Making a Mark on Marseille

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=470582910&blogId=517284374

Click on the link and scroll down to the bottom of the page for a video of me speaking in French!

This is part of a project I'm taking part in, which from what I understand is in it's embryonic stages - all collecting and researching and stuff.  It's called "Le Défilé de Marques" which I think means something like the parade of brands, but I might very well be lost in translation.  From what I can understand, there's a group of artists who are doing some research into people - whether they wear a lot of branded clothes or not, how they feel within their own skin, how willing they are to change things about themselves etc etc.  Nina found out about it from a friend at school who knows someone involved with the project, so last thursday we went to a "Casting Citoyen" (public casting) way over on the other side of Marseille.  At the time I knew nothing about the project, just that we had to go, and take with us an object that has left some sort of mark on us, and that we'd be filmed talking about it and then dressed up and photographed accordingly.  And well, you know me!  I just thought great, let's do it!  Because why not?  I'm only here for a short while, and the more I can take part in the better.

The casting was happening over a few days, but Thursday was the only day we could go, and we very nearly didn't go, because it was getting late and we didn't think we'd get there in time.  BUT, we did go, and it's a good job we did!  I took as my object my wind-up racing royals (http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/wind-up-racing-royals/index.html) that Gill sent over to cheer me up when she heard I about my scary arrival in France - I thought that'd be a good idea, as they're pretty cool and very distinctly English! 

So, we arrived and we sat down and filled in a questionnaire, asking things like; do you wear make-up, do you wear perfume, do you have any tattoos, do you wear branded clothes, do you cut the labels out of your clothes, do you wear gloves when you wash up, do you like your reflection, what parts of yourself do you like/dislike, what is most important for you in life, why do you get up in the morning, etc etc etc.  And after that they took us into a little studio and made the video that you've just watched (right?) - one minute to introduce yourself, say how long you've lived in Marseille, explain your motivation, what is 'capital' for you in life, and to explain your object.  As you can see, I went slightly over that at 1:49!

Next, we were filmed walking a line marked out in tape on the floor, to see how we walk...

After that we went down into the photography studio area, where they had a white background and fancy professional lighting set up, and had a photograph taken showing our objects to the camera, and after that we went upstairs into the amazing Aladdin's cave dressing up section!  In this bit there were two women in white lab coats who were in charge of dressing each participant up according to their object and what they'd said about themselves.  They had EVERYTHING.  There were all sorts of mad clothes, shoes, hats, wigs, sunglasses, bags, props, paints - you name it, it was there!  They said that we could be dressed up as much or as little as we wanted - some people had gone really extreme, being painted from head to toe or wearing something they'd never usually go near, whereas other people refused to change anything.  I of course was 100% up for anything they suggested, and so was dressed up 'very English' because of my object (they loved it of course) and very colourful and 'stylish' because of my love of all things Glam - this involved a blonde curly wig, a crown, stockings painted onto my legs to match my dress, big shiny 70s boots and a lot of things being taped onto my dress - including my shoes!  Nina was a Cambodian turtle with an oriental shirt, red cheeks and a washing up bowl on her head.  We had some more photos and then we were done.

They took all our contact details, we signed release forms and they told us that they'll send us the photos by email soon, so as soon as I have them I'll upload them.  Then they're having a big party for everyone who's taken part on the 16th of December, which sounds like a lot of fun, AND since this is only the beginning of the project, they'll be doing loads more work that will cumulate in a big parade/show on the 24th of September next year.  Will I come back to take part?  Of course!

Also, my tutor suggested to me the other day that I try to get some work exhibited while I'm here, which sounds like a very crazy and very tempting idea - why not?  He also pointed a couple of ex-students in my direction, and they came and talked to me about an alternative fashion festival that they're putting on (that's fashion in the very broad sense) and said they'd like me to be involved, and talked about going to Lithuania with a group of artists next year to work and put on a show, but I'll tell you about that properly when I get some more information through.

All in all it feels like a lot of great opportunities are coming up, and I feel very lucky to be here - I wonder what's going to happen next?

Victory for Kate!

Here are some pictures of my studio space:

Not bad eh?  It's changed a bit since taking these photos, I've swapped one of the panels for a nice big stable board, which is great.  It isn't a huge amount of wall space, but it's enough for now and the main thing is that it's not cramped up against loads of other little studio spaces like in London!  And of course there's all that lovely natural light.

Also, there was a rubbish strike in Marseille for about a fortnight that only finished a few days ago, and apparently it happens quite a lot...  Me and Nina took a LOT of photos the other night of all the overflowing bins we saw on our short walk home, but here are a couple of the worst:

Horrible!  Anyway, we live on the fourth floor, so fingers crossed the cockroaches won't be bothered to climb that high!

Now to the point - the title of this entry is Victory for Kate, because of a conversation I had with another student last week.  There's a Polish woman in my studio, who's probably in her late 30s and makes abstract paintings that don't really do anything for me (despite a new found appreciation for this kind of thing), and even though she's friendly enough, I've heard that she can be a bit tricky sometimes.  So, I was surprised, but not completely shocked when she came over to me at lunchtime and said, "How can you sit there and eat while you're looking at that horror in front of you?  It's disgusting!"  That 'horror' being my work!  I didn't know what to say at first, and I think she thought maybe I didn't understand her French, but it wasn't that at all - I understood every word she was saying, I just was a bit stunned that she was saying it!  I just sat there going, "what??" and trying to figure out why she was so bothered!  She said didn't like all the pictures of Iggy Pop with his tongue out and wanted to know why I was juxtaposing them with images from a church, and that religious imagery is very powerful and have I even thought about that?  And I kept trying to explain to her, but she wasn't listening and wouldn't let me get a word in edgeways - every time I started a sentence she's jump in with another accusation, evening asking me if I was mocking religious people!  Crikey!  She was being really quite aggressive, and I knew she was determined not to like what I was doing, and not to hear what it was actually about - and what was I supposed to do?  That'd be a difficult enough situation to encounter in England, let alone hear where I have to explain everything in French!  But I had to do something, because I couldn't just let her go on at me like that, so somehow I managed to get her to listen, and I explained that no, it's not like that at all - I have no intention of being disgusting or offensive and I'm not ridiculing religious people or saying that Iggy Pop is anything like Jesus.  It doesn't matter what religion I take imagery from, because I just really like religious art, I think it's great propaganda and it really hits you in a special place.  And that I really love 70s music, and it's not that easy to find other people who want to come out and find that kind of music with me, so sometimes I get a bit lonely in that sense, and sit in my room being nostalgic and wishing I could go back in time.. And the music is really important to me, and when I hear it it strikes a chord with me, somewhere very close to the feeling I get from religious art, both of which are very close to the most important feeling in the universe - which is that of being totally and utterly alive.  And I want to communicate this feeling through my work, and making these little shrines is how I'm trying to do that at the moment.  It's got nothing to with crazy juxtaposition, or saying 'hey look, these guys are like modern day religious icons', and I am completely aware that religious subject matter is extremely loaded and that I'm probably a bit young to understand it, but what am I supposed to do, wait for 50 years before I think about it?  I probably never will understand it, so I'm doing this now without any fear of what people are going to think, because it really, really makes me feel something, and I really care about what I do and art is a lot bigger than I am.  And as I was saying all this I saw her face softening, and I think by giving her a little snippet of my soul I made her understand - and I can't even tell you the feeling of relief and accomplishment that came over me!  Because now even if she still doesn't like it, at least she gets it.

And I feel totally fantastic for that.

In Pop We Trust

Hello! The most important part of me doing Erasmus is to make work, so let's talk about my work. Obviously I'm Kate and I paint and all that, but recently (as everyone knows) I've been going off on a bit of an intergalactic adventure... An intergalactic textile collage adventure, and whereas I know some people don't like it very much because they feel I should make nice paintings and drawings of people for my entire life, I happen to love it. It's new, it's exciting and it's FUN. And it's allowing the side of me that wants to be Chris Ofili to run a lot wilder than ever before, and without having to spend tons of money on resin and elephant poo. (I just have to spend tons of money on fabric instead - it's really, really expensive in France - good job I brought half my stuff from London over with me eh?) So the first thing I did when I arrived at school (after marvelling at the unisex toilets - eurgh) was to warm myself up by making this beasty:

It definitely had to say "Oh shit..." on it, because that's what I saw in my head and that's pretty much what I thought on arriving here! And, the fact that I'm communicating in a foreign language where I can't express myself fully verbally means that I'm having to find other ways of getting across what I need to say. And everyone in France understands "Oh shit..."! This is probably about A3 sized or a bit bigger, and it took me a day to make it, which is very fast for textile work!

After this I reflected and decided I'd like to make another shrine, because I'd started making work about shrines this time last year, but before I came to any sort of conclusion with it I'd been distracted by absract painting and stuff, and my work had become more about discovering new methods of painting. And the textile collages I'd made in the spring were just the very beginning of that side of things too, so to marry the two and make textile shrines seemed like a good way to develop both ideas at the same time. And of course I'm aware that I can't work on everything at once, and that it's a bad idea to just shove two things together that don't go... BUT luckily, these two things really do go hand in hand for me right now. So a textile shrine it is.

And as for who to make the shrine to... Well, I chose Iggy Pop. I'd been thinking of using a French popstar, like Johnny Halliday, but the fact is I don't care about Johnny Halliday at all, so there wouldn't be any interest for me in making the shrine... At the same time, I didn't want to use someone like Marc Bolan, because he's my favourite and it would just feel a bit too close to home, as odd as it is, considering the whole point of shrine is that they're for icons you worship! But the thing is, I don't really worship anyone or anything, and it's difficult enough to explain while speaking, let alone while typing, but I just want to have a bit of distance from the subject... So Iggy Pop is perfect, because I like him a lot, but he's not up there with Sparks or anything. And he's just really appropriate for this particular moment in time - I was listening to Iggy Pop on the way to France and had it in my head for ages, there was a bit of talk about him with some of the girls beforehand, about how we think he's dead cool and all that... And you know, I can't have come all the way to Marseille to make work that I could have made in Peckham, so I've decided to just go with whatever takes me while I'm here.

So, I think it's time for some more pictures.

This is my first sketch of what an Iggy shrine could look like. The shape is taken from pretty much every Virgin Mary shrine I've ever seen, and the gold sun in the middle works like a halo, which I like a lot. And then the fact that it just says "IGGY" rather than "IGGY POP" makes for more of a teenage-girl-in-her-bedroom feel, which I think I quite like too. The other students in my studio have given me some interesting bits of feedback on all this, ranging from how it's very exciting because it's glittery and shiny, it's dead cool because it's iggy pop, it's very girly with all the sewing and fabric, to suggestions for looking into things like Santeria and Mexican/Cuban kitschy Catholic art, to one woman who took quite deep offense to the fact that I was juxtaposing very strong religious themes with someone as disgusting as Iggy Pop - phew! But I'll go into that later!

Anyway, the two religions that interest me the most visually are Christianity and Hinduism, and whereas in England I've been on a bit of a mini quest to make my work look more Hindu/Bollywoodesque, I feel that while I'm in France I should definitely exploit the fact that it's a deeply Catholic country... Regardez:

I made a few sketches in my book, some of which were made before visiting Notre Dame de la Garde, and some were made after. This is an example of a before - somewhere between the Jetsons and the Little Mermaid - good!  Then I went to Notre Dame and saw all this...

All those lovely gold and multicoloured Byzantine style mosaics of birds, flowers, angels, rainows, boats, anchors etc - more like Notre GLAM de la Garde! I went there 4 times in the space of a week - which is dedication considering you have to walk a long way up a very steep hill to get there!)
And so here's an example of an after:

Here I've taken influence from the circular patterns, leaves and colours I saw in the church. I think this is a good one and I like very much that it has a big bit of Marseille in it already, so I decided to use this as the basis for the shrine. What follows are images of the shrine's development so far. I chose the circular format because it feels a lot purer, a lot higher and a lot closer to whatever God is, and technically it's a challenge what with the lack of corners and all...

As usual it's taking me forever to do, and I'm very keen to make something else before the term finishes! Everyone else seems to think it's moving really fast though, but I think that's only because French art students seem to make one brushstroke a week and spend the rest of the time having coffee and fag breaks... But anyway, this is what I'm making! I'll continue to post updates as it progresses. Now I'm going to start a new post and see if I can upload any more pictures...