Non-places

Hi.

I'm feeling quite low today - the lack of routine is getting to me a bit and I feel a bit overwhelmed by everything that has to be done. But it's good, it's good.

I have made a plan for a new performance (somehow) next Tuesday 6th. I will fly to Basel Mulhouse airport (in France/Switzerland) first thing in the morning, and spend the day there, flying back in the evening. I've booked my flights.

I'm thinking a lot about non-places. I have a memory of seeing small birds flying around in supermarkets and I've been thinking about supermarkets as non-places, passing-through places, and how amazing it was to see a bird (from un-controlable nature, a very place-place) intervening and messing up the system. The airport is another non-place, a passing through place, where no-one engages, where no-one talks, with huge cathedral-like architecture and strange modulated retail units. Even the people who work in non-places seem strange, as if they have to enter this nothing-ness for work - I don't know, there's something about it.

I am working on what I will do when I get there, what I will spend the day doing. I hope to document the trip and make a distinct action in the terminal in the same vein as other work.

Later on this evening loads of people are coming to the Villa after a book-launch at the library. The Villa feels like a non-place - it's meant to feel like home (I think) but it's quite empty, quite pristine. And they use it for events like this one.

Jay - your post was excellent, encouraging, inspiring.

Hamish - really looking forward to seeing you next week - many many saxaphone requests from everyone.

Sean.

Claim that crow

The Plactic crow was mine! (As were the detailed details about the Villa!)

More later

Sean.

Thinking allowed

Hello all,

Ele- thanks for your thorough answering of practical qs :)

It’s been really good to revisit this blog after a few days absence; I’ve been thinking about this whole process of how the four of us are collaborating in terms of space and place. This sifting transfer of knowledge over the net, how I am navigating my thoughts to see what you are experiencing/your ideas through blind sight: only snippets of your directional clues and images, quotes and descriptions; unravelling like a Wim Wendes narrative.
Ele, I can almost hear you swooping down into moments of clarity with your interconnection especially with Hamish- like how you speak of assessing space and editing, then finding your place through the 3d purchase of a Crow.

In the same way, it was good to see physically see Hamish’s work, I interpreted his drawings into the sense of flurry and movement of city scapes without verbal clarification. It was exciting to see how he was dealing with the same questions as I may through my doodles, but his way of seeing ‘four marks’ on paper can mean something else entirely. This is prompting me to think of cultural disparity, in particular, it’s making me think of geographical location in terms of being lost; right and wrong place- arrival and departure. I am thinking about the contrast between outside, movement, constant flux, nomadism, and clarity, inertia, home, belonging- how we function in another culture.

I think this is because of where I am right now. I am drawing directly on my current experience. I am feeling unsettled right now, in terms of; age, personal loss, living at ‘home’ with my folks, somewhere I haven’t considered home for sixteen years, not having a studio at present …I am thinking a lot about where my abode is, where I should move to, why I chose a location, and why I wish to return to a place and also the making process in transition itself (from makeshift studio to making something in this presence/absence collaboration- currently intangible for all of us). It’s been hard concentrating, I am feeling slightly uneasy and unable to gain that inner stillness that has a commanding presence in all those silent snow scenes. There’s a tension, for some reason, David Hockney’s Mr and Mrs Ossie Clark and Percy springs to mind- but I never really liked this piece. I think it’s their direct gaze and our yearning to avert this through looking through the window for reprieve. I have been battling against my sense of unease, but in fact, I think my personal experience can feed quite productively into this project. Personal stories are becoming important to me in terms of trying to find that clear space amongst all the dissonance.

I’ve just read Chinese Liverpudlans by Maria Lin Wong and she talks about many facets that led to the growth and decline of a group of people who came from outside to a different place. For instance; themes of alienation, (ostracization- language barriers, cheaper labour, different customs- food/leisure), attempt to integrate- to establish and make a place home (setting up businesses, community relations, education, interracial marriage, adapting…)
On a general scale, this boils down to the formations of boundaries, territorialisation and arborescent ideology in direct opposition to the nomad in flux - threatening disorder against ‘home’.

“The population of any area in this country has always meant the population actually present within its boundaries…”

In parallel, I am also reading about Munich:

“at the end of the 8th century, the Bavarian tribes..[are] in conflict with the Saxons, who took the Bavarian throne… after the death of Ludwig iV… the youngest Wittelsbachs were given the West and North empire….Karl VII, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was unable to repel troops… Bavaria tried to remain neutral but was unable to protect its possessions in the Plantinate from French occupation.” and so on…

I am questioning why are we still dealing with the same age old problems today (at the very base all the ‘racism’ outcry taken with the delightful Jade)
I am thinking about the exhausting domino rally to protect national identity, itself nomadism into other lands, ironically, this blurs boundaries further. The flight and plight of the individual to another location results in a multicultural melting pot that results in a never ending? search for home. Or perhaps we arrive at not having “a home to which one must return”.

I am not sure how this will translate into art work we’ll see. I would really like to collaborate somehow Edgar’s partying and Tomas’s plasticine and Olivia’s language,

Ok, must stop ranting, wow, it’s late. Wrap up warm, take care,
jx

Hopper

I thought as we've been talking about Hopper I'd search out some images.

I think it's something about the frozen stillness; what is it that makes the characters look frozen instead of looking "captured"- as though the images were photos? They look posed.. When the subject is looking at the painter, that's one way of doing it, but what about the others? The straight backs, the rigidity of how they're standind/sitting? Or is it the light? A bit too bright, everything a bit too angular and "placed"?

I've been trying to tie down my ideas today and starting to feel the time pressure now that we're over halfway through. Sean and I will be exhibiting at Pony Bar in Munich on the 10th Feb, just before we leave. Hamish, you will be able to exhibit something there on the 17th March I think. It's a platform event for an evening, with a week-long exhibition following on.

I feel like I'm re-examining the whole context, content and aesthetic of my work. I like to have rules to use as a starting point and feel like I've come to a point where I'm having to re-discoved my reasons for doing things. I guess I'm trying to look at the foundations of my practice again in order to have a firmer base to build from over the next few years; but in the process I'm feeling a bit shaky! It's confusing to start to question everything, but necessary I think sometimes. I need to identify what has changed.

At the same time, I'm wrestling with the question of whether rules are a good base for my practice anyway? I feel in some ways that I should re-approach each work from a completely free and fresh place... I don't want to impose limits on myself... And yet I feel that boundaries are necessary in order to be able to explore ideas in depth. I guess these two approaches can co-exist withought negating each other, which is where I need to be heading, and the reality (as usual) is in finding a balance- neither black nor white but a working equilibrium.

And so for the next few days I will be wrestling with about a dozen threads I'd like to persue, and trying to clarify in my mind how to bring these elements together and define something work-able.

Again, I'm thinking about windows, theatricality, frozen moments, knitting (weaving), editting, portraits, distancing, truth, birds of paradise...

Hmm. As you said Hamish, I'm thinking and then typing. I hope this makes some sort of sense, it's all a bit jumbled for me today, but I feel like I'm gradually ironing out the tangle.

You also asked where the others are up to.
They all tend to work with their context and particularly in collaborations of various types with groups of people. As the official theme is "migration" they're for the most part meeting migrant groups/individuals for the time being. So everyone's still got time on their hands really as we try to forge on with our accelerated stay.

We had a group meeting on sunday and spent a lot of time talking about the format of the truck and the inclusion of archive boxes (for objects and documentation as well and exhibition artworks).

Do you play anything Jay? Hamish- There have been numerous requests that you bring your saxophone!

Paths and things

Hiya!

Nice to hear about what your thinking about making work about Sean. A plastic crow! cool. Hows that going to fit in, are you going to look at it and think, hmmmm, what can i do with this? anyway. Is their much evidence of making or messing around with things in the villa? I mean, what kind of stage are people at. maybe i don't want to know until i get out there, anyway, just thinking out loud (and then typing it).

At the moment i'm getting excited about how are different working practices are going to come together, or, more to the point, just learning a bit more about how we work. I feel the making and the processes i go through are where my ideas come from, so hearing about how people make their art is cool.

Jay and I had a good chat at the royal standard on friday. We talked about what film means to us and how we go about making work. I've been doing some big 2m square(ish) charcoal drawings. Kind of giant doodles without looking at the big picture or where the piece is going. Instead focusing on each little bit, kind of one after the other. Looking at my footsteps close up, but not the big path i've taken (to get it into a bit of a travel vibe there). If i step back from the piece (and see the whole thing)...well, then i say the picture is finished. It's tyring to eliminate a designery feel from my work..., focus on the moment. when i do step back, it's like, wow, i went there, and this bit here makes sense with this bit over there, and that bit i thought was a bit blunt actually balances this out....so it all come together in the end. or more to the point it's not about it comming together in the end and being right, more it's about looking and observing something that was made through following ones nose. ......theres a bit of studio sketch book ramble for you.

looking at the drawings they talk about music, cities, paths, hills and things relate to each other.

(oh yeah, i watched that film Gerry...wow, pretty full on, lots and lots of long slow shots of the utah desert where these two guys get lost, hardly any dialogue, very open ended. It felt like they got lost for no reason.

take care

h

Panna Cotta oder Harry Potter

The snow keeps falling, the time keep ticking by... We've had a few busy days, a meeting on Wednesday all together in the Villa with the head honchos - just to be welcomed to the project by the city council etc and meet a few of the behind-the-scenes people. There was a great moment when all the organisers had to have an important discussion in German and all the artists went outside and sledded down the (fairly steep) garden on plastic bags - definitely my highlight so far. 48 year old Edgar was brilliant, adopting a luge-style pose and almost ending up in the street beyond the fence...



Yesterday we met Judith and had a meeting at a space where we will have some events together with a project called 'PonyBar' (as in Pony and Bar...). Following the meeting we went out to a Bavarian/Japanese restaurant for Sushi/Weisbeir which was good - if a little low on portion size. El, Thomas and I all had a green-tea panna cotta, and when we came to pay Thomas brilliantly referred to it as 'Harry Potter' to the waitress - brilliant in a Czeck accent (try it!).




It's hard to find good working time - everyone works differently - Edgar made the amazing comment 'for me, every meeting is a party', which Eva looked very concerned about. I've been doing lots of writing and reading, trying to work my ideas back to the bare bones to find out where it could go - I've always had a deep interest in where we are going, in new things, how we will learn and relearn to relate to other people as society moves forwards and grows. The German chancellor has spoken at a global business summit in Davos this week saying globalisation needs to be made more attractive to voters, but being with all these people and talking at length about movement and diversity even in Europe makes globalisation look a lot like an opportunity for economic growth in business but not much like an opportunity to bring people closer together in a dynamic cultural way, or to develop ways of integrating over greater distances.

I found a brilliant life-size plastic crow in a shop today - I think I will go back and get it. I want to make work about migrating animals and nature encroaching and receding around us, historically around people, leading people across early migratory routes and giving settlement and travel one of its first purposes. People also migrate mainly, always, I think, with the hope or knowledge of finding better places (inside and outside?).

Meetings and windows

We are having meetings this afternoon to discuss the project and talk about preliminary ideas. Karin served proper German coffee (with cream) and cake (on a cake stand), everyone's place was laid in the dining room with cup, saucer, spoon, plate, desert fork.. I love it when things are laid out before the people are there, it looks so symmetrical and expectant, but funny without people- perfect rows of little white and silver objects, as if living was that symmetrical.

Hamish I really liked your post. It's funny, I've been thinking about Hopper too- I should investigate and have a look at his work again. I would also like to find out more about Wim Wenders.
I've been thinking about still images and windows. About how lots of elements of life can be woven together in one image, viewed from outside. A lot of the houses here have big open window panes giving onto (now white) lawns. There's something about them that keeps inspiring me, can't quite put my finger on it... I think it could be that framed through such open clean glass, the interiors look like magazine pictures; unreal, staged. But although motionless they are living...

I've also been thinking about portrait photography, and how photographers used to place people as if engaged in daily activities, then ask them to remain motionless for ages to capture the photo. So the end result becomes an image of a staged fixed moment in time.



These ideas seem to resonate really well with your quote:
'People often imagine that, by not going anywhere, my characters are missing out on something, a place to go. In fact, the opposite is true: these characters have the good fortune of not having to go anywhere. I find it liberating.
But less about travel, more about the liberation of representing something, motionless. A moment of clarity...

It also has something to do with editing, taking lots of confusing information and suddenly producing a painfully clear sharp image that somehow expresses an overriding truth that is inherent in all the mess.

Please tell me what you think about this! I feel a bit confused about how this all links up. Also, how do you go from these kinds of thoughts to creating something? I'd appreciate your thoughts...

What is your understanding of 'a moment of clarity'? Have you ever experienced something like that really clearly?

here's how it looks this morning...

and it's still snowing!

crow and snow

It's just started snowing - brilliant. It's dark now so I'm very excited to see how it all looks in the morning!

We had our first proper meeting with Judith and the other artists here at the Villa on Sunday afternoon. It was just going over the basics really, talking about the truck a bit, about the time scale for this part of the project, and about some of the things we might be doing - the performance nights Judith mentioned in Liverpool (10th + 24th Feb) and a possible exhibition space which there will be more info about later. We also had a chat about various people's experience of migration and migrant cultures which was interesting - Thomas is very clued up about the history of the Balkan countries which is fascinating, and Olivia talked about her practical work with Gypsy communities in Arls where she lives. We also had a great conversation about migratory habits of animals and how they have affected peoples' movement across continents - I think any project I develop will have this kind of idea at its heart.

The truck is currently with a technician who is transforming it from a bicycle-carrier-thing and will be here in the driveway soon. It was decided that there will be a meeting every Sunday with Judith to continue conversations about the truck.

Ok - to answer some of Jay's pratical questions: (asked in her comment on post No.1)

- What to bring materials-wise depends on what you want to do! There's basically nothing here - each apartment has a (basic) computer and there is a photocopier we can use, but that's all. There is, however, an amazing art/office/stationary shop in on 5 floors in Munich which is far far better than anything in Liverpool or Manchester - so if you forget anything you should be able to find it.
- There are no editing facilities on the computer - it's a PC with windows and is a bit old - only really good for internet access. There is wireless in the Villa so if you have a laptop I would bring it.
- The Villa is really easy to get to and is about one and a half hours from the airport over two trains - one into the city centre and one back out the other side. The station in the village is very close to the Villa - 10mins walk. To get the train into Munich takes about 35 mins but seems very quick and easy.
- There hasn't been much talk of working collaboratively except in making decisions about the truck. But it's early days...
- There haven't been workshops - all the lessons learned have been self-taught!
- The apartment has two bedrooms which makes life easy for sharing!
- We've been to Munich quite a lot. It's nice and German and we found a MUJI where I bought a much needed new bag. It's nice to read on the train.
- No update with Ian really - he popped in to say goodbye. He is putting a lump of money into my account to cover some production - the amount hasn't been specified exactly - I'll let you know (and give you your share! when I get it).

I bought a book on Amazon from the UK on Friday and it arrived this morning! That's German efficiency for you! It's on an artist called Tue Greenfort who makes work about nature (ish). He's represented by Johann Konig in Berlin - you can see his work here.

Things feel like they're settling down a bit now - people are relaxing and starting to work and it feels good. We're quite aware that time is going very fast - I'm looking forward to making some work!

Yesterday I learnt the difference between crows, jackdaws and rooks.

Things i've been thinking about

Hiya!

Well i've finally got signed up to the blog and now i feel a bit more connected. cool. anyway, theres loads of interesting stuff flying off the blog from your posts, and pictures, wooo, nice. I like the way we are getting snapshots here and there of what the place is like. It's all quite dramatic, tall blowing trees, shots of people round tables and those shots of what i presume is your room. hmmm, they show us the place (a bit) but with no real personal stuff, or only hints, or more that, as we haven't been over there yet, how can we get a feeling from these picutres. I suppose thats where your words come in. anyway, i'm thinking about images at the moment - stuff that has a feeling of this search or movement or travel, looking into a distance. Rooms are part of this, maybe the place where you stop off on whilst traveling. from big outside shots, to small interiors. hmmm. i'm thinking about Hopper now.

and Wim Wenders. His book 'on film' is really ace. Travel and movement is important to him and goes into his work. I found this quite interesting...

'People often imagine that, by not going anywhere, my characters are missing out on something, a place to go. In fact, the opposite is true: these characters have the good fortune of not having to go anywhere. I find it liberating, being able to go on without knowing where. Not to have a home to which one must return - i see that as a positive and attractive situation.'

This comes from shots of his characters looking, or wondering, with a few guitar notes playing, starring off into the horizon. Lots of roads. I'm thinking about roads. and Looking out of the window at things passing by. The distance.

I think this stuff relates to your quote about moving from wrong place to wrong place, or rather, looking at these situations where we have to move as positive things. It's all to do with prespective.

Right i'm going to stop going on. Hopefully this gives you a snapshot of the kind of things i'm thinking about..not sure how it's all going to come together..anyway, thats the fun part.

oh yeah, question...are there computers in the apartment already or will i need to bring my laptop?

right, i'm off to the library, my fingers are cold from typing in the royal standard, its sunny outside and the bike area has been cleared by jim, cool.

take care

h

Architecture

Today I have been learning to use my new camcorder to take still shots. I have also learnt to use the washing machine in the laundry room, which is computerised and much fun. The winds across Germany killed an 18 month old baby in Munich yesterday, by ripping a door off its hinges.

I'm researching blogs, I'm interested in how they narrate life. The writers edit their lives down into first hand text and photo accounts.

This is taken from a blog I've been looking at:

"In the book Intertwining the architect Steven Holl talks about how “architecture can elevate the experience of everyday life” by weaving together form, space and light. In the last few days as I prepare material for an architecture studio I teach, I have been thinking about that word, intertwining. Such a beautiful and complex word - it suggests intangible, changing layers, filled with phenomena.

My perception of this word is what I strive for in my life. Lots of layers meshed together."

http://uniform-studio.com/journal/?p=195


Architecture weaves elements into a location for a life. A blog weaves experience into a compact, edited, well-presented narrative. The houses here have big clear glass window panes through which you can see perfectly framed motionless images of everyday life. A blog or open journal is also like a window, woven.

This is something I'm thinking about.

Storms

We were meant to have our first official meeting today with some of the people who have been organising the project, but it got canceled at the last minute because of massive storms right across Germany - the same ones that have caused chaos at home. We haven't even left the house, and the wind seems to be getting stronger and stronger. It's been really bad very close according to the BBC website.

The whole house is surrounded by massive pine trees that look like they're about to blow over - they're bending really dramatically and all the big crows that nest in the branches are blowing around like leaves... Old houses can be pretty rattly! We've barely seen any of the other people in the house either - we got up this morning very early because someone came to sort out the wifi for all the people with apple computers, and after that everyone disappeared to baton down the hatches I think.




I'm reading 'from Studio to Situation' edited by Clare Doherty, and read in it today a fantastic essay called 'The Wrong Place' by Miwon Kwon. In it she says this:

'The more we travel for work, the more that we are called upon to provide institutions in other parts of the country and world with our presence and services, the more that we give in to the logic of nomadism, one could say, as pressured by a mobilised capitalist economy, the more we are made to feel wanted, needed, validated and relevant. It seems our very sense of self-worth is predicated more and more on our suffering through the inconveniences and psychic destabilisations of ungrounded transience, of not being at home (or not having a home), of always traversing through elsewheres. Whether we enjoy it or not, we are culturally and economically rewarded for enduring the 'wrong' place. It seems we're out of place all too often.'

I found the whole essay really interesting - not because it threw doubt on the positive aspects of being here but because it encouraged a new way of approaching the idea of the residency - because we're encouraged to think about the notion of migration, about moving from wrong place to wrong place. Kwon suggests at the end of her essay that we should strive for a new way of approaching the lack of settledness that our increasingly homogonised and globalised cultures impress on us:

'Yet it is not a matter of choosing sides - between models of nomadism and sedentariness, between space and place, between digital interfaces and the handshake, between the 'wrong' and 'right' places. Rather, we need to be able to think the range of these seeming contradictions and our contradictory desires for them together, at once.'

So I'm thinking about settledness; temporality; birds migrating, as Hamish said. Still thinking a lot about birds.

J + H - looking forward to hearing from you! I sent emails so you can join and post - what do you think?

Chairs!

Tomas arrived today so now we are six and all here. We got to know each other... downstairs!... over a glass of wine amid calls of 'sante' and 'cheese' which was not quite right- so replaced quickly by 'chairs'! The clinking of glasses happens every time anyone refills their glass and is observed by all.

This is the first time we've ventured into the spacious and grand ground floor rooms, apart from a brief escapade made only by Sean and I when we discovered the electric (and very loud) piano. It later became apparent that no-one had heard the racket we made, electric beats etc, as the walls are so thick they seem to be fairly impenetrable by sound. When we arrived it took us almost 2 full days to realise anyone else was here, only to discover we were the last but one to arrive!

Towards the end of the evening Tomas disappeared and when he came back produced a round tin which he ceremoniously placed in the centre of the table and opened to reveal a thick white sticky substance. We all stood back open mouthed, wondering what kind of turn the activity was about to take. (NB. Edgar was demonstrating the use of snuff the other night)
Tomas excitedly exclaimed " You can make some sculptures!"
It's a fancy plasticine from the Czeck Republic.

Grüss Gott!

Off we go...

We're sitting in the studio of appartment E in Villa Waldberta, in a village called Feldafing, on the shore of Lake Starnberg. It's 9.07pm, and we just ate a great steak cooked on our funny electric hob.

It's been a fantastic start to the project - the days are disappearing so quickly! We've spent a bit of time with the other artists - Olivia, from Arls, just outside Marseille; Edgar, a Peruvian from Vienna; and Eva, a performance artist from Greece (via London). The final artist, Tomas from Prague, arrives tomorrow.

Language has been an adventure - Olivia was very pleased to find Eleanor speaks great french as she has little English, Edgar speaks about 10 languages and Eva is pretty multi-ligual too, although no French so her and Olivia kind of wave at each other a lot. I speak GCSE French and German, so I'm getting quite confused, although people seem to like it when I spontaneously shout words I've suddenly remembered.

The house is amazing, absolutely beautiful. J + H, you need to tell us how much you want to know! It will be interesting to see how much we give away and how much you will want to know before you come! It took us over an hour to find the shop on the first morning and it's actually only ten minutes away!

We went for a walk by the lake today and started talking about our work, and yesterday I bought the perfect stapler for making artist's books. We're both thinking about animals a lot. There's an owl in the garden of the house that you can hear at night.

Ask us questions!


S+E