Hello everyone: i am practicing adding links so here are two links we all know!!!!!! metro had a fabulous launch Wednesday night that i could not attend but here is a bit of a peep see!!!!!! go to my facebook page and see liz and dan!!!!!!!! its posted on my home page.
www.metroarts.com.au www.4change.com.au
so it is thursday, and dan and liz and margi are sitting in a restaurant around from metro arts having a meeting.
It takes half an hour to find a suitable stop. we try three places on the river (oh, this is nice, lets try here) and then we leave, all private parties!!!!!!!!and we go back to where we began...just around the corner from metro
so we order some tapas and a drink and talked about process project.
where is it going?
what do we need to do now?
so we are thinking:
1. all of us need to get onto this blog so we can all contribute: ask an adolescent how to do it if it is difficult.
2. we are going to have fun times together it seems: we are on the hybrid path!!!!!! we think a Chef in her kitchen could be a good idea to visit; we could ask Brenda the owner of Mondos and see if she will allow us in! Mondos is a very popular organic restaurant in West End. Fabulous food!
3. We go to the great forests and meet with the wombats! well, we may not be able to fly to Tasmania but we will be able to go somewhere either near Nikki or near us here in Brisbane.
Nature is the greatest advocate of hybridity! lets copy her!
4. Any more suggestions?
5. Nikki we did not discuss this, but to save you always having to come here, perhaps we could also go there? Just a thought. Trying to think creatively how to keep us moving forward when we all have outrageous schedules. Any suggestions?
6. The culmination of this work is June, 2011. i have suggested either early June or late June. What is that like for you both?
well i have tried to upload photos of the evening, and they are rejecting so something about the site may be not working right now.
will upload them tomorrow.
ok, come on. lets start the blog!!!!!!!!!!
Call to Arms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
cheers to all of you
and thank you Metro for taking us out for tapas and a glass of bubbly. very kind!!!!!!!
margi
PS. here is our address for our blogpage
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=116670625304647151&postID=588083896331743658
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
what is process when we are 58?
thinking of process.
thinking of making art.
thinking of the artist and where that artist sits in the middle of their own life.
i saw Boiling Point last night, a young threesome of choreographers. they moved powerfully, and they walked up a wall, many times
they defied gravity
how do we as artists
defy gravity
those objects, people, ideas, beliefs that pull us to the floor?
as senior (?) surely not
artists (not you two, but me, yes, i am in that category. you both are still in mid career...that sounds a whole lot better)
i wish to do something:
ok
i will say it
i want (and have always wanted)
to work with nurturing people
and i do
i have a wonderful collaborator
i have wonderful students
and wonderful young artists with whom i work on a semi regular basis (depending on their writing motivation)
i do have what i have dreamed of.
and i want to say this: i did not realize that i had it.
i have always wanted 'a company': but how does one do that if one is not living in the eastern part of Europe (where you can live well as an artist!
but in a wonderful weird way i do: they just aren't at the same place at the same time.
thats all.
and if we think of Quantum Physics. that is possible!
as i write this, i am eating blue cheese, poppyseed crackers, hot salami and a beautifully soft red wine.
my dog is sitting at my feet. he was run over yesterday. he survived. we always do. life's like that.
margi
thinking of making art.
thinking of the artist and where that artist sits in the middle of their own life.
i saw Boiling Point last night, a young threesome of choreographers. they moved powerfully, and they walked up a wall, many times
they defied gravity
how do we as artists
defy gravity
those objects, people, ideas, beliefs that pull us to the floor?
as senior (?) surely not
artists (not you two, but me, yes, i am in that category. you both are still in mid career...that sounds a whole lot better)
i wish to do something:
ok
i will say it
i want (and have always wanted)
to work with nurturing people
and i do
i have a wonderful collaborator
i have wonderful students
and wonderful young artists with whom i work on a semi regular basis (depending on their writing motivation)
i do have what i have dreamed of.
and i want to say this: i did not realize that i had it.
i have always wanted 'a company': but how does one do that if one is not living in the eastern part of Europe (where you can live well as an artist!
but in a wonderful weird way i do: they just aren't at the same place at the same time.
thats all.
and if we think of Quantum Physics. that is possible!
as i write this, i am eating blue cheese, poppyseed crackers, hot salami and a beautifully soft red wine.
my dog is sitting at my feet. he was run over yesterday. he survived. we always do. life's like that.
margi
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Forgot to add: a new process project has begun in Lounge studio, Pullenvale without me knowing
Recently, I have just been involved, and will continue to be involved, in a writing project with three young emerging writers. we meet on a Saturday afternoon at my lounge studio in Pullenvale, a converted lounge room. The writers (including myself) use multimodal artforms to access story. This is not a fast process necessarily, though once the idea takes hold, nothing can stop it. the works that they are developing are all related to grief, loss and/or identity. Powerful stuff and it is a privilege to nurture them. They present their newly created works at the end of the afternoon, and we discuss what we felt, saw and dreamed.
Good stuff.
margi
Good stuff.
margi
thinking about our project and wanting to share a story
hi everyone,
i am thinking continually about the importance of process over product, and have some articles that may be interesting for you to read so i will attach one of them when i alert you to this post.
i'm sitting in Boys, a great coffee shop at QUT urban village (what does that mean, an urban village) Kelvin Grove. It is a lovely piece of home, with Luke and Chris making standout coffees and i just tasted some remarkable poached eggs and tomatoes. so needless to say i am feeling comfortable and cared for. someone at the next table only ate one of his eggs, and that old expression that i was brought up with, and perhaps you also heard (expressions have a habit of being multigenerational), "what about all the starving people in China....[or wherever] and that throws me into overwhelmingness. why are we so lucky? and i know that we often laugh when we are reminded of that famous book, but why are we the lucky country?
so that is where i am right this minute. processing food. but also processing language. i have been lecturing this year, as you know, and i have had some powerful interactions with students of late, where there is a little bit of irritation (perhaps) with their grades. Words such as "perplexing", "that is just insulting" and expressions like "would i get a higher mark if i thought like you".(please remember these are now out of context)..and this makes me wonder about the power of words.
How do we mark papers and still sit in the process realm: that it is the journey, not the mark? how can a I communicate to so many students at the same time and get it "right"...impossible perhaps? but that is the task i have set for myself, (that is one of my process projects!) committing to sending articles on a very regular basis, to keep the channels of communication open and growing, continuing to stay connected in the hope that we will grow very fine collaborative therapists.
i am, right now, thinking that the old fashioned way has got it right:
No overt involvement.
Just turn up.
Then no one gets hurt.
but what a dull as dishwater world that could become.
any thoughts?
i am thinking continually about the importance of process over product, and have some articles that may be interesting for you to read so i will attach one of them when i alert you to this post.
i'm sitting in Boys, a great coffee shop at QUT urban village (what does that mean, an urban village) Kelvin Grove. It is a lovely piece of home, with Luke and Chris making standout coffees and i just tasted some remarkable poached eggs and tomatoes. so needless to say i am feeling comfortable and cared for. someone at the next table only ate one of his eggs, and that old expression that i was brought up with, and perhaps you also heard (expressions have a habit of being multigenerational), "what about all the starving people in China....[or wherever] and that throws me into overwhelmingness. why are we so lucky? and i know that we often laugh when we are reminded of that famous book, but why are we the lucky country?
so that is where i am right this minute. processing food. but also processing language. i have been lecturing this year, as you know, and i have had some powerful interactions with students of late, where there is a little bit of irritation (perhaps) with their grades. Words such as "perplexing", "that is just insulting" and expressions like "would i get a higher mark if i thought like you".(please remember these are now out of context)..and this makes me wonder about the power of words.
How do we mark papers and still sit in the process realm: that it is the journey, not the mark? how can a I communicate to so many students at the same time and get it "right"...impossible perhaps? but that is the task i have set for myself, (that is one of my process projects!) committing to sending articles on a very regular basis, to keep the channels of communication open and growing, continuing to stay connected in the hope that we will grow very fine collaborative therapists.
i am, right now, thinking that the old fashioned way has got it right:
No overt involvement.
Just turn up.
Then no one gets hurt.
but what a dull as dishwater world that could become.
any thoughts?
Monday, November 8, 2010
a post from Nikki in the Ancient World
the last few days have been quite something...
went to the acropolis yesterday morning to admire the giant marble structures - on high in the white bright light that still gleams from the height of classical civilisation
... then wandered (somewhat overwhelmed and full of kind spirit) into the grimy downtown area of Athens toward the national archeological museum
my companion J then got robbed/pick pocketed (lost her purse and all her cards) on the metro and we ended up in a police station that was indescribably bleak
- dark narrow stairways, locked rooms and we got an up close glimpse through a door into
an interrogation room where about 10 foreign/Gypsy/Indian apparently drugged up guys were variously lying on the floor or edgily pacing the room/ punching the air
with cops bringing in plastic bags full of 'evidence'.
everyone smoking smoking.
wild!!! i wish i'd filmed it!
it was a glimpse into Hades
needless to say they couldn't help us.
(all sorted now, with some drama)
then later in the evening there we were again back with the gods in the brand new acropolis museum
the acropolis and the new acropolis museum make a compelling double act.
we were in the museum at night and the fragmented marble bodies float in tableau against the glass with the theatrically lit acropolis as a backdrop.
achingly beautiful.
seeing the elegant towering caryatids close up from 360 degrees in the museum a delicious experience... braided hair down their backs
this morning at the Cycladic museum we saw an exhibition of very early figures, pottery and ornament from the Danube region dating back to 5-6,000 BC.
truly breathtaking, sophisticated simplicity. beautiful geometric designs and small animals and models of houses. the care, the detail and their scale does make me gasp and swoon with delight.
went to the acropolis yesterday morning to admire the giant marble structures - on high in the white bright light that still gleams from the height of classical civilisation
... then wandered (somewhat overwhelmed and full of kind spirit) into the grimy downtown area of Athens toward the national archeological museum
my companion J then got robbed/pick pocketed (lost her purse and all her cards) on the metro and we ended up in a police station that was indescribably bleak
- dark narrow stairways, locked rooms and we got an up close glimpse through a door into
an interrogation room where about 10 foreign/Gypsy/Indian apparently drugged up guys were variously lying on the floor or edgily pacing the room/ punching the air
with cops bringing in plastic bags full of 'evidence'.
everyone smoking smoking.
wild!!! i wish i'd filmed it!
it was a glimpse into Hades
needless to say they couldn't help us.
(all sorted now, with some drama)
then later in the evening there we were again back with the gods in the brand new acropolis museum
the acropolis and the new acropolis museum make a compelling double act.
we were in the museum at night and the fragmented marble bodies float in tableau against the glass with the theatrically lit acropolis as a backdrop.
achingly beautiful.
seeing the elegant towering caryatids close up from 360 degrees in the museum a delicious experience... braided hair down their backs
this morning at the Cycladic museum we saw an exhibition of very early figures, pottery and ornament from the Danube region dating back to 5-6,000 BC.
truly breathtaking, sophisticated simplicity. beautiful geometric designs and small animals and models of houses. the care, the detail and their scale does make me gasp and swoon with delight.
Good Morning It Is Monday
Hello everyone,
i absolutely know i am talking to no one out there, but it is still lots of fun to think about process especially when we are involved in making work. i will make sure i send you this link by email.
right now terror sits quite closely to me because i am in the middle of writing an autoethnographic performance about the therapist/artist and i am terrified that it will not be a useful piece of work for others to witness; yet i think if we start with such a premise we will not get very far in creating work.
this weekend i was in byron at a resort: it was Bill's management christmas party, and we stayed in a place that has remarkable waterways, and we can walk on the boardwalk for what seems like kilometres looking at exquisite water lillies, tall tall trees, the Byron surf nothing-beats-it; and of course good quality champagne.
.JPG)
Here are two signs that were along the path that you may resonate with:
.JPG)
.JPG)
"Life can only take place in the present moment. if we lose the present moment we lose live"
What do you think?
I am so not wanting to lose the present moment,
Warmest
Margi
i absolutely know i am talking to no one out there, but it is still lots of fun to think about process especially when we are involved in making work. i will make sure i send you this link by email.
right now terror sits quite closely to me because i am in the middle of writing an autoethnographic performance about the therapist/artist and i am terrified that it will not be a useful piece of work for others to witness; yet i think if we start with such a premise we will not get very far in creating work.
this weekend i was in byron at a resort: it was Bill's management christmas party, and we stayed in a place that has remarkable waterways, and we can walk on the boardwalk for what seems like kilometres looking at exquisite water lillies, tall tall trees, the Byron surf nothing-beats-it; and of course good quality champagne.
.JPG)
Here are two signs that were along the path that you may resonate with:
.JPG)
We are all visitors to this time, this place. we are just passing through. our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love..and then we return home.
(Australian Aboriginal Proverb)
and:
.JPG)
(Buddha)
I am so not wanting to lose the present moment,
Warmest
Margi
Sunday, October 31, 2010
some images from our time together in the gallery, way back when
I am reflecting on when we met for that 12 hour stint where we played in the studio and then in the gallery and finally at the Stanford HOtel. This was before Julia Gillard was elected prime minister. we saw her in the bar and left her along.
This was the image that Brian loved, at Bondi Beach, and the artist removed the swimmers so you could only witness the water currents moving. then Nikki took an image of the real bondi beach and sent it to us. Nicki also wrote this:
ps... whilst i have your attention
i keep thinking about that video image you led us to at GOMA Brian
the invisible bodies moving through water. and then i read this:
in an introduction to George Bataille's Cradle of Humanity - Prehistoric Art and Culture :
'Bataille's ruminations on the passage from animal to man proceed by denials and negations, rejections in turn of animal, self, and world, only to return him to his point of departure,
his brute, contingent, material animality. an experience of existence as oblivion, of life lived like water in water. This new world of animality is animate, sacred, a world of holy things.'
(Stuart Kendall)
i loved finding that - life lived like water in water ....
and then Dan wrote this:
Hi Everyone!
Apologies for the delayed silence. I had this email sent to you last week but it was screened for profanity. Yikes! I am being censored! So after nearly a month-and-a-bit after our meeting in June, I thought I’d distill what I heard/ observed into a bit of a plan with some clear actions for you to respond to me with. After speaking with Liz, I am taking on the role of Project Coordinator. So I’ll be your go-to person on all things Afternoon.
Proviso
So just to revisit what we’re actually doing. We’re looking at an:
* Exploration of hybrid performance …
* with Windows into the process along the way
* And an involvement beyond the 3 of you (cue young practitioners – not necessarily artistic)
Why you were chosen?
* Because you are career-long independents!
* Because you champion partnerships and collaborations with people younger than yourselves!
* Because you have remained contemporary!
Outlay of Project (based on your meeting):
* 3 more face-to-face meetings comprised of all of you where you will each “experience” another skill or form that is not widely considered “artistic”.
Like Nikki’s archaeology/ archival story – if you remember that. And you will all have this experience TOGETHER (as requested). So as opposed to partnering with a young person, you’ll all encounter a younger person working in a field that is not your own for a day of creative and artistic stimulation! Perhaps drawing links between their process and yours or something about their practice and yours. It may horseriding. It may be diving. It may be engineering. It may be stamp collecting. You guys get to choose!
* 1 final intensive weekend
Similar to the first, we’ll have a final show and tell of what you’ve learnt about yourself, your process and each other at the end of the journey. It doesn’t need to be performative (but it certainly can be) but something quite informal and lovely. The exact shape of this will become known – I am confident!
* Windows
The windows then can be a Tumblr or a Blog that we set up for you. The only obligation you have to this electronic space is to post something every month – of course, you can certainly exceed this! This online portal will then be taken “public” half way through the project so people can see what you’ve been up to!
If we’re all in agreeance about the above, I can provide the next step which will be about choosing fields and locking down dates!
What do we think?
And so we journey, all of us totally involved in our own research and performance, yet at the same time still in some weird and wondrous way connected...or is that just me?
some more images from the library that may remind us of what we loved:
here is Brian and Nikki having a look at some of the very strong images at GOMA. June, 2010.
So we will get together again soon, and meanwhile will continue to record the unfolding.
ps... whilst i have your attention
i keep thinking about that video image you led us to at GOMA Brian
the invisible bodies moving through water. and then i read this:
in an introduction to George Bataille's Cradle of Humanity - Prehistoric Art and Culture :
'Bataille's ruminations on the passage from animal to man proceed by denials and negations, rejections in turn of animal, self, and world, only to return him to his point of departure,
his brute, contingent, material animality. an experience of existence as oblivion, of life lived like water in water. This new world of animality is animate, sacred, a world of holy things.'
(Stuart Kendall)
i loved finding that - life lived like water in water ....
and then Dan wrote this:
Hi Everyone!
Apologies for the delayed silence. I had this email sent to you last week but it was screened for profanity. Yikes! I am being censored! So after nearly a month-and-a-bit after our meeting in June, I thought I’d distill what I heard/ observed into a bit of a plan with some clear actions for you to respond to me with. After speaking with Liz, I am taking on the role of Project Coordinator. So I’ll be your go-to person on all things Afternoon.
Proviso
So just to revisit what we’re actually doing. We’re looking at an:
* Exploration of hybrid performance …
* with Windows into the process along the way
* And an involvement beyond the 3 of you (cue young practitioners – not necessarily artistic)
Why you were chosen?
* Because you are career-long independents!
* Because you champion partnerships and collaborations with people younger than yourselves!
* Because you have remained contemporary!
Outlay of Project (based on your meeting):
* 3 more face-to-face meetings comprised of all of you where you will each “experience” another skill or form that is not widely considered “artistic”.
Like Nikki’s archaeology/ archival story – if you remember that. And you will all have this experience TOGETHER (as requested). So as opposed to partnering with a young person, you’ll all encounter a younger person working in a field that is not your own for a day of creative and artistic stimulation! Perhaps drawing links between their process and yours or something about their practice and yours. It may horseriding. It may be diving. It may be engineering. It may be stamp collecting. You guys get to choose!
* 1 final intensive weekend
Similar to the first, we’ll have a final show and tell of what you’ve learnt about yourself, your process and each other at the end of the journey. It doesn’t need to be performative (but it certainly can be) but something quite informal and lovely. The exact shape of this will become known – I am confident!
* Windows
The windows then can be a Tumblr or a Blog that we set up for you. The only obligation you have to this electronic space is to post something every month – of course, you can certainly exceed this! This online portal will then be taken “public” half way through the project so people can see what you’ve been up to!
If we’re all in agreeance about the above, I can provide the next step which will be about choosing fields and locking down dates!
What do we think?
And so we journey, all of us totally involved in our own research and performance, yet at the same time still in some weird and wondrous way connected...or is that just me?
some more images from the library that may remind us of what we loved:
So we will get together again soon, and meanwhile will continue to record the unfolding.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
well i thought i lost you little process project
hello you guys i sent an invitation to you then couldn't find the link again but i have now
so please get on the blog and spill your beans,
m
so please get on the blog and spill your beans,
m
well i thought i would start this blog as a way of re opening our conversation
 |
| i adored these images...i will find the artists name |
 | |||
| this artist is showing in the contemporary gallery next to malthouse...what is artists name? |
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