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