Bad Bahaviour

by Ruth Barker, 31 Jul 2009

Hello,
and first apologies are in order. I’m afraid I’ve let the Blog slip a bit lately, and have no-one to blame but myself. Things have been pretty hectic during July (not least because of the sad passing of my much abused laptop – many thanks to BD for the brain transplant it has recently received), and it is the Blog that’s suffered.

There have been many things that have caught my attention lately, and though I dit consider ‘saving’ some of them for future postings, I thought I’d give you a scattergun like catch up of some of the things that have been occupying me.

Orpheus and Eurydice
I’m working on a piece for the Edinburgh Arts Festival just now – a podcast performance no less. I’m scripting a reworked version of Orpheus and Eurydice, which I’m performing in a recording studio next week. The audio will be turned into a podcast which you can download from the Arts Festival website, so that you can listen to the text as you walk around the streets of the city. It’s been scripted to be sympathetic to a particular walk, but I think it will work anywhere. It’s designed to fit a walking rhythm, and hes been really good to work on – if a little last minute because I lost the completed first draft of the work when my laptop broke.
A lesson to us all: BACK EVERYTHING UP!

I’ll put a link to the work here when it’s done.

In the Beginning
I’ve been finishing the vinyl for a recent work In The Beginning that was performed in Glasgow in May. I just got the test pressing back today, which is quite exciting… When it’s all done I’ll have a record launch (somewhere), so details of that to follow as well.

Wheatfields (and the intolerance they inspire)
Frustrating this. I do read the Guardian and admire much of their political reporting (‘best of a bad bunch’, do I hear?), but my sprits always fail to soar when they talk about art. Likewise the Comments section below the main article.

Vann Nath
But in the interests of even-handedness, I was deeply impressed and genuinely moved by the coverage of Vann Nath’s testimony during the war crimes trial of Khmer Rouge leader Kaing Guek Eav. Nath is an artist, and one of between 7 and 14 (accounts vary) survivors of the horrific Tuol Sleng torture centre in Phnom Penh where 16 000 people are thought to have been murdered by the regime. The UN backed tribunal took place this July in Cambodia and Nath wept as he offered his unique eyewitness testimony. He attributes his survival to his role as an artist, forced to produce portraits of Khmer Rouge leaders to survive. Now aged 63, he’s still making work, which you can see here.

Northern Art Prize
This article in ArtReview was also of interest. Let me know what you think.

I waved goodbye last night to Alhena Katsoff of A. Vermin as she leaves Scotland for opportunities in Amsterdam. Good luck Alhena!

And it was the end of an era last weekend as the Glasgow Project Room hosted its last ever exhibition in its current location at 64 Osborne Street. This venerable institution has hosted many fine artists, but ended on a suitable high note with a gnarly Maximalist painting extravaganza from Benny Merris, who coated every surface (and I do mean every surface) of the space in his trademark painterly exuberance. Later in the night there was music and dancing and a touch of nostalgia as well as curiosity about what the future may hold as the Project Room and the Independent Studios to which it is attached moves to the new Trongate 103 building in September.

Lots more I’m sure that I could mention but I’ll save the rest. Before I go I do want to say that I’ve been reading Trickster Makes This World by Lewis Hyde (who also wrote The Gift). It’s a great little book that I’d recommend to everyone and anyone. I’ve been raving about it lately so I thought I’d pass on my enthusiasm. Go read it!

More later,
R