GreenAndRedApples

They are here

2009-10-09T07:31:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to see a piece of work made by They are here recently at CCA. it was a really interesting and enjoyable exercise to witness, as the screening that i attended was the first that the participants had seen of the film, so there was a sort of nervous tension in the air. Seeing the changes that where made through each stage of filming was so interesting and really very funny at times, and on reflection I know there where pieces missing or being lost from start to finish but even my own immediate memory of it was so scrambled I couldn't pin point exactly what was wrong. In the introduction to the film the artists described the process as something a little "like Chinese whispers, but with film" and I can't think of a better way to describe it myself.

Martin Creed

2009-10-09T07:28:00.002-07:00

Marina Abramovic

2009-10-09T07:28:00.001-07:00

Francis Alys

2009-10-09T07:26:00.000-07:00

I've been watching a lot of artist interviews on Youtube, which is a nice way to spend time.

untested bounderies

2009-04-23T04:53:00.000-07:00

For my self directed project I decided to follow an idea i have had on and off since the beginning of term one. I liked the notion of testing myself physically in order to learn something about myself, my own boundaries and also my understanding of them.

It was recommended that I take a look at the work of Smith/Stewart. I found mouth to mouth and breathing space particularly interesting, for the way they approached their subject, they way they deal with each other and also the aesthetic composition of the images.

Mouth to Mouth

Breathing Space

cool hunting

2009-04-23T04:40:00.000-07:00

Cool Hunting

I was introduced to this website a few weeks ago and have become a little bit addicted. Their site is made up of collections of videos on topics that the makers have decided are quite interesting, The subjects are very varied but all are shot in a similar style which gives a nice line of continuity.

This was one of my favourites.

100 photographs, 1 taken every 5 seconds for 8 minutes and 20seconds

2009-03-10T15:58:00.000-07:00

Gina Pane

2009-02-19T09:28:00.000-08:00

Gina Pane is another of the artists I found in the library, I really knew nothing about her work but her name came up relating to what I was researching. This was a good few weeks ago, then just the other day... now that I've planned what I want to do and am in the final stages of doing it... I was flicking through her book and found this piece of work. It's called (extending a wooden path (for going from one place to another for the purpose of communication)) 1970 and she is doing almost exactly what I am doing. The only thing that I can see different is the location and the material.
Part of me thinks it's really exciting and that maybe that means my ideas not so bad and the other part is a bit sad that it is practically identical and also everything I'm interested in has already been done in the 70's.

Marina Abramovic

2009-02-13T09:00:00.001-08:00

I found a list of artists who have made work which I can relate to what I'm interested in at the moment and one of them was Marina Abramovic. I know of all the usual pieces of her work from projects that other people have done but I've never looked at it in relation to mine and now I've found it's really really exciting.
There are a few works in particular that I can relate to what I'm interested in with this project. They focus on endurance and pushing your body to its limits. I also really liked the way the performances where documented, it was very simple, Just one photo from what she felt was the most powerful or relevant and a short description of what happened.

Freeing the voice.

'I lie on the floor with my head tilted backwards."

Performance:
"I scream until I lose my voice."
Duration 3 hours.

And also...

Freeing the body.

"I wrap my head in a black scarf."

Performance:
"I move to the rhythm of the black african drummer.
I move until I am completely exhausted.
I fall."

Duration: 8 hours.

Public Art Project Term 2

2009-02-11T13:01:00.001-08:00

click here to see photos from my public art project so far.... although theres no real information about it there and they are in no order?
i'll get on it later.

As Long As It Takes

2009-02-11T09:24:00.001-08:00

I've just heard about John Cages piece of music "as long as it takes". There was a BBC news article about it because in 2001 a church in Germany, Sankt-Burchardi-Church in Halberstadt, began playing the piece on their organ and this week the note changed. An average playing of this piece of music has taken between 20 to 70 minutes but this church is attempting to play for 639 year. So a note change is a pretty big deal, as it will be months or perhaps years before another happens.

Schedule of note changes:

February 5, 2009
July 5, 2010
February 5, 2011
August 5, 2011
July 5, 2012
October 5, 2013
September 5, 2020

They keep the continuous note by weighing the peddles down with sandbags.

Circles

2009-01-06T10:22:00.000-08:00

while walking home the other day....

2008-09-05T07:54:00.000-07:00

I passed the Great Eastern Hotel on Duke St, I've passed it everyday for the past year and have always found it interesting and loved the idea of what might be inside. It was famous for being the largest homeless mens hostle in Britain but it was closed down around five years ago with big plans to turn it into something else but nothing has been done yet. It looks like nothing will be done in the near future either as in January this year a huge storm blew the roof off and theres been no sign of any restoration being done or even any protection from the elements? I imagine it will eventually just be another building left to rot and then easy to knock down.

But back to my walk home.... as i was passing it about two weeks ago i noticed that the ground floor side door was not only unlocked but sitting open. this temptation was just to much to resist so i went to explore. I dont doubt that it was stupid and a bit dangerous but it was fantastic inside!

the ground floor was full of odds and ends like chairs, traffic cones, old kettles and mugs. it smelled terrible and im sure there must still be quite desperate people spending the night there, its the most wind and water tight of the whole place and is probably a more comfortable alternative to the street. Going up to the different floors was much more exciting though, the floors higher up are so bare and as huge as ballrooms now that they've been cleared of all the tiny dormitories. The higher up we went the less floor there was and the more you could see the sky peeking through the holes in the floors above but we where "safley" taking pictures from the concrete side stairwell. by the time we made it to the fourth floor i was well and truley spooked and too scared to chance the very very narrow dark stairway to the higher even ricketier floors, particularly when we became sure we heard someone moving around higher up.

So narrowly escaping with my life (or at least thats how it felt at the time) and a few pictures it feels like another little bit of the city thats not such a mystery anymore.

ok... so...

2008-09-05T07:02:00.000-07:00

I did manage to do a little bit of making over the summer, but only a little. I wanted to try just making for the sake of it and for the enjoyment of it instead of always trying to find a meaning in everything.

so i started knitting.
Knitting is something that i sort of enjoy anyway, I'm not great at it but you can do anywhere and once you get into the rhythm of it, it becomes almost meditative and very addictive... which is nice. Again i was trying to stick with the making for the sake of it and not to try to hard, so i practiced on certain bits and experimented with stitches and materials on others and when i was finished they began to look a lot like big creeping webs.

With this in mind it seemed natural to put them outside, so i did.

I though it would be interesting just to leave them there and see how they change. so far... nothing but its early days!! it would be nice if it started to become overgrown in the way that rope bindings round trees sometimes become swallowed up by the tree, but we'll see.

ive had a few coments on what they remind people of, one friend suggested it would make a nice homefor a lazy spider and another said it was like weaving a yarn. Like i was telling a story but in a physical way and they told me a little about Anansi the Spider who was The King of Stories in ashanti culture.

Swedish MFA

2008-08-13T08:06:00.000-07:00

I visited Gothenburg at the end of last term and happened to be in a gallery as their school of art unveiled its equivalent to the MFA graduation show.
There where some interesting things but it was a little tricky to grasp everything that was going on as they had Fine art and Design mixed together and some of the design show is still a bit of a mystery to me.

There was one piece in the show that i especially like, I loved the used of the material and just fell in love with the presence they had in such a crowded space. There's more pictures on Flickr just click on the picture.

While walking home...

2008-08-13T07:45:00.000-07:00

I passed the old BBC building just off Queen Margaret Drive. I think its a shame that it'll eventually be turned into just another giant hotel but there you go.
What i did see in the old car park was this!

Ive no idea what it is or was but i think it looks fantastic now. So i took lots of pictures and stuck them on flickr.

And speaking strange things you find while out walking I came across this tree in the park about a month ago. I spotted it because it was shining bright white and bare in amongst all the other freshly leaved trees.

I don't know what insect caused this web of silky stuff... it could be silk worms but I didn't think we got those in Glasgow?... It really was completely covered in the stuff and there where hundreds of little wiggly worms.

summer time

2008-08-11T13:14:00.000-07:00

I thought, as its only a month till school starts again, it might be nice to write a few more things on my blog.Ive been doing a little bit of personal research but as its just for me its been fairly erratic, a bit hit and miss?

Two books I took from the library and keep flicking through are The Art of Lee Miller and Tim Hawkinson.

Tim Hawkinson in particular has some pieces of work that I found interesting. He makes some fascinating machines, most of which are made from found objects, like clocks made from tubes of toothpaste, envelopes or plastic bags. I love the intensity behind the making of these objects, the idea of someone being so dedicated and devoting themselves to making these things purely for the joy of making them. One of my favorites was signature

its made from an old school desk with a hand built machine which seemingly endlessly churns out the artists signature.

Another is Wall Chart of World History from Earliest Times to Present

I find it staggering to think about the patience and obsession it must take to make something of that scale. Its really the obsessional nature that i find most fantastic.

Also the materials which he chooses in his work are really interesting, the way they are carefully chosen and reassembles to create something new. This is done so carefully that at first glance you probably wouldn't recognise it was anything other than what it pretends to be?

Eggshell made of ground hair and nails

Feather made from the artists hair

Spiders web made from Hair

That its so well made makes me question the point in making it at all but i suppose that is the point, the novelty, the patience and the skill is really the interesting thing not the finished object.

Head in the railings

2008-05-07T05:27:00.000-07:00

I went looking through the artist books in the mac library today. All the books I looked at where of a pretty standard format, not anything like some of the pictures I was interested in online. This has made me think that perhaps artist books aren't really what I should be looking at? I want to make a book that could be seen as something apart from the content, something like the camera in the last post.
What I did find in the library though, which I think is fantastic and applies really well to what I was trying to do, was a book of photographs by an artist called Sion Parkinson called Head in the Railings. It shows a series of public interventions made by the artist and under each picture there is a description of how he experienced them.

Artisit's Books

2008-05-04T05:19:00.000-07:00

With all the pictures I have taken this project I have been thinking about making a book, not to be part of my research instead of the blog but to go along with my final piece, like an explanition or a guide to the finished thing.

With this in mind Ive been trying to look at more Artists books for aome ideas. I have found quite a few that I'm looking forward to going through but they are all in the Mackintosh library but as its the bank holiday weekend I wont be able to look see them till Tuesday. I have managed to find nice examples online.

Lygia Clark 2

2008-05-02T07:32:00.001-07:00

With the questions I had in mind yesterday, I decided to have another look through my Lygia Clark book in more detail and to my surprise I found lots of her performances that where similar to what I have been doing.

There where hoods that she made

and particularly one piece called tunnel

In this piece she had participants crawl inside a long cloth tube, which clings to the body like a stocking. Along the way they are helped by others and if one participant feels suffocated a cut is made in the cloth. It sounds fantastic to me, all the work that she made was to do with approaching materials and actions from a new perspective. Putting them and yourself in a new context in order to experience them freshly and as something new. I really feel like finding this has helped to understand what I have been doing a little better.

Questions

2008-05-02T07:22:00.000-07:00

The day after the bag pictures where taken, I've been feeling a little bit like I don't quite understand what it is that I'm doing? I know I'm learning new ways to work, I'm trying new techniques and enjoying it but what is behind it all, where is the meaning?

I made a point of talking to Ken about how I can understand it better and he gave me some interesting ideas about how to approach things from another perspective in order to understand it from a new light. For example, he suggested I look at the relationship between self and other rather than just self and self, so looking at how others perceive the action of being in the bag not just my experience of it. The traditions behind women being made to cover up, this restriction of someone and contrast that with my volunteering to do it. The idea of a woman in a bag being a pre-packaged object, ready to pick up and take away. I found all of these ideas really interesting, I'm not sure if they are a direction I want to take but it's certainly opened it up to a new light.

Out and About and the Four Minute Warning

2008-05-02T06:05:00.000-07:00

Wednesday I decided that the weather was never going to get any nicer and even though it's raining when else am I going to get these pictures taken! Euan kindly offered the use of his camera and we went out to take some photos of me in the bag. I was feeling pretty nervous about it, so we stared off in the Macintosh stairwell that leads down to the basement, i like the light down there and Euan said there was a cupboard under the stairs which could look quite nice in the photos. This gave me time to get a little bit more comfortable moving around and also let me see the kinds of shapes and effects I could make with the materials. This is one of my favorites, I'm stretching up to cover the stairway light.

Click on this link for the Flickr page I set up to show the rest of the pictures, it looks a bit of a jumble at first but the organised sets make it clearer.

After the pictures taken in the basement Euan suggested I set myself a task. I should go to each of the buildings that make up the art school (Macintosh, Newberry, Bourdon, Foulis, JD Kelly, Barnes and Haldane) and give myself a set amount of time from the moment I step foot in the door to find what I feel would be the safest place to hide. We decide on the time limit being 4 minutes as it corresponds to what I wrote about earlier, the protect and survive manual the treat of nuclear attacks and the 4 minute warning. The idea of this made me feel even more anxious at first but I decide d to give it a shot anyway. I'm glad that I did, it was a lot of fun, again it helped me to feel more comfortable and I think we got some really nice pictures and shapes out of it.

All this took about an hour to do and then we headed out properly and took some photos in more open places, which is what I had had in mind from the start. As much fun as the others where to make and as much as i like a lot of the results I think these pictures are my favorites. I like the contrast within the settings and the way it became quite amorphous and doesn't always look like there's a body underneath. some of them particularly the ones taken on the fence remind me of kinds of fungus that grow on tree stumps.

In the bag

2008-05-01T15:38:00.000-07:00

As planned I went round some charity shops to try and find some suitable material to make my bag from, in about the third or fourth shop i found the perfect stuff! Its a pale lemon, fleeced cotton, double bed sheet. I would have liked to have more than one to play with but it was only a pound and its more than big enough to fit me, which is my main objective.

Once I got into the studio I very quickly and roughly stapled two of the three edges together to make one really large pocket and then i tried it on. It was really pretty comfy in the bag? Nice and light, not to stuffy and very soft and Downy just like i had imagined it might be, i felt quite safe, safe enough to stand about for a bit. Then, the next thing I know someone is giggling and tying a piece of rope around my middle to trap me in.

It was funny even though it got a bit claustrophobic in there but what I found really interesting was I had never considered how vulnerable putting yourself in a big opaque bag could be? Seems silly that it hadn't occurred to me before but I had gotten too caught up in the idea of making yourself small, covered up and safe but it was all from my perspective within not the perspective without. I still like the original idea of creating a private moment in a public setting but I'll definitely take this aspect of vulnerability along with it.

Thank you Hazel for taking the pictures and video... and thank you Stephen for getting me out, but not Steven, it was you that tied the knot so tight.

Hood

2008-05-01T15:06:00.000-07:00

As a start to making a bag Ive been looking at and pricing different material. In my mind Id like it to be made of fleeced material, something like a bed sheet or a baby blanket, which is nice as both have secure connotations. I'd like it to be big enough to at least hold me, about two double bed sheets sewn together size. Originally I had a circle shape in mind, so it would look a little like a deflated balloon or giant tea bag to crawl into but i think a large rectangle might be best. It will be easier to sew and also will make nicer shapes and folds as there's more fabric left over to play with.

I took a little trip down to Mandors, to price and see if they had anything near what I had in mind. They do have rolls of fleeced cotton material but its quite expensive so I will be going for a hunt round some charity shops in the next few days. What i did find though was some nice material in the scrap bin, it was no where near enough but i bought it to play around with. I bought some pink and white elasticated cotton which I've made into a little tent.

And some heavy navy blue felt which i very quickly and roughly made into a hood, to try out how the bag might feel. Trying the hood on was fun, its pitch black inside and not comforting at all, really feels quite eerie and unnerving. It's big enough to cover me to just below my knees if i curl myself up.

When I saw the hood on other people it reminded me a lot of the hood that the Iraqi prisoners where forced to wear in Abu Ghraib. It made sense of the uncomfortable feelings I'd had earlier but has also tainted the idea of the bag for me a bit and I definitely don't want to put the hood on again.

warm lights

2008-05-01T14:45:00.000-07:00

Walking home very late the other night I came across a vacant shop, which must have been going through a refurbishment of some kind. And for some reason there where still some lights on inside, it made the empty shop floor seem very warm and inviting on a horribly cold wet night.

Eggs

2008-05-01T14:05:00.000-07:00

Got a quick picture of the eggs in the nest while the bird was off doing other things. Think they're such a beautiful shade of blue.

Another book I was recommended was the Poetics of Space. Ive only managed to read one chapter so far but it was specifically related to nests. Its got some very beautiful passages but I chose a few that particularly made me think:

" The well being I feel, seated in front of my fire, while bad weather rages out of doors, is entirely animal. A rat in its hole, a rabbit in its burrow, cows in the stable must all feel the same contentment I do."

"the sense of well being takes us to the primitiveness of the refuge. Physically the creature endowed with a sense of refuge, huddles up to itself, takes cover, hides away,lies snug concealed."

"among the wealth of our vocabulary for verbs that express the dynamics of retreat, we should find images based on animal movements of withdrawal, movements that are engraved in our muscles."

"to make such a gentle comparison between house and nest one must have lost the house that stood for happiness. We return to it because our memories are like dreams which become a great image of lost intimacy."

everyday saftey

2008-05-01T13:44:00.000-07:00

Jamie wasn't feeling too good today and he let me take his picture, he said this made him feel better...

walking home i came across these sandbags by roadworks, they reminded me of how I imagine I might look in the bag

Lygia Clark

2008-05-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

After the talk with the second years it was suggested i take a look at the work of Helio Oiticica and Lygia Clark so I picked up a couple of books from the library. I particularly enjoyed the Lygia Clark, I really love her use of materials and the way she approached ideas. She made some beautiful drawings and fascinating sculptural pieces but I loved her performance pieces where she involved the audience. There are lots of these performances in the book under the chapter heading "The Phantasmagoria of the Body" which i think sounds wonderful. Found a lovely description of her work on line:

Communicating through experience, Clark emphasizes the fluidity of life in opposition to any attempt to fix and systematize the world. With this series of uncanny wearable creations made of cheap and ephemeral materials often found on the streets, work and body merge into a hybrid of geometric and organic forms. The participant wearing the Parangolé dances with it, exploring kinetically its multiple possibilities.

I really like the temporary nature of this work, i like the fact that the only people who properly get to experience the work are those who where there and took part at the time. The photographs and documentation of these performances just seems to be an after thought, most of them don't seem to be taken with aesthetics in mind or to be particularly bothered about it either.

One piece in particular which i like is Rede de elastico, it was again another audience involved performance piece. A net is made from these red elastic bands by many participants, to complete it they have to weave them together and in doing so begin to weave themselves, this then forms a collective body and the act of weaving the net becomes as important as using it afterwards.

Although I'm not interested in involving anyone else in what I want to make I love the shapes that are made by the participants when they move around underneath. So with this in mind what I've been thinking about is making myself a big bag. I'd quite like to make a really big fabric bag that I can move around inside of. It incorporates the public and private aspects I've become most interested in, as being in the bag would be very private experience but one that could be witnessed by an audience. I imagine the audience would never fully understand what was happening underneath the material and the person inside wouldn't be able to gauge any reaction or whether in fact there was an audience there at all? The idea of a barrier between the two aspects interests me to, because creating a barrier be it social or physical is a way to keep yourself safe.

3... 2... 1... coming ready or not!

2008-04-22T08:11:00.000-07:00

While walking home from the shops on Saturday afternoon I passed by the school at the top of my street. In the playground I saw two wee-ish boys running towards the rain shelter where they crouched down in opposite corners behind pillars. I thought it was a bit of a strange thing to do and naturally thought the worst, that maybe they had robbed a pensioner or mugged someone for their Ipod? It was only when i saw another kid hiding down beside a wheelie bin quickly followed by a fourth who wandered out into the middle of the ground looking a bit lost that i realised they where playing hide and seek... phew!

But the reason I'm including this is, I've never seen the game from that perspective before,the only other times I've payed attention is when I've been playing, but walking past I could see all of the game at once. I saw the hiders and the seeker and the inevitable mad dash.

Seemed like it was a perfect little illustration of the nooks and crannies you can find when you need to and got me thinking that maybe it would be a nice idea to mark these in some way. All those places that you walk past everyday but that could be turned into a prefect hidy-hole if only you knew it.

This reminded me of some street Art that caught my imagination years ago. Its by an Artist called Louise, she works with her partner Eugene and together they create all sorts of magical things. What was in my mind was some work Louise made by knitting objects and then casting them in plaster, she says of them:

'my world is filled with naivety, in a lonely kind of way. My little creatures play hide and seek, but mostly never end up being found. My only goal is to offer a short, intimate moment to the happy few who notice a little Louise creature in the hussel of the city.'

Unfortunately I couldn't find any available images online to show but if you go to their website under the heading of Personal work and click on L-Street you'll find some really beautiful images. It's well worth having a look at the rest of their work too, I've completely fallen in love with it the Eugene and Louise bakery in particular.

Things to keep you warm at night

2008-04-22T07:20:00.000-07:00

I was told the other day about a traditional blanket coat that's used a lot in north Africa by travellers crossing through the desert. Its designed to be almost all the shelter you could wish for, warm at night, cool in dazzling heat and thick enough to keep out the bugs and sand. The travellers practically live in them, so i heard? But try as i might I've not been able to find any information on line about them.

This got me thinking about Nomadic lifestyles, people who travel as a culture almost without any choice because it's just what they do. So, for fear of wasting anymore time I began looking a little at some of these cultures. The First that sprang to mind was Mongolia and the Yurts that some people live in. I didn't realise till now just how many cultures use these portable homes from Russia all the way to Pakistan. Passed down from father to son for generations, I read that they can be dated with the build up of smoke stains on the roof from the years upon years of cooking fires. They seem to be quite a big business these days too, springing up in places you wouldn't think of. They look a little bit like upside down nests to me the way the wooden lattice of the roof is described and also the way its covered with the fleece of the sheep that are tended by the families.

I suppose the Scottish version, although its not an accurate equivalent, would be a bothy. Its temporary in that its used for short period of times by many different people, so it becomes communal but also isolated which is a nice contradiction. It's very basic providing only shelter and not much else, in fact I'm not sure if it wouldn't be more homely in a tent? My favourite thing about Bothy culture is the etiquette, as listed in the link, the fact that there are unwritten rules that you are expected to adhere to. The only way to know them is to be told by someone with more experience than you, that passing down of tradition and information and even location is what makes these things special for me.

Wasp story

2008-04-21T13:11:00.000-07:00

At the weekend my mum told me a story about a time in the 70's when she was on a beach in Spain. While she was sunbathing she was watching a little wasp. It was flying backwards and forwards from where there was a skirt lying beside her. This went on for hours before she decided to investigate. When she did lift up the material to find out what the wasp found so interesting she discovered that it was in the process of building itself a little nest. She said it was quite a heavy, navy wool so maybe it made a good shelter from the sun.

Ode to Bill Oddy

2008-04-21T11:39:00.000-07:00

I seem to be making a habit out of bird watching now. One of the Birds seems to have come back to the nest, I've no idea wether its the same mother bird again or one of the grown up babies but I hope it's got some eggs to sit on.... I'd love a picture of the nest with eggs.

With this new interest in nature awareness I'm thinking of getting myself a Bee Box. I have wanted one for a long while so its not strictly a matter of research but i do think it would be facinating to watch a Bee making a home for itself in a little wooden box. Providing a home for something also seems like an interesting thing to do.

studio dens and fabric nests

2008-04-16T11:19:00.000-07:00

I thought it was about time i gave building a den a shot, so tried it out this afternoon in the studio. I brought in some fabrics and set up camp under my table

It wasn't exactly time consuming to build but it was fun to snuggle down underneath it. It felt a bit silly at first but as soon as i was underneath with the material drawn across it seemed like it didn't matter anymore. The feeling was almost immediate to, which was surprising, lying down and peering out through the cracks in the sheets i felt like no one could know i was there. It was really pleasant.

I also thought i'd try making different kinds of nests under the table with the left over fabric, because id always rather have a home made of c omfortable material than twigs and mud or bits of newspaper. They turned out to be less like nests and more like hammocks or little fabric wombs. There are some birds who make womb like nests but these reminded me more of something like a kangaroo pouch.

Nest building attempt one

2008-04-16T10:48:00.000-07:00

Last night I gave nest building a go for the first time. I'm not sure its an exactly successful nest, i wouldn't trust any baby anythings in there. But it was defiantly good to try out.

Its made from newspaper strips, thicker twisted ones to form the frame, thinner strips for weaving and whats really just spit balls to pad out the inside (Couldn't bring myself to make the spit balls in the traditional way, so i just went for the more hygienic papier mache option instead). It took at least an hour and a half to make, with a lot of complaining about how rubbish it looked in between.

The process reminded me of some things we've spoken about in other projects, things like ritual acts and feminine traditions. It felt quite therapeutic, when I wasn't complaining, it made me think of all the caring acts mothers do to prepare for their children like crocheting a blanket, knitting clothes and socks or setting up a room. Even the fact that now that its finished and i think it's a bit rubbish and not up to scratch makes me think of how mum's never really feel like they've done a good enough job no matter how hard they try. So i suppose it's fitting that it could definitely be better put together.

The extremley informative Protect and Survive manual

2008-04-16T09:18:00.000-07:00

I found the extremely helpful Protect and Survive manual while searching for other things in the Mitchel Library. As it says on the front cover "This book tells you how to make your home and your family as safe as possible under nuclear attack" and i thought it was bound to have some information about h ow to build a very safe nest. It's a government pamphlet which was given out in the mid 80's due to the apparent threat of nuclear attack. Its full of all sorts of useful information about where to build your fall out shelter and how to build one from books and bits of doors?

A handy lists of supplies to keep handy for the 48hours of radiation that follows a bomb drop , it includes such things as: Torches, spare batteries, matches, toilet articles, change of clothes, first aid, dry sand, Vaseline , notebooks for messages, cleaning materials, toys and a mechanical clock. It tells you how to store drinking water safely, how to go to the bathroom, how to protect against fire, how to deflect the blast by painting the windows white and, of course, how to bury your dead.

To be honest I found it all pretty comical to read over. It seemed so ludicrous and the advice given is pretty laughable , things like... "If you are in the open and cannot get home within a few minutes lie flat (in a ditch) and cover the exposed skin of the head and hands" the little illustration shows you how to cover your head with a jacket. I find it really hard to believe that this will save you in a nuclear attack? but it is a government approved handbook?

The further into the booklet i got though the sadder it seemed. This illustration in particular makes the people look so pathetic.

I suppose I can find it laughable because I'm lucky enough never to have experienced this kind of threat. And if you are living this day to day when the government tells you to do something to keep yourself safe, with no other option, there's a good chance your going to do what they say. It does seem an awful lot like scaremongering at best and at worst miss information for the hopeless.

Anyway, it was definatly an intresting read, I'm glad I came a cross it and i think it c overs quite a few of the points in my research too.

Dens, Forts, Nooks and Crannies

2008-04-14T13:25:00.001-07:00

Having a think about what I originally had in mind for this project, I got to remembering to dens and hidy-holes i used to make when i was little. I'm pretty sure we've all made the same kinds, although I was very lucky as my mum was suprisingly understanding when it came to turning the furniture upside down. Those ones where my favorites, when I was allowed to turn the living room upside down and make my own imaginary house within it. On more average days it was just a plain old bed sheet over the kitchen table, very snug.

Or making a nook under a hedge in the back court... that was particularly good fun as there where always rocks and tree roots to use as furniture. The backgarden den also has more in commen with the nests I've been looking at and the thought of making a little woven enclosure out and about somewhere is quite exciting. like a nest for memories.

I'm still looking for some more detailed information, on artists or otherwise, about why all children do this and why it is such a comforting thing? I think it could be an interesting thing to take further, or just to understand a little better for myself.

Still Human Still Here

2008-04-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

while looking for some more information as a follow up to the last post, I found this campaign from Amnesty International, there is also a short documentary on the subject from Nick Broomfield on this link

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?categoryID=10398

Still Human Still Here is campaigning to end the destitution of refused asylum seekers. It just really makes me wonder where do you go when you literally have nothing? The stories you hear are far from typical stories of homelessness, if there is such a thing, what do you do when you've lost everything that we usually use to define ourselves: your family, your friends, any possessions, security, all your rights as an individual and any sense of familiar culture?

I've taken some books from the library on the subject which I've still to read and also asked for some more information on this and similar campaigns from Amnesty. This is not really the route I wanted to take with the project so I'm going to keep exploring with some more light hearted research and I also don't want to feel like I'm make light of something so serious but it is something which interests me.

paraSITE

2008-04-14T02:59:00.000-07:00

http://www.michealrakowitz.com

Micheal Rokowitz's paraSITE is the other end of a similar scale. This work is creating what I would consider to be basic human rights and needs rather than just purely addressing comfort and security, there doesn't seem to be anything particularly secure about the inflatable shelters.

It makes me wonder how different your concept of a home becomes when your stripped of almost everything you know?

There's no place home click click click

2008-04-14T02:29:00.000-07:00

What is it that makes a home?
What do you need to make yourself feel settled and secure?
I'm not sure what this means for me, it seems obvious to say that it is made from a feeling rather than anything else but that doesn't seem to be specific enough for the things I've been looking at. I'm taken with the idea that once you leave home, the place you grew up in, that there's no longer a home for you to return to. The little spell of comfort that you had is broken and it becomes up to you to recreate it for yourself and most people, i imagine, use things to make this real again.

It reminds me of something i read about Simone De Beauvoir a long time ago, it was a passage in Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre. He was writing about how she moved around so much and yet still made every place she stayed seem like home. She did this by carrying with her suitcases full of her most important possessions, scarves, books, pictures and trinkets. At the time I thought this seemed like quite a romantic idea but looking back at it now it seems a little bit sad. To make everywhere you go exactly the same seems limiting to me, not only are you missing out on experiencing the new you are also never properly recreating or capturing the place you miss?

Pepe Espaliú

2008-04-13T14:15:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFo--kt973I&feature=related

The one piece i was particularly interested in by this artist is called "The Neck" unfortunately i couldn't find an image of it anywhere. It was a performance made in a garden where a octagonal platform was built onto a tall tree which could be viewed from a nearby window. Everyday for eight days the artist climbed a ladder to the platform, removed one of his eight pieces of clothing and walked an increasing number of times around the trunk of the tree. As the days went on and the articles of clothing built up it began to form a kind of nest. It was based around idea of being able to approach god through ritual activity involving divestment of goods and above all preconceptions. This ritual ceremony was an empty gesture, which echoed the purifying and punishing rituals of medieval monks and hermits.

I like the private and public aspects of this performance. The way that the act is a solitary one made for quite deeply personal reasons but that it is open for others to see. A quote from the book i read on Pepe Espaliu put this nicely "As Bueys said, the only way to improve and perhaps to heal is to become aware and show ones wounds."

A lot of the work reflected this idea. The artist suffered from HIV and Aids and used his experiences of life with illness to create art... "the art made through his illness was a search for elusive forms and to capture emotional and existential states."

"The empty cage is not the prison but the body itself"

Another series of performances that seek to capture these elusive emotional states, took place with the artist being carried down the street by two members of the public. taking reference in the bible stories of Jesus carrying peter across the water. It makes a childhood game into a meaningful communication, where the carrier becomes the carried.

That Nesting Instinct

2008-04-11T09:23:00.000-07:00

To start this project i've begun looking at ideas of saftey and security. It began when two weeks ago i found a nest in the hedge outside my bedroom window, it contained two chirrping baby birds and a mother bird who looked awfully unhappy to see me sticking my nose into thier home. She snuggled down on the little chicks so all you could see peering from underneath was one little beak nuzzling about. The chicks have since flown away and the nest seems to be abandoned but it still looks beautifull, especially as it seems secret. I dont think anyone else would know that its there?

Trying to build a replica little nest really appeals to me i found these instructions: http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/robin/BuildNest.html

1. Find a suitable building site
The site should be protected from sun, wind and rain. It can be anywhere from ground to treetop in height; the site must be on something sturdy enough to anchor the nest securely in place. You don't want your nest to fall off!
Your nest should also be very close to a good feeding spot so you can easily find worms while keeping an eye on it, and it shouldn't be too far from water.
Choose a spot that is hard for predators to see. Remember, you and your eggs and babies will be sitting here for the next 5 weeks, so be careful to pick a spot that's safe, cool, and comfortable.
2. Gather materials
Grass fibers: Collect about 350 dead grasses and twigs that are about 6 inches long. (The pile should weigh about 135 grams.)
Soft mud: After a soaking rain, collect mouthfuls of mud in your beak and travel back and forth to your nest site a few hundred times. (If you happen to be a person rather than a robin, you might substitute your hands for a beak to collect the mud, but don't forget that it takes a pair of robins hundreds of visits to build the nest!)
3. Build!
Weave the grasses together, cementing them to each other and to the supporting branch or windowsill with mud.
Next, use your tummy to shape the nest into a perfect baby cradle.
Finally, line the inside with the softest grasses and hairs you can find so the eggs will stay warm and not get pierced by any twigs or sharp grass edges. The nest must be tight and snug enough to cradle the eggs and hold in your warmth, but large enough to hold four or even five BIG nestlings.

This idea of sneaking yourself into a small space to keep yourself and the people you love safe got me thinking about how we all do this everyday. We make safe spaces for ourselves in our homes, bedrooms, cars, relationships, clothing, even in our own personal space and the bounderies we create. I noticed how we do this at the start of every project in the studio, we all select our little bit of wall in whats really just a big white box and make it our own, fill it with personal things important to us and what we are exploring. its a comforting thing to do and i think there are times when we all feel insecure and want to curl ourselves up into a tiny corner.

still to decide

2008-04-11T09:10:00.000-07:00

im still trying to decide wether to make a book or a blog for this part of the project. So ive decided to try and do both as i go along, taking things from my sketchbook to include here and then maybe taking things from this blog to make a book... fingers crossed!

help please

2008-01-24T11:50:00.001-08:00

Walking to school across George Square on Tuesday morning I noticed a pair of hand prints on a wooden hut. They where only a slightly different shade to the wood and it was just good luck to notice them. I wondered how they could have gotten there and enjoyed the fact that i had seen them but didnt think more of it after that.

Then walking home last night I spotted another set of prints on St. Vincent Street! This time they where on the grey granite wall of a shop and seemed to be printed on with clear varnish. Again it was just the luck of stopping at the right cash machine and the lovely orange glow of the street lamp lighting it in just the right way.

So! I'd really like to find more of these and I'd also love to find out who's making them and why.... if anyone knows please pass it on
cheers!

week three!!!

2008-01-21T13:15:00.001-08:00

I've now been looking at personal maps, text and markings of the hands. Paul suggested a nice idea of creating more of these maps from people who work in the building, staff, teachers or students noting the differences in both surface and with the emotions and words involved. This will hopefully end with having a collection of photocopies of hands with relative words and maybe pictures, a cast of my own hand with raised text or, going back to my original idea, possibly an etched palmistry diagram on perspex or glass.

Mona Hatoum: Routes II

Mierle Laderman Ukeles: Touch Sanitation

http://http//www.communityarts.net/readingroom/archivefiles/2002/09/touch_sanitatio.php

Ian Hamilton Finaly: never

Interviews, Videos and Imaginative Maps

2008-01-11T13:47:00.000-08:00

Found this video of Jack Kerouac while looking for information to add to my list of intersting folk, think its fantastic... you cant beat a little bit of jazz piano *click, click, click*

couldnt quite figure out how to add the video to the page so here is the link instead...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBILjdzkpzU

We where lucky enough to do the interview with Kenny Hunter this afternoon and yesterday with Justin Carter and Ross Sinclair. What i found interesting about all three conversations is that although there where alot of different opinions given, particularly to the question "what is Art?" the one thing that kept coming up was politics. Whether it be the need to share something of meaning or the idea that its never the artists place to take sides but to use your own experiance as a filter through which you express your opinions. Really looking forward to seeing the vidoes now so i can remember exactley what was said.

Also I've been doing a little bit of research about the original school building on Ingram street and from this i think i would like my bit of the project to involve maps in some way. With this in mind i did some googling to see what i could find, one of the results from my 'imaginative maps' search was excerpts from a conversation with Salman Rushdie. Although it had nothing to do with what i was looking for and really wasnt that helpful at all there was a couple of things said that i liked a lot... this one in particular made me think of the relationships between people within the school and the atmosphere thats created from them... a bit like a cooking smell...

"One image I find most satisfying is the leaking, people leaking into each other like flavours when you cook... One bit of the story (Midnights Children) leaks into other stories."

little light bulb

2008-01-10T13:47:00.000-08:00

I finally found a use for my little light bulb today, its been kicking around in my bedroom for a long time but today it found a home on top of the public telephone in the Mac reception. Only makes me sad that it cant light up... but maybe that makes it more special

I found this second workshop really helpful, its made thinking about the space a lot easier for me. Until now its all felt a bit unreal but seeing everyones quick sculptures dotted around the school its become more exciting to think about what will be changed in a few weeks.

The hidden pieces especially appealed to me, there are so many subtle little changes all over the building i think its a nice thing to pick up on. It shows everyone has a respect for the school but also cant resist making their own wee mark. For instance, while i was sticking my light bulb onto the top of the phone i noticed someone had doodled a sort of constellation pattern onto the wall of the booth, but because the walls are a very dark grey/black the pencil marks only show when the light hits in just the right way.

Testing...

2008-01-09T14:23:00.001-08:00

One...

Two...

Three...

*ahem*

GreenAndRedApples

They are here

Martin Creed

Marina Abramovic

Francis Alys

untested bounderies

cool hunting

100 photographs, 1 taken every 5 seconds for 8 minutes and 20seconds

Gina Pane

Marina Abramovic

Public Art Project Term 2

As Long As It Takes

Circles

while walking home the other day....

ok... so...

Swedish MFA

While walking home...

summer time

Head in the railings

Artisit's Books

Lygia Clark 2

Questions

Out and About and the Four Minute Warning

In the bag

Hood

warm lights

Eggs

everyday saftey

Lygia Clark

3... 2... 1... coming ready or not!

Things to keep you warm at night

Wasp story

Ode to Bill Oddy

studio dens and fabric nests

Nest building attempt one

The extremley informative Protect and Survive manual

Dens, Forts, Nooks and Crannies

Still Human Still Here

paraSITE

There's no place home *click click click*

Pepe Espaliú

That Nesting Instinct

still to decide

help please

week three!!!

Interviews, Videos and Imaginative Maps

little light bulb

Testing...

There's no place home click click click