"One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries." A.A.Milne
So, almost a month without posting…..
I’ve talked about my practice in terms of my interest in surface, and in mark making. Where to from here?
Earlier this year I lived and worked in Venice for a month where I made some large format prints of those crumbling Venetian walls. I have plenty of photographic material for new work about surfaces. I’ll let the images speak for themselves…
Window shopping in Venice can be a feast for all the senses.
Czechs seem to have a great sense of humour, if their public art is anything to go by. These first sculptures are by David Cerny, who gives his work an irreverent twist.
It is located in an arcade (incidentally, the arcade was designed by Vaclav Havel’s grandfather in an Art Nouveau style). The arcade opens off Wenceslas square, where you can see a more conventional statue of King Wenceslas mounted on his horse.
Here is Cerny’s Barcode Baby, off the Campa. The baby’s face is replaced by a barcode.
Here are some other sculptures from Prague. I would love to be able to attribute them, but I don’t know who made them. If you do, please let me know.
I’m home now, but I couldn’t leave Europe without visiting my son and his wife, in the Czech Republic. They live in Prague, the beautiful and ancient capital city.
It’s all go in Prague at this time of year.
1.The evening of the 30th April is a time for burning witches. The children dress up as witches, and there are piles of logs on the Campa ready for the festivities.
2. May 1st is International Workers Day. Members of the Czech Communist Party marched through the city.
3. It’s the first official day of summer. In villages around Prague, the women decorate a tree with ribbons, and the tree is hoisted high. The men of the village are required to guard the decorated tree all night. This gives them a reason to light a fire, sit around and drink with the other men, and stay out all night. The next day is spent recovering.
4. It’s official kiss a girl under a flowering tree day. Since the Czech landscape is dotted with trees in blossom, you can be pretty disappointed if you don’t score a kiss.
5. On the first day of the month, Prague city tests its siren. For five minutes. Loudly. Nobody seems to know what exactly it is warning against. But Prague residents are prepared, and they know what to do if one day it sounds a real alarm. Seriously.
I just missed the day when you pretend to shoot someone who is dressed up as a bear, and dance with whoever asks you. I don’t know what it is called.
In late Spring and early Summer, Prague parks and the Czech countryside are a carpet of flowers. Trees are in blossom – apple and cherry, mainly – and the air is heavy with their perfume. In some places, the dandelion heads produce a gentle snow of seed fibres, which blows around your ankles and drifts across the road in front of your car. Later in Summer, Czechs can travel into the country and pick cherries or apples from the trees growing by the roadside. There are wild strawberries, and blueberries for the gathering. Coming from a land which has no real seasons, I found it enchanting.
I suspect that leaving Venice is always difficult. Difficult because you need to haul your luggage, and you may have a lot if you’ve hit those fabulous shops, down stairs, up and down bridges, along narrow crowded streets, onto the vaporetto, and either out to the airport or across to Ferrovia to catch the train. Difficult because you regret having to leave. Just one more week…..or a few more days…..might reveal some magical secret, some idea, some image that you have been searching for. Difficult because you were just on the verge of feeling you ‘know’ something about the city. Difficult because you feel you’ve just begun with Venice.
Angela, Nicki and I left Venice on the same day, but by different routes. We took Angela down to the Alilaguna boat to the airport, where she was catching a plane to Manchester in England.
Nicki and I muscled our way with four bags and a large tube of prints over to Ferrovia to catch the overnight train to Vienna, and then to travel by car to Prague.
Angela has only cried twice since she arrived in Venice: once over lunch, and once over breakfast, neither of which I cooked. I don’t think it was anything to do with disappointment over the quality of the meal. I think it was an excess of emotion, perhaps related to the beauty of Venice, and the effects of jetlag and Prosecco. Yes, at breakfast.
She has shot lots of photographs, but as yet her efforts at shopping have been, to be frank, a bit underwhelming. Mainly food, alcohol, and gifts for her children.
Nicki and I had an encounter with the Italian John Cleese, who runs the only cafe on Isola de San Giorgio Maggiore. We decided to call him Basilico. He could barely contain his rage at the stupidity of his clientele. Enquiries as to the nature of the Primo Piatti on the menu were greeted with incredulity. There was toast on the menu. Nicki asked what this was, meaning what came with the toast. ‘Square pieces of sliced grilled bread,’ he said.
We had gone to the island to ascend the campanile, which has a wonderful view of the whole of Venice. You can see how small it actually is. We recommend that you go after midday. The bell tolls the hour, and if you are not prepared, you may find your ears ring with the sound of the bells for days afterwards – best to have only one or two, not eleven or twelve.
This afternoon, we went to Ca’ Rezzonico, a beautiful museum of seventeenth century Venice. the walls are covered with damask and velvet in beautiful patterns and colors. Many of the ceilings were painted by Tiepolo. There was an extensive gallery of paintings by early Venetian artists, furniture, mirrors and curtains. Together these things gave a real sense of how life might have been for the rich and powerful in Venice.
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A view from the campanile.
Angela Noble from Bega arrived to stay with us, which makes five women in the house. She bought us a whole kilo of Aussie Uncle Toby’s Oats, some home made candied cumquat and Cointreau and some Ferrero Rocher chocolates. I think she must have an innate understanding that living in Venice and walking everywhere, the body needs constant refuelling to maintain stasis.
Together, the five of us have pledged to support the ailing Italian economy as best we can. We have been pretty tireless in our efforts so far, though some of us have worked harder than others.
Angela hasn’t even begun, but then she’s barely just arrived.
I found a small children’s press, Editions Du Dromedaire,
which has just published a two year calendar containing hand printed linocuts of camels.
Today was a top day for reflections……
Here are some detailed shots of the print we have been working on.
And here is what we get when we put it all together.
I woke early today to find that the canal was clouded with fog. I grabbed my camera and went out onto the street. Nearly every second person I saw was a photographer.
I hope it’s foggy again soon!
The work at the studio went well, too. Here’s me with the blues/greens/greys print just off the press.
And here’s our inky gloves lined up on the bench.
And then, this evening coming home from the studio, we were caught in a rainstorm. The streets were darkly beautiful wet with rain, (as Van Morrison might have said.) I will go out tonight again when it is completely dark, and shoot some more.
BOX OF BIRDS 