This work, entitled Flag, was selected for an exhibition within Spike Open Studios 2012 as part of the Bristol Diving School Curatorial Exercise #1. The work is a kind of physical sketch that had newly come together in my studio as part of a larger exploration of the materials related to painting. The work was tentatively assembled from two uprights, one wood and one melamine, a piece of linen with a circular area of gesso, all held together with tape. The work leaned lightly against the wall for support. 

Early in the weekend, a colleague came to my studio and told me my piece had collapsed. I went to the gallery to take a look. What I encountered appeared graphically orchestrated, the slight provisional materials reconfigured on the floor. I decided to leave the work in this state as it seemed a poetic outcome of the situation - the fallen gesture of a fragile piece situated in a public corridor-type space at a busy event. 

When I returned later, the piece had been "fixed," placed upright again in a somewhat different location and position. I do not know who repaired and righted the piece. But I got curious about this series of events and decided that rather than anxiously tending my piece over the weekend or changing its structure to be more sturdy, I would just observe what occurred. 

These images depict the casual documentation of various "experiences" of the piece, all interventions by others. I was surprised by the ongoing effort by some person(s) to help hold this work together and be presented proximate to its original state. 

By the end of the weekend, the work was in two pieces and the anonymous guardian(s) seem to have lost the memory of the original work and/or become exhausted or disinterested in the continual tending. 

The provisional is a theme in my practice. I am curious about work that has within it the potential to shift, either by its nature and/or by some participatory action. This piece was not intended to be participatory but because of its tentative nature and the wiling intervention of the public it became an evolving work, a joint effort, an anonymous collaboration. 

My thanks to my collaborators for tending this piece and furthering my thoughts about the provisional in my work. 

The gallery is situated in an apartment in the Shoeneberg neighborhood and the work will be sited throughout the apartment. I had a great time getting to know Julie August, the woman who created 18m Galerie, a gifted book designer, tango dancer and curator. She welcomed me into her life in Berlin and introduced me to her interesting bunch of friends and colleagues. I worked in the gallery and in the apartment, learned to dance tango, ate some great food and extended my map of biking in Berlin.

My approach to the show will take into consideration the nature of the Biking in Berlin works and the Hanging Drawing Loops, situating them in the space with an awareness of the architectural as well as social aspects of the place. I enjoy working in this way, spending time getting embedded in the place and arriving at the exhibition from a combination of my understanding of the work and my sense of the place. 

I biked throughout the city and reveled in the color and drawing that boldly punctuates the cityscape.

I spent a long weekend in Amsterdam in early April and got a great mix of coaching, biking, a singing lesson, time with my friend Susanne and some wonderful art and design. 

One of the highlights of the trip was this show of work by Hedwig Houben. Her video, Practical Matters and Matters of Fact, is a beautifully executed rumination on the relationship between the artist and the work and between one work and another. 

Fons Welters Gallery

Link to Mary Heilmann interview

Carmen Herrara handles paint in a much more controlled manner but also direct and minimal. I was introduced to her work when I saw her retrospective at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham several years ago. This group of paintings looked stunning in the Lisson Gallery annex. There is a similar concern for the whole of the painted object with shapes continuing around the edges.

Another artist working in a minimal manner with powerful effect is Mary Hurrell, recent RCA grad currently showing at Carlos/Ishikawa. Her solo show there includes sculpture, video, sound and performance.

At the main Lisson Gallery, there is a beautiful show of Santiago Sierra's work. I spent a long time taking in the reel of videos entitled Dedicated to the Workers and the Unemployed. 

In preparation for upcoming exhibitions of the Biking in Berlin series, I am working with Andrew Short, Bristol framer who comes highly recommended by colleagues at Spike Island. He has been generous with his time in discussing all aspects of the framing in order to best present this particular work. Above is a funky maquette I made of our specifications in order to get a better sense of it. The Hans Arp-like shape in the center is the museum board that will sit behind the drawing raising it slightly away from the background board. I like the happy accident of the shape and am tempted to collect those shapes as an extension of this work. 

The saturation of color I was using in the Biking in Berlin drawings inspired me to take another look at silkscreen. I took a short course in Silkscreen at Spike Print Studio just across the hall from my studio. It felt lightening fast - just 5 weeks long - but I learned alot and got a great orientation to the silkscreen studio. I made the first few prints using enlarged details of the Berlin drawings just focusing on the tight meeting of simple blocks of color. Then for the final print I did a small edition of an enlargement of one of the Notebook Drawings, How can it sustain itself? I really enjoyed the luscious ink and brilliant colors and the physicality of the process. Curious to see what will come next!

In a recent trip to London, I saw these striking woodcuts by Brazilian artist Lygia Pape at the Serpentine Gallery. I love the simplicity of the marks and the surface of the ink resting on the Japanese paper. Maybe woodcuts should be my next investigation...

The Biking in Berlin works on paper are finally complete - 79 in total. I took them into the Test Space Gallery at Spike Island to see them as a collection in a larger space for the first time. I used the 80 linear feet of gallery wall to test out various ways of exhibiting the work and see how they play off each other in groups. 

Having the work in this public space gave me a good opportunity to talk with many Spike artists and hear their feedback. I am grateful for the various perspectives shared. 

Having sidestepped my way into painting with the Biking in Berlin works on paper (gouache and flashe), I am now looking at painting surfaces of various kinds. In much of my work, there is an interest in finding shapes rather than designing them. This lovely shape was an offcut from the woodshop bin at Spike. 

My colleague, Yvonne Buccheim, invited me to take part in this Song Archive Project performance event at Chapter in Cardiff, Wales. In a cabaret setting at this Welsh arts center, a variety of performers, planned and spontaneous, sang acapella to the gathered crowd.

For my performance, I was inspired by Crosby, Stills, Nash acapella rendition of My Country Tis of Thee. Living away from my home in the US these past three years, I have been surprised to find I experience more patriotic feelings than ever before in my life. I wondered what it would be like to stand up in front of an audience of mostly British and Welsh people and sing this love song to my country well aware that many people have a very mixed feelings about the US. 

When I researched the origins of this first national anthem from America's early days, I learned that the tune is identical to the unofficial German national anthem from 1871 to 1918. And the tune is also well-known to the ears of residents of the UK as 'God Save the Queen.' Presented with this unlikey confluence of songs with the same tune conveying distinctly different messages, I felt the only thing to do would be to create a medley. Let them sit beside each other audibly.

I started the performance humming the whole tune. Presumably most of the audience immediately referenced the familiar 'God Save the Queen.' As I began to sing, though, the words were German, Heil dir im Siegerkranz... then a brief pause and...God save our gracious queen...another pause and, finally...My country tis of thee...

It felt like a powerful and almost frightening thing to do. I felt the strangeness of the German language on my tongue and the oddness of singing to a queen. Then when I arrived at the last, more familiar version, I felt a warmth and depth of feeling. I had never recognized before how this early anthem is really a love song to the people and the land. In a world that is often critical of the United States, it felt radical to publicly proclaim my love for my country.

My performance provoked a member of the audience to spring to the stage and spontaneously sing the Irish national anthem to honor her country! 

And from there the evening rolled along with every manner of different kind of song about love, burping, and a girl gang demonstrating their power through song. Yvonne Buccheim has created a rich platform for song and performance which I was thrilled to be part of.  It was a brilliant evening full of humor, generosity and poignancy.

In November, I traveled to Venice with a group of ten artists thanks to a travel bursary from Spike Associates. We had several days to cover the Venice Biennale including the pavilions at the Giardini,
the exhibitions at the Arsenale as well as the many pavilions dotting the city. Here are some images
of some of the works I found to be the strongest. 

The experience of being at the Biennale was a spectacle of a huge array of works. I was interested to see how some works held their own and almost created a quiet space within the visually noisy atmosphere of the Bienniale.

Marcus Shinwald's work at the Austria pavilion

Rebecca Warren at Arsenale 

Iraq pavilion

R.H. Quaytman