I’m gonna dive straight into the pool and start by telling you about one particular life changing international journey, and a number of artist led initiatives I’ve encountered and jammed with on the way. Each has made a real impact on my practice and creative development as an artist. It’s a somewhat winding path and there have been a few digressions and unexpected de-tours but I’ll begin in 2001 in a wonky old cottage in Bucks! I was at the time commuting into London to work part-time as a Project Manager at the Wellcome Trust (Exhibitions Department), working with Verity Slater and Bergit Arends on the Science on Stage & Screen and sciart programmes.
I’d not long participated in a Goat Island Summer School in Bristol www.goatislandperformance.org
which had given me, as I was later to describe, ‘a much needed creative boot up the backside’. I had first met Goat Island (they are based in Chicago/USA) at the CCA, Glasgow where I worked for some years in the 90’s. Up until this Summer School in 2001, I had been focusing most of my energies on facilitating the work of other artists so it was time to research, develop and produce my own work.
“We have discovered a performance by making it.” Goat Island
So I had received on-line information about an international opportunity (I wish I could remember which e-digest or live art listing it was). The Latvian Centre for Contemporary Arts, based in the capital Riga, had put out a call inviting women artists to respond to ‘Sixth Element’.
www.lcca.lv/projects/6th_element
I’ve tried to go back and find my initial proposal, but this all took place two email accounts (and two computers ago) and I wasn’t so hot on archiving my documents/process back then. I have a hunch its on floppy disk in storage.
Well suffice to say a project I had been developing at that time, concerning pioneering women figures in espionage and technology, was accepted and to my immense surprise I was invited to go to Riga to create a small mixed media installation. LCCA took over a central hotel for 2 days in May 2002. They used all the floors, bar one. The Latvian football team would not be moved! Quite a contrast of clientele going between floors that weekend. Each artist had a hotel bedroom in which to present a piece of work or could use courtyard/hallways if preferred.
I was the only UK based artist participating in Sixth Element, the other artists and collectives coming from Latvia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, Russia & the Ukraine. It was my first time in the Baltics. I was immensely excited by the opportunity and the work I encountered, but a tad nervous to be presenting solo work in an unknown context. However I received a friendly welcome, and the atmosphere around the event was supportive, had a positive DIY attitude and a really diverse programme - from a presentation by female body builders to a performance about a medium channeling the spirit of Dead Diana – the Princess of Wales.
An episode around a lost bag and a subsequent surreal experience at the central police station threw up some interesting discussion around wages and the local economic climate. LCCA had generously given me £150 fee in cash (which included all materials/production cost expenses). Talking to a local teacher the following day I was to learn that her monthly wage at that time was £80 per month.
Anyway with this money I presented a mixed media installation incorporating performance, textile and works on paper called ‘First-time Things’.
Significantly for me I was accommodated at a B&B alongside a fantastic Norwegian artist collective called Galleri G.U.N (Gallery Uten Navn = Untitled Gallery). The Gun Ladies (as they are also known) are six Nordic artists and curators who until 2004 ran a small gallery space in central Oslo. They currently run The White Tube space in a subway leading to TØyen Underground in Oslo (and welcome proposals)
www.thegunladies.com
Anyway back in Riga, myself and the G.U.N Ladies shared meals together and talked about our work and over the course of 4 days got to know each other a little. I was really thrilled when they invited me to develop a project for their space in Oslo.
Image: 'Sixth Element', LCCA, Riga, 2002
Join me next week for the installment - 'Oslo Calling'
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