Class. Upper, Middle – we don’t say Lower anymore do we. Was wonderful to see Grayson Perry’s The Vanity of Small Differences tapestries in all their colourful detail. Victoria Miro had never been so busy.

A steady stream of visitors into a packed gallery. I don’t think I’ve been there before and shared the space with more than a handful of people so it was great to see how Grayson had connected with people and brought them into the gallery.

I guess it was mostly those middle classes though. There we were recognising our friends if not our own front rooms. Fascinating stuff.

Space. Out there, in here.  Sarah Sze had some delicate and beautiful sculptures in the other galleries at Victoria Miro which rewarded studied viewing.

3D drawings in space.

Sarah Sze at Victoria Miro

Astronomy/Astrology. Saw Damon Albarns’ Dr Dee at the Coliseum.  Such transcendent voices. I bought the CD and there are bits that make my hair stand on end , the purity of the voices. Visually it was rich and innovative. I love a spectacle. Live crows and dancing solar systems connected nicely with the ideas in the Sarah Sze work. Calculating and examining the universe. The inquiring mind of John Dee who believed as much in magic as science.

Down in the Crypt. Installed  ‘Incidence’ which explores a spiritual connection with nature and reflects on loss. The title comes from the ‘angle of incidence’ the angle where a beam of light hits another plane and also the incidence of phenomena.  The live edge perspex catches the light and casts a shadow which becomes part of the work.  The lighting in my space is not perfect but I will have to accept that situation as the lights are too fragile to move very much.

I think this piece will work well when sunlight can hit it and move across it but the Crypt does offer a suitably enigmatic space for reflection on loss.

Incidence

Was exciting to see all the work arriving and being installed by the other artists in the show. Some amazing looking pieces coming together.

Nice to meet up again with familiar faces from last year’s Surface show and to meet the new people involved this year, one a blast from the past art class maybe 10 years ago.

 

Deep fear. I have been working on the images for ‘Syndrome’ – an installation exploring the inner recesses of the mind.

I am basing these ideas loosely on my own anxieties & memories mostly from childhood. There is the death of our neighbour Mr Wright who owned the shop next door. Alone in my bed at night knowing his body lay next door I had visions of his feet appearing through my bedroom wall. There was also the classic fear of hands under the bed waiting to grab my feet as I jumped in. Crocodiles under there too for some reason. And the other side of the Wrights house was a cottage separated from us by an orchard that if I crept across I could see to the back door outside which stood a black cauldron. I only ever imagined who lived there and dreaded I would be spotted spying. Cows running amok, screaming pigs, unceremoniously dispatched rabbits with myxomatosis and the stranger in the car.  Spent some time photographing laughing crowds around covent garden to maybe use in a tableau about humiliation. I am collaging images together to create the feel of a surreal dream, hazy images that will be printed on organza layers.