2W42_SIXTY FIRST POST

I have come to terms with Bryson again. By the end of the book I was back on his side. He has a knack of doing fuck all and making it worth reading, so in that we are kindred spirits. I’d like to travel with him. I’d suggest we do a big art gallery tour around Europe or the US and write the book jointly. We’d get on. I can draw the pictures. He can make witty asides about culture. I can tease him about his weight, he can do the same to me; fuck it, sounds like a bestseller. Bill and Bob; the Road to Culture. I would take second billing due to his enormous fame and wealth, I think that only fair. I am nobody.

 

Since the last offering, I have been busy getting ready for the latest MTS show, in Liverpool, the current capital of culture. It happened last Friday, though it runs for another two weeks, not that there is much left to run. The opening night was the show really. We called it ‘YOUR ART SHOW’ and the concept was to offer the people of Liverpool a chance to create the show. We provided the white walls, white canvases, white framed pictures and the materials and the rest was up to whoever turned up and was willing to paint.

 

We produced an issue of our visual notebook which contained blank pages except for a written suggestion of what to draw. In this way, the exhibition could be continued away from the venue. We had previously been included in the RedWire Open show of 2006 and on this basis we were invited to have our own show. On that night we had taken four prints. They were pleasing images and one did sell and in the time since we had had very little contact with the gallery. It was set up by some graduates of LMU, who use the section behind the gallery as studio space. They are a great bunch of people, friendly, supportive and they have a very good exhibition programme. I assumed we were the weak link in the chain and prior to the show I was very concerned that it would be a disaster. It wasn’t. The gallery was abused beyond recognition. All the residents of RedWire joined in with the chaos. (http://redwireredwire.com/page48.htm)

 

As you can see from this short film made on the night by a passing cameraman (http://www.archive.org/details/TimBrunsdenYourArtShow_1) there were a lot of happy people at the show. It certainly wasn’t the usual muted shuffling around and strained attempt at showing some interest in the work. I spent half the night in a cupboard behind the gallery wall making paint bombs and listening to the noise in the room. I was happy in there. There was another show on downstairs and that artist was a little disturbed by the leaking water from our show, so we had to make frequent mopping a part of the night, sadly. The paint bombs had been making some nice patterns.

 

I am not sure we want to do a normal exhibition anymore. It would seem really dull and arrogant to use a space to hang work in. I know we are artists and a part of being an artist is to show your work but I can’t imagine filling that space with MTS drawings and paintings and sculpture and being as happy as I am now. We can make work, we can hang it nicely, arrange it and all that. And, so what? When we made the cups in the mill, it was fun. I suppose you could admire the patience to draw on ten thousand cups or possibly even think that they were well drawn but I would like to think the lasting impression was that it was a fun piece, end of. Is it enough to make work that no one ever has a chance to see? Making work for the sake of making it, for whatever reason you are driven to do it. What is the purpose of exhibiting other than to sell work or use one exhibition to secure another?

 

We have been quite successful at securing exhibitions or being involved in group shows. And they are a good experience. I don’t like being at a private view unless I have something to do other than talk to people. I’m just not very interested in chatting to people about the work. I like the beer, the atmosphere and idle nattering. It would have been very easy to fill that gallery in Liverpool with a fraction of the ten thousand cups, hang a few paintings and maybe show some video footage. It might have been a ‘success’.

 

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2W40_SIXTIETH POST

As someone who writes his entries in WORD before copying and pasting them to WordPress, I appreciate the new version of the site very much. Somehow, they have altered the pasting situation so that it remains as you pasted it whereas previously the text would get bunched up and misaligned. This makes it easier to add a post, much easier. I used to write them ‘live’ but found it difficult to keep a ‘hard copy’ in WORD, so began to switch it around. And, you never know when there will be a loss of power. WORD backs it up, somehow. I love WORD. I love words.

 

I am currently revising my opinion of the American travel writer Bill Bryson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Bryson) as I am reading one of his early books again, I think. I know I am reading it, I think I have read it before. I was once of the opinion that he was amusing in a gentle way, pretty harmless in that he offered details of incidental facts about the places he was visiting, quirky almost. I noticed his annoying habit of over using the phrase ‘And here’s the thing’ but fuck it. We all have our little foibles. I enjoyed his autobiography last year and his book on Shakespeare I polished off in a day. I even thought that he did a good job of taking a massive subject such as science and making it palatable for a general readership. And here’s the thing. I still like the guy. Something though is troubling me, he seems to too easily resort to stereotype and he really does nothing of much interest in his travel books. He arrives, eats, makes little quips about the national characteristics of each area, gets wet, sleeps deeply in the over-priced but comfortable hotel, then almost misses the train the next morning to the next stop, where he arrives, eats, makes little quips….

 

I don’t know what this means. I worry that some things you think are constant turn out to be so very the opposite of what you once thought. I assumed this was one of the follies of youth. I’m almost thirty six, although I feel eighteen sadly, I should know stuff by now. I always looked forward to a new Bryson and now I will have mixed feelings.

 

I am planning to film my segments for the swarm tv collaboration tomorrow. (http://www.swarmtv.org/website.asp?page=home%20page) I have had trouble finding a dripping tap or a tap that can be made to dribble. I think I have found an outdoor tap that dribbles most seductively. I have no idea what happens to the clips once they are uploaded, I don’t even have any faith that mine will upload at all. File too big, something or other corrupt. I have chosen to film ‘Emley Moor’ mast as the symbol of my region. It is more personal than that too as Emley Moor mast has provided me with hours of television since I was a small boy. It has always been there on the horizon, red lights at night. I always knew I was at home when I could Emley Moor. I hope that once they switch off the analogue signal, even if the mast is redundant, that they keep it. In looking for this link (http://tx.mb21.co.uk/emley/emley.php) I have discovered that it is not a ‘mast’ but a tower, as masts are ‘cable stayed’ and that it does carry digital signals, so it will be staying put. Good. Fuck Gormley and his rusty angel.

 

Not too keen on the sonnet idea. I am slowly developing a film making technique that I hope will be mine and mine alone. I suspect it will be as it is so backward and unsophisticated. I am still unable to edit or alter the film away from the steam powered camera so this very much informs my choices in the planning and filming of material.

 

Earlier in the week I signed up for a studio, my occupation beginning in July. It is a little earlier than I wanted but it is the one chance to get into the building and get on with all the work I keep promising myself I will do. I need a place of work; my kitchen table has outgrown its usefulness. And, as importantly I need a place called home, where I can switch off from ‘work’, I am unable to stop at times. I am really looking forward to it. It is a proper room, not horrible wooden partitions. I can make noise, it is next to the kitchen and computer room and it is in the city centre, handy for poundshops and milling about when I feel the need. I am legitimate. (www.westgatestudios.net/)

 

I shall be fully reprehensible for the subsequences of my actions.

 

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2W40_FIFTY NINTH POST

I thought that Monday was one of the better sessions, despite a low attendance and the added burden of discussion. I really ended up enjoying it, if only it was that good every week. I worry that the archive is fucked and any of the snippets of information that I want will be lost. For one thing, I had to explain to JM very quickly in one sentence what PEEP! was about. And somehow I managed. I have dribbled on about PEEP! for over twenty six thousand words without being so lucid.

 

JW, before his sudden and unfortunate departure, had mentioned ‘outsider art’, a topic covered in his contextualisation links. This began an interesting discussion on whether it remains possible to be an ‘outsider’ in art and JM mentioned a few people that I will try to do some research on. If I was really clever, I would have done the research before writing this sentence and I could have weaved in my own apparent knowledge, complete with hyperlinks, to appear more learned than I am. The gist was that if you categorise anything as ‘outside’ by doing so, you make it definable and so drag it ‘inside’, thus destroying the purity of the original and threatening the very existence of humankind. I am exaggerating here. Humankind, as we know, is fucked. It doesn’t matter what you do with your art, the planet will win; it will take your art and shit all over it.

 

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2W39_FIFTY EIGHTH POST

As requested, a series of links for the contextualisation discussion:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_art

http://pers-www.wlv.ac.uk/%7Efa1871/surrext.html

http://www.fluxus.org/

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=GLXvIIUiZJQ

http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&id=BuKbTXgDw2YC&dq=white+gallery+spaces&printsec=frontcover&source

=web&ots=3ZO6AEuWmg&sig=22JsSjbNfsBfqEyrdCzioKU0hXA#PPP1,M1

http://www.understandingduchamp.com/ (Box in a Valise)

http://libcom.org/thought/situationists-an-introduction

http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/18/B18.htm?qp=business.co-op

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo

http://www.bl.uk/collections/britirish/modbrizines.html#counterculture

 

Some, all or none of this may or may not be relevant, or not.

 

2W39_FIFTY SEVENTH POST

Someone, who shall remain nameless, suggested that an ‘easy’ way for PEEP! to be on the net is to buy a domain name and use WordPress with it to make it idiot proof. I like this idea. It will happen. This same person is planning a series of guerilla art galleries and some of my work will be included. This is very exciting, the whole project is brilliant. If I get some pictures I will add them here, or possibly utilise my new found hyperlink skills to direct you, the concerned reader of this dross, to the place where this nameless someone exists. Then all this secrecy will be smashed but in a good cause. I am only being careful because I don’t think these activities are strictly legal and I don’t want the lizards in grey suits to scupper it before it happens. I know they read stuff on the net.

 

Why do people spend so much time on their hair? It is dead, leave it be.

 

When I was in Edinburgh, I had an idea for a PEEP! ‘video game’. I don’t know what you really call them. I’m not sure what to do with this idea. I could mock up some screens and write down the scenario and offer it to games people. I can’t make it. I could make a ‘film’ of it; a version that looks like someone is playing it. Could be a waste of time, another distraction.

 

I get the feeling that PEEP! is becoming a little flabby around the edges and not focussed enough on anything. It is in danger of trying to do too much whilst actually achieving nothing. I have to remember that I am in this for the fun. Life is but a ride and all you can do is cling on and scream, try to enjoy it.

 

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