Thursday 26 April 2018

l o s i n g s c o t t i s h v i r g i n i t y


The mascot heads are starting to take shape now. We’ve positioned hard hats within the papier-mâché shell in order for people to be able to wear them properly. We’ve also got the faces cut out so all that needs to happen is felting them up! We’ve decided now to actually make the rest of the costume due to a variety of things such as being low on time, money, and any real skill when it comes to fabricating clothing. 


We’ve really got into the writing the stories for the leaflets. It feels much better and much more exciting (to write and hopefully to read) than the previous work we had done which is good. We’ve been reading a whole load of short magical realism stories about all sorts of different subjects. It has also been beneficial to approach the invention of the works from an emotional/experiential level; by this we mean deciding on an emotion that we want to touch on (e.g. fear, heat, etc.) and building the work around that. 


This week was the opening weekend of Glasgow International! We’ve never been to Scotland before so it was great to see so much stuff going on outside of London and seeing people that we know and feeling a part of it in some way. We’re just going to roll over some highlights/things we fancy writing about since degree show has slightly taken over our lives. 

The first day, we encountered Urs Fischer’s work at the Modern Institute which consists of two fist sized motorised snails, slowly crawling round and round. One of the best things about this was that it’s a fairly sizeable gallery space and so it’s mostly empty, we always love that ‘where’s the art?’ thing. Obviously, this can’t be the case with all art but it felt quite refreshing to not be told anything and just to be left with something to consider. 


Cécile B. Evans’ piece at GoMA was very exciting. It was a set for a series of films focusing on an architect living in the building that he’s made. One of the best bits was that on the back of this miniature set, you can read the what’s going to happen in the scene through notes that has been scrawled onto it. 


Something that we initially winced at due to its appearance was Sam Keogh’s performance detritus installation. The objects themselves looked tacky and dated but when you put on the headphones, you’re subjected to a tale of space exploration, gallons of human sperm and frozen eggs, as a craft malfunctioned somewhere on its mission to seed distant planets with the human race. You’re left with this voicemail from space, something that would have been much stronger if you didn’t have to look at the car crash it took in physical form. 


Mark Leckey at Tramway was brilliant. The room is massive and if we were ever presented with something this daunting, we would have some real trouble not just feeling like we had to fill it. Well Leckey does fill it with a spotlit, deeply troubled figure. Enlarged from a small figurine in the Wellcome Collection, Mark Leckey’s Nobodaddy is a seated god, full of wounds, holes and knobbly excrescences. His body hides speakers, and a voice fills the surrounding darkened space. A CGI apparition of the same figure hovers on a large screen across the gallery. He provides the voice of this abject figure, accompanied by horrible gurglings and rumblings and complaints. 


Also at Tramway was Tai Shani’s performance and we really wanted to enjoy this piece. There’s a voiceover or narration that continues throughout and it talks about mirrors and mirroring and how a mirror is similar but can we always be different in some way. The way the text is then spoken changes; the narrator speaks backwards and says words in the opposing order, acting like a language mirror. It’s difficult to keep up with but that’s the point and we liked that point. The staging is weird, the set a sort of mix of Joan Miró and new age Tumblr shit, including a giant outstretched hand, hanging things that glow like ceramic jewellery, coloured balls and small platonic solids littering the floor, an orange puddle. Ups and downs. 


Augustas Serapinas at David Dale Gallery could possibly have been our favourite show. We won’t do the full show justice so look it up if you want the full story but our watered-down version is that it’s about the history of the building and the stories that come with that. One story being that forty years ago, the neighbouring building (Clow Group Ltd.) produced a gantry and access system for a commercial bakery. These inspection platforms were placed to go over the large industrial mixing bowls, which is used in producing the dough. Upon completion, an engineer from Clow visited the factory to inspect the platforms. Intrigued by the process occurring below, the engineer leaned over the handrail to look into the mixing bowls. Upon leaning over the handrail, a blue pen which was in his breast pocket fell out and into the bowl. Clow had to pay for the equivalent ten thousand blue loaves, and weren’t invited to produce more work for the bakery. For the private view, they were giving away slices of blue bread and the exhibition was blue bread displayed on those same platforms. Almost poetic.


Thursday 19 April 2018

r e f r e s h e d i d e a s


The light box sides for the information stand are all ready to be sealed up which is good to get out of the way.


We had our final tutorial which was great with regards to ideas and how to move forward but meant we now have so much more work to do. We had finished the leaflet content (or so we thought) and it was 30 pages. However, meeting with our tutor, we were told it was only the bare bones. By attempting to make it too believable we had lost why we were bothering to make it up in the first place. What we had written was too informative and too much like one voice. Since all the works were things we had in our ideas list, they were all actually do-able. This begged the question, why would people want to see these things which could happen anyway? We needed to take on more of the stories we had been reading and make it less of a press release and a list of works, and more like narrative that takes you through experiences that you could only imagine. We’ve therefore decided that the “press release” will be the main focus of the leaflets. But the press release is going to be in a story form and that story will get more and more bizarre, drawing the reader in as they go, until they can’t really remember how they got to such a strange place. We’re going to use more experiential language in order for people to actually want see the work.


This was inspired by a Julio Cortázar story called Axolotl. After being recommended it we read it right away and it’s insane. It does an amazing job of showing how a fantastic reality bursts into the realm of the everyday. It starts in a similar way to other stories by Cortázar, gaining the reader’s confidence, putting readers at their ease by creating a normal setting and conventional characters in familiar situations. But then the readers find themselves trapped by a strange, nightmarish turn of events that threatens and ultimately destroys the logical, routine reality described up to this point. We then did a little extra reading about Cortázar himself who has likened the short story to a photograph. Unlike novels and films, which provide abundant details and complete, well-rounded plots, the short story, like a photograph, limits its scope to a single frame, a fragment of reality that forces the reader to supply the missing pieces. This is exactly what we want to convey with our work. Axolotl is a new favourite; it uses suspense well and explores mysterious boundaries.


The idea of performative writing came up and especially Kate Love’s work. Text doesn’t just say something but does something, it can be an instruction or a demand which takes the reader into a place. We’ve since gone and found Kate Love’s ‘The Experience of Art as a Living Through of Language’ which is amazing! She doesn’t write about the experience of art but with it in order to truly capture what experiencing a work of art is like.


We were also made aware of the fact that since the leaflets we were giving out were the actual work, and the rest is just a vehicle for transporting it, we should really take consideration over the design. There are plenty of different ways of portraying the work but we really like the idea of it being something people would want to keep so having a poster on the back is a definite. We also like the idea that the leaflet continues the corporate aesthetic up a little bit so maybe we’ll try and work the design into that. Still thinking about the design, we spoke about how it should be relative to the work and therefore somehow about access to the artwork. Not sure how we’ll manage this but we’ll try to work through it.


It also has its own sculptural form; by people taking the leaflets away it both makes work and destroys. This has some clear references to Félix González-Torres and something we never really realised about so much of our work. we really like people being able to physically take something away from our work, a memento of some kind.


We also spoke about a new gallery that Goldsmiths have been involved in constructing and what that says about the institution.


A great time with regards to ideas and thinking but hard not to think about the past few weeks being wasted *Smiling Face With Open Mouth And Smiling Eyes, but with a single drop of sweat on one side of the face*. We know it wasn’t wasted really but you get the idea.


Thursday 12 April 2018

i n f o r m a t i o n s t a n d u p d a t e


We’re out of bed and making some progress with the information stand. The TVs are on and seem stable which is promising. 

We’re making some light boxes to go on the sides of the information stand to continue the general look. We’ve purchased the materials to build the them so hopefully they’ll be built next week. 

The fobs for the operating the lift in order to access the 4th floor and basement have also been purchased. They’ll sit in a little bucket on the stand and be a small memento that people can take home; something they might find in their pocket a week or two later and remember the work or be confused as to why they have it. 


In terms of what’s actually going to be on the TV, it’s going to be a sequence of short clips. There will be small reminders that relate to the content of the information stand such as “Have you got your fob for accessing the 4th floor and basement?”, “Make sure you check out the sculpture garden off site!”, and “Please feel free to take a map”. There will also be 3 to 4 suggestions of “what not to miss” on that specific day. Another small clip will be something to do with mascot, perhaps reminding them to get a photo or tell them to ask them if they need help with anything. Finally, there will also be a longer still shot of the events that are on that day.

The leaflet content is still ongoing, it’s now 23 pages of text which is pretty scary but once that’s all sorted we can design how we want them to look.

Sunday 8 April 2018

s o b a d t h e y ' r e g o o d


We’ve been ill that last week so it’s mainly been watching trashy films/films we’ve previously seen because we didn’t want to start watching a good film and then miss any being asleep. The trashiest of the trashiest is of course was watching the most recent 3 Fast and Furious…we’re not proud of it. They’re all completely bizarre and over the top and even though they’re obviously all the same (fast cars, lots of guns etc.) film 6 and 8 have mirrored plot lines; a member of the crew goes ‘rouge’ and they have to fight their friends. Not that this fact makes it thoughtful, merely something we noticed. However, as one dimensional as the characters are and as predictable and unbelievable as the plot is, that’s what makes the films such a guilty pleasure. They fly cars out of a plane, jump across bridges and catching people in mid-air, and fall from ridiculous heights. For a second time, it’s a serious guilty pleasure and we’ve had our fill for some time… 


Another was Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a film we’ve had on our list but didn’t think it would be any good so had been avoiding it, making it perfect for this scenario. Just have to say that you have to credit J.K. Rowling. Rather than spin off new big-screen adventures for the generation-defining boy wizard, she’s opened a completely different wizarding saga: a new era, new country and entirely new characters (at least so far). That’s a lot of world-building to do, so this film has a bit of the same dense exposition of the first two Potter films. But is has some serious structural problems. Rowling’s varied beasts are fun, and brilliantly realised by the effects team, but they’re ultimately a sideshow, and the numerous action sequences to capture each one can drag. The sight of Eddie Redmayne performing a mating dance for a giant hippo-monster will stay with you, but it’s not what we need to see when there’s bad shit happening across town. It’s only in the last act, when Newt focuses on the real threats and discovers the mystery to solve, that the film gets entertaining. 


After that we wanted to re-watch Cabin in the Woods because they were talking about it on a podcast we like. It was pretty great revisiting it. After the opening title, we are thrown into the social standard of the guts and glory horror we all know (and some love). Five friends decide to drive their van out to an abandoned cabin in the woods and along the way they come across a creepy old man at a run down petrol station; nothing could go wrong right? And what would a stereotypical horror scenario be without with out it's cliché's characters; the stoner; the jock; the nerd; the popular girl and the virgin - well, sort of. Much to the hilarity of the film the group do just about everything you shouldn't do when in a creepy cabin; which results in them fighting for there lives when suddenly under attack from bombarding creatures of the night. As for the rest of the plot, it's pleasantly far from what you would normally expect; and balances out stunningly between a well mixed cocktail of classic horror and laugh out loud humour. 


The Nice Guys was great as always – a pair of sound-hearted good-bad guys off on the trail of a missing porn star in a crime caper. 


Gattaca is another excellent film to see many times; 15 minutes into the future and genetic engineering is just pre-emptive plastic surgery. Make the child perfect in the test tube, and save money later. A piece of cinema that is referenced by scientists and philosophers alike. 


Towards the end of the week we were well enough to head to the cinema and check out You Were Never Really Here. A very distressing film about death, child abuse and the general pointlessness of life. The cinema was the perfect place to capture the subtlety of the film; sometimes there would just be condensation on a window or a shot of a character’s eyes. Without the gigantic screen these may have been lost.

Sunday 1 April 2018

n o t e s o n f r i e n d s


After a couple of months, we’ve finally finished watching the entire ten seasons of friends again after a decade long gap. Now, not many things grow better with age: cheese, wine and George Clooney (what is his secret?) spring to mind. One thing particularly unable to cope with the ravages of time, though, is the situation comedy. The whole point of a sitcom is to take a moment in time and derive from that a whole heap of laughs. A Guardian article once laid waste to a collection of classics: The Office was dismissed as “knowing, ironic idiocy”; The Likely Lads was called out for having an “unreconstructed racist, homophobic misogynist” as a lead character. 


With that in mind, as we were wading through episode after episode of Friends, we had a feeling that the internet was going to tear it to shreds. Not because it’s deserved, but because the online echo-chamber has become so predictable. The Independent reported people being disgusted by the “fat Monica” and “gay Chandler” jokes, finding the show “transphobic, homophobic and sexist”, and considering Monica’s consensual, happy relationship with a man 20 years her senior “uncomfortable in the wake of the Weinstein scandal and #MeToo stories”. 


I’m sorry, but hold on. Friends is a show that was born pre-Twitter, pre-online activism, and before #HeForShe movements. So, the fact that trans, gay, polygamous and liberal people are being shown with such depth and agency is surely remarkable? Before we began watching Friends in our younger years, we’d never heard of 'trans', and didn’t really know anything about homosexuality or gender politics. 


We grew up in Suffolk and – shockingly – the populace wasn’t especially progressive. As a fairly “feminine” or not very boyish boy, it heartened us to see Chandler called it too, while being respected in the group. We watched as Joey, Chandler and Ross said “I love you” to each other, and struggled to match their emotions to how men “should” act. We watched Ben raised by two loving mothers, Rachel raise a baby unwed while working, Phoebe cope with her mother’s suicide, and discovered women as sexually free as men. Even now, that’s no small thing. 


Yes, Friends is dated, and there should certainly be more minority characters featured, but the conversations remain relevant. People still struggle with size, sexuality, and femininity. In one of the most lambasted episodes, the ever-annoying Ross takes issue with a male nanny, asking if he’s gay, refusing to hire him, and mocking him to his friends. In i-D magazine, millennials interviewed read this as homophobic, which we’d agree with. What they omit, though, is that Ross later reveals that this is caused by his own issues with toxic masculinity, a struggle many men still face. 


How are we to progress into an educated, truthful place if we swap comedic dialogue for a monologue of prescribed rhetoric? Joey flirting with women who are equally keen has been called harassment; Monica dating an older man, akin to Weinstein. That’s doesn’t feel right. One i-D interviewee said: “Things that are put out there as easy-watch comedy get too much stick in 2018.” I think it best we all make like the gang: flop on to a sofa, grab a coffee, and relax. We’ve more pressing conversations to have. 


That was a little much but felt necessary to get off our chest.