Firstly, here is a recent creation: The Swagtop, to wear when I am creating Swagland. With my zine 'The ragged edge of your town' neatly tucked in the pocket there, so I can remember what to do if I ever get confused about my general direction! And so I always remember to put the effort in.
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| me completely captivated by the mini-documentary that accompanies Springsteen's latest album High Hopes |
And below is a hastily-made set up for an idea i've recently had; about Fan Clubs and how exciting and important they are. There's no particular order to the items, and really they don't go together very well, but it was a first attempt - just to see what items I already had.
Which are:
-The Swagtop
- 'I'd like to thank the River Boys' banner, which isn't finished yet
- Screenprinted pillow - part of the 'Affirmations' vein of my huge Swag project - based on tattoos, but stemming from (of course) Home & Away and Springsteen, amongst other things. So basically I really am being a big old fan with this Affirmations project! as well as trying to create a small spiritual practice of displaying affirmations and encouraging others to think of their own. This idea comes from hypnotherapy, which fascinates me. And I now want to be a hypnotherapist in the years to come. I think the 'I'd like to thank...' banner nearly came under the Affirmations project, but i suppose it's just more of a Fan Club shout out, so there it fits: in a future Home & Away related Fan Club.
- The Dyeing Station. This is less of a conceptual item, and is really just a participatory or performance item, with which I can demonstrate my eco philosophy and my methods. I made it from reclaimed wood, including our excess stair banisters! I then stained it with tea and a vinegar & wire wool solution (iron acetate solution) to get a lovely grey stain (also not finished). The top part of the Dying Station, which you can't really see, is reminiscent of Aboriginal Dreaming paintings - partly just a fanciful more, partly because it felt appropriate given the organic pigment I was using.
- The coil pot thing....?! made from metres and metres of plaited reclaimed bedsheets! this is far from finished and i will get the two girls whom I teach art to, to help me. they love plaiting! and this is part of it - being accessible to and inclusive of kids, who are the most fresh and imaginative community on out planet. They are never disinterested! Anyway - it is basically something to dye at the Dyeing Station.
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| And this is a mono-print I did last year on rice paper, but it's just so hard to photograph! Still not sure it's very complementary of the real thing, which is gorgeously delicate looking with all it's flimsyness and creases and submission to breezes when it's pinned up. |
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And now I'm thinking also about two more artistic adventures, both very large and involved!! I need more time and space to do them. I need to start really looking for some good residencies so I can run away and be a real artist, with an actual audience for a bit - to test out these ideas and actually employ my methodology of democratic, group/community made and influenced art. In fact one of these ideas is entirely FOR this purpose, and the other most likely needs a group to realise it.
I've been full of ideas for a year and a half, but too many disparate ones to have a clear definition of purpose. But now I feel really excited and engaged with at least two or three ideas.
So, two of the ideas:
1. The Swagstation - for real. Actually engaged in designing it, testing it, and making it, and finally using it!! Perhaps the Fan Clubs can be started and meet in The Swagstation?
2. A Paul Gaugin Soap Opera! Soap operas - the structure and atmosphere are so helpful for observing cooperation and employing it, and for also unharnessing your imagination in a healthy, sustainable dose.
And Paul Gaugin's Tahitian period reads like a soap opera (short, escapist, succulent and open), and to me really looks visually like Home & Away, with all its colours, characters and general adventure and imagination.
The Ocean was also a distinct force in Gaugin's life, and the sea is such a life-blood for local communities. It is so full of a sense of place and adventure, whilst also being one of the only physical presences and imaginative concepts that can be understood across the globe. It is universal but also private: it has infinite relatability but also intense privacy and intimacy... and that is what community focused art should be: universally understood, through the echoes of our close personal impulses.
And soap operas operate in this way too.
Below are scans of my notebook page introducing the idea.
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| everyone make their own character or script? everyone has a good at screenplay for a minute? we all write it together? (a tentative 'we' - whoever wants to do it with me!) |
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| everyone please help, come with me |
And some more stuff..
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| 'Affirmation I' |
Acrylic, hairspray, carbon and oil pastel on onion skin-dyed found fabric. This is so soap opera-y! This almost works like a scene from my imaginary future soap opera!
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| 'Nothing is ever set in stone' |
An affirmation tablet made form homemade clay (vaseline, beeswax and talc) that never dries out - so you can always change to a new affirmation.
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and more thoughts on The Swagstation...
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