day one in...

Hi all,

So here I am at the Villa, wow!

I arrived early Sunday morning following a non-sleep lofty sat-sun, into the rain of Munich airport and off the Easyjet in the safe knowledge that my hand luggage had fitted the dimension checker cage, phew.

Navigating the s bahn was rapido, it was good to know that once you’ve conquered one tube map not according to scale, Uground London, you can do any number coloured of criss-cross lines. Proud I was when I realised a grade 3 English speaking German couple pointed me in the wrong direction and I was able to hybridize my French into something somewhat foreign than Polish in a bid to make my own decision.

Sunday was a great warm welcome meeting with my fellow residencts. Hamish met me at the station and in my surreal haze it was odd to see him on the platform in Bavaria, when I had only met him a few times in Liverpool. He was a new and old familiar. I was met with borsche? Russian soup from the fantastic Sir Tomas, who is bubbling with ideas, Greek Eva and I enjoy talking about art, life and boys till early hours and Peruvian Edgar has alrady challenged me about various aspects of performance. It’s good to get the old French cogs in motion too with Olivia too, it’s amazing how much can be lost in translation to be made up with noises and mime. Good practice for conversation with Berta, cleaning lady at 8:30am Monday as she swept through my room and I hid under my German covers. The cosmopolitan house could be anywhere but it’s not, it’s here, so I want to decipher what that means.

We had a meeting with Judith, the project has come along and it is almost like I have just been landed into the final stages of an A-team plan where everything is more or less assembled but hopefully is all still open for my input reformulation. It’s a good way to get stuck in. Before I arrived, I thought I would use this time to just start making, but I think that I can’t escape my process= site/viewer, theory, retention, inversion/conversion, production, site/viewer. It works best for me and I would not feel right if I missed out any of those stages.

Is this as systematic as what I have seen of this nation so far?

Everything is extremely efficient ,clean ,tidy. None of this scruff, metro, sorting of litter, lack of street scrap, everything just doing it’s job fantastically.

The photos were deceptive, the Hansel Gretal villa is not how it seemed in the photos, and the lake not how I imagined, distance wise. But this is akin to tourist guide, all the more for me to discover. Once the rain subsides, Iam going to go through those tall graphite trees encapulated by Hamish’s snap and investigate.

Yestersday I went into Munich , looked at x amount of meat and marvelled at the oversized reliefs on architecture here. Today I am in to get batteries and materials, a few ideas concoting already, but needs must read and let brew for a while to get full froth.

Thanks for the playdoh poo left in the corner of my room, it’s great to know that remnants of Shaun and Ele are with me.

Soon x J

prep

hey Hamish, you seem to be having a blast and getting stuck into it in every way- i like the look of coded dot line black marks. deliberating what to pack.... to bring editing or not to bring? Iam definitely taking my video camera but it would be quite nice to remove my arm (laptop+edit) to see if i can use my feet and get back to my blob aesthetic via visceral again.

must forego shampoo and underpants for paintbrush and canvas for fear of plane too heavy.

sean, ele, let's meet friday before i head off to london to catch flight,
jx

Stop start gap continue - photo withoout looking

Scrunched up paper can move quite well

right, here are those fancy dress photos, in the party. We where the only people who made our costumes out of paper and seleotape......Tomas made Judith a Princes Costume out of paper (all from the cuboard in the basement) that she changed into on the night. She had the countries of Europe drawn across the dress and then people started to add things as the night went on. Tomas Filmed a lot of it, so we managed to get some art in there as well!

Lists

Back in Liverpool and haven't blogged for ages!
The last week in Feldafing was great and I spent my time hurrying to get enough shots for a new video as well as showing an old piece of work at Pony Bar (an exhibition platform at Laden gallery in Munich city centre), which was so useful in terms of thinking about how my practice has evolved and getting some feedback, and in furthering my pursuit of new perspective while in Germany.

I am now trying to cling to the new perspective I found amidst numerous lists and plans. There are lots of practical things to be done now we're back and the challenge, as usual, is in the balance.

Maps of a different kind!

Hamish- please post fancy dress pictures! What did you all dress as?
Are you enjoying the space? What was the decision on the bedroom?

Jay- can we meet up before you go?

Drawing Thoughts

Hiya

Right, I've got some ideas, after making pancakes, which actually came out rather well. The first one was a bit more of 'batter fritter' but then they got better...with ice cream...and nuttela...yes. Anyway, i'm moving away from art a bit there. Had a good chat about ideas and things for the project with Ava. thinking about how my drawings can be work in the truck environment......thinking about maps, and unfolding things. UNfolding drawings. getting people to look at the work in a different way...give them a nudge to think about the drawings in a slightly different context.....just a nudge....i'm not going to suddenly start making map-o-centric drawings for the sake of it.....its more to do with the presentation mode.........it even starts to move into a bit of performacey stuff.....the idea of documenting/recording the steps i go through to make these drawings is also on my mind.......

today i did a charcoal drawing on 8 pieces of paper stuck together, in the studio (good walls) and heater).....i didn't look at it until it was finished...but took photos of it before i could see the end thing......it's a pretty chaotic drawing.........lots and lots of lines.......with forms and shapes appearing......but lines everywhere.....they seem to be the first thing i draw....before blobs...................like i'm charting (not mapping...aaargh!) out the territory, feeling the space, opr something.........anyway, for the next one i want to see if i can do it with out using lines.....

it's to do with lines being lines and when you come to make a form or a shape, well, it gets me thinking, what do i want this shape/form to be.....and at the moment i'm not so sure (i'm not worried though)........so lines (where you don't have to think so much about what THIS LINE is) are a way in, and happen, the blobs and shapes come after.......well so far they do.......thats what i want to see about tomorow.....blobs first...........then lines.......hmmmmmmmmm, maybe if the blobs become marks, and not actual defined shapes/forms............well they will be, but what if there root is a mark.....or an action.......right.

The drawing i did today was the biggest i've done so far...........i feel the large amount of lines present are indicitive (hmm( of this......it was really big, so i was stretching all over the place to (fill it?).........maybe i didn't know what i wanted to say within in the space....so i was drawing out to the edge..........anyway, when i looked at it at the end (i had an hours break drawing the trees and the long shadows in the garden/grounds)............i felt that the lines where the things that brought it all together and connected the different parts.........the parts being the big forms or arrangement of bits......and that these forms where still quite seperate from each other...so for next time i plan to make bigger forms that use the space more..........and on better paper.....this was all slimey.........and waxy...........i got it from the basement...in the big green cupboard. we also made fancy dress costumes from it..............its got a grid on the other side (drawing on a grid. hmmmmmmm).................right, anyway, tomorow........experiment with folding map idea...do more drawings....in studio space......not in kitchen area....need studio space...........drawing on small pieces of paper....as long as i'm in big studio space may work better......drawing at a desk..........doesn't do it for me.

ok.

There we go,

quite a dense one that one. a little trigger happy on the old full stop button.

HOpe everyones well,

chat soon

h

Walking, Looking. Drawing, Sticking

Hello,

Well, this week has been interesting. trying to carve out some kind of routine has been on my mind. With the villa not being very studio like in appearence (you know white walls and things, messy sinks and stuff) it has been hard, or trickey, to get my head round making and doing. I#ve spent a fair old chunk of the time thinking about what i want to do, or happen, instead of actually doing it. It's not such a bad thing, but i feel more comfortable when i've got stuff happening around me in terms of things i've made. Something to engage with, maybe in a more direct way, where you can make intuitive moves instead of planned ones. I suppose it's to do with responding to things. In the villa itself there is not that much to respond to....except the other artists! wahey, yep, there it is. Anyway

Doing and Making....hmmmm. They are wrapped up for me.

Doing something...well, i had a great day in Munich on tuesday visiting galleries and wandering about the city. I went to a great gallery called the Lenbachaus Stadtschie Gallery which was full of paitnings by Kandinsky, Klee, Franz Marc and Franz Ackerman and Gerhard Richter. As i was looking at the Ackerman paintings (massive, in your face, not much space to breath, everything painted in the same way) i concentrated hard to just look at them, and not think about anything. I could do it, but i had to stop myself if i thought about anything else. I wanted to focus on the act of looking at the work, otherwise the paintings would overload me too much and i felt i wasn't taking them in.

After looking at the paintings i had a great apple cake and coffee in the cafe, right up until closing time. I thought there is something nice about being in a public building at closing time. it's a bit quieter and you get to notice whos there as you collect your jacket from the Cloakroom. If you have time to think about it. I don't know, but i was in a good mood. Being in new surroundings allowes my mind to wander freely, well in the city at least. It's about getting your head in place where it can take on new stuff and look for new connections.

Wandering round the city taking things in - doing

Drawing and colouring bits in and sticking paper together - Making.

I am trying to bring the action of doing, the free way i moved around the city - into my work.

Bye for now

hamish

Next things second

Greetings all,

Welcome home Sean and Ele, looking forward to meeting up in 3d soon, do I carry on blogging you I wonder? I was told I walked past your house earlier plus I have your number, but it's late + Good connection online. I'll call tomorrow :)

Hamish! Wow, amplified tree roots, howling and electroid organisms ahoy, jamming sounds art deelish and hope I get to join in somehow when I get there. Will bring avocado.
I am glad you are relishing the opportunity to get stuck in and expereience all, I was thinking about it-if sometimes you investigate an idea/location too much if it can negate the motive to act/do. The world with internet shrinking and growing. I think you can risk any process overruling the thing itself. Art for art's sake then? No, but definitely not toast dry either.

ok, yesterday was interesting for me, was the Liverpool Biennial Independents meeting, got me thinking again about what I am intertested in and why- can't wait to get making and to see how Munich shapes my direction.

tell me more as you go

xxx

first things first

Hello everybody

Hi Jay!

I hope your well and sorry i haven't got on the blog sooner, i've just been having a bit of difficulty hooking my laptop up to the net. I'm now on one of the pc's that come with the apartment and it's all in german which is fun.
anyway, yep, the saxophone made the journey! all wrapped up with heavy duty parcel tape/bubble-wrap combo, it went in the hold in the end as a fragile item. anyway, its good to have it out here. We had a big house jam last night after a dinner, with tomas playing his amplified tree root instrument and a guitar and sax and people howling and electric organs and glasses filled with water (quite loud amongst everything else). It was a big old mess of people messing around with sounds and things. good fun.

Sean and Eleanor left at lunchtime today and now i'm the only Liverpool person here. It imiediatly felt different when they left, and i went back into with the other artists to the house. It's them and me now. It's a good feeling. i can get to know these people on my own, it's exciting.

The main thing that has been going round my head since i arrived is how the place has met with my expectations. I mean, since i arrived i've been taking everything in as it comes - here's a new train station, here's what the outside of the villa looks like, this is that bit we've been talking about, and on and on. Well, it's funny becuase thats kind of seperate from the images (on the blog) i was taking in back in Liverpool. They still retain their mystery, even though i can now look at them and then go and look at where they taken. Hmmmm.

The blog kind of drip feeds you images of what's going on here, creating faint hints of what it's like, but nothing concrete in a sense. Well, maybe all images used in this way aren't concrete. You can never get the full picture. and i can see that now.

This is a classic thing about travel and going on holiday. Whenever i've been about to go somewhere i've had an image of what it's going to be like in my head. But then that soon goes (as you're on holiday) and you don't have anything to really look back on and go 'thats what i thought it was going to be like'......but now with the blog you can look back at those trigger images. I can still imagine what i thought it was going to look like and those images fit in with that, but not necessarily with what i see now.

anyway, thats enough of that. It's fun and exciting out here.

Home

So, we leave in a couple of hours...

Hamish has settled in well, learnt the lingo, made party, drunk some absinth, it seems like our cross-over work is done. The time has gone so fast but it's been very valuable and productive, and we've also made some great new friends which always seems like the most valuable thing.

We had a brilliant time at the PonyBar event on Saturday evening. Hamish showed some beautiful drawings he'd made the day before, Eleanor showed an older piece of work on VHS called 'untitled (sugar)', and I did a fairly lively presentation of my work which got a couple of laughs! It all seemed to go down very well.






There is a bit too much to write about in terms of a summing up, so I think I will leave that until we are home and have space to reflect. But something brief:

Things we did do:

1. Ate a traditional Bavarian breakfast - peeling the skins of sausages and drinking beer before midday is awesome
2. played the finest 70's electric sythesiser you have ever seen.
3. Eaten cake in a supermarket carpark because it took over an hour to find it despite it being 8 mins walk away.
4. Worked, rested and played in the deepest snow I've ever seen.
5. Sat down to pee for a month (it's the rule).



Things for next time:

1. The clockwork figures in Marienplatz.
2. The monastic brewery across the lake.
3. Postcards.
4. Replacing the plastic crow which I ended up selling for €15 to (apparently) the most important arts journalist in Munich.
5. Fishing.

Haha - now that's culture.

So, for me it's very important, to realise we're all in the same boot.

Cheese! Chairs! Smazi!

to fro

happy arrival Hamish, did the sax stay in London or greet you at Munich airport>? :)

Sean, Eleanor, just wondering how you guys are planning to spend your last days at the Villa/in Munich? See you soon!
hope everyone is well, snow in the north west but not quite enough for dinner trays...
jx

Basel

Hi,


Yesterday I went from Munich to Basel Airport on a bit of a research trip into what could be called non-places. It was a long day - I left Feldfing village at 5.48am and got back at 11pm - I spent 10 hours altogether at the airport, not going anywhere. It was a really strange place, so quiet and empty, at times it seemed like I was the only passenger. It was depressing and inspiring at the same time - the huge expanses of space, rows upon rows of black leather seats, corridors that seemed to go on forever. Marc Auge, who I think coined the term 'non-place', suggests that these places seem transient in part because they have no memory, or they inspire no memory in us. So perhaps home means memory, history.

No performance developed, but 've brought a lot of ideas and plans home.

Hamish arrives today, which I'm really excited about - It will be a few days of madness before we leave! Tomas had to go back to Prague this week for some work, and it's proven that he is the Dad of the group - he does a lot of cooking and yells up the stairs for people to come and eat, and wthout him we haven't seen quite as much of eachother. El and I are trying to work out ways to remedy that though!

I don't really want to go home, although in lots of ways I can't wait.

I ordered two more books from Amazon which I'm looking forward to. The lack of performance yesterday does make what I will show at PonyBar on Saturday interesting. I need to work something up.


Sean

Thanks for that, I'll look into it. Hopefully bringing my saxophone with me, got eveything else sorted. The introduction and invite e-mail came through today from the villa. Looks pretty comprehensive. Hopeful speak before i leave tomorow. (I'm going down to london tomorow, staying the night there, and going to stanstead on wednesday)

c ya

h

Plug

Quick message for Hamish,

We're using normal adaptors for power here but I think it's not great for laptops- might be worth investigating. Maybe you would do better to try to get hold of some kind of adaptor which will convert the voltage too?

More later on.

miouch

oh, i can't play anything but I can sing like kitten being washed. I'll bring soap.
xxx

Sean Sean no be forlorn

Hi Sean,

You have fully reclaimed winged creatures and listings, all good stuff. I just went ahead and invested in some IT so I’ll await Ian’s comments and bite the bullet later. (internet shopping is too E-sy.)

Sorry to hear you are feeling it a little, movement is tiring and so is thinking. All combination of factors can lead to much culture and then inertia. The way you are talking about non-place is interesting to me- I remember reading a book about The Bigness of Nothingness (will try and dig out of garage). I recall when I went to The Bund in Shanghai, 25 years after my first visit. The architecture made me feel like I could have been in any city in Europe, it was almost a non-place akin to the felling you get encountering expanses of spaces +metallic sheen- airports, or even the patch of grass outside Urbis and along the river near Tate modern. People become specs coming and going.

Re the production front…I have been worried about my own arrival as last stage and where everyone one will be etc, will it be a case of pack up and go home just as I arrive fresh, what stage of making?? But, hey, there are four - approaches, media channels, head direction and production=us together construct. No need to worry head grasshopper re oncoming deadline-self defeating, can polyfiller and extend each others puzzley bits + pressures. note to self too.

For you:
http://icwdm.org/handbook/birds/birdAirport.asp
http://birding.about.com/library/weekly/aa032898.htm

I went to an engaging talk at FACT on internet art projects. It was useful and encouraging because it addressed a lot of the ideas I mentioned in my last blog, particularly in terms of how we are working in context of our geographical separation. The talk involved about 15 participants of all ages and focussed primarily on Liverpool’s Chinese community and also a project interlinking Shanghai and Liverpool via the internet. I am thinking:

• How can you facilitate communication between groups without aeroplanes/physical displacement
• ‘Cognitive mapping’ exercise- I am building up pieces and parts of your setting in Munich, the people, your thoughts etc through your signs and pointers. How can we understand another history and culture through a city’s architecture/social/industry infrastructure
• When we encounter another culture/location, it makes you question the place you have left more
  
  I am going to the library to get a copy of “ The empire made me” which I think may help extend this discussion. If you don’t get a myspace instant response, please don’t think I’ve fallen down a hole and am not keeping up with how you guys are progressing- just head room brrmm brmmm.
  
  Good news about the Pony Bar, possible any scope for me to take part?
  
  jx