walkingthewalk

The books created for St Michael's C of E School in Louth have arrived – they look good, I am sure the pupils will love them, especially seeing their own names in print. ‘found’ a fantastic site to animate images – a link to one from the work created in Louth – https://sketch.metademolab.com/share/7cc2680d5bd042f7b6695b693472c9c9/wave_hello_3  but you can put any image in the portal – strange movements occur. Started the research for a commission from Norfolk and Norwich Festival - a map of a walk – questions answered - In these unsettled times we would all like some answers. On the walk, using a treasure map you will find some answers to some questions. X marks the spot. Walking the walk I have found so many starting points and general oddness, along with a rich history explained by numerous plaques – looking forward to collating and editing. Onto screens – two series – just finished season 2 of The Only Murders in the Building – the sharp and witty script has great characters written with some excellent lines. Just started Rabbit Hope – this must win awards for handbrake turn twists – my mind was blown….

imaginingthefabricofthepast.

Extraordinary day spent in Rotherhithe at the Thames Discovery Centre at a Women at Work event. Really great speakers using finds to reveal the lives of working women through mud larking. So many amazing stories - of the development of ale houses by explaining the relationship between women brewing beer in the home and witch burning - through the use of cauldrons, pointed hats and broom sticks. Then there was the history of women and their role in the manufacturing of pins. The language of pins, their names are absolutely fascinating. Then there was the churches relationship to sex. By decree of Henry II the church was given control of brothels - called stews - there were eighteen licensed brothels in Bankside employing about a thousand prostitutes at any one time. As a result of the church taking control, most of London’s churches built during this period were largely financed by prostitution. https://dirtysexyhistory.com/2017/01/26/a-cesspool-in-the-palace-prostitution-and-the-church-in-medieval-southwark/ After the event I went onto the Thames beach and found a piece of a torpedo bottle – researching what it actually was and finding out about its history was fascinating - this could be a new thing! Akram Khan’s latest piece, Creature was a brutalising visceral experience. The whole evening was totally extraordinary, from the pounding music, sparse set, and mesmerising dancers. onto screens - A Man Called Otto – a study of understated care – quite beautiful. Operation Fortune – gotta love Hugh Grant – he is having a ball.

breathinginnnnnnn

A day of breathing in - after a positive meeting about the forthcoming art trail in Norwich I got on a train and started the breathing by wandering through Bond Street window shopping - as ever Louis Vuitton is a winner - gotta love the glorious excess. After a quick Guinness celebrating what would have been my mum’s birthday - onto exhibitions. They included a great VR experience at Gazelli Art House, refracted bodies by Matteo Zamagni the real, imagined and the imagined real all crashed into each other. Sprueth Mangers has a new video by the extraordinary Jon Rafman - based on absurd Reddit posts you will be disturbed yet laugh out loud. Ian Cheng's Thousand Lives at PQ was layered interactive manga madness and a turtle. Got on an Uber boat from Blackfriars to North Greenwich (which is a fantastic way to travel in London - not Venice but Canary wharf was mad amazing) Bob Bickell Knight's show Insert Coin at Cable Depot was an examination of the gamification of life read through loot boxes in video games. Meanwhile onto screens Missing looked at new ways to tell stories - the multiple layered systems that hold and display information mirrors and examines our endless multiple ways to engage with the world. Cocaine Bear was just terrible.

sunandbrightness

A weekend in S France – Marseille is an astonishing place culturally and weather wise I have never been there when it’s not sunny, whatever the time of year. If you get the chance to go, after wandering around the fantastic Mucem building eat at Au Bout du Quai, everything there is most excellent – the soupe de poisson is a must. Got out to Crest despite the train strike – walking and the market and the design classics show at http://www.centredartdecrest.fr/home/ - one of those where you say – we had one of those and I remember that!!! gestetner printing machine anyone? Recently I’ve been to see some live theater – first the immersive – I was a Guidestar Volunteer at Saint Jude with Swap Motel theatre group where my job was to ‘speak’ to a coma patient (an AI) to wake them – not bad, although it did turn into an experience similar to an escape room. Meanwhile Gecko Theatre’s Kin was brutally beautiful (bruitifull). Gecko are an amazing company that always creates stunning work that makes you think both about the subject they are dealing with and the very concept of theatre itself. https://www.geckotheatre.com/  Onto screens – the latest series of F1 on Netflix was, as ever, madness on the highest level on every conceivable front….and……let’s not talk climate issues! 

somestuff

The yearly school’s celebration at Snape was wonderful, as ever there was a real sense of happiness and pleasure in the room. Unconsumed - the show at the shoe factory in Norwich looks good – there is much to see in this eclectic exhibition – I appear to of sold something (red dot) which is nice. https://www.instagram.com/unconsumed.theshoefactory/ The work is part of a new body of thinking so its good that somebody else recognises the potential. Meanwhile onto screens – deep into The only murders in the building – wacky and twisted.

venndiagramtellsthetruth

Its my birthday and we are celebrating with, among other things, tattoos. Undertaken by the wonderful jims_skins (my son). really liking the vennn diagram feel (the best of all diagrams). biggest and longest one, so far. don't anyone tell me that it doesn't hurt to get a tattoo...........

whatisyourmeaning?

some of the great questions pupils at St Michael's CofE Primary school in Louth asked of the Meridian Line sculptures last week - Do you ever get bored? Are you tired of standing? Do you feel pain? Do you enjoy standing? Why am I holding this? Are you cold? Do you have a soul? Why can girls figure it out, but the men can’t? Why do you have pieces missing? Do you like being wacked? Why do you have lines all over you? How many people have you seen? Why did you decide to be here? What is your meaning? If you were real, what would you do? What do you think about? What is it like to know the Meridian Line? How many more years will you last? What is it like being iron and rock rather than skin? Why do you have a stump on your head?  How old are you? Are you insured? What is it like being a statue? Are you okay? Do you need help? Do you have a brain? Does anybody celebrate your birthday? How much longer do I have to stay here? What’s happening to this world? How did you get your scar? What is it like to see the outside? How are you not cold? How do you keep yourself entertained? What would you say if you could talk? What is the favorite thing you’ve seen? Why is everyone else moving but not me? What do you see that we haven’t? – Do you ever think of being a real person? Why don’t people stay with me forever? How do you survive not talking? What do you do all day? Why are we all lonely? Why was I put here? What is the Meridian Line? 

returningtothefuture

Last week saw me returning to Louth to develop work based on a piece of public artwork I created with Laurence Edwards 22 years ago – it was great to revisit the pieces that have obviously been valued and looked after by the community – it was as if I left them yesterday rather than 22 years ago. The original work set out to create a moment of stillness and reflection, whilst celebrating something that we cannot see. The pieces were used as a catalyst to help us explore our imagination, we looked at how art enables us to engage in the world, to see potential in the seemingly mundane and celebrate what we value through creative thinking. Working with 90 pupils from St. Michael’s Church of England Primary School in Louth over 2 days we generated lots of questions and answers alongside sculptures, books, and drawings. Now I’m in the process of designing a book. Everyone gets a copy. Spent time in Sheffield and Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Really good to see old favorite's at YSP, the Hepworth’s and Moore’s alongside the awesome Hirst’s and the gloriously lowkey disturbing work by Lindsey Mendick. Also managed to see the awesome Seizure by Roger Hiorns.