Wednesday 25 July 2012

Rat Rose Bird(ing) again...


Whilst putting together a Tour Pack for Rat Rose Bird (my current fun task) I came across this piece of writing I did for the Fierce Festival brochure in 2011. It reminded that I showed the same two pieces there as I am currently thinking about now. Here it is:

Video Still from My Compass Rose (Sheila Ghelani 2008)
Covet Me Care For Me and Rat Rose Bird

Two sides of the same coin.

Two pieces about the same subject.
The same period of time.
The same events.

Two different approaches.
Two different outcomes.

Moving in opposite directions.

Bookends.

*

Covet Me Care For Me was made in 2007 in the middle of a maelstrom.
It involved a short focussed making process and took me to some precious places:

Into the glass-makers studio and up-close with alchemy.
Over to Farringdon to explore the local jewellery quarter.
Into the wholesale shops of East London's watch-sellers.
And over to Angel to an engravers stall.

Stationers, haberdashers, junk shops, picture-framers.

I bought the hammer in a local DIY store.
The long rubber audience gloves in a very conveniently placed plumbers.

*

Rat Rose Bird has been its opposite in every way.
Although begun in 2008, it will only just be finished in time for Fierce (2011).

A long, lengthy, drawn out process, involving short bursts of making, interrupted by long periods of forgetting.

Perhaps to make it possible for me to:

Keep going into wedding shops.
Smile sweetly whilst buying roses and champagne (to waste and smash).
Discover a gruesome freezer at the back of all pet shops.
Spend hours and hours reading about colonialism.
Pretend my house has rats in order to buy traps.
Ignore supermarket lights as I queue for small pots of cream.

Sift through toys in pound shops.
Sift through thoughts at bus stops.

Carry a chest of drawers up the hill in the rain.
And up the stairs.
And up the steps.
And into the van.
In the middle of the night.

To drive through traffic, with a stranger making me explain.

*

Several times whilst trailing from shop to shop I've wondered to myself what it's all about.

*

Once this piece has been shown for the first time, I think something new is going to start:

A new phase of work.
A new interest.
A new type of looking.
A new love.

*

I am going to spend my coin.

*

I am going to buy a glass of something nice.
To raise towards the future
To start something new.
Video Still from My Compass Rose (Sheila Ghelani 2008
My arms are going to be wide open.

I am going to be smiling.

I am going to be looking forward.

I am going to be looking towards you.

*

I will be starting again.

*

Fingers crossed eh?