ARTISTS TALKING

# 21 [4 July 2007]

English Speaking Artists in Berlin:

A couple of days spent having fun with blog sites and email lists yields:

English Speaking Artists in Berlin - blog spot and egroup.

The Blog spot:

http://englishspeakingartistsinberlin.blogspot.com/ 

The posts on my a-n blog entitled Postcards from Berlin have now migrated to this blog spot. I intend to build it up into an online resource, a 'guidebook' for artists researching, visiting and considering relocating to Berlin.

I am inviting collaborators for this venture (well Berlin is huugee! I con't do it all by myself!) who I hope to meet through the yahoo e-group also of the same name.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/englishspeakingartistsinberlin/

Community resource building seems to be an inherent part of my practice. I sometimes wonder if I am just distracting myself from the 'real stuff' of making art with this activity. But then again if I decide to stay on here in Berlin I am sure these resources will help me in that quest. And if I leave, then hopefully they will be a beneficial legacy of my stay here.

# 20 [27 June 2007]

Stasi Curtains:

For the last 2 weeks I have been struggling with an essay I have been trying to write about curtains that I photographed at the Stasi Museum.

Here are the pictures themselves, as a sneak preview and to make me finish my essay...

# 19 [27 June 2007]

Postcard from Berlin 6:

Two Very Different Artist Suppliers and a Tasty Meal:

Yesterday I went looking for materials. I visited Kunst Stoffe, a warehouse offering recycled material, workshops for hire (wood and textiles) and operating community based events.

http://www.kunst-stoffe-berlin.de/

The materials warehouse is open on Fridays only, and houses a huge stock of fabric, wood, paint, paper, and other odds and ends. Kunst Stoffe is easily reached from the Pankow S-Bahn stop.

I heard about Kunst Stoffe through a talk at the Berliner Kulturafel, given by artist Corina Vosse who runs the Warehouse.

http://www.berliner-kulturtafel.de/

The Kulturafel talks are delivered by artists and are mainly aimed at the community of Lichtenberg, home to the Stadthaus Museum where the talks are held (the location also of my residency).

The events include a very tasty and cheap meal prepared in the Museums 'social kitchen', and are arranged by photographer Michael Harms. During the evening we had an interesting conversation about Germany's policy of '1 euro' jobs (i.e. the rate of pay):

These are a government initiative for people who have been unmeployed for over a year: they are intended to be supplementary community work and not to take the place of proper paid employment. In practice though, many jobs that artists might take (i.e. community workshops, museum invigilation etc) are actually now filled with these 1 euro posts impacting upon common sources of artists income...

You can see Michael Harms photographic work at

http://www.kunst-raum.de/

Next I went to Boesners

http://web-01.boesner.dus.de.serverscope.net/

a large traditional art material suppliers on Marienburger Str 16, selling everything from large stretchers, to frames, clay, rock, paint, paper etc. The nearest S-Bahn stops (either Prenzlauer or Greifswalder on the ring) are a bit of a hike away so either take a trolley for all your goodies or a tram stop might get you nearer.

# 18 [23 June 2007]

Postcard from Berlin 5:

Kunstlerhaus Bethanien:

Kunstlerhaus Bethanien is a gallery and studios set in a stunning former hospital building and park in Marianplatz, near the Ubahn stop Kottbusser Tor.

As well as providing 25 studio spaces, accommodation and gallery space, the organization also undertakes an impressive range of activity including residencies, cultural project workshops, publishing, media labs and artists advisory services.

The residency programme can only be applied to through partner organizations, which can be found on the website below. Unfortunately at present it has no UK based partners - somebody fill that gap!

http://www.bethanien.de/en/

The gallery is located in Kreuzberg, a largely Turkish area: with more than half of all Berlin's buildings damaged or destroyed during WW2, Kreuzberg is home to a considerable pocket of pre-war architecture, it is worth a stroll to soak up both the contemporary and historical here.

# 17 [19 June 2007]

Postcard from Berlin 4:

Weekly meetings for English Speaking Artists in Berlin.

Last night I went to a park in Schonhauser Allee in the north of the city, looking for a group of 'English Speaking Artists'. I found them in a nearby bar - The Bird - which had been selected as a 'bad weather' contingency meeting place.

The meetings are advertised on Craig's list

http://berlin.craigslist.org/ats/332621611.html

It is run by Paul Tilyard (web link below), an artist from Tasmania who has spent nearly a year living/working in Berlin. He described to me during the evening how he came to Berlin to meet more artists - the arts scene being somewhat smaller in his hometown - only to find himself isolated and working alone in his studio.

Resolving to do something about it, he advertised a weekly meeting point for English Speaking Artists on the Craig’s List site. After two months with some "disappointing" small meetings (1 to 4 people), a critical mass was reached and the events really took off. On the night I visited there was a healthy mix of 15 - 20 frequent attendees, people (like myself) new and people passing through.

There were a variety of 'stories' from short stay visitors, local German artists to long-term ex-pats. It was interesting to hear about the range of tactics artists use to support themselves in the City, including private English tuition, cooking and literature lessons. If I decide to stay on in Berlin beyond my residency, these meetings would provide the kind of network needed to help locate studios and find work.

The evening had a pleasant, informal and sociable atmosphere - the group was 'non-cliquey' and I was made to feel welcome.

In many ways the initial motivation for the meetings is quite similar to those that prompted me to start the network newcastleGRAFT in the NE. I was impressed by Paul’s determination - not giving up in the winter months, when few people were attending.

I was left inspired by the brilliant usefulness of such a simple resource funded only by generosity and perseverance.

http://www.paultilyard.com/

# 16 [14 June 2007]

“The Shadow that trots behind us is definitely four footed…”

I went away for a couple of weeks recently (hence the quiet time on my blog). As I was leaving my apartment at 4am to catch the S Bahn to the airport, I realised I had forgotten to empty my rubbish. Making a quick journey + flight departure time assessment, I realised that I could not pause to find a torch and take it down and out into the backyard so – I shut the door and left.

Upon my return, a noon-twilight in my very hot and well sealed flat was cast by a dark net curtain of flies humming expectantly beneath drawn blinds (many lay gasping on the floor, whether through heatstroke or simply a natural closure to their life cycle I do not know) - a trail of small droppings laced around bloated belly rubbish bags.

One hour and much pine green liquid making improbable claims to shininess later, order was restored; though for the next two mornings, a hopeful trail of pooh has stretched across not as sparkly as promised expanses to the place where the rubbish bags used to squat.

The whole episode made me think of the theme of my work, how the wild(erness) is so close beneath our feet: in concrete gullies and utility channels behind white walls, waiting for the ripe aroma that says order has collapsed and is decaying.

I have brought a ‘capture not kill’ trap in the hope of becoming acquainted with my little visitor; it sits primed in my kitchen with a cartoon like lump of yellow cheese complete with holes. I imagine my visitor to be a mouse: it will be my friend and I may even build a special sculpture to keep it entertained. It brings to mind my favourite literary mouse in Froth on the Daydream (Boris Vian): gamely scrubbing paws down to fragile lace like knuckles in a noble but ultimately futile attempt to polish dimming tiles in a sick and decaying household.

I hope that my mouse, if I ever get to meet him, will be a much happier one. But then again I have wondered whilst looking at the evidence of my night time visitors, does anyone know, do cockroaches pooh…?

# 15 [23 May 2007]

More Gathering:

My language course finished last week.

I am now gathering momentum in my studio, beginning with buying and setting up necessary equipment (printer, scanner etc) - punctuated by trips around pound shops purchasing the 'stuff' that always seems to accompany my investigations as an artist.

I have brought home postcards, plastic flowers, cushions and several metres of lino with horses on - ostensibly to be used as a floor covering for a 'messy space', but really because the horses seemed to say something about my enquiry, though I am not sure what yet.

I notice how residencies commence this way, with an instinctive gathering together of a great mass of images, information, snippets of conversation, text, sensations, hunches and imaginings. All act as way markers to the work yet to be made, to the destination as yet unseen.

The sun has come out again too, last weekend I went out to Gruneweld, a very large woodland and lakes in the west of Berlin. There was some really interesting signage showing what animals are in the forest - majestic owls swooping across indigo skies, poised pensively against half moon backdrop, tenderly feeding their young - all adding to the strange wilderness/theme park feel of the place.

Whilst sunbathing there I saw a young girl walking her pet rabbit, and a panicked duck crashed into my knees attempting take off.

The woodlands and lakes within Berlin are astonishing for their scale and proximity to the centre - they warrant further exploration.

# 14 [17 May 2007]

Dream Diary 2, Blue Heron:

I am overwhelmed by the arrival of a Blue Heron; its presence is majestic, awesome. This is one of those rare moments in dreams where I become suddenly sentient, aware that I am dreaming and of what I am dreaming.

I leave this conscious space and dream next that I am the keeper of a Jail. I have granted a pardon to two men and am releasing them from their cells. One is old, the other much younger - they both have the appearance of having lived life on the street.

As they are walking away, I have the sudden realisation that a potentially fatal theft has taken place. Instinctively I run to the older man and tear at his trouser leg. Attached to his calf (and bound in a most cruel and distressing way) is the blue heron.

At first I fear it is dead, but then it opens it's eye to look at me - I easily release it with a sense of relief that I spotted and averted this 'death' in the making.

# 13 [17 May 2007]

Dream Diary 1, The Cobra:

I am faced by a cobra. It is exquisitely beautiful.

It attacks my face, biting me again and again, aiming in particular for my cheeks. I raise my hands and squint my eyes to defend myself. Yet somewhere deep in my consciousness I am aware that the bites whilst 'poisonous' - are actually healing and not hurting me.

Even at the ripe young age of 35 I am still prone to blush. Whilst this tendency does not visit me so often as it did in my youth, it still does. I am more able now though to welcome a blush with curiosity and the knowledge that this quality can also be rather attractive.

I awoke with the feeling that the apparently violent content of this dream was in fact deeply healing, rather like a combination of acupuncture and small doses of poison used to stimulate immunity.

# 12 [17 May 2007]

Dream Diary, Introduction.

It has to be said that I have a most extraordinarily vivid dream life. I have always kept track of this in handwritten journals and began recently to type some of these up. In doing so I noticed a 'conversation' emerging between my artwork and my dreams.

At the risk of exposing myself (and it does feel risky, they speak of my interior life, their content is often sexual, they bring to the surface things that I have not yet understood about myself) I am going to track some of them here in my blog.

I admit to feeling conscious of, and vulnerable to - YOU - the reader, and how YOU (yes you) may interpret them. However, I am rapidly learning in my life that it is those things that remain in the shadows of our consciousness that exert the greatest (and sometimes the most destructive) influence over us.

Art and writing offers the opportunity to bring these things to light and to create something of value along the way.

In that one sentence I have of course opened a whole can of worms about art as 'therapy', the 'value' of art and where this resides (if it can be said to reside anywhere at all). These questions deserve some attention, but for now, all I wanted to say is "here are a few things I have been dreaming about recently".

(I will update these posts with images as and when they come to me).