Gina Pane

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

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

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

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

while walking home the other day....

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...

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.