ARTISTS TALKING

# 10 [14 September 2008]

 The best bits!

 On Saturday there was a celebratory opening of the garden with food and drinks and circus entertainment all laid on by the commissioner. 

 To end this section of the blog I am going to do a big brother type 'here's your best bits'.

1) The sheme was finished off with a community planting session.

2) There are plans to begin a garden club.

3) A residents association forming was talked about.

4) The kids on the estate have guarded the garden from outsiders spoiling it.

5) I have seen groups of neighbours talking over garden fences and on the street.

6)The commissioner told me (Southern Housing Association)  that the 'Them and us' attitude which had prevailed, had relaxed and tennants thought the housing association was now listening to them and reacting to requirements and generally more approchable.

7) Children run up and hug me in the street, they want their photo taken with me and they chase my car waving goodby. I felt like a celeb for the whole day.

8) The commissioner said it had exceeded expectations.

So well done The Anne Peaker Centre, Karin and then Liz Knowles who made it happen. 

Three cheers for:

Andy Evans, Siobhaun Timothey, Kate Richardson, Martin Brockman and part time volunteer Dan who were my collegues in Nam. All of them artists from various disciplines with either shamanistic powers or the wisdom of medicine men.  

# 9 [6 September 2008]

This probably wont be my last day as it rained very hard. What I made turned into a paddling pool under a bench! unable to finish.

As for the wise men I mentioned earlier, I am now a little closer to being one. I dont think its about art particularly, but it is about change. My grandmother was a victorian and I dimly remember her. The values and codes of behaviour in her time were much more austere than today. Things change and I could start sounding like my dad ' if only the kids today blah had blah more blahdy blah'. But my world is different from his and my son's different from mine. How stale would a monopoly of victorian values in todays world be?

Perhaps the outsiders need to shake the core alittle as it will go stale. Teddy boys (before my time) are probably pretty mellow now and say 'if only the kids today blahdy blah.

Society is a pretty organic thing and will shift around and art/culture is a major part of that. I am not sure that art is allways the root cause of the shifts but I am sure it highlights and reinforces them so that new rules become the stable core.

So if St. Radigans is a measure of the the future then!......its pretty free-form. And the purchase order for Middleport arrived today so as one job draws to a close another begins. As my old mum used to say 'out with the old and in with the new'!

# 8 [2 September 2008]

This is probabably the penultimate post on this project, one last story from the last day on the path before turfing the whole area.

We are starting to pack away the days eqipment at the end of a full on day,

'Come the F*****G HELL round here now and just have a look at this mess'. SEE what the ******* kids have done this ******88& little ****3£ & **$!&*********// mess!

This is the woman who lives adjacent to the site we are working on addressing me very loudly and trying to get my attention.

'Oh er will I need a brush or a bucket of water or something like that'? I replied.

'Bring what the **^%"""1$ you like, but I have had enough of this and I am NOT putting up with it any MORE. See what has happened now'.

The front of this womans house looks like the Bosnian Serbs dug in on the ridge yonder have shelled the front of her house. Only they used cement instead of shells. It is peppered in blobs. Front door, brickwork, the UPVC windows the front path, the plastic white gas meter box at the front and the garden fence. 

'I have been pushing for this project, raising money, attending meetings for 2 and a half years to make this happen. AND this is the thanks I get. No respect from these kids they are wild'!

There a silent pause .....'I think this woman has a point' I said to the 15 kids standing in the road watching this drama 'and you should appologise and clear this up. Can we have a bucket of hot water please'.

The response is a barrage of verbal abuse, the main point being, it was not us and how dare she swear at us like that. Two children help us clear this mess up. The rest pace and swagger protesting innocence watching us use hot water, brooms, brushes, J cloths etc.

I am begining to feel like a Nam Veterain, 'Would you go back to Nam?' I will be there on Friday to finish.

# 7 [28 August 2008]

Well today was a total blast: morale had been lowish but the paymasters (Anne Peaker Centre) played everyone in the team today including their arts development officer. It was truly a great day. 

7 bodies in the team. 

The effect was to relieve or dilute the relentless and exhausting 'enabling' of others (the children) so they can work. We have spent so much time getting stuff so they can work. Preparing things for them, finding a place where they can work, explaining what needs to be done and how. Then, when they can not do it, it is our fault for not enabling them enough.

The task of mixing cement is a major drama and goes like this:

'3:1 with water in first' I say all chirpy .......'I'll just a get smaller trowl for my friend over here,  put a watering can full in and I'll be with you in a minute'.

'Rob, it has run out of petrol'

No we filled it last night remember. So...Stand behind it, and pull the cord in a straight line. Not out to the side cos the cord rubs on the edge and your hard pulling is wasted. There.. its easy if you pull in a straight line. I'm just going to get some pebbles for your sister.

'Rob I can't open this bag of cement'

'have you got a trowel to poke in the side'

'er no'

'You get a trowel off Katie, Im just going to cut a block for Nicole'.

'Did you get a trowel?

'no she wouldn't let me borrow it'

'Ok then I'll just tear it open' (which is a little like trying to rip the yellow pages in half, but possible) Is there any more water than this? I ask.

'No Sophie knocked the container over'

'Does anyone you know have an outside tap'?

'No we asked yesterday and the houses are terraced and they dont want us walking through on the carpets'.

So I have to drive the containers to a tap in a sink in the near by maintenance office.

Someone says...'Rob is this cement the right height to push the pebbles in?

'Lets have a look ...no much too low you need twice as much as that'

'Rob is there any more cement'?

'yeh soon...we're working on it' I say.

and so it goes on. What we get ranges from sand that won't come out the mixer to a slurry that hits the wheel barrow and bounces out splashing anyone by the barrow. One extra watery load  knocks the barrow over as it enters - because said barrow is not on a level floor.

'Rob can you help me'

But today we all worked, all helped, and had a laugh, with ice creams for everyone involved at the end of the day.

Kids as well.

17 bodies in the team by the end of the day.

# 6 [26 August 2008]

Well I made some pathway with these children at St. Radigans today and I have to say care and organisation around working practices is not high on their list of concerns.

The implications of their actions are not concidered. I mean if you step on a paving block which you have just placed on wet cement, it will depress downwards under the preasure of your weight, or pebbles pressed into mortar submerge totaly if trodden on. We had to experience this alot to learn it today.

Exicitment, enthusiasm for mixing stuff up, particularly in a cement mixer was high on their list of priorities. Control and care..............na. But most of these kids are young.

Do international/premiership football players turn up at the green on the estate and teach football skills?

Will REM, Kate Bush or the Vienna Boys Choir turn up and  teach singing or how to read music?

Are boffins from Microsoft going to pitch up with pc workshops, or architects/construction engineers from the Richard Rogers Partnership..........medalists from the olympics.

What is the role of the artist? and why is art the twine that mends the social fabric when it gets torn.

Do artists have shamanistic powers to heal the ills of society?

Tommorow I will take some mortar plastiser and focus on care. Show how the manipulation and modification of materials can help to achieve better results. Tell em that washing up liquid does the same thing, see what their reaction to that will be!

or I could join in throwing model helicopters as far as I can.

# 5 [20 August 2008]

I am only working on this project in St. Radigans for one day this week. I started paving today and things were shaping up. Moral in the team seemed low but after seeing things really move forward today everyones tails were wagging by the close of play.

 I forgot to take my camera (air head). So pictures next week on site , I hope the children have not riden their bikes over it or played football on it as the cement was still wet....

 I found a hand writen note on the floor of the storage container, which made me realise that this project was effecting these kids.

# 4 [17 August 2008]

28 mosaic paving stones have been achieved by this group. The perents of some of the children have become involved as well.

The whole project is at a stage now where it is becoming more real, what I mean is people can see results of their work and the landscaping of the garden has begun, so things look different.

I had an episode on Fri afternoon! The grout I bought for this job was quick drying which is of no consequence to me. But turned out to have a negative impact on friday afternoon.

The children were grouting away very happily while I carried on with another task. When I came back to check things the kids were unable to remove the grout off the mosaic as the hot sun had begin to make it stiff and sticky. Controlled application of water quantities on dampend rags is the remedy, but no they enjoyed the mud pie aspect to this and continued to apply more grout and ignore the instructions. The rescue opporation was more urgent now as the grout was really beginning to dry and 5-6 mosaics were under a milimeters of very stiff nearly hard grout.  

The children unable to respond to my increasing requests to 'get the grout off not on' were largely ignored, the nice clean rags I wanted to use to wipe the mosaics clean at the end were suddenly in the grout pot,  dried grout was on every trowel, float and scraper I had provided. I was beginning to growl at these children.

So I aborted their contributions by explaining that this was a good time go round the block on their bike, find something else to do or go back and watch TV for 15- 20 mins and come back a bit later so I could clear the grout off the mosaics. The children formed ranks and started an organised campaign Julius Ceaser would have been proud of to thwort this plan of mine. Chanting had begun echoing round the site...'We hate Rob....We hate Rob.' When I asked them to go and come back a bit later, the chanted reply was ...Up your bum and round the corner all the way to california'...Hate mail was being writen and chaos had broken out.

I ignored them and went back to resuue the mosaics from a boa constrictor like death below cement. With no response to their taunts, things became calmer and after a short while back to normal.

Later we were talking about horses and bikes and sweets as the compensation they wanted for being treated so badley. I knew this was back to normal and enjoyed negotiating their demands. By now we were all friends again and it was time to clear everthing away at the end of the day. They all willingly and happily helped pack stuff up and were well behaved.

# 3 [13 August 2008]

Today is my day off. Next week is my week off. The management do not have the funds for all of the five artists for all of the five weeks; so a squad rotation policy is in place, kind of Rafa Benitez style.

This has worked very well as the dynamic between the combinations of personel is refreshing and I think it strenghtens the team. The bonding of the team is critical as the task is intense. Banter and topics for chatter are important.

At the end of my first week I was feeling OK, it was achievable.

Then I had a conversation with the caretaker/maintence guy.  Real quality negativity. Plenty of quotes from his absent collegues on what a waste of time money effort and the whole thing was, it would be scraped up by a JCB in less than 6 months because it would be vandelised so completly it would become dangerous. At best we were providing a creche for the kids over the summer, which had it plus point. Only that it was an expensive way to provide a creche.

'Cheers.... have good weekend and I will see you next week'.

Caretakers, community wardens and call out repair guys must only ever see people smashing things up, doing really stupid things and behaving like complete tubes. Their work is increased by this kind of stuff, so as a result they are miserable bsatrdas. (no offence).

# 2 [13 August 2008]

So then let us make no mistake about the type of place this is. These are my first impressions: (not facts)

Drug and alcohol abuse, at risk of re-offending,  lack of teeth or people just do not bother to put them round here? Mental health problems and a high proportion of people wear sports clothing especially premier league football team shirts, even more common are England shirts also favoured by women. The community seems to be mainly of white UK origin.

It seems car owners favour a low profile tyre in larger numbers and exhaust systems are more prominent, more pipes with a wider diameter than maybe I'm used to.

The children have behavioral and concentration problems. Learning difficulties, ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia are conditions that come to mind. I am not a doctor or a phycologist, niether am I a social worker so don't take it from me, I am an artist.

So, I am treading water, just getting the feel of what, who, how, when..................and sometimes why................innit.

# 1 [8 August 2008]

What is the role of the artist described in the intro of this blog?

These places to someone one who does not live there are maybe a bit like a film set from a domestic version of Blade Runner or some future sci-fi....no, no a Mike Leigh play describes them perfectly. I could be acting out one of his plays as any one of these three commisions unfolds.

Today after 3 whole day workshop sessions of showing a girl aged about 8 how to cut a 2cm x 2cm mosaic tile with a pair of purpose made tile nippers we succeeded and had a motorskills, concentration and focus breakthrough. About 3 tiles were divided into 6 pieces. Tommorrow we might be able to use them and stick them in place. Perhaps the best journeys are the slow ones.

Also today, I had an even bigger breakthrough.....the boy who I guess is about 10 who has been the most disruptive, descructive and influencial indivdual on the project to date sat next to me and worked for well over an hour with total focus and commitment. Previously his longest period of sustained work may have been 3 minutes tops. Then he would start chucking stuff around and pretend to cut his ear lobe off with the tools I provided.

The reason for this unbelivable turn around was the simple fact I worked with him 1 to 1 and went very very slowly showed him how, let him do it, showed him how to modify what he had done and make it better, let him do it and after 20 minutes of this I told him how well he had done to get this far. He belived me and continued working assisted by 100% of my own attention for about an hour. Intense but supersonic compared to the progress with my other student.

Now, I am one of a team of artists making a comunal garden on a housing development over the summer holiday period. And of course no one can afford to pay for progress that slow. So things have to move on swifty, but team work is the key to this and todays observations and occurances have inspired me to start this blog!