Trinity Buoy Wharf: Impromptu ebb and flow

Just had a surprising weekend. Spent two nights eating and drinking way too much for too long with Adrian and Kathrin and then the next night getting thoroughly rat-faced with Mo so it was amazing that I was able to find my way to and from TBW let alone get the installation in place and functioning properly, myself included. Fortunately a brilliant local connection helped me put up the work, contributed ideas, and climbed up high without ladder training, I'd taken a car full of all manner of things just in case, good job I did.


As a result I got to meet many people who got to meet some of my work. Of particular note: Hayden the composer and pianist with his wife? a lovely art therapist, he wrote a note to my Mum on the hanging wallpaper about playing the piano by ear. Roy the sculptor and his mate the porter from Hackney who sang along with the video correctly identifying each of the numbers. Sylvia from Golders Green who'd walked all the way from Canning Town, she's a Holocaust survivor and came with her juggling balls to juggle to any music that might be playing - she juggled to a fiddler outside the cafe. I gave her a lift back to the train since she'd also brought her slippers with her and was wearing them after having walked so far. I found her with her feet up on the sofa watching the movie and relaxing: she told me a bit of her story it was fascinating and sad and inspiring. The biker who is in his third year of doing "the knowledge" and hopes to qualify next year - they have to fund everything themselves, hard indeed. This future London Cabbie introduced me to The Aluna Project: www.alunatime.org/ - how lucky is that? I would have missed out on knowledge that really interests me had he not walked into my temporary space. Eileen and Michael Woods came in from Haring Woods Studio, they use art to communicate, educate and influence policy on climate change, it was great to meet them.


The artists and people who are based there were excellent, being helpful and generous.

People drew some lovely stuff on the wallpaper and it all related to the work even though I hadn't stipulated what they might do - that was really gratifying - and they seemed to react to whatever the person before had drawn too, a visual chinese whisper (much earlier post). It created a brilliant form of feedback - someone drew a heart awwww that was nice. Each time I re-entered the wallpaper room there was another surprise.

Putting something together at short notice was nerve-wracking. I've learned much from the people who came, the work itself and the space it was in. The work is developing into something more. It was a good thing to do.