Post-studio gardening
I just spent some time this morning in my back garden painting in the sunshine.
Tortoise
things are going slowly, and badly, in the studio.
though, some drawing I’ve been doing for the Sauna Youth ‘Lists’ upcoming release & exhibition I’ve found interesting and fruitful. I had been thinking around a vague notion of my drawings as possible/failed lists of space, and then I read this…
“The role of the grid in defying entropy goes well beyond the physical. Creating order is a survival impulse against the death drive of gravity and entropy – or, at the very least, a mode of making the daunting demands of existing in time and space more manageable. The parcelling of space is an attempt to wrangle the infinite, thereby gaining traction against one’s inevitable union with it. Umberto Eco has recently cited the linguistic equivalent: making lists (which he also made the topic of an exhibition he curated at the Louvre.) ”We like lists because we don’t want to die.” A grid is a comprehensive list of all parts of space, with nothing left unaccounted for.” Tauba Auerbach
I got my photo taken by the well nice photographer Neil Gavin
and finally got my first Holga film developed about 5 years after being used, didn’t come out so great, but all the more reason to use it more, and I gotta get on and learn how to use my new Super 8 camera too, start making some films.
Space – The most recent frontier
“When I moved from my last place, my main objective was to find a space that was a workspace that I could live in, opposed to a live-in space that I could also work in” Leon Ransmeier
I’ve just moved in to a former care home in South West London. It was in a shitty state, but after ripping up carpets & lino, sawing up kitchen units, cobbling together found wood and a few coats of always reliable white emulsion, I’ve made myself a nice wee live/work space, and have started painting again after a short period without a studio. Damn it feels good!
NOBODY’S FAULT BUT [MINE] [YOURS] [OURS] MINE.
So, my solo exhibition opens in just over a week, I’m on the cusp of over-excitement and nervousness, I really don’t know what to expect. I’m just really looking forward to getting my paintings together in the space. The show opens a week on Saturday, on the 22nd. To celebrate the opening, instead of a boozy evening, we’re having brunch at Cafe Cuatro, which is upstairs from the gallery. You will have to pay for your brunch, we’re not the White Cube, but it’s an East End greasy spoon so it’s a few quid for what is actually a very good breakfast (by very good I don’t necessarily mean healthy). And of course there’ll be art to look at.
The show’s title reflects ideas of uncertainty and responsibility that I’ve become interested in recently; John Keats’ ‘Negative Capability‘ & Bertolt Brecht’s ‘Verfremdungseffekt‘ mainly. The paintings are intertwined with my interest in these ideas but weren’t initially inspired by them. My practice changed about half a year ago, from one that made me increasingly anxious and produced continually unresolved work, to a more considered approach. These new paintings are each different explorations of the physical experience of painting, spatial ambiguity, phenomenology and perception, uncertainty and unknowing, the awareness and experience of physical space and self, and the failures, glitches and misperceptions within seemingly simple or ordered systems, frameworks or repetitions. I think this show is going to be a really great opportunity for me to better understand my work and my ideas, and the relationships between the different paintings. We’ll see. I hope to see you there, (whoever you are that reads this).
possibilities for abilities
I have to leave my studio at the end of the month, the £250 monthly rent is just proving too much. This has actually had a positive side effect by providing me with a deadline and I’ve had an incredibly productive time recently. I feel that I have now produced a cohesive body of work as opposed to a few unresolved paintings. Owen & George from And/Or Gallery came round last night for a second visit to see how things were. Their first visit proved to be a catalyst for my recent productivity, providing me with confidence to pursue ideas and a belief in my own uncertain feelings. Having them round was again a really positive experience, it was great for me for them to see and understand certain intentions I have for the work. This will hopefully lead to actually exhibiting my new work, which is a very exciting prospect. I am starting to feel less like a fraud and as if I may actually be able to do this, though of course I am at the bottom of an awfully steep incline.
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