Influences this week have been very much to do with new beginnings but a lot to do with endings.

Firstly I saw Sum at the Linbury Studio Theatre of the Royal Opera House. A chamber opera composed by Max Richter & directed by Wayne McGregor.

It is based on the book Sum by the neuroscientist David Eagleman – forty tales from the afterlives.

It was very moving and poignant. The singers sat amongst the audience and their voices filled every space while you contemplated your own death.  Some stories were funny, some tragic and heartbreaking.

It felt very personal – like good observational comedy – something easy to identify with – the human condition.

When I think about death it is usually just to be angry things have to end. I will not be able to fit in all I want to do and I want to know what happens next.

I am trying to remember the name of the artist who was talking on radio 4, at 79 (or 76) he says he can’t afford to have any new ideas because he knows he hasn’t time to complete them.

He is collecting his hair every time it is cut and dividing it into black hairs and white hairs. Apparently there is no such thing as a grey hair.

I read the book Sum on the train to Edinburgh but I’m so glad I had it sung to me first.

I also watched the film  Never Let Me Go this week. The calm acceptance of death by the clones is very powerful.

A degree show is an ending but it is also a beginning – and visiting two good friends degree shows this week it really felt more like the start of something than the end.

So good to see fresh new work and feel the enthusiasm.

Yoonae Park – Westminster University Mixed Media Fine Art Degree Show at Ambika 3

Yoonae Park – self-portrait, body & soul

Simone Pereira-Hind MFA in Contemporary Art Practices at Edinburgh College of Art.

Alienation Zone – a response to space

While I was googling primordial fear as research for the work Syndrome I came across this – really interesting insight I thought

http://zouchmagazine.com/building-better-worlds-the-production-design-of-alien
I watched the film for the first time before heading to Simone’s alienation zone fresh with ideas about the monstrous feminine
and all the complex feelings about abjection discussed by Julia Kristeva in her book Powers of Horror: An Essay in Abjection
Read More:  http://zouchmagazine.com/building-better-worlds-the-production-design-of-alien/#ixzz1xWkdDk8d
I remember this book being discussed while at Goldsmiths – another of those impenetrable texts I think.
I think I ruined the suspense of the film for myself and I was looking for too much symbolism.
Simone’s elevator experience too I think must be even better if unexpected. To call a lift and have spaceship arrive.
Meanwhile back in the studio

A mock-up of Incidence using foam board sunbeams and cardboard trees.

I have spent a ridiculous number of hours preparing the stencils for the final layers on Incidence.

Is it possible to pull a muscle using a Waco pen.