Well these past few weeks since my residency at Sura Medura was announced have flown by, and all of a sudden the 15th of January is tomorrow! Tomorrow I leave Glasgow for the far away land of Sri Lanka and my residency begins. I will be looking to post on here—internet access permitting—as often as possible over the course of the next six weeks, telling the stories of my adventures, the development of the art work I will be making and revealing the outcomes of my time at Sura Medura.
My art practice is mainly focused on and presented in digital video formats and I am intending to continue to push my interests and themes within this medium during my time out in Sri Lanka. Since my last post I have been down to London for a cousin’s wedding (congratulations Harry and Brooke!) and thought that while I was down there it would be a great time to check out a few exhibitions. These included the last day of the Turner Prize where I—along with what felt like half of London—crammed through the basement level rooms of the exhibition checking what was on offer. There was a wonderful diversity of practices on show and it was of particular interest of mine to get the chance to watch Elizabeth Price’s video ‘The Woolworths Choir of 1979’ (2012)
I also went to the Photographers Gallery to check out ‘Shot! Existential Photography’ which traced the correlation between the act of shooting a gun and shooting a photograph within a selection of artists work. Along with a wonderfully immersive installation by Christian Marclay it included a selection of images of a variety of people (including some philosophers and existentialists) at shooting galleries in fairs across the world. These shooting galleries required you to fire a pellet gun at a target and if you hit the bull’s eye a photograph of the shooter would be shot simultaneously. Action and documentation of the act would combine for a slightly odd image for the salient to take home. The top floor of this show also had a space that gave the audience the chance to test themselves at one of these shooting galleries. After a slight issue with the printer and a long wait with a crowd growing, my chance arrived and I dutifully gave it a go. I was given 4 pellets for £3 and gave it my best shot. To my surprise I did it first time and left the exhibition with the print as proof of my successful attempt.
Well now I’ve got to do some final packing before the long journey across the world begins.
Speak soon.