ARTISTS TALKING

# 19 [31 October 2008]

After the re-shuffling of the cards every particle assumes it's new place, in new order..

Let's see where it will all take me.

.. 

# 18 [25 October 2008]

so much work in the last weeks!!!

We went to Germany for 9 days to make and film "Dungbeetle and Sisyphus II" in the countryside. Before and after I worked like a mad person on the installation components for "Through the Forest with Virgil" which opened as part of the group exhibition "Meet me at Sunset" in Nicole Bartos's unusual gallery on 36 Ullet Road.

I feel like I may have travelled a little too much and am not surprised that I have now been struck down with killer cold. But I am  disappointed not to be able to go out there and make the most of all the hard work, by doing some necessary schmoozing..

Well, no schmoozing for me, but perhaps lots of tea and some vitamins..

I am a bit concerned, I don't want to miss making the most of these projects.

I am finding being in London quite distracting, it is easier up here to be focused than it is down there. At least that is the observation so far. So being back for weekends is for now a good thing,

I am missing being in the studio in teh Royal Standard,  that is a good space to think in, too.

# 17 [9 October 2008]

points:

show some love to the an layout... pictures haven't changed on the main page for 2 weeks..

I am infused with chemical free wine, pleasure without the pain of the day after. How nice. I forgot the enjoyment that can be had free of consequence.

The camera man / also known as saving camera angel has arrived.

The dungball is finished, just waiting for it to dry now.

The project preparations so far have been quite intensive in that the leaps between countries and life realities and identities has been a bit of an issue. But apart from that this little residency has turned into a working holiday. Which my body really needed.

Tomorrow we are going on location hunt (another one) and I hope we will also eat german chocolate.

# 16 [9 October 2008]

points:

Hey team !!

Show some love to the an layout... pictures haven't changed on the main page for 2 weeks..

I am infused with chemical free wine, pleasure without the pain of the day after. How nice. I forgot the enjoyment that can be had free of consequence.

The camera man / also known as saving camera angel has arrived.

The dungball is finished, just waiting for it to dry now.

The project preparations so far have been quite intensive in that the leaps between countries and life realities and identities has been a bit of an issue. But apart from that this little residency has turned into a working holiday. Which my body really needed.

Tomorrow we are going on location hunt (another one) and I hope we will also eat german chocolate.

# 15 [6 October 2008]

Now in Germany:

small production residency in a small town in the countryside not too far from Mainz.. Made a second hay ball, filming next saturday..

Why on earth I am writing about this in telegram style when telegrams no longer exist I really can't tell you. Some time restrictions,  an earlier overdose on caffein and general load of admin still to do all play their part.

I am in Mainz today making use of the internet connection at a bronze and aluminum foundry that I have some contact with (all in the readyiness for a future commission that will of course one day come and require me to cast a beautiful large something or other..)..

This afternoon I am schmoozing a gallery owner who I hope, hope, yes hope very much, will love my work and will invite me to show it.. 

To some distress I found out about an artist already represented by a gallery in Mainz who works with the same symbolic items as I do.

Well: Great minds...

I have just googled him, just now, it's not so bad. His ideas aren't any better than mine. Phew... A sigh of relief.

The calm here with which the project moves forward may be deceptive and I am tempted to forget the next projects for a while but I really have to stay on the ball with my communication and project developments of "New Media Gallery for Birds", the public intervention that I am planning with a Rapunzel reference, the sculptures that I want to have made and cast before december, the cards that I want to print for promotion and sale, the search for a gallery and for keys to door that I'd like to pop open asap..... etc etc..

But first I have a dungball to finish before my camera man arrives on thursday. We are filming on saturday and sunday.

And I have a lot of possible locations to consider, look through the photographs that I took yesterday and think through how the locations and scenes could be used, how cameras could be stationed to get 2 footages out of one distance covered ..

I am thinking out live onto the blog, perhaps I will also learn to edit by wrambles one of these days and delight you with precision, sense and purpose.

check my myspace and axisweb for other updates.

www.myspace.com/birgitdeubner

www.axisweb.org/artist/birgitdeubner

PLEASE GO AND SEE MY FILM BEFORE THE EXHIBITION CLOSES ON THE 9th of OCTOBER. 

6 Jordan Street

11am - 4pm,, tuesday to sunday.

this is really near to NOVAS and the A-Foundation which are on Greenland Street. Both streets are off Jamaica Street and a short walk from China Town / Liverpool.

And give me some feedback!!! 

# 14 [1 October 2008]

The feedback on "Dungbeetle and Sisyphus" on exhibition in 6 Jordan Street "The Baltic Frame", curated by Tony Smith, is still coming in. And it's pretty positive all round.

I feel that really I should be there and not gallavanting around the country.. The exhibition needs much more promoting than I think it is getting. I should be there schmoozing ...

Well for now I am down here in London and feeling like a duck in water. Taking to the new settings well and I have also purchased the caravan. On the 14th of October I will begin a month long residency in a golden caravan with an expandable roof and pink dots. Well, I made up the dots, but I would like some, very much.

I get zero feedback from this blog so I assume that apart from Emily nobody reads it which is making me feel curiously immune and makes me very tempted to start waffling endlessly ..

The project preparations for "Dungbeetle and Sisyphus part 2" are progressing nicely and as long as nobody steals my costume I am now set to go. The train is booked for friday afternoon and I can hardly believe that I am about to start the whole madness once more.

The preparations for the exhibition at Nicole Bartos's gallery aren't running quite as smoothly, I am quite concerned about the little time that I have left to make the work to show there..

I am thinking of ways to circumnavigate the time limitations in some ingenious way or other..

I will think hard and try to find a way.. Failing that it will be no sleep for several days and working through the nights which is of course always an option.

I am now torn between my wonderful, wonderful studio up north and my freezing cold basement dwelling down south. What a nice problem to have..

I love the Royal Standard.

Guys, I miss the big window and my coffee machine!

And the lovely warmth!

So much for now.

More precise news next time. 

# 13 [28 September 2008]

My finished film is on exhibition in Arena on

4 Jordan Street

L1 0BG

Liverpool

Please come and have a look and let me know what you think.

tue - sun 11am - 4pm 

# 12 [23 September 2008]

thursday 25th6pm
4 Jordan Street
Liverpool near Novas and Afoundation

"Baltic Frame" curated by Tony Smith 
opens at 6pm
exhibiting artists are: 

Birgit Deubner
(www.axisweb.com/artist/birgitdeubner)
Nick Fox
Britta Borgers (Cologne)
Claus Dieter Geissler (Cologne)
Tine Wille
Andrew Bracey
Nick Sykes
Bernard Georgeson
Susie Mcmurray
Steve Boyland 
Leslie Halliwell
Anna Ketskemety
Dagmar Schmidt
Tony Smith


at the same venue will be "Drawn Here"; 
a selection of works from the Arena Studio Member.

on Jordan Street which is just off Jamaica Street and 2 streets from Novas and the A-Foundation. 

Come along, bring friends.

I am also featuring on the axisweb front page today, check it out:

http://www.axisweb.org/

Looking forward to seeing you.
Birgit.

www.myspace.com/birgitdeubner
www.axisweb.org/artist/birgitdeubner
http://birgitdeubner.blogspot.com/

# 11 [23 September 2008]

... after my little moan yesterday about the shortage of funding in my artistic career I am now back with a THANK YOU, to the generosity of everyone who does support the arts.

Now to be specific: my project! Of course there is the list of assistants who have helped, the people who have not batted an eyelid when I told them that I would push a human sized dungball around the city.

I am impressed with the people who saw the performance and who just stopped to help push this dungball like as if they were helping a pensioner with a heavy shopping bag. Somehow I managed to make-believe that my action was one that had purpose, that was leading somewhere and some chance passer-byes shared this journey with me, helped me along with this absurd burden, helped me arrive at the end of my route.

You can do the most absurd thing but if you do it with purpose other's will share in with you on this path to achievement, on this experience. I am proud of those people, who suspended their rational thought and just dropped into my temporary reality. There were some really beautiful moments that I shared with some of these strangers of whom I only got to know Jerry by name. Jerry came out of prison only two days before the performance and he saw me and somehow thought that his good deed would be to help me up this terribly steep hill that was going to defeat me if I had had to tackle it on my own.

I would like to really say Thank you so much to Jerry, who shared a really human touch with me and the dungball. 

Purpose, is it in what we do? Or is it in how we do it..?

Today a friend asked me if a part of me enjoys the struggle. I think he referred to life. I haven't quite come up with an answer to that yet, but I enjoy the achievement which seems all the sweeter and rewarding when it was hard earned. 

But the bottom line is that I enjoy the peace in life above everything else. But I don't think peace is something that you achieve in the same sense as other achievements, peace is pretty illusive. 

# 10 [22 September 2008]

I finally have a first cut of the "Dungbeetle and Sisyphus" performance last sunday (14th of september) in a ready to show format for the exhibition.

It looks great, just I know it could look even greater. There was so much to worry about, with not having any funding for the project. I can tell from my performance that there had been not a moment to slow down before the performance, take some time to focus and become absorbed in what I really should have been able to be absorbed in. Instead I  spent every moment running around until literally 30 seconds before starting the performance. 

It's a shame because the project is great and eve after all these drawbacks the footage is great. Just it could have been perfect. But for that I could have used some support that money can buy.. 

I don't want to complain, this project went so well and the film footage is really good. It is a shame I didn't have the energy to invest into finding funding. But considering the amount of things that needed to be dealt with it's almost miraculous that I got the work done at all. But that's just it, the art projects do come above everything else. I am not sure just how healthy that is for the rest of the balance of my life, but for now I am pretty immersed and committed to making my work happen, meeting all deadlines, no matter what obstacles arise. 

I am most happy when I see work come to fruition like this. And maybe the hard work is starting to really pay off. Slowly more and more people are contacting me asking me to be involved in exhibitions. And these are people who I have a lot of respect for, too.  I hope that it won't be long before the people who call me will also have funding to not only pay for the curatorial costs and exhibition running costs but also to really give me a proper commission.

So now I just spoke to curator 1 - Tony Smith who is curating the exhibition opening this thursday the 25th of September. He is showing great confidence in me and in my work, I am very flattered. A couple of years ago I would have been incredibly worried about disappointing his expectations but things have changed, I have become much more solid in my practice and am nervous of course and fueled by adrenalin, but also quite matter of fact and focused with the post-production work that I am doing now. Now that I have the fist cut dvd (1hour 22 minutes!) not much can go wrong. I have 3 monitors for back up in case there are any unexpected problems with the projector. So I think I am on time and on target.