unidentifiable

The work has safely arrived in Exeter and I have spent the day sewing objects to leather clad plinths, writing and directing cave construction. I have had a restful last week escaping from the day to day and I feel all the better for it. The PV is on Thursday so I will head south again with Dover, Pearl, Thompson and Lomax to attend the PV on Thursday night.

After that the next show is in Manchester, opening on the eve of the Royal Wedding. I am currently making a series of drawings for Manchester, coercing the imaginary with the real, based on the first chapter "The Arrival", with the second "The Lost Chapters".

Lord Wilmore has been in contact regarding the upcoming shows and he is undecided as to whether he will be able to attend due to his pressing commitments with The House, so we will have to just wait and see. His Lordship has been sent digital copies of what we have managed so far and appears to be very keen to follow up his involvement in supporting us to make more work.

Beyond that I am to make contact with the writers for the Telling project and will be heading to Brantwood, Cumbria on 13th and 14th April with the writer and Dickens descendent Lucinda Hawksley. Material is accumulating.

nailing it

Hallie and I had a great meeting where we sat throwing ideas at each other for over an hour and half over a latte and a cappuccino, finally nailing our ideas down surprisingly quickly for two people that had had little sleep between them. We have planned a trip to a very exciting archive, more on that later.I left feeling elated that we had nailed the concept, the ideas behind the production and an exciting programme to boot.
I have since then finished the stalagmites for Exeter Phoenix and everything else for the show, which opens on April 1st. Outstanding is the work for the publication, which will need to happen over the weekend. I have the content, I just need to pull it all together. I start to look forward to the next show in Manchester as well as continue my pursuit for otherness and Telling. Informative times..

Raising a glass to those that remain nameless

I depart once more tomorrow to meet with Hallie about Dr Johnson. I have as yet had little time to donate to reading the book she has suggested, but it will be in my grip on the journey down. Work is complete for Exeter and arrangements have been made for the work to be picked up at the start of next week.
I have been working on a few things recently that have extended my ideas regarding the theatricality of my next project starting after Easter. The show in Manchester has now been arranged and the PV arranged conveniently for the eve of the wedding of those people that will remain nameless. We will no doubt raise our glasses as an excuse and head back to avoid the whole event the next day. I will then attempt to concentrate my efforts on Telling.

I can see you but can you see me

Last week I visit Devon for a mini meeting with Matt at Exeter Phoenix and then onto A La Ronde with Catherine to meet the next writer attached to the project by this venue. We had a tour by Trevor our guide, who was extremely informative and I made copious notes which I still need to attach to the research overall. The writer Liz Williams was lovely and has some great initial ideas with how the story from A La Ronde may fit into the works I have proposed to make. I have a feeling that this one could really fit into not only the project but my practice overall, but I will have to wait and see.

The work for Exeter is almost together and I have finally worked out how the space will work overall last night. Extremely excited about all of this now, I have whizzed off some drawings to the gallery and I hope the tech is happy to help. It will take a bit of construction. The chapel at A La Ronde that we also peeked around was informative to the final decision about the space, so it all ties in nicely. Lets hope Matt agrees!

I have written a proposal this week which brings together my current work, my practice as well as another exciting venture which will kick off nicely after Christmas. I wont reveal any of it for a while due to the nature of the work, just keep watching.

I have just returned from Yorkshire with a meeting with the author Jessica Hart and Harewood House. All is set to open in August and with Art in Yorkshire, supported by Tate partnership, the promotional leg of the show should be good for the summer. I am keeping silent about the proposed work for this project until we go public in March but all has now fallen smoothly into place with an opening each month with all venues and respective authors in place. I am fully immersed in the research element of the project, reading mountains of books and other research papers and the excitement and nerves are mounting.
I am also currently mid flow with subsequent works for the Fellowship of Willmore House and the works for two shows are almost complete. I have also recently had a meeting with another artist regarding a utopian manifesto and I am lagging behind with time to embark on new works for this, although its all carried around in my head for now. Once the work for the next two shows is complete, I will pursue these ideas with more gusto.
For now, I visit this week the next venue, just outside Exmouth with Catherine and the science fiction writer. This should prove to bring yet more ideas and discoveries, although I have quite firm ideas of outcomes for this particular venue. It will be another exciting week no doubt.

strösocker

This week has contained many things. On Thursday I met up with Catherine and the author Hallie Rubenhold at Dr Johnson's House, just off Fleet Street in London.It is tucked away surrounded by big businessess and to be frank is a small miracle to have survived all of the building that has obviously gone on around it for decades. The curator Stephanie was informative about the house which has already led me to more reading. The house again revealed a very exciting history that is secret from my audience for now but pertains to being another great leg of the project. I came away bursting at all the possibilities as well as a true sense of meeting some very generous and inspiring people. The pace of the day was steady although extremely wet and so I pursued a couple of shows in the East End that I found of particular interest as well as keep me dry. It was a great day out.

Work this week has been steady with a great deal of time spent on the internet buying component parts for the Manchester and Exeter shows. I have made a number of structures to contain work, found some great paper and bought spying devices. All has gone quite well, although I need to gather pace to get it all done in time. The 2D work is on the whole there, just need to frame the pieces that need it. Lists are being compiled. Now in full flow, the work needs to continue at a pace although time spent in a studio environment is restricted next week due to teaching commitments and a forthcoming meeting at Harewood House in Yorkshire on Thursday with travel up North on Wednesday. I will have to use my journey time well. I will be meeting the next writer for the first time which again, I am truly excited about. A completely different background and genre than Hallie, I hope to persuade her towards a leaning of more, more more!

I visited this evening, Ms Dover and Mr Pearl, both of which appear to have inherited the second dose of a heavy cold. Both appearing flushed with the weight of it all and Mr Pearl talked about his twisted underpants, I took it all in my stride.
Ickworth with Jamie this week has brought out my lavish tendencies. Talking above and below stairs, our informative guide led us through tales of the house and its basement with relative ease. The hard part is filtering it all to decide on what I am going to focus on.
The Trust new Art campaign is moving steadily forward unlike the practical side of my work. I have had a very experimental week where most of what I have attempted have turned out to be failures, so it is my intention to concentrate all my efforts into the 3D forms that I am trying to achieve. All the component parts are there, I just have to pull it off. Easy to say indeed.
The Exeter and Manchester shows are fast approaching, so I need to start to contain what is and what isnt going in. Sunday will be the day for great mastery of the thing I cannot seem to control. Just needs a little magic.
Next week involves my first visit to Dr Johnsons house. This should be good.