ch - My day...

(The image above is a picture of a reflection of me in a wavy mirror which I found in the MA studios.)

I went into Margaret Street today, primarily to return some library books, I decided to have a bit of a mooch around the studios to see what, if anything, was going on. I started in the MA studios which were empty of students, there was however a fair bit of work around. Mostly large paintings, some were giant Cezzanesque landscapes made in a series of 3 panels. Large blocky brushstrokes in bright colours (but not overpowering) worked together to form Mediteranean landscapes complete with dusty roads, Cypress trees and white blocks which I took to be whitewashed buildings. They became clearer the further away I moved.

I turned the corner to the studio where I'd attended a group crit a couple of weeks ago, to find that virtually all the photocopies had been removed from the wall, the only trace of any work having been there were a few specks of black tape. Happlily the swinging paint tub was still suspended from the wooden bar, I pulled it back slightly and let it go... I don't know if it'l still be there next time! I'm guessing that the artist has removed them because she was going to re-evaluate the display of her work... I'm looking forward to seeing how her work progresses.

Down the corridor there was a tv on a stand, the screen was black but there was a soundtrack, what sounded like a group of young people talking about random things (which I couldn't hear because of the low quality speakers in the tv and the hubub of noise from downstairs.) Occasionally the title of the piece faded in and back out again. I didn't really engage with the work, I couldn't, it wasn't apparent what the subject of conversation was and the sound quality was poor. I wasn't sure about the blank screen either, if i were the artist, I would have left it as a sound recording played simply through a speaker. I'm also one of these people who doesn't like the title or the artist's name to pop up actually in the work like somekind of TV exerpt - this work and the others like it dotted around, had these features in spades. For me, the jury is still out with this work.

Next I wandered downstairs to the basement studios, I have to say that there was quite a bit of interesting work around. It is strange though, I had a space there until May/june last year and it was completely different! One of the highlights was a large house made from ice-cream wafers, marshmallow twirls and sweets! It was really cool!