Grants for the Arts

Submit Application

A button on a computer screen 'submit application' it represented so much. Inside that button was a lot of stuff. People stuff I'm talking about, friends who had invested time and resources, contributed ideas discussed this and that, told stories made things, wrote things, researched things, compiled things together and been enthusiastic.

'Submit' was a nervous moment as I kept saying to myself : should I re-read it just to make sure it was as good as I could make it. Could that be in phrased a better way, had I left out anything that was so glaringly obvious as to scupper the whole thing. Had I structured things clearly, was the budget detailed enough and had I got across that friends and acquaintances had contributed already to get it to this point.

Who knows?

I spoke with someone at the arts council over the phone about what the 5 pages of supporting material was best used for, basically the advise was its up to you! So I read the guidance notes yet again and what came across on those was nothing to dense. I went visual. Personally I hate documents of dense text and before I read anything I'm already looking to see if the paragraphs are long with small type. If the paragraphs are short and dispersed with bullet points and a few pictures with captions. Those are the documents I like. But nothing behind that button was like that. It was dense and every line was crucially filled with feelings, information, sentences describing methods and experience. Every word was agonisingly crucial and loaded. And in the end its not long before your not reading it anymore, your just looking at it with no understanding anymore.

That's when I pushed submit. It was a submission, no more I'm done. 

Computer told me that they would check it to see if the figures added up if I had I missed out any questions. They would also look to see if I had left enough time for them to decide and the start of the project.

 

 

I had made some hollow houses specially for a photo shoot in the dark

 I remembered a conversation with someone who said that they had trouble submiting their application as the word count was a little erratic. They were unable to submit as the word count was too high even though indicators said it was fine, the thought of having to rewrite paragraphs again taking out several words did not exite me.

But that never happened: A Good Omen?

The Fim Crew arrive.

A flurry of activity around the Imagined Village this week. A project logo designed and the arrival in the post of some small plastic figures labled as 'train figures'. I was going to populate the village with these small figures but they were way too small and they looked all wrong. Not the right style and looked out of place and we had arranged for a video photo shoot the following day.

Train People arrived in the post

These figures are interesting when you begin examining them they are about 20mm tall. I thought that may have been designed decades ago and never modernised. It was hard to place as they look old fashioned in a 1960's way, and modern in a 1980's way?  

Train People arrived in the post

It was easy to copy these small figures and made them out of card about twice the size they were. They were about the right size for our Imagined Village now at about 35-40mm. I placed them in the model as a test before the Film Crew arrived!

This second layer of interpretation blurred their identieties even more and placed them outside of time estimates.

 

 

paper train people made at the right size

 

The Film Crew; two good friends of ours, Al and Nick from CT6 Arts who generous with their time videoed the village, travelling through its streets and capturing the feel of the neighbourhood. I had not thought I would dwell on people for this model, but during the filming it became apparant that they were central and it was unexpected how important they would become. We have not seen the film yet but it will soon appear on this blog.

Inside - Out

I like to make Inside-Out art [installations] exploring things out of their normal context, so I used some wallpaper to make little Inside-Out houses, inspired by Hundertwasser’s wonderfully colourful art and architecture...

 although there is a shift in the way our towns and cities are being re-imagined we are still way behind  Hundertwasser’s visionary architecture, which incorporated trees and his art often features faces so I thought I would photograph them in in the garden with a huge head overseeing them.

I am loving working on this inspiring project which is encouraging me to look at things in different ways, to explore different mediums and techniques like this little slide show of Silhouette Houses.

Passage of Time

I rather like the idea that the brick pebbles may be the remnants of Hampton on Sea, so when I found some flat brick pebbles and a surprisingly flat oyster shell, I thought it would be fun to draw some little houses on them.

I've also made another experimental video, this time playing with the idea of abandonment, erosion and decay.