ARTISTS TALKING

# 21 [11 May 2008]

Happy Days! BaseNorth is going on an Arts Council funded Research and Development trip to Berlin! After many anxious days and weeks of waiting we finally found out that our efforts had not been in vain. We will be heading off on June 1^st and returning to the UK on the 10^th of June. Our aim will be to network, make contacts with arts professional in Berlin and to conduct research on our personal areas of interest in the city.  This will be used to inspire new work that will then be presented to our peers back in the North East.

 We have also set up an account at Wooloo.org an artists-run organization based in Berlin. The purpose of Wooloo is to foster new and relevant opportunities for emerging artists. We are hoping to take part in New Life Berlin which will take place between the 1^st and 15^th of June in Berlin. We have also applied to Sandwich box another Wooloo project, which will be organised on our return to the North East.

# 20 [21 April 2008]

Anna Puhakka    

I have been working in sound primarily the past month or so. I have also started doing some technical training at Isis Arts for sound, which has sparked off many new ideas. During this time I have also begun constructing drawings from old and broken headphones that I have been collecting. They are very simple but I find this new material is making me love drawing again. With these drawings I am aiming to come up with a composition for a light piece I would like to use these headphones for.

# 19 [13 April 2008]

I have been setting up a project page on the wooloo/berlin website which will then allow us to apply for other projects. There is one really interesting project were you apply to get a suitcase sent to you which contains a tent, its then up to you what you do with it. I would love to put the tent up in the bridges and photograph it. I am also working on another project taking 35mm photographs of suburbia and looking at some older photographs I took a few years ago. I have uploaded a pic I love how I can see all these little interventions all around me.

# 18 [26 March 2008]

The last month has for BaseNorth been all about writing applications and now finally on Tuesday our efforts have paid off. Well not yet been PAID but the application has been submitted. We have also been working on individual projects and at the same time refining skill through several workshops. We even did a short course in German and are now able to say “Ein bier bitte”(one beer please) and also “Ich bin kunstlerin”(I am an artist). Exciting stuff, and will certainly be of use when we reach Berlin. That is if the money comes through, here’s hoping.

# 17 [24 February 2008]

’On Screen In Street’ where our Sexing up the Whiteboard was shown has come and gone. Due to change in dates we were unfortunately unprepared to advertise it on our blog. Sorry to all of you who had been waiting for it. The Event went well even if the arctic winds were not for the light hearted. BaseNorth have been busy writing off the application to the arts council and we are hoping to get it finished in the next few weeks to be sent off.

# 16 [23 January 2008]

Our film, Sexing up the whiteboard will be shown at the end of the month in the exhibition On Screen In Street in Sunniside, Sunderland. Films will be projected from inside shops onto the shop window fronts. We are really excited about this as we were looking at empty shop spaces last year to exhibit in, so seems fitting for the work to be placed on a window front. We will publish the exact dates and times as soon as we know on our blog. All of us have been researching towards our Berlin trip; we would like to make another film together but in a totally different location. Berlin seems the perfect contrast to Sunderland the German city has also undergone massive regeneration of social/political/artistic kind. We aim to get our proposal for further funding done in the next few weeks and hope to get to Berlin April/May time

# 15 [25 December 2007]

The holiday season is upon us, yet the work is never done for an artist. Last week BaseNorth started writing our funding application to the arts council. We are hoping to get enough money to finance a research and work trip to Berlin. We are busy researching possible places to work and live and also contacts that we may wish to make while there. We have given ourselves until the end January to finish up our application.  If all goes to plan we should be heading off to Berlin this spring for about three weeks.

# 14 [15 December 2007]

A few weeks ago we were asked to make a short film relating to the sunniside area in some way for a film project. It was all quite last minute meaning we didn't have long to plan exactly what we wanted to do. However as we have been working in the area and making work relating to regeneration we felt we could bring together out thoughts and ideas to produce something relevant. This also presented us with the challenge / opportunity to work collaboratively something which is quite new to all of us. After an initial discussion of ideas for the film we set a day a side to buy some materials, film and see what the result was. We decided from out initial discussion to primarily use text as we all use text in our own work in some way and we felt it was a quick direct way of communication.

On the day of filming we each brought with us words and phrases to use. We decided on a small white board each which we could write on the wipe off quickly which we wrote on and held up to the camera. We also wanted to make something which was spontaneous so for the first go at filming we didn't know what each other was writing. The words and phrase created their own narrative and worked very well together in an energetic way. We did try another second version in which we planned out the text resulting in a methodical feel which was quite dull. So the first film was chosen and named sexing up the whiteboard.

As we have struggled for many months to find a venue for out exhibition we now feel that this work will fulfil the part of the project we intended to complete in Sunderland. We are all ready to move on to the second part of the project in another city in the U.K or abroad.

# 13 [13 November 2007]

BaseNorth have been looking around the Sunniside area for alternative sites for our exhibition. There are many empty offices and shops up for sale, which we are going to contact to find out whether we can rent one of these spaces temporarily. We have to consider that we may not get a space or the rent may be too expensive, if so how do we work around this? We still haven’t heard back about the MA art space on the corner of Talbot Street, this has inspired us to think of different ways to show our work. What if we produced a printed artwork? We could make a temporary installation outside that only existed for a day. Even though it has been frustrating not being able to show our work it only makes us more determined and creative. Going through this process has also solidified our ideas as a group and we are working much more collaboratively. Last week BaseNorth got the opportunity to meet, Mike Clasper and his wife who are the sponsors of the Douglas Clasper Award. It was great to meet them and we felt that they really believed in our ideas and supported our vision for the exhibition project.

# 12 [6 November 2007]

So now we are without a space to use for our exhibition; for future presentation we need to find somewhere before we can do much else which is very frustrating . As the work we made for the exhibition we intended to be at the rednile space was engaged with the site and context of the space and area, the work will obviously change to some extent with a change of location. However it is important to us to keep the location within the Sunnyside area of Sunderland. We have looked at another space in the area which is at the other end of the regeneration cycle, newly regenerated office space waiting for businesses to take up residency, very possibly what the rednile space may become.

Anna Puhakka

My work in the past couple of weeks has begun to take a turn. The old feeling that what I was making was not quite right returned, this leading to a time of reflecting and re-thinking what I am doing. After university with less time on my hands I find reflecting on work a much more strenuous process then before.

I've spent much time looking at old silent movies over the past few weeks and have found myself very inspired. I have written a loose script for one of my own and will start filming later this week. I am filming on a DV-cam because I like the slightly pixelated quality. Lets just hope my editing skills are up to scratch.

Nicola Smith

Knowing that we are not exhibiting at the Rednile space has made me re-consider the work I planned to make. We have been looking at a new space on the corner of Talbot Street, which is a very large space with high ceilings; it is intended to be let out as office space. I still feel that I would like to work with text but on a much larger scale, I keep thinking of the slogan, COMING SOON used on movie posters, seems fitting for this space which still hasn't been rented out by any business. The empty dead office space reminds me of the famous Klein piece, The Void. I find it funny how The Void has filtered down into an office space with its white walls and blue carpets. This has inspired a new text piece; I have been experimenting with writing the name Klein in blue electrical tape. I am enjoying how I can move theindividual letters around in a space.

Sarah Stamp

At first I was not at all inspired by the other space we have looked at, but with more consideration I feel the aspects which I disliked are actually quite interesting. For example the empty deadness of the unused office space and the large size offers me an opportunity to make new work which is more spontaneous than the speech I have recorded which was quite a lengthy process. Over the past few weeks I have become very interested in ceefax and its imminent demise, it now looks so old when compared with other technology. This regeneration of technology has many similarities to the regeneration occurring in cities.