Today I had my first day off for art purposes of the year. It was an absolute delight! We now have a table downstairs for me to spread out and create lots of mess. I have done my first paper making unsupervised. My Mum gave me a wonderul lesson at Christmas. It’s so relaxing and it takes no time at all.
I have recently rediscovered Erwin Wurm and his work has been making me smile all week. I particularly like his one minute sculptures where himself, models or the audience interact with everyday objects. I have never been to a show of his but would love to read the instructions that he writes or illustrates and have a go at turning myself into a sculpture. It will be no surprise to hear that I think the photograph of a person using a chair to create a sculpture is incredible. I find them amusing but also enjoy the immediacy of how they are made.
In my first year at University someone suggested I look at Erwin Wurm’s work. At the time I was making self portraits by lying down on a piece of A1 paper and asking someone to draw round me. I would then fill in with block colour the shape left behind to create an odd silhouette. The idea was to make these into 3D versions but I could never quite get to the bottom of how.
During the same year I was spending a lot of time getting into small spaces (as you do!). My most proud achievement was fitting into the top compartment of a discarded fridge (might well have been the start of my love affair with discarded objects!).
Writing about the idea that I can’t seem to make work about wasting time whilst wasting time not making art about wasted time. I always want to suffer for my art. A cliché, I know. The idea of wasting time enjoying myself has never occurred to me. All this time I could have been making work by eating my favourite foods, meeting my friends for tea or jumping for joy.
No, that would be pointless, meaningless and I dare say it, enjoyable. NOT. THE. POINT.
What is the point? Why is it that time wasted has to involve an element of the mundane, the drab, the boring and end with a yawn? I think it’s because the things I enjoy are categorised as useful, valuable, exciting moments of time so even if the occurrence of these events is to put something else off, it somehow feels acceptable.
I would not get that sense of nothing from doing something. I would not have that feeling of being at my wits end, of giving up, sometimes of deep despair. I might feel…happy? God forbid. No suffering is better. The act of doing something you do not want to do, is so much more cathartic. It clears your mind.
If I just sat in silence and decided I was going to make art, I would fail. If I go to work and my mind wanders, or I’m on a train without a pen or listening to the same story that they told me yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that, my head will flood with ideas. Why?
I have just taken the rubbish out and next door are getting rid of lots of their stuff with the aid of my favourite sign ‘please help yourself’. Never fails to confuse me how happy moments like this make me!
I didn’t have a closer look for fear of filling my house with more unnecessary things. Tempting though…
I’ve had such a lovely Christmas! I’ve eaten, drank and documented to excess. On Christmas eve eve I saw a sofa which was an early Christmas present for me and probably a relief to the person getting rid.
Then on Christmas morning we had a ‘Pollyanna‘ moment in our living room. The sun was shining through the window, so we strategically placed the glass star in it’s path to create beautiful shadows and moving light. The cats thought it was all for their benefit, but they do think everything put on earth is for their benefit!
Then we went sledging, which is something I haven’t done for a very long time. It was so much fun although I wasn’t a natural talent. For all the chaos and grief the snow has caused people, you cannot fault it for the way it makes everything look beautiful!
