Installation

This weekend we set up the exhibition. The usual last minute panics and happy concerns. AnTobar staff were consistently patient and sensitive. The figures sit well in the space and AnTobar has provided great floor trays to hold the figures in a base of sand. The sand was more time consuming than I expected but nobody seemed too cross. I am happy with each piece and because of this I want to relax and enjoy these last moments of knot tying and checking.. Now is the time to contemplate it all, to gather what has been learned and experienced before heading on to the next piece of work. Gordon helps me perfect my sound piece. I meet an old friend Jenny Soep who pops in to see the exhibition http://www.jennysoep.com/
I come home and tidy up my studio.
The exhibition runs from November 13th to December 31st. There is a christmas party 13th December evening and I hope some friends will come to here me give an artists talk then.

Kairos

An Tobar came on Sunday to transport the figures to Tobermory. The studio now seems so empty. There are paintings hanging and stacked up against the wall and there are scraps of string everywhere. I sit and read among the chaos half wanting to start another sculpture and half enjoying this moment of inertia in the project. In the middle of this, Lee from AnTobar phones to ask some difficult questions about the artists statement that I sent her last week. She is preparing a Gallery text and some phrases need clarification. To answer her questions meaningfully, I feel that I need to be less ambiguous about my reasoning and ideas which, although painful is a good exercise. Also, I find myself deliberately leaving some things unsaid, filtering my thoughts to try to stay coherent. and I think that this voicing, editing and reiterating of ideas is important and it is great that AnTobar supports an exhibiting artist in this way.
Later, reflecting on the conversation two words still seem key to it all - "Time" and "Optimism". This sits well and I spend some time thinking about my fourth sculpture figure "Kairos"

Kairos (or Occassio), the god of the “fleeting moment,” is always running. Mark R. Freier writes
"…. refers to the right time, opportune time or seasonable time. It cannot be measured. It is the perfect time, the qualitative time, the perfect moment, the "now.".... It is not an understatement to say that kairos moments alter destiny. To miscalculate kronos is inconvenient. To miscalculate kairos is lamentable.
http://www.whatifenterprises.com/whatif/whatiskairos.pdf

Me and Mr Saatchi

Sympathies towards the Arte Povera movement of the seventies makes me wonder what materials are free in these new times. Yes, string ofcourse but what else?

Data and information mountains are gathering all around us - fortunately data bits are conveniently small - and as more and more people across social and economic bands have access to computers and the internet, much is free - is this another inexpensive media for art and where are the best rubbish dumps?

Mr Saatchi has a good site - http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/. So I make use of it. I put an advert for my exhibition on the "events page" and enter the showdown exhibition where artists come head to head.

I post the image above in the showdown area and think and write;

These life-size string women down by the waters edge have been made from string washed up on our beaches. They represent both the immigrant arriving and the beach wanderer who has been here for generations. They are markers of our joint defiance in the face of poverty and environmental crisis

Will anyone vote for me on http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/showdown/index.php?showpic=175248

Congratulations and thanks to Charles for an excellent artists site