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.

Working hard

I am working hard. It can be hard to work hard. Sometimes though the result comes easy - it all seems to fall into place without too much angst. The days, weeks, months or years of thinking that preceded it coalesce simply into something concrete. That feels good. At the moment it is all feeling mostly good (only a little angst) and is yet still a bit scary. I've made the video (but should I make the other one that is on my mind? not tonight - maybe begin it tomorrow). In total I've got two other parts that might go with it. Not sure about either at this stage. Only a few days to go so I had better make up my mind (each of them will be more about sound than image - the sounds I have recorded).

Overall, it has to do with music and memory, London (my/our roots) and family. Ancestors and history. Water too: the sea and rivers have memory, always trying to get back to their original path (roots) if diverted. These things I have explored and thought about for many years now. And yet the present wants to be uppermost. So the present is there.

Sometimes it would be easier to think about nail varnish.