Teacher's Strike

EMVAN and Jeremy Deller exhibition

Today, I went to Nottingham to go for "Meet The Curators" EMVAN event, and then to see Jeremy Deller's touring exhibition "All That Is Solid Melts Into Air" at the castle. 

I did not have a day off. It cost me £5.50 to get in the castle, plus £11 train fare.

Hello, Today you have day off Jeremy Deller, 2013
Fabric banner made by Ed Hall

This phrase was recently sent as a text message to a zero hours worker telling him that his labour would not be required that day. Courtesy the artist.

The Happy Mondays Ian Tilton 1987

 Black-and-white photographic print

In 1987 Ian Tilton spent the day taking publicity shots of the Happy Mondays. During this he not only documented a new band in the making, but also a changing Salford, as it moved from an industrial economy to a leisure one.

Projected video, approx 16 minutes

In this film, various members of the public including those on zero hours contracts read accounts of life and work during the industrial revolution, a pop video is made for a Victorian Sci-fi broadside illustrated with home movie footage from 1973, and a new soundtrack accompanies some archive film from Oldham. 

Work Makes Work

I had to take a break from the proposed Mail Art piece, so instead I contributed to Emily Speed's Work Makes Work blog here in the hope that some kind of opportunity might come of it. 
Nothing much is coming my way lately, and I'm not getting much work done in fact, too busy being given conflicting information and struggling to pay the bills.

I wasted a lot of time recently applying for a job as a gallery assistant at the National Centre for Craft & Design, which was not successful. It stated that "due to the high number of applications we cannot give individual feedback if unsuccessful", so I asked of course, because I'd really like to know why Im not considered for work with all my experience!! 
This week I feel trapped in a punitive situation, put in a box with no way of escaping, and things are only going to get worse. I can't see anyone helping me out of this trap. 

Artists vs DWP / Jobkillplus

I am currently struggling with some dire personal family issues that can only be resolved if I am paid for my work as an artist. And I don't have the time or the energy to waste applying for ACE funding, or any jobs or opps that involve lengthy form filling and box ticking. I'm tired of it.

I had hoped to go to the 3D printing workshop at the UoL today, but when I enquired, it was fully booked.

Mail Art project

I've been toying with this concept for a while, it pops up in the back of my mind, as a follow on from the Mail Art exhibition that I curated back in 2012, and other mail art projects.

It relates to Sophie Calle's "Take Care Of Yourself" and also to the existential theories behind my practice.

It stems from the 2006 film The Lake House, in which there is a magic time travel mail box. 

Sandra Bullock's character, Dr. Kate Forster, posts love letters to Keanu Reeves' character, architect Alex Wyler through time.

The Doctor Who fan and Schroedinger fan in me loves the concept, although the film is a version of the Korean film Il Mare, I wanted to recreate this scenario. I'm not entirely sure why. 

What intrigues me is that in the original film, there is a radio, but the Anglo version swaps the radio for a copy of Persuasion by Jane Austen, and there's also a reference to Dostoyevsky. I believe this reference is for White Nights.

The other aspect of the film that I wanted to explore was The Lake House itself. A glass house was built on a lake as a set for the film, and was removed once the film was shot. The house itself is impossible. It has a tree growing in the middle of it, even though it was built on stilts in a lake, and the tree is clearly visible growing through the greenhouse-like glass roof, as Alex and Kate exchange letters in the magic mail box. Yet at one point, Alex goes to the attic to find a box - this attic does not exist!! When he's standing on the roof showing his brother how the glass roof opens up, there is no attic! Gaston Bachelard wrote much about attics containing dreams and memories.

In The Lake House these memories are of love. And love is enacted through the Schroedinger's box of the mail box. A letter appears from either Kate or Alex, but neither of them have yet met, as they both exist in different times.

So I decided to source an American style mail box, for participants to write letters of love to the past or to the future.

The white mail boxes are quite hard to source - the one I chose isn't an exact replica, it has slight differences, but it's close enough. 

Add caption

I didn't buy a post to mount it on. The original idea was to mount the mail box on an existing post, but the location where I plan to install this looked unlikely to have a suitable post. With a limited budget, I sourced a cardboard tube, and have painted it to resemble the balustrade on which the Lake House mail box rests. I mounted the mail box onto an old drawer front as a base, and screwed this into the post. I added the remains of a broken bike pump to the base of the post. 
I then had to consider how this will be positioned in its location.
I found that digging a trench in the garden and burying the base gave the mail box stability, but the wind was fairly strong that day, and it wasn't long before it blew over. 
However, this was mainly because I hadn't packed the soil back in too hard, as I knew it was a test, and I'd need to take it out again. 

Inside the mail box are the instructions:

There is also a replica of the first letter that Kate posts, that starts "Dear New Tenant,..."

I then considered positioning the mail box in situ overlooking Delft Pond - how would I transport the mail box to the location?

After some tests and consideration, it was decided to cover it with bin liners, and position it on a bike, to wheel to the location. 

This was planned for last weekend, however, the weather turned more windy than I'd have liked, and for various reasons I decided to install it at a later time. The weather was better on Monday, but it's set to be hideous on Wednesday, so I'm hoping it might be Thursday. 

There is a part of me that doesn't even know if this will be installed by Valentines Day, and whether after all the preparation it will go ahead. 

New Year and Utsmykkingsfondet

2013 started off all hopeful, and with some interesting and exciting things happening, including meeting Stian Andersen and Magne Furuholmen, and also attending Magne's "Norwegian Wood" exhibition, where I met best buddy Guy Berryman, Steve Barron, and there was Sir Peter Blake as well, then later, The Art Party Conference, where we met Jeremy Deller and he wrote us a funny note, yet I had rather hoped that by the end of the year, some progress would've been made for artists to get paid, and some commissions never materialised either.

Santa has gotten me a copy of Pushwagner, including Soft City, which is research for the graphic novel I'm illustrating.

Included in the autobiographical context in which Hariton Pushwagner created "Soft City" in Oslo, is the socio-political background which explains Kunstneraksjonen 
Not the title of a Franz Ferdinand album, it was set up In 1974, to improve the social and economic conditions of artists, and a state guaranteed minimum income (GMI) was achieved in 1976, along with a public art fund (Utsmykkingsfondet) and a copyright fund (Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond)

From what I can gather, this is now under threat, and artists are facing the same struggles in Norway now, using the hashtag #kunstneraksjonen They organised a day of strike action, just prior to The Art Party Conference here in November, in which art works were covered in public and private spaces with bin liners, no books were read, and support for the campaign was gathered outside the Norwegian Parliament building, Stortinget on Karl Johan's Gate in Oslo.
More info here Solidarity!

There's a reference to Öyvind Fahlström's "World Map", but I'm more interested  in his other work "Fåglar i Sverige" 

I hope that this year is the year that something is done to stop the cuts and enact a positive change. We can't wait any longer. #payartists

Lincoln Christmas Market, and 2013 review

Lincoln Christmas Blackout card, 2013

Lincoln Christmas Market 2013 opened with a huge storm that caused flooding in Boston, Skegness and other coastal areas, followed up by a large power cut, in which most of the city was plunged into darkness for up to an hour.

To celebrate Lincoln Christmas Blackout, I designed these cards, which were quite popular at the Christmas Market.

Lincoln West End Lights

The LAN Christmas Market moved to St. Mary Le Wigford church this year, and amid the blackouts, Lincoln West End Lights was worth a visit. 

Jesus' blimp

You don't get this elsewhere!

my stall at Lincoln Christmas Market 2013

My stall seems to inspire people to complain about the prices being too high, even though they were much lower than they'd pay in a gallery... but I made about as many sales as last year, and had more visitors.

This year has been a very mixed year.

In many ways, some exciting things have happened, but in others, financially, I'm still fighting for artists to actually get paid, and after 5 years of doing this, it's starting to wear very thin. The Art Party Conference is, of course, a very important part of that, but as another year comes to an end, I face yet more upheaval caused by the fact that I still don't earn enough to pay every day living costs.

An article has appeared on Norwegian.com about Magne's work with Apparatjik - I can't tell how recent it is, it was shared recently, and I haven't been following Norwegian media as diligently as I probably should, but it does include a photo of my brother and I, with my combat disco boots, trying to avoid being the subject of such photos by hiding behind The Lady Of Shalott; you can see me there taking the photos for this blog, bringing a small bit of Apparatjik outside the Cube. 
Never mind thinking outside the box, they should be dancing outside the box - am I in or out of Apparatjik? I'd like to think I'm somewhere as elusive as Guy Berryman, and when I finally get around to finishing off an Apparatjik Suite piece of music I'm creating, I hope to return to Oslo again, and I still hope one year to get the chance to go to Flø.... or participate in Oslo Open. Of course, it would also be nice to undertake a residency, or exhibit again, but for that, I'd need to create some new work, which will require funding.

I can't create work when I'm having to find somewhere else to live every time something changes that is largely out of my own control.

I've reached the end of another Kickstarter campaign for my graphic novel, which I wish to focus on once again, and as it hasn't achieved it's target, it will be relaunched next year.

So for now, I'm taking a break to try and get things back to normal, commissions and funding are both very welcome!! Mostly, getting paid would prevent many issues I face as an artist, and I could maybe get on with making new work.

The Art Party Conference

Last weekend, I had loads of fun at The Art Party Conference in Scarborough

crossing the Humber Bridge on the way to The Art Party Conference

Scarborough

Beware these crafty ravens, trying to force you to part with £s!

Of course, being a blackbird, I'm not normally a huge fan of ravens, but nice brolly :-) I didn't buy a mask, because I already have one of my own :-)

Throw stuff at small effigies of the Rt. Hon Michael Gove MP!

Karen Thompson's Goveshy was such fun! Many artists really went for it throwing stuff at Gove's multiple heads!

Big hello to the very welcoming and friendly Arts Emergency lady that was doing zines.

There was much art manifesto writing going on with Airspace gallery's Pigdogandmonkeyfestos, which reminded me of Foundation Art at Boston college with Andy Black 

This will become part of an exhibition at Airspace gallery in Stoke-on-Trent 3rd May to 7th June 2014, so we might have to go for a trip to see what happens to them!

a-n were there doing AIRtime, which included the most best maltesers cake - here's Susan Jones' latest article for The Art Party Conference.  

The Rt. Hon Michael Grove MP

BBC news coverage

The Rt. Hon Michael Grove MP being challenged on his policies

Bob And Roberta Smith
Bob and Roberta Smith's STEAMPUNK manifesto for art and education

The Rt. Hon Michael Grove MP - booooo!!!

Message from Jeremy Deller for all his critics!

We asked Jeremy Deller to write a note to Becky's Dad. We explained that Becky's Dad was at the battle of Orgreave, and subsequently hates Jeremy Deller's work "The Battle Of Orgreave". This is the note Jeremy wrote for him :-)