February, March, April and May Studio Work

Some several months of vast inactivity on the production front (perhaps that should be inability) lead tastfully to degree show season. My first planned visit is in nine days - yet another return to the University of East London.

In February, four of us returned to East London as ex-students to hold an exhibition entitled 'Back to the Boondocks'. A summary of work compiled over the past 18 months having been abandoned in the wilderness since leaving art school. Three of us partook in a talk with first year students and I was encouraged to hear references to similar ideas throughout all of our work, which I had missed whilst working in my increasingly isolated environment.

March hit hard with an exhibition dismantle and immediate installation at the James Hockey & Foyer Galleries and continued throughout April with the commencement of student shows and fast approaching funding deadlines. I took a couple of journeys to Canterbury at the end of April and beginning of May, which resulted in an increase of thoughts about the importance of journeys having made several intriguing ones recently. At some point I wanted to discuss this with Rule and its relation to his work.

Also in March, Alison and I traveled to 'the coast' for a day and discovered Hurst Castle at the end of a shingle spit. We entered and found it deserted for the most part, taking photos and wandering through military rooms, climbing stairs and enjoying views of the Isle of Wight.



Towards mid-May, an emergence from the hibernation of winter has begun to take shape. Having cleared the studio space, many incomplete works have resurfaced and I have had difficulty deciding on which to focus. I have managed to make progress on 143 (above left), which was helped significantly by the production of a smaller model version, exhibited in 'Back to the Boondocks', and this is perhaps the next of the larger works to continue. My routine has recently developed a block of time at breakfast, during which I have been reading over old notebooks in an attempt not to forget the process that has thus far resulted in the current situation. In addition to perhaps five started-but-unfinished works in the studio, there are also several suggestions from notebooks that I would wish to start in the next few months.

Looking over the notebooks, I am drawn to the possibility of compiling the key elements into one manifesto-like document. This could then be used as an outline record of the journey of choices made in the creation of work.

Alongside the tasks above, much of my current focus is on a series of smaller works with a possible social/historical/record-keeping/geographic flavour. I have mentioned this particular project before in passing, and will elaborate now. Provisionally entitled 'Guerrilla Impressions', the project revolves around the creation of a portable device for creating relief casts of environments. The device will allow impressions of certain intriguing geographical and architectural features to be made and then cast to create physical representations. There's a similarity with photography, though the process will have an emphasis on the tactile as well as the visual. The process of obtaining some impressions may necessitate a form of guerrilla tactics, so the device will need to be light and small enough to transport easily. Once the first device is completed and tested, further improvements can be made for additional experiments.