Hello

Re-Up? No shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii­iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii­iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeett­t???  Spontaneous?  A show, like we already tried to say, that (hopefully) evolves and keeps changing over the eight days. Will it? Whar? A show? An exhibition? Can it be spontaneous? Can you excite me enough to make me want to take my art down and give you the space instead? It rained today.  

“An art re-up? What’s the point” said the man clutching his souvenir Derek Jarman glossy print in one hand and his art gallery guide book in the other, “is this an art gallery? I don’t understand, are you in this guide? I don’t see you?” of course it is, go in, rake a risk” said someone else before I could….The Derek Jarman crowd  are a strange lot, heading down the street to the big white cube behind the big black door, trying to avoid interaction or even eye contact with any other art that mail soil their day…. He did come in, who knows what he thought? He’ll wait to be told what he thought no doubt….

Posted the Day One blog this morning and left for the oil-spewed thing that is Vyner Street (it is a thing), got interviewed about the re-up by someone from Oakland (there’s always someone wanting to so an interview, never see any of them), got a visit from people claiming  to be from the Singapore Tourist Board, wanted to create something like Vyner Street they said, as they bought prints from the print rack and took turns sitting on the taxi seat to have their photos taken.

MY CAT EXCLAIMED

Day two was a strange day.  No one addressed the empty plinth in any kind of exciting meaningful way, so a rusty old tin can occupied it for the afternoon (no doubt a dog sighed somewhere and on we went  with the throwing of ideas, paint and the destruction of your stifling artschool programming – there is only one way, hang it properly, art by the book please), The white empty wall space remains empty at the end of day two (see the photo at the foot of yesterday’s blog entry), some Marcia Scott abstractions were added to the wall, a Bridget Jackson piece that she left in the gallery over a year ago with the instruction to “paint or do whatever you do on it” when I pointed out she hadn’t picked it up at the end of the show it was originally in – got (somewhat predictably by now) exclaimed on…

Seems most of you don’t want spontaneous thought, you want formality, you want polite hangs, formal artist statements and invites, you want things done “properly”, well when I say most of you, I really mean most of you artists – the people coming in are, on the whole, excited by the idea of an ever evolving show and the notions of taking my own work off the walls and challenging others to come excite us and “re-up” things and make me want to hang your work  instead – viewers are coming back to see what has changed, to see if the empty plinth or the half empty wall has been filled yet. Art viewers get it, art makers, on the whole, don’t want to, but that does seem to be the thing in London in terms of art and galleries, in terms of mostly very conservative (small c) artists and the uninspiring use of art spaces and galleries that should be alive with excitement….

Marcia Scott

I hoped I would come home from a day of painting and talking to people in Cultivate to find an inbox full of submissions… maybe if we called it the “Cultivate Open” formed a selection panel, gave you a formal form to fill in and said you would be awarded some silly award that you could put on your CV to impress everyone at the end of it?    Clay Davis could sit on the panel, people could sip wine and be all elite and knowing about it…. at least the YBAs had  some get up and go about them, you make me want to crochet….