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

Sound

Working on the soundscape for the exhibition. I want to have a piece that is musical in nature but not instrument-oriented. I hope that by incorporating the sound of the sea that I can give a feeling of dimension rather than oppression to to the gallery visitor - to let them breath a little in the windowless gallery space. When confronted by the string in its new form, the spectator may need to to re-evaluate its meaning and re-align the relationship with the material. I think the sounds provided at this time may provide a key to that activity. So, I am trying to remove the oppressive dull whirring type noise that I have picked up onto my recordings of the sea. This recording was made at Port-no-Ba on Mull. I have found two ways, using audacity software to remove them. On way is by carrying out 'noise removal' which strips a particular selected noise from the track - I can select what I think is the bad sound and try to remove it . This leaves a nice tingling sound that I think is quite melodic - if just a little bit digital sounding Another technique I am exploring is to minimise the gain and restrict to only left hand sounds. This gives a dull, peaceful rhythmic sound that I thinks of as the base line. I think I'm moving in the right direction

Visit to Mull

This weekend, I get the chance to visit Mull again. At An Tobar, I meet Lee and we lay out the sand-tray templates on the floor. Two visitors to the gallery join us and Maggie, Louie and Lee, and these two beautiful women, all take their poses on the templates. I am amazed, as always, at how wonderfully poetic women are and how fluid. Clad in walking boots and rain jackets they manage to conjure up their magic and I am satisfied that the five string figures, standing just so, in the gallery will work. I hope my string women will live up to these life models.
Again, the staff at AnTobar are very supportive and encouraging and generous in their advice and direction.
Next day I have a go at recording the sea, at Port na Ba. Of all the beaches on Mull, I think I love this one the most. I use a mini disk and have borrowed an extension lead from AnTober keep my little mic away from the disk mechanism. I baffle the wind with a sponge and my Donegal tweed cap. I stay close to the waters edge down where the rocks and the sea meet the sand. Its not a wild sea atall the kind of tide full of little giggles at the end of its story. In the distance I can hear the soft rumble of the wider sea but I know this will just pick up as a rumble on my recording.
back home, i use Audacity to try capture the sound and I try to remove some of the ugly background noise - I'll work more on it tomorrow.