Pressing Issues

The history of the press as I see it standing here and looking back.  Virginia Wolf says we can only truly understand things in the past and this post is very much in the middle so I'm not looking for understanding more a little  bit of insight.

I think we got the commission because of all the work we had done on the "Business of Life project" proposal' lots of chatting up and networking and sowing the seeds in peoples minds - it was one which grew somewhere and made the commissioners think "I wonder what they would come up with." part of me worries that the curators clicked on Kate's Website while looking at our application and were seduced by it's beauty. Anyway we were selected to produce a contemporary response to the theme of landscape for the force of nature exhibition.  Although we collaborate fully on projects I don't think we have really made that much together or what could be described as a "Single piece" together- we co -author the work but often have distinct bits or responsibilities within it.  I clearly remember walking out of the meeting and I think you had had the idea of the press within about half an hour.  In my mind a flower press is s bits of ply some threaded stud and wing nuts and for some reason is linked to Macrame hanging baskets and yogurt makers. I knew this wasn't what you had in mind and I was really happy with the idea but I did wonder how I could feel like I half owned it.

We then got really into the idea of the triptych from the business of life quote

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Men’s proper business in life falls mainly into three divisions:

First, to know themselves, and the existing state of the things they have to do with.

Secondly, to be happy in themselves, and in the existing state of things.

Thirdly, to mend themselves, and the existing state of things, as far as either are marred and mendable.

 Ruskin, John.  Sinclair, William.  Selections from the writings of John Ruskin.  London: Robert Culley c.1908.

I'd had the idea at the Tipping point conference to turn off the escalators in the Millennium galleries - saving electricity and forcing people to walk outside and face the elements before entering the exhibition - the perfect sign reading "Out of order due to art" daubed shriglyesk onto a A framed sign.  You were drawing a detailed picture of a cow hide from a cow which you had raised on the farm - you had taken it from the abattoirs I only saw it in my minds eye but it became the image of acceptance  to be "Happy with the existing state of things - I don't think Ruskin meant to be complacent he just means that we all die and we need to learn to be happy with this.  The perfect storm of art was laid out before us. I loved the idea of the conceptual Triptych I could imagine the poncey art reviewer from the guardian guide eulogizing about how clever we were.  Then somebody pissed on our bomb-fire and said we could not do it because they only liked the press and it fitted in with the idea of "Landscape" and to be fair we probably had got carried away with the ideas but they were good.

And I suppose this brings us back to Ruskin and the final part of our quote which is to mend ourselves and the existing state of things.  Clearly this was a really important opportunity and we were in no position to chuck our handbag out of the pram.  So we went back to the press and tried to work out how to make it into a piece we were both happy with.  Here is a bit from an email I sent to Stephen Walker in trying to get the School of  architecture involved.

The proposition.

Sheffiled Galleries and Museums trust has commissioned Kate Genever and Steve Pool to make a piece of work for the forth coming exhibition Force of Nature.  The show is supported by the Guild of St George and will explore British landscape painting.  Kate and Steves commission is one of three contemporary works which will accompany historical and contemporary artistic responses to landscape.

Kate and Steve will produce a oak Press constructed from Timber from Kate's Farm and slate from the Lake district the press will have a number of layers of 500 mm square paper.  Each layer will capture an idea and a moment and be "pressed or sedimented in a phenomenological Strata of human creative experience.

On set days over the course of the 6 months of the exhibition different layers will be opened  for display to the public giving a large number of people an opportunity to have their work on display as Kate would say "To share the love."

Kate and steve would visit the department explain the project and the ideas behind the "Ruskin studio" and leave a single square of paper with the students for them to prepare for sedimentation within the press and eventual exhibition.




I didn't get a response but hey it does sound a bit mad but it does sum up the idea pretty straight forward way. well not straightforward but it sums it up.

We then had a bit of a long and intense day with failings out and recriminations about all sorts not just the press- it was press stress. We made the thing in cardboard in the Ruskin studio and we both felt that it might be shit.  Walking down the steps I said "Why don't we do "a page a day" possibly at this point I got shared ownership of the piece.  It feels a bit petty to admit this- like this was my idea and that was your idea so it's fair but I was still struggling with the escalator and the tryptich and I was really struggling with the fact that we were making art for a gallery and perhaps it wasn't the fact that our art was shit but that material objects in art galleries as a"Form" are limited in terms of meaning making. Or perhaps the piece felt a bit like something I would have done 20 years ago or would have liked to have done twenty years ago.

Now I think it's a nice piece for these reasons

1. It will meet the needs of the people who commisioned it

2. It asks questions about what "Landscape"  in an exhibition which is curated around traditional notions of landscape.

3. It allows us to show lots of different peoples work over time and symbolises this by it's form it is by it's nature democratic.

4. In a small way it mends the problem with the escalator and the cow hide in that it gives us an opportunity to curate what we show.  This is a mend rather than a rant and we will not show a picture of my hairy arse to make a point but it does play with the notion of quality,control and curation.

5. It will look beautiful

6. It builds on and develops the whole discussion about the idea of the "Proposition" and how projects can draw the threads together to form a rope.  It is nice how the piece manages to reflect this conversation and help us work through it.