It was good having a break I'd like to say I thought about lots of things while I was away but I didn't I read lots of books,got up late and tried to empty my cluttered brain. I was pleased to get the confirmation from the arts council that the leveling the ground application had gone in, it feels like a good step forward. All the applications end up been very time consuming- I think this one especially as it is so ambitious. I remember when we got the Ruskin project after the initial buzz of the envelope coming through the door we both had a little bit of a thought about what we would do when the project finished, not having to deliver it but the fact it would end and we would be back to the moment before the envelope dropped through the door.
I am reminded of the line from the film "Plenty" which is also in the" Hours" and I think is from Virginia Wolf, "There will be days and days like this, I thought this was the beginning of happiness but this is happiness" I suppose it means that as Ruskin says we should be confident and aware of the current state of things and live with them to the best of our ability.
My last post was about having a holistic practice and moving across different places with different persona. As a projectionists I am Hi-Viz at a conference I'm Mr Fix, within lots of the academic work I authentic artist type lay person who helps to ground things. Within Kate and Steve and the Poly-technic work we to an extent share an identity that is about a combined practice. On the train to Hope to meet Amanda for our final discussions about Ruskin we talked about how to develop the poly-thechnic after our funding finished, I strangely talked about needing a structure to make sure we continued on the work and I think you felt that the work would continue as it was so central to what we do. In hindsight I think that it is not the money that drives the work as much as the sites and the people and the project. The Poly and Kate and Steve's work is about people and place and without people and place it's hard to do anything the work defines itself and progresses through the encounters with people.
It is interesting to look at the writing of the arts council proposal as practice, it has brought people together to think about shared issues, it has helped us develop ideas and has been difficult and challenging and collaborative, it is an impressive well thought through thing and for good or for bad it has brought us together to "Work through" something with people. For all our talking about the practice and asking others to comment on it and selling ourselves and making connections I still find myself wondering what the hell it is this practice we talk about so much is. I had a read back over this blog the other day to see if I could work anything out from what we have said on here and as a whole from start to finish there is a sense that things are moving on, that we are getting better at talking about what it is we are trying to do. There is also an essential futility in our efforts to pin things down, a level of always been distracted by something in the corner of our eyes that will not let us see straight. As this is clearly our condition perhaps this is the current state of things and a strength of the work- the ability to collapse and reform in any given situation.
We live in very different places and both places make strong demands on our attention, each day that I walk down my street I wonder if I should be working more locally. I also think about the work we do independently and the work we do as the collaborators and I think of a time when I could be in my workshop all day making and I think about focus and the future and wonder if it will be less schizophrenic.
Comments
Post a Comment