Stian Andersen A-ha The Photographs exhibition

I was recently invited to take my portfolio to show the gallerist at The Strand gallery in London, as I thought it might be nice to go and see Stian Andersen's photography exhibition.
The outcome is some exciting work coming up soon, but as I'm totally shattered, here are a few photos. 
Stian's exhibition is currently showing until 17th March.

I couldn't stay over in London mid week, so I planned to arrive slightly early on, and get the last train back to Lincoln after the private view. I knew that during the private view itself, I would not have an opportunity to discuss work properly, and I wouldn't have time to hang around afterwards.

I arrived around 4.40p.m. whilst waiting outside, I saw Stian's photographer, taking shots of the gallery, and Erin Hill's husband Mike, but I knew neither of them at that moment, as I hadn't been introduced. Once invited inside, I met the gallery staff, and the lovely and talented Erin, was properly introduced to Mike, as well as two nice ladies from the Norwegian Embassy, who are sponsoring Stian's exhibition.
I told them about my previous exploits in Oslo, and later on, they were looking at Stian's prints to decide which ones to buy.

We were expecting Stian and Magne to arrive at 5.30p.m. but they were being rock and roll late, and while we were waiting, it was nice to have a proper look at the work before the gallery was full of (mostly A-ha fans) visitors.
I was discussing what I do with Erin, it seems we have a lot of common interests, including Fleetwood Mac, and Erin was kind enough to play Gypsy on her harp for me, which was very lovely.
One of the nicest comments she said was that I remind her of Lauren Savoy, a compliment indeed :-) Somewhere there's a photo of us together, but it hasn't yet materialised.

The gallery opened to the waiting crowd outside, as Stian and Magne arrived and were due to go for an interview. I realised I'd left my camera in the office, so I went to get it, but as I'd been so busy chatting all afternoon, by now I was gasping for a beer, and followed them out to go and get one. 
Magne asked me what the setlist was, and by then I'd forgotten in my beer-hunt. I don't know many of Erin's songs. She performed with A-ha at the Royal Albert Hall in 2008, which I missed because it clashed with my degree show!

I stood close behind Stian and Magne as we watched her performance of And You Tell Me. The gallery is quite small, and there were a lot of people, the view of Erin very limited at one end, and because I'm small, it's a habit I've had since I was little, that Mum would always encourage me to go to the front so that I could see, and I was wearing flat boots for travelling/not getting stuck in the Tube, but hadn't thought to bring some heels for height.
I was getting a bit squashed in, trying hard not to spill beer down Stian's trouser leg - it really wouldn't be a good look for him! But wasn't quite of the Razorlight-at-V-festival2006-potential-crush-panic-level, and I was taken aside whilst we contemplated how Erin was going to get out of the corner! 
Along with Erin's performance, A-ha tracks were played in the background of the gallery. 

I was obviously quite keen to be properly introduced to Stian and speak to him properly as had been recommended for work purposes, however, he quite often was grabbed by overly eager fans asking for things to be signed, or buying copies of his book, so eager they were, some seem to forget their manners that someone was already there. 
The gallery was so busy that Magne bailed out early. I don't really blame him. He was meant to be there for an hour, they were both late for their interview, and Magne missed out on his speech.
In one attempt to speak to him, I seemed to get caught up in some photo taking, despite the fact that earlier, The Lady Of Shalott had taken one look at Stian's incredible photos and decided to go on strike! 
I managed to get a few nice photos, although I lament not getting one with Stian's photographer, Erik, who was very tall, and would've made a funny shot. Maybe next time..... ;-)
Yes, plans are afoot.

Paul Stolper was there as well, and I lamented that I had hoped to drop into his gallery, but hadn't had the time. He has some interesting projects going on, and I will consider going for Magne's next private view there in May.
And I met Stian's Dad and step-Mum, and managed to say "hyggelig å møte deg", which for the uninitiated is "nice to meet you" in Norwegian, without sounding Welsh, and was understood!

It wasn't until I was about to leave that I later found an opportunity to be properly introduced to Stian, and we agreed to catch up via email about work. I gave him my card and grabbed a spare copy of the comic from my portfolio. I'd brought a copy for him, should he want one, but now didn't really have time to ask, so there it was. Stuff you do in haste. Which reminds me, a copy I sent for Towser Zine Library last year is due to go to Leeds International Book Fair this month.

It's odd how I've been trying to develop my practice in other ways, but whenever I do something involving A-ha, I get more and better opportunities than all the wasted applications to more local galleries, all the proposals that I've sent that never get off the ground, funding applications that have been rejected, for once, things always go right, so I'm not going to turn such opportunities down. 
I feel I finally seem to be getting somewhere, so I've been over-excited and over-tired and a bit scatterbrained for a few days. 

Otherwise, I spent the previous week finishing and submitting a couple of proposals. One for a commission for a piece of street art at the bottom of The Strait, here in Lincoln, which I based on a Horrible Histories legend that is located in that particular part of the city. I am now waiting for the deadline to pass and see if it's successful, and not some poorly-conceived idea with a fleur de lis on it, or the Lincolnshire flag, which I saw passed around at the conference I went to previously.

Meanwhile, I've also been distracted by this

Jim'll Paint It was tweeted by Bob Mortimer, so I suspect it's Vic Reeves, and has had me in tears of laughter whenever it's updated.

meter readings...

Following the success of the previous Orange mobile phone illustration - it led to a paid commission for Mobile News, and through persistence, Orange have stopped trying to harass me for money I do not owe, as they know that if they do, I will win any court case, and would have to pay me more. 

This illustration was created as a commission for British Gas, who asked me to do a meter reading. I've invoiced them. Something tells me they won't pay.  

New Year review 2012

2012 seemed to be a year wasted applying for a myriad of art projects that obviously were not worthy enough of my considerable time and talent. Everyone seems to be holding back, especially when it comes to actually funding artists to create work, but 2013 already feels that this is the year when people are starting to let go of whatever it is that seems to be making them unable to do things. 

I can just tell that this year is going to be so much better than last year. You'd think that it couldn't be much better than the Olympics, but the Olympics was only best for a few people, not everyone. The Olympics was Smaug. This year will be much better for everyone. This year will be the year that all the dwarves gather at Bilbo's house and plan to take back what's rightfully theirs. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

I hope that a possible paid position running the LAN will become a salaried role some time sooner rather than later, as quite frankly it's shameful that I'm not earning enough for the work I do. 

I hope that no more of my time will be wasted applying for funding that isn't successful / other people's projects that are funded, but have no intention of accepting my proposals / no more money wasted investing in anything that doesn't pay me back at least twofold for my efforts - time to cut my losses.

Looking forward to more support and better support, such as my recent all-expenses paid trip to Oslo - definitely the best thing that happened in 2012, along with my comic auctioned in Brighton, with work by other high profile artists alongside, a published commissioned illustration exhibited in The National Library of Norway. And the recent Empty Shops projects that have provided not only myself, but other artists space to experiment and exhibit, is another successful achievement for last year.

Kendell Geers work from Nobel Peace Centre curated by Helen Dearnley

My work sold at the Alternative Christmas Market

The Nordic installation @ Alternative Christmas Market

Nordic installation @ Alternative Christmas Market, Lincoln

Apparatjik curated by Helen Dearnley, part of the Nordic installation.

But quite frankly, it still isn't good enough. I am NOT going to work for nothing, I'm STILL not earning the equivalent of my artists' day rate, so PAY ME!! 

Blackbird hearts

Gaston Bachelard - The Poetics Of Space

Gaston Bachelard - The Poetics Of Space

Gaston Bachelard - The Poetics Of Space

Gaston Bachelard - The Poetics Of Space

Gaston Bachelard - The Poetics Of Space

Gaston Bachelard - The Poetics Of Space

Gaston Bachelard - The Poetics Of Space

Gaston Bachelard - The Poetics Of Space

The Birds

I've been addicted to The Birds since I saw Lowell + Apparatjik perform live in Oslo, and I imagined an animated video inspired by Andrzej Klimowski's The Depository, white on blackboard background; a bit.... Mew. And I really want to animate that, but the kids are off for half term and have spent most of the time moaning, making more mess than they tidy, and then disappearing.

I've been overworking myself, and not being paid enough to show for it - as usual.
The Mail Art Exhibition seemed to attract a lot of interest, especially from passers by - postcards with messages on were attached to the window so that, in theory, people could see both sides.
After a disappointing start, stupid "handling fees" added by the Post Office, who seemingly can't even be bothered to deliver Mail Art, and an even more disappointing disruption caused by my eldest son being temporarily suspended from school, (for an issue that has been described as "trying to crack a walnut with a sledgehammer") otherwise I was pleased with how it went.

There was a steady trickle of visitors, some very positive feedback, and a few submissions from Lincoln artists to add to the ongoing work.

But my ability to not switch off went into overdrive when I reinstated Magne Furuholmen's Alpha Beta postcards back on the lounge wall, and it made me come up with this Nordic pixel heart Christmas card design, made out of old Christmas cards - I wish I could stop working on things, but I keep getting inspired to do things, as if I don't already have enough things to do, and not enough time or funding to do everything I really want to. 

Recently, I applied for International Artists' Travel bursary, because I hope to go back to Oslo again as soon as is humanly possible.
I just missed the October deadline, so that means I now have to wait until February to find out if that's successful.

It's annoying that I know Magne has an utstillling "Bouquet" in Asker that I won't be able to make, and there seem to be a lot of exciting things happening in Oslo that I can't be there for.

I wish I could always have expenses covered for travel etc, things would be so much easier, and it'd count as "wages". 

Lemons!

Nice to see my Jesus on Red Dwarf X episode "Lemons" this evening :-) I'm fairly sure that's him - with sandals, mind.

Mail Art Exhibition

Here's my mail art piece exhibited in the Empty Shop space in Lincoln as part of the Mail Art Exhibition. Further images of other work and the exhibition are here 

I'm going to post here of my experiences curating this. I organised the show to open on Tuesday, with a private view on Friday from 12.00p.m. This was because I had planned to have this on show for most of October, but have in fact been besieged by a cold, so I haven't been on top of things. And I've had to do this by myself with no help from anyone else.
The reason I set up the LAN was to keep working with a group of other artists as a mutually supportive group, however, I often end up doing most of the work myself these days, since I have less support than I did when I set it up.

The private view was disastrous. No one came at all, despite advertising on Facebook, twitter, email promotion, and posters around Lincoln, not one person within the Lincoln art community came to the opening for this exhibition. 

So of course, I'm really disappointed at this lack of support for what I believe is a really good show, and a fantastic opportunity to contribute work.
However, I really hope to gain more support as this show is on, and it won't put me off.

I also enjoyed the Pecha Kucha evening, in which I shared my experiences of my all-expenses-paid travels to Oslo and the Apparatjik performance to a small group of artists at The Collection without my cold presenting huge problems. 

Here is more information about Apparatjik and why I feel so much satisfaction from working with them as part of a collaborative project - an excerpt:

- Are you satisfied with the results of engaging the audience on the “Everybody is One Bar” Music Collaboration Project? Did the contribution of audience members affect the end result significantly?

- Oh yes, we’ve done a few projects like that: we did “Everybody is a pixel”, “Everybody is one bar”, “Everybody is on stage”. It started with “Everybody is an Apparatjik”. Our idea was that we are not Apparatjik, we are Apparatjiks, which means that Apparatjik is something bigger than us and that means that whoever is involved, whoever we guess is involved, is a part of Apparatjik. So it’s almost more like a system that we want to cultivate. I’m doing a book now, trying to document all the things we have done with Apparatjik. And it’s surprising how many creative things come from the fans or from the supporters. This is much more interesting than the band idea. In fact, I don’t really like all the music that we’ve made. I liked some of it. I have to play it, because this is Apparatjik, but I don’t have to like it. 

The work I've been doing and contributing with Apparatjik is a way of combining my own research and interests with what they do. I've been working with Magne since my degree for these collaborative projects, which I do because I love contributing to them and working with them, clearly, it's a two-way thing (or 5 way, whichever!) and when local UK based arts organisations ask me to pay £10, £15 to submit work for exhibitions etc, and I still get a rejection, to have these very high profile artists supporting my work, never rejected, to have the opportunity to show my work at some very prestigious locations, to not have to pay any money I don't possess to go to Oslo to see them perform, to participate myself as a fellow Apparatjik, but to have that cost offset as a work trip, to receive such excellent level of support this way. No, I didn't get the AA2A scheme either, but that isn't going to stop the graphic novel from happening. I've just been too busy to do any work on that lately. 

Apparatjik is for me a way of being able to work with artists / musicians that totally get it, and I know the cross over of concepts is mutually beneficial. The fact that when they first posted an image of a tree and a mirror, my first reaction was that it was Borges again. It probably wasn't at all, I don't think that was their concept behind AGreenerYouniverse at all, but that's what sprang to mind. I was thinking about The Garden Of Forking Paths at the time for my own work. And it isn't entirely inconceivable that in a parallel universe it IS Borges. It is Tlon. I'm not even sure what my work is about anyway. Sometimes it seems to be Borges, other times it's something else entirely, never absolute. Which is fine in Apparatjik's multiverse. So these occasional collaborations will continue, and I hope bigger and better things will occur, we'll see what comes of them. I hope they get some form of sponsorship, I'm still working on funding so they can come to Lincoln - that would be great fun for them, and fun for us here as well, for artists here to get involved. It just seems like this should happen somehow. The Viking Way is meant for Apparatjik.