OH NO OH NO YOU DONT YOU NASTY PIECE OF PROCRASTINATION!

By gee and gollies has it been AAAYE-JUS!
What happened? It's a constant wonderment myself.
The leafs took a while to spring forth after the crummy winter we had over there in London. And then let's be honest... It's more or less the fact that I let myself get taken over by the comfort of being back on familiar ground , -walking the streets with an air of familiarity. It's nice -not having to constantly second guess oneself.


Rest assured, I am going to make it once again a nearly daily ramble.
I have to get back into the swing of things. The other day, just trying to write a random ramble seemed to be the single most difficult thing to do! It came as a depressing shock needless to say. And thus the determination to get my fingers on the treadmill that is the keyboard and that long drawn boarding on complaining ramble back out to the masses -the grand total of one person who might be reading this. heh.

But before I go, can I see if I can successfully describe in familiarly richly-descriptive fashion what just happened to me? Hush hush, I shall.

After my second slightly heavy snack for the day even before tea time, I decided to get this ole gal a-movin.
I'd planned to jog, use the stepper, do some crunches and be on my way.
That didn't pan out. I ended up skipping for about 45 mins and returning home feeling as though my lungs forgot how to take in air and my brain was starting to turn a hazy grey from the lack of oxygen.

All is much better now, not to worry.
But I am officially behind with preparing for Nick's folks anniversary dinner tonight -EEPS!

More soon.

On Vampires...

(As you can see, I'm doing Susan Sontag post titles... Anyway...)
So! Even though I'd exhausted all episodes of Greek, Desperate Housewives, Glee, Gossip Girl and How I Met Your Mother whilst I was doing my curation essay, the serial bug hadn't been stamped out of my system. It had very much been fueled actually. So, I started The Vampire Diaries -and finished it. I know, I know... I was flogging it no end only to realise I'd been hooked. But I've finished it now and because the last episode of the season was such a cliff hanger, I then progressed along the vampire theme and started watching True Blood.
That title sequence (clip below) to that show is killer ass! And the show itself... That it's set in Louisiana where they all drool a southern drawl and they preach about Jesus and run around in tiny shorts but can get away with not looking slutty because they're so innocent and shit... Well, lets just say, it's no The Vampire Diaries, but the fact that it's so different -the accents, the setting (that there's way more sunlight footage)- ensures you don't compare the two directly.

Andrea Fam; On Studio Portaiture

Unit 5 at CSM BA CCC has been fun. And I say that with no sarcasm at all.
Photography has created within me, a depth of patience towards a skill that I have not witnessed in a long time. For that, I am truly grateful.
Enjoy.

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Vampire Diaries

Seriously?
I hate shows that are 'shot' (because we know most filming happens in a studio anyway -I saw the making of Greek. Whoa there are some things I didn't think were done that way...) more in darkness than in the daylight.
Yet, there's this lure over the viewer to stay tuned and to keep watching. It must be the powers of the vampires working through the screen that's keeping me glued.
On that note, I didn't know vampires had the power to hypnotise. Interesting.
And these rings... That keep the brothers grimm in the sun. How the producers do stretch things.
Have we lost the gumption to create new evil creatures? Where's the fun in the constant remaking?
Our world has time yet; producers everywhere could invest some time and effort into creating a new creature and 'force' its presence upon society.
The soundtrack is its redeeming grace. It's pretty good.
Anyway... I could do with some SATC right now... Vampire Diaries just doesn't float my boat the same way SATC does...

It's movie week

I recently tried explaining scenes from Requiem for a Dream to a few friends.
Whilst I was describing, one of them kept going, 'oh, like Trainspotting.'
Now, because I'd never watched Trainspotting, I didn't have anything to argue against her statement.
But watching Trainspotting now, I can safely say, No, Requiem for a Dream is Not like Trainspotting.
It's entertaining, for sure. But no Requiem that's also for sure.
Also watched Breathless and Worried about the Boy.
I love escapism.

On Music.

Listening to songs - regardless of whether you've heard them before - have a way of tapping in on memories and spurring thoughts of the future.

Paranoiavera by Vera Korman

Innocently stumbled upon,
An interesting collage.

http://verakorman.com/

Andrea Fam interviews littlewhitehead for FADwebsite

Sometime last year I interview duo littlewhitehead for FADwebsite. Do read on to find out how that unfolded.

left: The Thing shown at the Arcan Mellor Gallery. littlewhitehead are Craig Little and Blake Whitehead and they are based in Glasgow, Scotland.

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1 How did the two of you come to decide to start working together?

We became friends whilst studying together in Glasgow. We decided that after graduating we’d work together. We thought it’d be easier that way. If there’s two of us it means less work.

2 How did littlewhitehead evolve into a professional artist and what does being an artist mean to the two of you?

I don’t think we’ve really ever thought of ourselves as professional artist. I don’t think anyone that met us would call us that either. We make things because we like doing so.

3 Which of you is struck by inspiration first? And can you explain some of your inspirations to us –some of the works at your Gilt Hole Complex exhibition for example?

It always differs. One of us has the idea, then we talk about, so by the time we make it, it belongs to both of us. It’s strange but we often forget who actually had the initial idea. The collaboration process is crucial to all the work though. We have an idiosyncratic sense of humour, that becomes more and more peculiar the longer we know each other. But the humour is what fuels most of the work. For the Gilt Hole Complex, one of the works ‘The Thing’ is a 200 year old bible that has been battered and deep fat fried, however we were actually joking about David Cronneberg films when we came up with deep frying as a form of artistic production.

4 What are the difficulties faced as artists today? And are there any tradeoffs that make life hard as littlewhitehead artists specifically?

For us, we often have ideas that far outstrip our technical skills and budget. So it can be frustrating, having to put works on hold in the hope that one day we have enough money to make them.

5 How do you start the process of making work?

It varies. We definitely do not have a set process. Sometimes we make things in the studio, sometimes we get other people to make it, sometimes it’s just a case of planning something. Every work needs its own process. But before anything starts there’s always a lot of talking about it with one another.

6 What determines a successful piece?

If we still like it in about a years time then we’d say that it’s a success. Others may disagree but they can go fuck themselves.

7 What are the pros and cons of the art market?

We’d be lying if we answered that. It’s a very steep learning curve from graduate to working artist. We’re only beginning to get our heads round it, and the idea that someone would actually want to maybe buy something we’ve made still baffles us.

8 Which of your pieces is the most memorable and which would you most like to be remembered for?

That’s always going to be for others to decide. We have different favourites from one another. One we both really like is a piece called the Fourth Wall, where viewers individually enter a pitch black room and eventually trigger a sensor that sets a stage spotlight on them and a cassette of raucous canned laughter. If they stand still it stops but as soon as they move it starts up again.

9 Who has been the biggest influence on you?

Maybe dad. He was a miner and hated his work but had to do it to keep food on the table. So he’s always been very encouraging of doing something we want to do.

10 How many artworks have you given away and to whom?

We gave a piece to the Glasgow School of Art MFA auction, which was funny because I applied for the course in 2007 but got rejected.

11 What was it like for littlewhitehead to showcase with Saatchi?

It’s great. Anything that may raise your profile is good. To be able to say you have been part of an exhibition in the Hermitage is very exciting. Most of the artists on display there are dead, so we feel quite privileged.

12 Which artists would you most like to blatantly rip off?

If we told you that you’d know who we’re ripping off.

13 Has there been any turning point for littlewhitehead –Whether as a team or as individual artists?

Getting into New Contemporaries in 2008 gave us a platform to work from. We hadn’t really done anything before that. We’d been working in a basement under a vintage dress shop in Glasgow, but nobody was seeing what we were making. So that exhibition gave us enough exposure to get more shows.

14 What does the future hold?

We’re taking part in the Madrid Art Fair next month, then a group show with Gimpel Fils. We’ve a few other things in the pipeline, but will keep quiet about them until they’re confirmed.

www.littlewhitehead.com

www.fadwebsite.com

What does it mean to be an international student?

And I don't mean the type of international student that has but a 2 hour train / plane journey home to their native country. I mean the real, cross-various-oceans-and-time-zones type of international student.

I'll tell you what it means.

It means being brave enough to leave your comfort zone which entails your friends, your family.
But over and above the obvious, it means having to put yourself out there to being vulnerable, very very vulnerable.
A new country brings about a new culture. Without family, without friends, that means not only do you have to understand a totally different way of life, but you can't question it because you've got no one who understands where you're coming from; no one who understands the comparison you'd be making.
In my case, I knew and understood the culture I was coming to. And in thinking that, that was where everything went so very wrong.

I knew, understood, appreciated and in some ways participated in their culture in Singapore. And so I felt that apart from undertaking the life of a tertiary student, and with that the regimentation of essays and the question of making new friends, there would not be a whole lot else to adjust to. But how naive I was to think that.
Then there is the trivial element of, oh I don't know, being a university student. No one can ever make you understand fully the meaning of being a tertiary student. Less so if you're trying to explain this concept to someone who knew before the age of time that she was not destined to be an academic. Who was more confident with a crayon and a piece of drawing block than a book.
And then friendship. "Aaah, making friends is a piece of cake!" She thinks. "After all, I love people!" And rightly so, she does! But what if people don't often like being made friends out of?
Finally there is HQ. Where you rest/relax/recharge. But really, I am now conscious to the fact that this place is harming me more than enabling me.

So the question is, what does it mean to be an international student?
In the context of myself, it means that I am fragile.
It means that I am insecure. It means that what I thought all along, was not so.
What I thought would be an easy place to adapt to being in, is not at all.
What I thought would be an easy feat to achieve -making friends, good solid friends you can lean on- was not so.
What I thought I understood -being a student- turned out to be a challenge and the least of which is the essays that I have to churn out.
What I thought I could call home, is prison.

And when I can finally sit back and say, "Yes, I have amazing friends. Yes, I finally feel like I am part of a university in that it accepts me and I know my place in it. Yes, this house is shyte but I kinda know how to work around it", a heavy cloud hangs over my head at the fact that I am feeling guilty for not contributing as much to my extra curricular activity as I could/should be.

After 8 months of subconsciously battling through issues I never even understood I had, I think that I deserve this much -to be released of this one last burden.
Please do not claim to know what an international student is going through unless you've been my definition of international student before.