ARTISTS TALKING

# 59 [25 March 2008]

I got the residency I applied for! 

Three weeks in the art department of a renowned public school about 12 miles away (unlike the pupils I won't be 'living in') followed by a solo exhibition in the school's gallery, 'The Nicholson Gallery'.

I visited the department today, and it's a real art department, messy and  smelling of oil paint. Daunting but I'm up for it, definitely. And won't the mentors be pleased! I've said I'd like to spend time experimenting with printmaking using ideas and imagery generated by my Festial project, and specifically the twelve issues (if all goes to plan) of Kalender. 

The students' work around the place was truly impressive, but based mainly around traditional painting and drawing. Before I left, having been offered the post, I felt I needed to confirm with the Head of Art that it was OK that painting and drawing are hardly strengths of mine. It's ideas that I get excited by. Luckily, he reassured me that it would be counterproductive if the artist in residence was just like the other art staff there.

So that's all right, then. 

# 58 [20 March 2008]

Two unrelated developments: Firstly, last week I went to Cambridge for a meeting with my case officer at the Arts Council, and afterwards had a brief catching-up session with my mentor Jo, who happened to be due at the Arts Council offices for a meeting herself.

The meeting went really well and I came away with more ambitious plans for 'work arising' from Festial than I went in with! It was good to see Jo, too, who has strongly encouraged me to put all my strength(!) into contacting galleries and persuading them that they really need to show my work after the end of the residency year.

Hmm, well, I've put together a rough proposal and have been contacting people like mad in the last few days so we'll see whether it leads anywhere...

The second development has been some feedback from two of the newest recipients  of my Kalender mailout, the esoteric writer/researcher Nigel Pennick and historian/expert in paganism and folklore of the British Isles Ronald Hutton. They both responded positively and seemed delighted with their free gifts! A boost at this stage of the project and much appreciated.

Meanwhile, I'm researching Palm Sunday for the next festival and wondering how cold and damp St Andrew's is at the moment ....

And I'm thinking about Anselm Kiefer's Palm Sunday installation at White Cube a year ago. 

# 57 [4 March 2008]

A few random thoughts, subtitled 'areas of discussion over the lunchtime washing-up'.

I have moments of worry over Festial. Over the things I'm interested in. Even wondering how interested I actually am in the things I say I'm interested in.

In particular, in worrying over Festial I wonder whether I'm coming across as someone with a religious agenda (I'm not), and how relevant to contemporary life my preoccupations are. I mean, I can counter any accusations of this nature with the assertion that I'm living here in this moment with these thoughts and images running around in my head and as a contemporary artist I can choose to use anything as subject matter and it will, without any further need for justification, be contemporary art.

I think I believe this.

But the next moment I'm wondering  whether photographs of Starbucks frontages projected onto the walls of St Andrew's would say 'contemporary' more persuasively than anything I'm minded to do. How far can I say 'But I'm not that kind of artist?' Is it limiting to decide what kind of artist you are without trying things you wouldn't have imagined as part of your practice? Is it possible to have conviction in this area, and to do stuff within your self-defined limitations and use those limitations creatively? I think I'm sure about something, but then I wonder how I can be so sure that I'm right. I might just be being blinkered.

I  think this would all be easier to fathom if I'd received more critical feedback during the project. Without that you have to be your own critic, which inevitably has its own limitations. Trevor and I talk about Festial and he comes up with some very useful input, but of course we're both quite close to it. I know that I'm happy with some of the imagery that's emerged so far, so does it matter whether it satisfies my peers as relevant or worthy of review?

Meanwhile, I posted out 32 copies of the Candlemas Kalender this morning. 

www.world-tree.co.uk/festial

imogenashwin[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk 

# 56 [28 February 2008]

After getting into a bit of a routine - panic about what to do for festival/festival happens/panic about what to put into Kalender/Kalender happens and feels OK after all/panic about what to do for festival ... well, you're getting the picture - I thought I'd better make some effort towards sorting out the bigger picture. Like, what happens when the year ends?

So, I've managed to arrange to meet my Arts Council case officer and will also hopefully get the chance to catch up with my long-lost mentor, Jo. As an aside, yesterday I discovered the sad news that Babylon Gallery in Ely is to close permanently in June. What a major loss to contemporary art in East Anglia; I can hardly believe it.

I've also applied for a short-term residency which concludes with a solo exhibition for the chosen artist - feels like a long shot but, well, might as well give it a try.

And, the Candlemas Kalender is currently at the printers' so, barring cock-ups, I'll be collecting it tomorrow afternoon! Yay! And HOPEFULLY also our expresso machine which is currently being fixed (not at the printers' I hasten to add). Even bigger YAY!! 

# 55 [18 February 2008]

I did the Radio Norfolk interview. And this time I managed to remember to mention the Arts Council,  the Festial website and Trevor's role in the project!

It started inauspiciously when the presenter clearly had no idea whatsoever what the project was about, despite having some sort of info in front of him (couldn't read it from where I was sitting). 'So we've missed the medieval festival? Is there anything to talk about, then?'  He phoned his wife to make sure she remembered to pick up his prescription (he had a shocking cold). Then I handed him the two most recent issues of Kalender and he handed them back, saying they would only confuse him further.

I returned them to him firmly, saying, no, I really think they will help. 'Do you really think so?' he asked doubtfully. ' Suddenly he became intrigued by the free gift on the Christmas issue - a (very) miniature Yule Log, to be burned and the ashes scattered to ensure fertility during the coming year. 'Ooh, I'll try this!' he chortled. 

The record ended - something bland and innocuous, such as is played on local radio stations up and down the country, I suspect. The presenter hadn't been listening to it, having been talking to his wife on the phone and getting up to speed on the Festial project. 'Ah, wasn't that lovely?' he enthused to his listeners.

After all that, the interview went fine, I think. To the presenter's credit, he did get more-or-less to grips with the basics of Festial in the minute or so I was gabbling away to him, and it all seemed to flow reasonably well. I was given a copy on CD but I doubt I'll ever feel brave enough to listen to it! Must try to work out whether hits on the website have increased since Friday.

www.world-tree.co.uk/festial

# 54 [11 February 2008]

I've just been invited by BBC Radio Norfolk to go into the studio on Friday afternoon for an interview about Festial's progress. This is likely to be the result of their having received the latest edition of Kalender (one of the 30 I posted to galleries/media) which by my reckoning will have arrived with them on the day they phoned me. So, that counts as a good result, promotionally speaking!

By complete coincidence, Friday is also the date of next festival I'll be marking in the project - Candlemas. That's fine, though, as I can go up to St Andrew's in the morning to do whatever I'm going to do (she said mysteriously - or is it just that further planning is required?!)

Something that I really need to do is to contact my Arts Council case officer to see if I can arrange a meeting. When I first planned Festial, I envisaged making lots of work during the year in addition to compiling and distributing Kalender. In practice, Kalender has been 'the work' in itself, and thinking of it in that way has been the only way to retain my/our sanity. That means that I don't have a physical body of work to curate into an exhibition at the end of the year, which is Phase 3 of the project according to the Arts Council funding I was awarded. There are plenty of ideas I want to develop, but having got to the ninth festival of the twelve, I need to work out what to do next.

Oh yes, I meant to mention a new improvement to the website - an aerial map showing the location of Wood Dalling with a link enabling anyone to discover how far they are from St Andrew's! 

www.world-tree.co.uk/festial

imogenashwin[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk 

# 53 [3 February 2008]

Disappointment on Friday: having struggled across a raw, sleety Norwich through the rush hour, acutely aware that it was only five minutes before the printers was due to close for the weekend, I arrived to find that Kalender hadn't been printed. I can't blame the printers, even though I'd phoned them on Tuesday to confirm that they could do the job and emailed the pdf to them straight afterwards. Although the email definitely didn't bounce, it didn't ever reach them, and  they can't be expected to have thought to phone me back to ask where it was when it didn't arrive. Can they?

So, there I was, panting in the doorway explaining what I'd come for, while the staff sat round with their glasses of wine (end-of-the-week ritual) looking at me in bafflement. Sigh.

I've sent the whole thing again now so I'm hoping that it will be sorted out tomorrow when the working week jolts back into action. I'll have to make a special journey to collect it now but I think it will be worth it as I'll be able to crack on with rubber-stamping and stapling a miniature Yule Log to each of 180 covers. Then I'll be able to get the usual 30-odd copies out to the curators/publications on the mailing list. 

The Festial residency started last May. So far, I've received very little feedback and would really welcome comments if anyone out there has time! The new Kalender has just been uploaded onto the website at:

www.world-tree.co.uk/festial

imogenashwin[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk

# 52 [28 January 2008]

It's been a bit of a struggle this time, getting Kalender together. I think this is partly because I know in the back of my mind that the next festival - Candlemas - isn't until 15 February so there's been more time than usual to prepare the 'Christmas' issue.  But if I'm honest, I've been scared that this time I won't be able to pull it off, to make a batch of images and a few thoughts into something that reflects my thoughts/memories/feelings about the festival.

I'd got all the pictures prepared and found a load of text, both from books and from extremely miscellaneous websites, but still fought shy of sitting down and seeing what happened when I tried combining them.

Then Trevor had the idea that I should try writing a 'stream-of-consciousness'  piece about that Christmas Eve vigil we shared and let bits of that run through the issue of Kalender as a linking thread. Well, we finished putting it together this morning and - heaves sigh of relief - it's fine, I think. I'm pleased with it, even! Last night I hadn't created the cartoon, nor decided what the free gift should be. The cartoon sprang into my head as I went to bed last night and the free gift idea came to me as I woke up this morning ... phew!

imogenashwin[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk

www.world-tree.co.uk/festial

# 51 [14 January 2008]

It’s a week now since our medieval Christmas Eve ‘vigil’ in St Andrew’s, and I know that both Trevor and I have been thinking a lot about the experience. Being in an empty, darkened church at what would have been midnight on Christmas Eve for all those Wood Dalling residents who are commemorated in the brass inscriptions – well, it’s not something that I would ever have imagined before the start of the Festial project! I think that one thing that’s stayed with us both is the sheer level of noise in the pitch-black church. It was a stormy evening, which I suppose accounts for most of the banging and flapping(!) and also it was the dark phase of the moon so things could hardly have been blacker. Yet, it really wasn’t scary.

How much of the information gathered during that day and night will really come together into something I feel is interesting enough to share is another matter entirely. But today is when I start to find out, as it’s time to begin working with the text and images for Kalender 8. Quite often before I’ve felt as I do right now: that the ideas in my head are too vague; that I’ll never create a coherent publication; that I’m just not passionate enough about the possibilities inherent in the images collected for this particular festival and that this is bound to be reflected in the magazine itself.

But, so far at least (and thanks in no small measure to Trevor’s technical and creative input), Kalender has always exceeded my initial expectations on all those counts. Fingers crossed!

# 50 [7 January 2008]

Christmas is here! Well, as far as Festial is concerned, anyway. Yesterday (Christmas Eve) we cycled to Wood Dalling in beautiful (if frosty) sunshine and spent time in the church taking photographs and feeling the atmosphere. That builders' plastic sheeting is such an asset when it comes to intriguing ephemeral light effects. I was concentrating on the weird un-human heads, mainly, as well as some rather wild magical creatures  that are actually heraldic devices on the ledger slabs.

Speaking to the keyholder afterwards, I learned that the subcontractor has sold the lead from the church roof and declared himself bankrupt, so nobody knows when the work is to be finished. The tiny congregation will presumably have to find the money for new lead now. I was sad for them as I love the place to be dusty and crumbling but it's clearly  not a sustainable position long term.

Then, last night, Trevor and I returned for a Christmas Eve Vigil. Trevor had sorted out the technicalities of using the webcam (not without a measure of frustration: computers!!) and we had a great time filming and photographing candle flames in the dark church into Christmas morning. At midnight, we wished each other a Happy Christmas and returned home for a foaming glass of Festial Ale! 

Lots of material there, but now I'll have to decide what it's all about ...

http://www.world-tree.co.uk/festial

imogenashwin[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk