ARTISTS TALKING

# 9 [12 March 2008]

... they were shooting a scene for a TV series in the building where I have my office/ studio the other evening - rain machines and full on lighting all over the place. As I left the building and passed though this combination of high activity on some folks parts, and complete passivity on others, I was reminded how many people it takes to make just a few minutes of regular, run of the mill (often tedious) tele...

... I had an ironic inner giggle to myself as I thought of my little project. I have been a one man fly on the wall for months now - doing camera, sound, editing and anything else that's required, all on my own. It makes for a different kind of product of course, but actually I'd rather view mine any day!

Have to admit though that it has been great to have other people work on constructing the video tower for me - one skill that I really didn't want to have to aquire - and it has been done impressively well . We still have a tiny tweak to do to it, but all is poised to be finished this week.

I have just one of my 5min video 'movements' to finish over the weekend and then the whole piece should be complete. Can't work out whether the great god of technology has either been cruel or kind to me however. I had just finished editing last night when the programme decided to crash. Subsequently my master edit won't load back in - and the backup is the same. Luckily I had completed and rendered out the sequences so all is not lost - but i can't now go back and edit some of them if i ever wanted to. Now if only i had an IT dept. ... i could shout at them!

# 8 [5 March 2008]

Just a quickie to say my latest piece lives and breathes! Installation of the tower has taken place and the monitors are in there and working. Slight snag with one side - which means it's not gonna be fully completed until next week - but it's great to see it become an actuality.

I have been working like a man possessed to get the video sorted, and now have four movements to put on there. Why did i say i'd do eight?? mmm an error of some magnitude as i still have loads more work to do.. still i'm on a roll now....

# 7 [26 February 2008]

Well the meeting on site the other day was a bit weird. It has now been decided that the central column that houses my four monitors is to be positioned to one side of the room rather than in the centre as originally agreed. The over-riding reason for this appears to be nothing more than a more convenient availability of power source – which could quite easily have been sorted. It will change the dynamic of the installation, and I am not happy, but won’t bore you or myself going over this again as it appears to be a done deal. I do try and get my head around the practicalities of the situation from the client’s point of view, but have little time for what appears to just be laziness on a certain person’s (better not say who) part.

On the much more positive side, I feel like the piece is finally coming together.

When I was more inclined to draw, I developed a style that sort of ‘sculpted’ the image off the paper. I make a myriad of marks that cross reference each other and somehow, almost by magic, the image seems to form out of them. This technique has sort of transferred itself into the way I make my video work... and particularly this piece.

 It has been a long process of trawling though to digitise the juicy bits into the computer, and then sifting upon sifting the clips until something that seems to gel comes out. It might be described as organised chaos, ‘cept it’s not really chaos cos I always know where I’m going once I get half way there. More like editing whilst in the ‘zone’ (the zone being somewhere between trance, dreaming and plain mania). I never think it’s going to work, but somehow I usually get there. It’s like explaining something to one’s self.

You knew it was there but you just couldn’t see it, sort of thing.

The only problem with this technique is that I’m not too sure how long the process is going to take, so being all ‘business- like’ and delivering to deadlines can be a bit hit and miss. Still – I really need to get this piece out of the door so it’s hair shirts and late night edits for me at the mo.

We are now booked to install the tower on Monday coming so I have to have something ready by then... eeeeek .... bye bye weekend!

# 6 [5 February 2008]

(continued from previous posting)

I now spend soooo much of my time doing tedious ‘design' work for clients who pay my mortgage, that I could quite easily be accused of being fatally deluded in clinging to the self image of ‘artist'.

But there is another side to this.

I spend a far greater amount of my time thinking about my work as opposed to actually doing it. It's easy to think in all the small, secret moments that take no time to organise.  I have developed a way of working that means that I can make the actual piece during intense periods of activity that have been set aside from the normal daily routine. These might take bloody ages to put together as a final finished piece, but I do somehow get there eventually. My point is I suppose, that the work I make now, has for me more sense of purpose and value than my other ‘full time' work ever did. I make it because I need to, because I have something genuine to say or explore, not because I have an arbitrary ‘sustained momentum' from academic training. So maybe (for me at least) fitting my artist endeavours into and around my life is actually a higher form of commitment that my ‘full time' practise ever was.

I realise this is a very big debate, alongside the related issues of how to fund ones practice. Perhaps I do dream of that fantastic benefactor who will enable me to devote more time to the work. I can't pretend that it's perfect (and I would certainly make far more work  if I had more time/ funding) - but there is no doubt that I'm in no danger of drying up in my present situation - I have enough ideas stored away to make a person dizzy!

And hey... I sold another piece this week.. just imagine what I could do if I actually got my act together and had a show! 

# 5 [5 February 2008]

Something finally worked out with the Specials project. I have at last found a competent joiner type person, who is able to build the video tower, and who also actually had something to contribute in terms of good ideas as to how it might all fit together. Tomorrow we go on a site visit (I've shown him photos of the site and a plan) and hopefully within a week this thorny aspect of the project will be realised. I spend so much time thinking about the content and reasoning behind what I do, that I am increasingly aware, it is all too easy to let the actuality of putting the show together become somewhat secondary. I think my mentality is still right in there with the painter I imagine myself to be, considering the canvas, balancing everything, making it work on some imaginary plane, and then just hanging it in some pure white box. Nice and easy.  So why do I continually make life difficult for myself by expanding the work so it no longer becomes a nail in the wall, ‘stick it up there' proposition, but instead requires irritating journeys out of my comfort zone.  T'was ever thus.

Yesterday AN mag arrived. Now it may be a bit self referential (this blog being on the same website), but I really feel a need to comment/ empathise with a number of artists statements here.

It's something I have pondered of recent times - the work ethic versus the credibility of the work produced. I read a quote from Cathryn Jiggens (who has a blog on here) along the lines of "I was a high achiever during my academic studies and so have continued this work ethic into my practice beyond - as most artists do.." I misquote but that is the gist. It struck a chord. It sounded like me at some other point in my life. It was an assumption I made of myself. Hard work equals good work. Very Methodist.

But a lot of water has flowed under various bridges since. I spent many years after leaving my own college, devoting myself to my work, and, in the process, (and in hindsight) trying to sustain a momentum that originated from the very privileged position of  having all that grant aided space in which to think. Not a bad thing - a great thing. But somehow (and I say this for me only) when I think of those ten or so ‘artistically intense' years after college I realise that the work was becoming increasingly ‘academic', ‘professional', ‘self-referential'. I might as well have had a ‘proper' career. I was churning it out.

Then I looked further up the page in AN. There was another quote from Stuart Mayes "Although I think of myself as an artist I realise that I spend the majority of my week away from my practice - being at work...isn't the same as being there doing it". Well I can certainly relate to that.

# 4 [2 January 2008]

.. and so that was Christmas. This is traditionally the time when the masses attempt to unmass the amassed. Yes - join the gym in other words. Well (with no particular feeling of smugness) I can at least say I've been there and done that. If you had asked me three years ago what I thought of people who had to use up their surplus energy on a treadmill I would probably have been less than sympathetic to the cause. I was however converted to the gym a couple of years ago - as a much more controllable (and less painful) alternative to running round the streets of Newcastle (or not, as the case may be).

So here is the newly reformed and remodelled me. A veritable living sculpture. Well ok - I'm getting too carried away now. Anyway - I describe this only to paint the backdrop of my artistic progress over the last week or so.

I had planned to really get into my Specials piece over the xmas break. I have sooo much material to digitise and review before I can begin the process of properly piecing it all together. This of course isn't necessarily the most appealing part of the process , and can typically involve me swearing a lot at computer screens and generally getting frustrated with my 'state of the art' technology. To be fair to myself I did try and make the effort - an hour stolen here - a couple of hours in the evening when others in my household were watching the tele etc. - but I wasn't really getting my teeth into the job as the lure of chocolate pudding and re-runs of rubbish films lured me away like sirens onto the fatal rocks, beckoning like the hopeless candidates for x factor that you just can't resist laughing at... (or loony inventions on dragon's den for that matter).

So it was in this state of mind that I finally arrived at the gym for the damage limitation exercise, my preferred weapon of choice being the cross trainer for the big burn and a bit of a sweat.

Of course, even though I may appear to the rest of the world to be engaged in absent minded daydreaming, I am often sifting through the stack of ideas that keep floating across my little landscape of creativity. Well, perhaps not floating, more blown really.. and not like tumble weed down some desert track either.. no, more imagine a man (and this did once happen to me in real life) with a briefcase full of documents walking down a windy train platform. The case bursts open and all its contents - from the sandwiches that just land with a dull thud - to the many crisp white sheets of A4 - scrawled on and generally abused, scatter, blizzard like, along the platform.

Well there I was - on the cross trainer, on my virtual platform, and chasing those ideas in an erratic attempt to get them back into the case, and into some order. And - hey - it worked!

The thing about repetition is it can tend to free the mind into another, clearer space, where the A4 sheets get retrieved and, amazingly, new combinations of those ideas can suggest previously unconsidered ways forward.

In short, over a distance of 5 miles (ok I lie - 5 kilometres) I had mentally mapped all that must be done, in such a way as to provide me with a genuine high, and a sense of achievement that had no link to the distance travelled on one spot!

Result.

# 3 [18 December 2007]

Well sometimes one is preoccupied with higher thoughts and all that stuff... and sometimes it just comes down to 'who knows a good joiner??'

I have only one visit left to Specials before I have to get stuck into the hard work of sifting though all the material I've acquired, and make some sense out of it all.

At this point the many practicals rear their heads, not least of which is that I need a good, reliable, preferably amiable and certainly talented joiner to build my video tower for me.

Now I don't imagine it's gonna be difficult for someone with a little experience to put together - just needs to be flat, serene and able to house the four wide-screen monitors we have to put in it. I did have a man lined up - but I get the feeling he got a better offer - as he never returned my call to action.

Perfect example of capitalism in all its' glory, working at its' rudest and most aggressively selfish.

Ok sorry - it's christmas. Don't over react... time to be a little more forgiving to the errant tradesman. Only dear, errant tradesman you have left me with a little problem.

I did ring the Baltic - thought they might have a list of people who they use - 'oh yes' said the lady on the telephone- I'll get someone to get back to you. Of course they never did (oh sugar... there goes my chance of a one man show in the new year).

Right - back to being mr niceguy.. I really do understand.. I really do understand that there must be far more pressing problems at the Baltic at the moment...

** Note to self ** try not to mention names in the new year - progressing in the art world is hard enough without the need to exercise ones' desert dry wit in some larger direction.

So I digress...

# 2 [4 December 2007]

I firmly believe in the power and purpose of art to inform contemporary life. That being said, occasionally in ones darker moments that nagging doubter of purpose pops up and questions whether what one is doing has any value. This need for personal, internal validation, can be particularly pronounced when working with an industry that seems so 'worthy'... so 'necessary'... as I am with the Specials lab at the moment.

Had lunch with my daughter the other day (she has just begun uni this year) and we had a bit of a debate about the merits, or otherwise, of the 'light bulb going on and off in a room' as art. I had to admit I was in the 'pro-light bulb' camp. After all, for my degree show all those years ago I had made a video installation called 'light sources/ light sauces'. In this piece the light from a monitor playback in a darkened room lit a nearby bottle of sauce. A camera was trained on the sauce bottle and the resultant live video feed made the bottle appear out of the gloom in another room. It was the use of the video monitor as a light source that interested me, not so much the literal image produced. I guess that puts me firmly in the light bulb camp.

I recount this to describe my position.

You see, in many ways, those heady 'conceptual art' days of the 70's and 80's were all the more exciting for their obtuse and often minimal approach. To my mind, much of what I see currently trotted out as 'new art'...or supposedly democratic 'street aware' hip and happenin' stuff is either deliberately superficial (nothing wrong with that says Andy W - but hey that was sooooo last decade)... or dumbed down in order to not cause intellectual offence and to appeal to the new breed of designer label buyers of 'art'.

In my world though, 'democratic' does not have to equate to 'dumb-o-cratic'.

Anyway - back to the plot. I mention this little chatette with my offspring really to make another point, one related to my current project.

What I see when I visit the world of Specials Lab is often what may be described as a 'minimal' landscape. People work to tight time-scales. Jobs are often repetitive. There is often the sound of air con and little else, somewhat like the seashore beckoning in the background. Everything is super clean. And then it gets cleaned again. There are rituals of dress and undress required in order to enter certain sections of the labs. Work is checked and double checked, and then signed off so it can be checked again in another form. Attention to detail in all things. Everything recorded, except wandering thoughts perhaps.

Now, on the surface, this makes for a less than visually stimulating visual scenario. In terms of job satisfaction, one could be forgiven for concluding that some of the work must be mind numbingly boring. Sexy it aint (and don't get into the 'not allowed to wear make-up' debate - that's another few paragraphs).

Yet I am struck by the commitment of all those involved.

They are, for the most part, a quiet, considered (but playful) lot - and what they are doing is important. If they make a mistake - if they don't give it their all, then the consequences could be severe. They are only human. They do make mistakes, but the system is there to back them up. It's not Orwellian, it's not even Brave New World . It's quite human actually. Each piece of detail makes the whole. The light goes on, the light goes off. Each one of the Specials team turns in on, turns it off and passes the switch on to the next team member.

Meanwhile - in my role as voyeur, I can imagine myself back in my other room, at my 1977 degree show, with that bottle of sauce, watching the picture form out of phosphors dancing on a cathode ray tube.

Do I see their bigger picture?

I dunno if it's bigger, but it's certainly different and multifaceted - and the picture I see is not one that they see themselves I think - and that's the point.

When asked what I'm doing, and what it will look like, my explanation is both purposely vague and obscure, whilst hopefully being enigmatic and intriguing. I don't think anyone else could make the work that I am making for them and, if nothing else, it will add another dimension to their perception of their workplace and quite possibly what 'art' might be.

Now that feels like art with a purpose to me!

Not so much criminal minimal... as beautiful musical. The beauty of austerity.

# 1 [23 October 2007]

Background

I was introduced to the Specials Lab through an artist agency called Musa, who represent me on a non- exclusive basis.

The client had been attracted by an installation piece of mine which I call 'Gesthalt'. In this piece there are four large prints facing each other, which define a space where a simple tower sits in the middle, playing out four videos back into the space. They liked the idea of the tower for their large reception area and thought it might be a whizz bang idea to have something like it to entertain their waiting clients. I'm not sure how much they considered what the content might be, but I was happy to talk through possibilities.

Now there are only good clients in my books. Some are just a bit more demanding than others, but generally speaking I am always soooooo glad to have some interest from anyone who thinks commissioning art is a good idea. It has to be said they appear to be a somewhat wonderful client so far.

Ok there was a hiccup at first.

You see there was a potential dream scenario. I have this recently completed piece 'Gesthalt' which has taken me all of three years to complete, and was keen to find somewhere to put it on. It was suggested that it might be a great idea to do two things. First show Gesthalt for a few weeks and make a bit of a splash with an opening and a bit of press, then, following that, have me make another piece to play out on the video tower that would already have been constructed for that installation. This would then be left as a permanent fixture on which to play my new piece and would take their business as the starting point for subject matter. Nice idea.

All seemed swimmingly super and wheels started turning. At this point budget seemed of secondary importance and various bods went off to look at the options of building four temporary walls in the middle of their space as per my plan. Time passed and various meetings took place. Tradesmen came on site and scratched their heads. Then sent quotes. Communications became less frequent and it began creeping so close to their proposed show date that I began doubting whether publicity could be mustered in time. We did in fact have a number of good sponsors lined up, including printers and a PR company to give the things a bit of a push. I waited.

So you've guessed the outcome by now.

Gradually the key person is 'somewhere else' or 'off today' etc. And then the final call that says.. 'so sorry but it was just coming in too expensive so we've had to pull out'.

At this point I have to say that I am very happy to work with corporates, because they can have a less academic and a more 'real world' approach to the how and whys of putting things together. I'm quite happy to handle the conceptual bit if they can oil the wheels they're familiar with. Fact is that if I had organised it I could have made it all happen within a fixed budget and cut my cloth accordingly. Somewhere along the lines of communication, what was possible and what was realistic got mixed up. It was a shame, and leaves me still looking for a good place to show what I consider to be a very important installation.. anyone out there?????

The good news

At least the original commission was still on the table, and, glad to say, that is now going ahead.

It was decided between us that, as this piece is to be situated in the middle of their open-plan office space, that two things would be a consideration. One that any audio should be listened to through headphones, and two, that there be the possibility of changing the work so that those working in the office could have a little variety.

I decide that the best way to approach this was to make a piece that effectively had eight 'movements' rather like a musical score. Four of these would play out at one time, whilst another four would be constructed to be shown separately. I'm not sure yet but it may even be that the completed piece will have any number of permutations.

There is one thing I have stressed from the start. Whatever the piece becomes, it will never be a corporate video, and from the outset I wanted the experience of working within Specials Lab to be a two way process. It will inevitably follow on from the concerns of my previous work, but I didn't want to have a fixed plan on going in there. I wanted it to grow. I want the piece to inform itself, with me as the cultural chemist.