Timeline of how the show happened
Abigail Reynolds, Mar. 2005
2003 spring: I do a show called
Infomatic in London. Taru comes to see the show and
suggests doing a show based on the city as a way for me to
go back to Helsinki I think, as she knows how much I like the place.
At first I think the show is called City Limits.
2003 summer: Taru
and I discuss the idea of the show it will be to reveal the
process of working with the city. I say I am sick of residencies
and projects where you have to make a piece on the spot and present
it before you leave which means you can never adequately
develop any of the ideas or technicalities in the work and its
always frustrating. I suggest breaks back in the home city to ponder
and make work, separating the residencies and the shows, rather
that showing work immediately. The working title City Breaks
is suggested by Taru. She proposes to make it a 6 person show with
3 Helsinki artists and 3 London ones. Its my job to find the
London ones. I ponder the following things: who do I think will
be good to work with and generous to the project? Who seems to work
in a way that would suit the project? Who seems to make work that
might be stretched by the project? I think of Irit and Isaac because
they tend to work to a very specific idea, though I dont think
they have done any projects like this, and I really like to discuss
with them. I know they will respond very generously to the project.
I am a bit stumped after this because I want to find a non-Goldsmiths
artist as well.
2003 autumn: I call
Chris after New Contemporaries opens in London and suggest that
he might like to come in on the show. I tell him that I know he
doesnt work to project but I could see how it might be interesting
for him. He sounds vaguely interested. I think we all have a meeting
with Taru. It turns out that Irit and Isaac have heard her speaking
at the Tate.
2004 early spring:
Richard, who I know from Goldsmiths, tells me that he is co-running
the Whitechapel project space. Oh I say, now all your friends will
be asking you for shows, what a nightmare. Next time I see him I
say um actually, Id like to introduce you to Taru
and
feel slightly embarrassed.
2004 late spring:
I am horribly busy doing shows and making new work. While I am really
pleased about this, I feel as though I spend all my time researching
new work to an over-tight deadline, not getting time enough to resolve
the aesthetics of what I am doing. I feel like Im losing sight
of myself in an avalanche of art deadlines. In a week long fit of
anxiety I call off a number of things I am committed to and think
about ringing Taru to say I dont have time to do this project
properly, so Id rather pull out. Then I realise that I cant
do this because I am already in up to my neck and having got Irit
and Isaac and Chris on board I cant leave without feeling
really shit about myself. I feel a bit trapped and then decide that
instead I will (1.) really focus on the process aspect, which is
gaining in interest for me month by month and (2.) use the show
as an opportunity not to make irredeemably huge and awkward sculpture
for a change, but to make something that is manageable and fun to
make. Something which I can do on the move and on my own. I havent
made something like this for a few years. At the OED I start to
make collages and decide I really like it. Collage, for me, is all
about decontextualising photographic images, so they get new meanings.
I really like this. I think about how I could make collage work
for City Breaks.
Taru and I go to meet Richard to convince him to take
the project on. He is very resistant to the idea and I feel depressed
at the start of our meeting as it seems that he has already decided
not to work with us. Taru does not seem to be put off by Richard
saying that they have decided to only work with solo shows, and
speaks very persuasively for an hour. The week after she calls me
to say the project has been accepted.
2004 summer: I think
about the experience I had in spring 2003 of making work in response
to a housing complex Zurich and how frustrating it was because I
remained an outsider to the situation. In trying to pick up on that
city to make work, I felt I could only pick up clichés. This
feeling is heightened by having work included in an exhibition in
Marseille called Mind the Gap. The French thought this
was a great title but as a Londoner it really makes me wince. I
decide that the most honest thing I can do is to put the tourist
view or visitors view at the centre of my response this time. This
is a very very different approach for me as all my methods of research
are based on spending a lot of time trying to get an insiders view
which I often sort of manage, but it takes a long time. A very long
time. I decide that I want to spend this time making the work instead
of thinking about it. This makes me glad because I have felt really
strained by this recently, and anyway, it feels quite risky to change
my approach, though I feel at that its an easier approach
in many ways.
I am spending the whole summer in hotel rooms. Mostly
in Eindhoven, where I am doing a solo show and in Colchester where
I am doing a solo show. I dont really like hotel rooms. I
am also in Braziers for 2 weeks and then find myself in a hotel
room in Nottingham to participate in a workshop on data. I am in
Oxford at the dictionary a lot, when I sleep in my sisters
attic. I am never in my flat. I dont get to see my friends.
I dont like this. I feel as though I am never really anywhere
and that I am becoming blind because I am never anywhere long enough
to actually see it with my eyes properly. I just blur through it
on my way to somewhere else. I feel sorry for myself that I never
get a real holiday that would allow myself to come back into focus.
I start to think, for City Breaks maybe I can do a work about this
nowhere state or in-between state. I have tried to do this before
and in 2002 made a video/text piece called Pink Armadillo
which is based on what taxidermy is an animal and yet not
an animal. A real animal and yet a sort of fiction. Two things at
once. I think about being in two places at once; Helsinki and London,
and whether I can make hybrid images of them.
I read Avalanche because I am tipped off by an art
professional that it will interest me its artists getting
to talk about art instead of just letting all those other art professionals
do it. I see a TV science programme about time travel because the
editor of the OED tells me I would like it. In June Irit calls to
tell me that she is pregnant. I am really happy and excited. I dont
have any friends with children so this feels like a big landmark.
She apologises for not being able to come on the surfing trip we
are about to make because she pukes all the time. When I put the
phone down I remember City Breaks and think what if
they cant now do the project.
2004 September: I
have finished the last solo show. I feel crap. Now term has started
at Chelsea and I have to write new lectures. I feel empty. I think
I am going to rest but somehow there is more stuff to be done
events to organise, talks to give, re-crating of previous work to
do, storage to be organised, tax returns to be filled in. I start
to collect second hand picture books of London and Helsinki. Its
great. I really like tracking them down.
2004 October: the
Finnish artists arrive in London, apparently. I am really worried
about Irit and Isaac. I call them and ask about the project and
whether they can do it. I am so absorbed in lecturing and this that
I forget about the Finns. When we see them at Irit and Isaacs they
complain that we have neglected them and I feel guilty. I have started
to cut together images of London and London rather than London and
Helsinki. The event at the Whitechapel project space is tricky because
I have to present documentation rather than a work as I only have
unreasonably large sculpture that I could show. I make a wall drawing
with copydex and dirty water which is very satisfying to peel off
but scary as its very last minute. By the time the Finns leave
I feel I know Simo best because we both worked in the gallery for
2 days. Invariably Simo had already consumed 2 beers by the time
I arrived. Then he would offer me one but its only 2
oclock I would say.
2004 November: I fly
to Marseilles for another show, another hotel room. As I write this
I feel like I winge a lot to myself about this and Im an ungrateful
old bag.
2004 December: I arrive
in Helsinki and feel really elated to be there. It feels like a
kind of miracle that Chris, Isaac, Simo, Taru, Minna and I have
all managed to converge in this one place in the world. We almost
immediately go to an office party. After three days in Helsinki
I am utterly exhausted by talking and drinking. On Sunday night
I do The Leave from a pool bar called Corona because
I am about to fall asleep on the bar. Issac and I joke about making
a complaint that we are not left alone enough. For the rest of the
week I prioritise staying in bed reading the trashy airport novels
that other artist visitors to the Cable Factory have left on the
bookshelves. I feel absolutely wiped out and glad to not be in London
and therefore able to ignore the things I should be getting on with
there. I realise that Chris and Isaac are in a very different energy
space because both are developing loads of ideas after having had
a relatively fallow year. I decide not to mind about this and vicariously
feel really pleased that they are getting so much done. I do manage
to collect more material and then scan it at Muu over two mornings,
so I can start to work on some ideas.
On Wednesday we gather at Muu to see the space. During
the discussion there I realise that it would be better to show The
Universal Now on a table than on the wall. I feel amazed that
I havent realised this before. We continue to the Cable Factory
to discuss the works we are planning. This is a big deal because
we havent really talked directly about our plans before, though
it seems that we all know each other very well by now. We make dinner
and start to show bits and bobs of ideas. Its really interesting
and exciting to see works that are becoming a reality. The comments
made about The Universal Now in process are generous
and useful. By the end of the evening I feel really excited about
the show, as well as very fond of the group. At the end of the evening
we are all feeling flushed with excitement and sit around shrieking
with laughter over things that probably arent funny. There
is nowhere I would rather be. Before we leave Helsinki I have a
long conversation with Chris about routering out display areas for
the books from a door, which is on trestles in the studios, being
used as a work table. This solution to the display appeals to me
because The Universal Now is made by converting pre-existing
artefacts by cutting into them, and so would this be. Chris is one
of those artists who are blessed with the ability to see how best
to move from idea to physical manifestation. I ask Taru to persuade
The Cable Factory to lend us their table/door to cut up.
2005 January: Back
in London I have moved into a new flat. I go back to Marseilles
to re-crate Mount Fear on 6th and then fly to Helsinki on 12th.
This is not an ideal situation, but manageable. Before my flight
to Marseilles I feel nervous about fucking up my precious books
by executing the technicalities badly, and making an irreparable
mistake. I call Richard who does a lot of work with paper and scalpels.
He very sweetly comes over to give me a crit. We choose 3 designs
that work well together from the 10 or so that I have prepared and
he gives me some immensely helpful technical advice about acid free
tape etc. Once back from Marseilles I have 3 days to cut 3 designs
before catching my flight and this is on top of teaching
and Christine visiting from Berlin and more flat sorting out and
general life-crap. I manage to cut the designs far better than I
had hoped and just in time.
I feel extremely happy to be able to shut the books
and put them in my bag. I am accustomed to having to work with shipping
companies and crates, which is all very stressful. Isaac comes over
when I am still in bed at 7.30 am to drop off the newspapers that
he and Irit have been making before work. We have already had extensive
discussions about the installation but we discuss it again and I
show him The Universal Now, which he says is working
which is pretty high praise from Isaac.
2005 January. Taru
and I spend a whole afternoon in Muu with a hand saw converting
the door. The end result is very satisfying. I like the way that
for me art involves both talking to people (making ideas together)
and working with people (making things together). Even though what
we are doing is not utopian like peacefully tilling fields
or something, it still feels attached to that, somehow.64
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