The mice!

This week has involved the setting of the latex mould I made (last Thursday) and today I began making the sugar mice. Above is a picture of the clay mouse in the coffin, two white chocolate mice and at the bottom the cardboard coffins. At the moment I've made seven, so I have six more mice to make. White chocolate seems to be the best edible material- most I found involved rolling the mice by hand using a mixture of icing sugar and egg whites. It takes about 25 minutes in the fridge to completely set. The white chocolate makes a nice contrast to the seven brown mice in the sewn part of the piece who escape from the doomed ship. A lot of thanks go to Emma Littlest Birds who suggested the latex as a possible way of making the mould and then lent me the latex. 

I think my work involved belief systems a lot, not religious, but personal ritual and having faith in things outside yourself, which I suppose relates a bit more to the theme of human behaviour. 

I have been knitting leg warmers for a friend for christmas and finalising the drawings for the zine Millie and I are putting together. 

YCN Christmas Tree

www.flickr.com/photos/ycn/3098216620

Made a little robin for the YCN Christmas Tree and I made a card too. I have made a robin in felt before, but this time I made sure that the little one had feet and I gave it an open beak, so it looks like it is singing...

This little clay mouse is the basis for part of my piece at the 'About the size of a small grown cat' show, curated by Matt Day and Rose Hall. As well as showing the embroidery piece I have completed based on the superstition that if rats and mice run off a ship the voyage is doomed, I am planning to have 13 sugar mice in their own little coffin as well.

Emma of Littlest Birds, who I am having a meeting with on Wednesday is going to sort me out with latex so I can have a mould of my mouse.

I'm exhibiting at the Surface Gallery Postcard Show 2008 in Nottingham for definite - so if anyone is about, pop along (and if you really like my work buy it.) 

About the size of a small grown cat.

I am going to be in this...come along if you can. 

PingMag

http://pingmag.jp/2008/07/22/student-show-2008-2/

Jennie just sent me this - it shows work from our course including herself, myself, Millie and Alice. There is even a picture of the outside of the Hermits Cave on the Camberwell Private View night. Sigh. 

The joys of internet shopping include the postage part, getting a present to yourself. A little pathetic, but I'll own up to that. I ordered two books last week in order to continue my research of superstitions - one is a dictionary, and the above is more of a reference book. Emily Bronte, Thomas Hardy, Robert Burns and the Romantics all referenced the supernatural and the superstitions embedded within the countryside. The wild moors and untouched grounds. Even when I visit the countryside, I can almost feel that throb of something ancient and old. 

Anyways - interestingly enough I read about the folklorist Edward Lovett and the carrying of mascots and abiding by certain rituals were practiced by soldiers in the First World War. It is almost as if in times of vunerability, people turn to things which may seem pagan.

I have completed my work on the superstition of rats and mice today - I'm not too sure how it will fair in an exhibition of fine artists, but I will find out at the meeting tomorrow. Continuing to work on the heroes book (not zine. well slight zine tendencies).

rats

I have been continuing to make work surrounding the dark depths of superstitions - namely the sea. This boat, along with an embroidered 'doomed' and seven felt/knitted rats will be completed this weekend to illustrate the superstition of when rats run off a ship, the voyage is doomed. The actual piece will have lots of extra bits as well referring to the downfall, as possibly I will have 13 sugar mice alongside this for people to take home to commemorate the rodents who did not make it.

This work will be exhibited in a show coming up in the next month or so. I am going to a meeting on Monday evening. Show details and final piece will be posted here.

Frieze

I have been working at Frieze as an performer as part of the work of Sharon Hayes, a New York based artist, whose work deals with public and private addresses and the link of the language of love and politics. This has involved, with 37 others, flyering a different love address each day for 30 minutes. 

Wednesday was probably the day of snobs, faces so tight with botox that you could barely make out a single expression. I encountered a woman who cornered me with suspicion, asked me questions and then handed the speech back. The days since have been much more successful in terms of the reception to the project, although I had another bitch yesterday who proceeded to read the speech in front of me, sarcastically say 'Thanks for that' and some other crap about 'reuseable' art when she handed it back to me. I hope the buyer she was showing around wrote her a faulty cheque. 

Apart from that - it has been fun, especially the reactions of people reading them (although it has meant I have been getting some funny looks). I like the concept of the work, the idea of political and personal merging, as both aspects of speech are usually lined with passion. My favourite line out of all five was from yesterday 'You told me that the ears are the only orifice that can't be closed.' 

The fair was good - work that stood out was some work I saw by Erwin Wurm (massive canvases and a square dressed as a suit with feet and shoes) and a huge sphere that contained a vortex of spiralling water. 

I have agreed to do about three different exhibitions, so I better start making some work tomorrow - tomorrow is when it all starts. I have also been working on zine with Millie Easton...shown above. 

found photos

Siouxie

Berlin

It has been a week now, and straight from the plane to bed to work. Berlin was excellent, I wished I had gone for longer and I got to explore the city by myself on a few afternoons. Jess took me around and we didn't really leave the eastern part of the city as she resides in Ostbahnhof, which is literally walking distance from the good places to go out. We also went to more historical areas as well as the artistic ones and to a few flea markets and the such. I think the only day I sleep before 5am was the last night. Club Renata involved as much time in the queue to get in as being there. It was pretty good - a huge house converted in a club with pure electronica and nothing else. Bliss. It was cold, I have a memories of Jess and I sitting outside lots of places - including a cafe in Oranienburger were the owners kindly left out blankets for smokers and their companions. A man freely walking around the U-Bahn with a grey parrot, people who thought it was alright to dress head to toe in orange and yellow and a busker with the sign 'My Grandma has been taken by ninjas, need money for karate lessons'. 

Out on the wiley windy moors...

I have now sorted out my submission for Pick n Mix magazine.

Cathy by the Sea

And so the explosive nature of Cathy continues. I have also discovered through my reading the poem 'Wuthering Heights' by Sylvia Plath. I would think of intergrating this in, but I'm trying to keep the outcome as simple as possible. There is nothing like looking like a complete idiot when taking the maximum amount of time to explain something to someone.

Cathy by the sea

I took Cathy to the sea, on a spotless blue sky day and photographed her. Like the moors pictures I will put these up a bit later when I get them back (I really should get a high res camera). Both pictures were in good weather, which makes me think I should also take some photographs in the dark or during bad weather, just to get the more haunting element of Wuthering Heights. I am also going to add text and work on the smaller Cathy pieces.
Came across a Model Village - Rosie and I

marvelled at the small houses...the bizarre add-on sheds which contained dolls, toys and more, the gnomes put in at places. It was something out of The League of Gentlemen, which I suppose made it more of a curious thing. 

I think my submission is now going to involve a series of photographs and scans, charting the haunting of Cathy, both small and large and also an introduction with a quote from the song and book with both authors acknowledged. The explosive nature of the piece will be through the persistance of Cathy and the relevant quotes. 

Mini Cathy

Pick n Mix

I think someone must have seen me create this and thought - ha, let's give her work now. It's still unpaid though.

Yesterday I went to the 'Psycho Buildings' exhibition at the Hayward, which is very good, in particular the piece by Rachel Whiteread and the boating piece by Gelitin. You felt like you could almost float off the edge of the gallery. Instead, I could hardly row. Rosie and I had to be rescued, which involved a rope being throw out to us and then been hauled in.