email to curator

(1)

  As an older artist who’s been through serious illness and has a resulting disability, I was surprised by your references to sustainability in art worlds.

I went to Goldsmiths - and was a first student working conceptually during and just after May’68.  I did what I could afterwards, and in retrospect, came across what Chris Kraus calls ‘social practice’, psychoanalysis and Jacques Lacan. Later on and more recently, I lived for five years with Ruth, who  I met while we were both undergoing cancer treatment - and time with her leads to three book size texts (‘talking’, ‘presentation’, shell’), video and painting and excerpts can be seen on two websites.

(2)

Wanting to turn reclusive work around, I think about approaching the (English) Arts Council for funding and support, realising I should put emphasis on a project.

But I don’t know how to turn a project into something that can be sustained - and  lack of resources runs into to lack of experience approaching funding bodies.

I’ve worked clinically and work always worked as an artist and have some experience setting up a charity to support difficult work. I  would like to start thinking about a project that looks after workspace or a relay of some kind for artists and writers who are getting older and contend with health challenges.

This is crucial in my case, but real difficulty begins with Brexit, Covid  and spurious arts funding during a period of crisis..

I’m working in a gap between what I call my work and a project - and think sustainability can be linked to the signifier ‘retroaction’ and the slow motion of an evolving picture or story.

(3)

I found reference to your work via e-flux and ‘calls for submissions’ in the contemporary art world discriminate unconsciously against older, disabled, or people who have possibly suffered serious illness, privileging an ability to move around and take on short term projects.

I’m looking towards a discourse that can be more inclusive and it could be argued that time favours older people, but  I like your emphasis on sustainability, when looking and looking again characterises the gaze or being seen.

have put a news page aside

for a few passages in run up

to funding applications,

     ⁃29.9.2023

Just before some training, I spent time with autistic teenagers and remember talking to an art therapist about a backlit whiteboard in a sensory room. She wasn’t impressed, and this text could be a handwritten text for a backlit exhibition whiteboard.

(from text called 'shell')