work had been over shadowed during the time that my work was happening and therefore the project was an unsuccessful collaboration. I first addressed this by pointing out that we had presented the project as a double bill and I was aware that my work was likely to pull focus while the performance was happening and that this was one reason that the performance ended before the crit began. After all, most project spaces I have attended this year only open when the crit begins so in this way Simone's work had the second half of the double bill to be the centre of attention. Whether people agree with me or not is still to be assessed...
I then questioned the idea of the show being a successful collaboration; I believe I asked what was wrong with two people putting work in a space and may the best man win? or words to that effect. I referred to a Lawrence Weiner comment (listen to his 20 questions here) about participating in group shows in order to prove that he was right and everybody else is wrong. This comment seems to need some clarifying as I don't feel that it is that shocking a position.
First of all this doesn't mean sabotaging the efforts of every other artist in order that you win... I don't think this position goes against the ideas of generosity and community that I've been talking about all year. Making art comes out of a dissatisfaction with the way things are... at least this is the way I understand it... If art is about finding/striving for alternatives surely the alternative one must strive for is the best one? If you are content with what is already there surely you have nothing to add to the discourse that is art. If you are striving for the best alternative and are happy to show your work you must have some faith that you are right, or at least and probably more realistically on the right road.
This is obviously not a black and white issue and I'm not sure that I'm clarifying much at all... may the best man win is a funny term to use... not the wrong term but it does suggest a ruthlessness that isn't necessarily the point... Everybody will have had that feeling at some point in their lives when they see a work that stops them in their tracks and they think I wish I'd made that. This is surely an encounter with a work that has challenged whether you are right or not.
I really was thrilled to work with Simone in the project space and I'm quite pleased with what we did. I didn't go into this project with any other intention than to do the best we could with the work we had and I hope Simone was happy with this too... My comment I think had more to do with challenging the notion that these projects have to be happy little collaborations, hopefully I haven't forged a reputation as a cold hearted ruthless mother fucker out for whatever he can get... It's all still about generosity and love... and I'm right about that...
Does this make sense? I'm still a bit hung over... As always I'm up for a chat about it...
To add a little context... Some one had commented that they felt that Simone's work had been over shadowed during the time that my work was happening and therefore the project was an unsuccessful collaboration. I first addressed this by pointing out that we had presented the project as a double bill and I was aware that my work was likely to pull focus while the performance was happening and that this was one reason that the performance ended before the crit began. After all, most project spaces I have attended this year only open when the crit begins so in this way Simone's work had the second half of the double bill to be the centre of attention. Whether people agree with me or not is still to be assessed...
I then questioned the idea of the show being a successful collaboration; I believe I asked what was wrong with two people putting work in a space and may the best man win? or words to that effect. I referred to a Lawrence Weiner comment (listen to his 20 questions here) about participating in group shows in order to prove that he was right and everybody else is wrong. This comment seems to need some clarifying as I don't feel that it is that shocking a position.
First of all this doesn't mean sabotaging the efforts of every other artist in order that you win... I don't think this position goes against the ideas of generosity and community that I've been talking about all year. Making art comes out of a dissatisfaction with the way things are... at least this is the way I understand it... If art is about finding/striving for alternatives surely the alternative one must strive for is the best one? If you are content with what is already there surely you have nothing to add to the discourse that is art. If you are striving for the best alternative and are happy to show your work you must have some faith that you are right, or at least and probably more realistically on the right road.
This is obviously not a black and white issue and I'm not sure that I'm clarifying much at all... may the best man win is a funny term to use... not the wrong term but it does suggest a ruthlessness that isn't necessarily the point... Everybody will have had that feeling at some point in their lives when they see a work that stops them in their tracks and they think I wish I'd made that. This is surely an encounter with a work that has challenged whether you are right or not.
I really was thrilled to work with Simone in the project space and I'm quite pleased with what we did. I didn't go into this project with any other intention than to do the best we could with the work we had and I hope Simone was happy with this too... My comment I think had more to do with challenging the notion that these projects have to be happy little collaborations, hopefully I haven't forged a reputation as a cold hearted ruthless mother fucker out for whatever he can get... It's all still about generosity and love... and I'm right about that...
Does this make sense? I'm still a bit hung over... As always I'm up for a chat about it...
Wednesday 23 February 2011
Posters... for sale!
Lovely screen prints of the Project space poster available for the bargain price of £15... get them while they're hot
Monday 21 February 2011
Saturday 19 February 2011
Wednesday 16 February 2011
Tuesday 15 February 2011
Not quite fully bound...
Todays event went well... this image is before the escape began... more ropes/straps were added and a few more people stopped by, (there was a balcony full too, at least that's how it looked from where I was.) You can see my hand starting to turn blue below...
Monday 14 February 2011
Sunday 13 February 2011
Friday 11 February 2011
Tuesday 8 February 2011
Why does...
...Documentation have to take the form of photographs and videos? This is what I spent my afternoon discussing with John (Beagles)...
The work I'm making relies on documentation in order to be presented to a wider set of people than those present at the time of execution... but why should that documentation then conform to expected formats? If the documentation represents everything that was in the live work then does the live work need to be seen ever?... and in any case how well does documentation ever represent work? With this in mind why not construct documents that present work with out being purely secondary things... I have in mind a series of posters, a la Harry Houdini's famous posters, which will present all necessary information about the live works but will also exist as things in their own right. I have already begun conversations with people who have a better sensibility about these things... after all I don't really want to reconstruct Houdini posters exactly and asking other people to document my work has been working for me thus far... collaboration a go go...
Also writing... writing about work as documentation... I'm working on that...
Today Stuart and I talked about work for about an hour whilst trying to balance on those small wooden blocks... hope fully he will recount something about that...
The work I'm making relies on documentation in order to be presented to a wider set of people than those present at the time of execution... but why should that documentation then conform to expected formats? If the documentation represents everything that was in the live work then does the live work need to be seen ever?... and in any case how well does documentation ever represent work? With this in mind why not construct documents that present work with out being purely secondary things... I have in mind a series of posters, a la Harry Houdini's famous posters, which will present all necessary information about the live works but will also exist as things in their own right. I have already begun conversations with people who have a better sensibility about these things... after all I don't really want to reconstruct Houdini posters exactly and asking other people to document my work has been working for me thus far... collaboration a go go...
Also writing... writing about work as documentation... I'm working on that...
Today Stuart and I talked about work for about an hour whilst trying to balance on those small wooden blocks... hope fully he will recount something about that...
Yesterday the crate from RCA arrived in the sculpture court... so I climbed on to it and ate my lunch. (there are better pictures to come.)
Monday 7 February 2011
Sunday 6 February 2011
cart//horse//cart//horse//cart//horse....
I'm contemplating the difference between what I was doing at the start of the course and now... making work for the sake of documentation/documentting work and show documentation... I'm not sure that's clear.
When it became obvious that I should be making live work instead of trying to make films I immediatley abandoned the idea of showing documentation as work... the work was live. I feel that this has clarified alot of my thinking, However, now I'm finding myself in a postion where the work happens infront of small groups or individuals and is quick/fleeting and if I want to present this to a wider group of people I either have to stage performances or present documentation... While this isn't a one or the other type situation I'm finding myself tending toward the latter at the minute as the restaged performance seem a little less... good.
If I attempt to stage work in order to document it i am rarely happy with the results, compared with documentation of work as it happens...
Does this make sense? Can anybody help me articulate this? It feels like I should be able to say this very simply... It seems like a simple problem of priorities.
Maybe that's what I'm at school to do, get my priorities in order...
When it became obvious that I should be making live work instead of trying to make films I immediatley abandoned the idea of showing documentation as work... the work was live. I feel that this has clarified alot of my thinking, However, now I'm finding myself in a postion where the work happens infront of small groups or individuals and is quick/fleeting and if I want to present this to a wider group of people I either have to stage performances or present documentation... While this isn't a one or the other type situation I'm finding myself tending toward the latter at the minute as the restaged performance seem a little less... good.
If I attempt to stage work in order to document it i am rarely happy with the results, compared with documentation of work as it happens...
Does this make sense? Can anybody help me articulate this? It feels like I should be able to say this very simply... It seems like a simple problem of priorities.
Maybe that's what I'm at school to do, get my priorities in order...
Saturday 5 February 2011
More wooden blocks...
I think I'm quite pleased with how these work... There are more images of people in the sculpture court but they feel a little too contrived, I like the studio shots.
Thank you to the people who are so willing to participate in the work, I like this too...
There are video clips that will follow... filmed on an iPhone... I haven't played with one before but I think I'd gladly do all of my documentation on one... I like flips too... why did I buy a camcorder??
One thing that is puzzling me is how this translates from doing something in the studio to doing something in front of an audience... the problem with the sculpture court images is that they were done in a space just to be documented, the studio ones were more organic... less forced. I'm not sure how to maintain that... trial and error I suppose.
Thursday 3 February 2011
Tuesday 1 February 2011
Stilts?...
I spent 2 hours walking around with blocks of wood taped to my shoes today. It didn't really work for me...
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