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Tuesday, April 25, 2006
I'm chillaxed as my sister Clara would say (omg, terrible butchery of the English language), after a long weekend in the Lake District staying one mile up a hill with my one-time mentors Karen Guthrie and Nina Pope. Karen's house is a converted hostel in an amazing site overlooking Coniston Water, a location that many a green-eyed tourist would kill for.
Since my mentoring ended a few years ago we have unexpectedly taken a similar route making a diversion from making artwork to making documentary films. Nina and Karen have made Bata Ville, a sad film about hope and are about to film for the last time the Tudor and WWII re-enactors they have been infiltrating for the last 3 years as 'Gonzo artists' to shoot Sometime Later. It was very interesting talking about how we have come to this point and what that makes us - are we all still artists or are we film-makers now? I'm sticking to artist for the time being.
We went to visit karen's great Shack in the woods as a potential location for a mini horror that Sheil wants to make. It's currently at the centre of a planning permission wrangle nightmare so while the delays continue, painfull as they are for Karen it would be foolish not to make the most of this amazing, miniature time capsule form the 70's, complete with original whisky and ginger ale. All things being well, we will be returning shortly to make the film. My role will be catering, driver and child care and Betsy will be delighted to return to the Lakes. I think seeing the tigers at the South Lakes animal park was one of the greatest days of her two year old life.
Here she is loving her tiger mask, thankfully before she demonstrated that she has inherited my childhood tendency for car sickness.
Strange folly overlooking Ulverstone
My venture into documentary film making is Teenland A 60 minute film for BBC4 which is a portrait of four British teenagers on the cusp of adulthood and their bedrooms, which, as it is now done, dusted and delivered I'm finally allowed to talk about publicly. Take a look at the mini site I've put up which has stills and making of pictures.
Shooting Immy on location in Nottingham
I have a cast and crew screening of the film on May 11th at Broadway Cinema which I'm terrified and excited about in equal measures. The completed film has been seen by about 10 people total and we're inviting a capacity audience of 250. Time will tell...
Editing with the fantastic Miss Barbara Zosel
The online, dub and delivery of Teenland coincided with the opening of my solo show at Hatton gallery Home-Maker which was such a punishing schedule that I've just about recovered now. The exhibition was the last in the national tour and consisted of a 5 room show. I really enjoyed showing at this venue, taking my work back home to the North East and ending the tour up there. It was seen by nearly 10,000 people in Newcastle.
The Home-Maker set from above
To mark the end of the tour I invited Tony and his team from Heaton Used Furniture to come into the gallery and strip the set in the same way they would if they were conducting a house clearance if someone has died. The day before the clearance I interviewed Tony in his shop and he was incredibly charming and open. During the clearance I was unexpectedly emotional about saying goodbye to these objects that I had never given a home to or lived. I'm now in the process of cutting the film together and may return to Heaton to watch Tony doing a house clearance.
Now the set no longer exists the only way to view Home-Maker is online. I've built a new website for the project and Gareth Howell has built an interactive version of the installation and interactive portraits.
Thinking about the memories attached to the stuff I own made me feel compelled to have a clear out when I returned home. For the last 3 weeks I have been frantically selling clothes, vintage fabric and books on ebay. I love watching the auctions but then hate sending the stuff off and waiting for the feedback to arrive. Hideous, it's like doing homework you get judged on.
Since I had Betsy 2 years ago, with the delivery of teenland and the end of the Home-maker tour this is the first time I've had a real break. It's a strange feeling to get used to. I marked the start of my break by staying in Brighton with Betsy, catching up with with my school friend Kate, the elusive Mr Fyfe Ewing and the birds we filmed on the West Pier 8 years ago.
I've finally given up on attempting to blog from my mobile, too many half hearted texts down the road, there's no replacement for sitting down, laptop on knee. We've recently installed wireless and got a new powerbook so it's a much pleasanter experience than huddling around my creaking but beautiful Cube in our cold study, surrounded by Sheil's ever expanding comic collection.
As requested by Nina, this is what I've been watching:
Deal or no deal along with much of the rest of the daytime tv audience, incredulous at Noel Edmunds Lazarus-like return to Television and repelled by the sight of him suggestively chowing down on a banana as he asks some poor woman for the fourth time 'deal or no deal'.
The Apprentice and The Armstrongs
Much of BBC4's output, notably Lefties.
Living TV's The Biggest Loser and America's next top model. Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous.
On ITV Jordan and Peter: Marriage and mayhem, I know she's the princess of sparkle and pink but there's something incredibly straight forward about her that I found absolutely compelling.
Lost, I'm counting the days until the next series and I'm hoping that the final reveal is as good as the one in my head.
I am still loving Monk and the idea of an OCD detective.
Lola Montes, Grizzly Man, capote, Romance and Cigarettes,
I've finally bought Afterlife as there was a danger I was going to wear out Gareth's copy of it. I've also bought the complete Seinfeld and 2 x Werner Herzog box sets and am really looking forward to watching fitzcoraldo when they arrive.
Track, jib and lots of blood in the kitchen
The house has been a hot bed of film making activity. Sheil has recently launched his Adventures in Uncinemablog which has inspired him to just make films rather than wait for the wheels of administration and funding to finally creak into action. Last Tuesday he shot Through a vulture eye in our kitchen and by Friday it was cut and finished. 2 and a half minutes of eery, chilling horror.
Still - Through a vulture eye
posted by Jeanie Tuesday, April 25, 2006
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