Right now it is very stormy out. From my view out the window the bare lilac bushes blow next to horizontal and the far treeline is positively a disco! There was no hint of that earlier in Norrtälje when we took a sketching trip in a birch wood forest just off the Ekeby straight road.
I found an acceptable size 20 at the Älmsta recycling bins.
Helen tells me the SD are passionately and quite needlessly pursuing the concept of a little vaccine sailing boat to go round the islands?
There is a Van Gogh exhibition coming to London called 'the immersive experience'1 and judging by the supplied image involves his works beamed onto imax2 sized walls for some reason. It seems to be the making of some kind of event lighting company rather than a curated affair. What would he make of it?
My mothers second dose is immanent. Apparently there are many different vaccinations available with varying potential for side effects. Green Dave whom I arranged a screen to screen with to discuss the fledgling meat project said that he suffered greatly for 12 full hours following his dose. He has convinced himself that this is a good sign and that he now has more antibodies. I told him straight that I had no idea what that meant but I was sure it wasn't true; who the hell knows anything these days. "Exactly!" he drawled. A typical response. He always took a positive attitude into all he involves himself with. I think I told you that despite being a democrat he bet on Trump winning in 2016 just so he could buy himself an ice cream! And so it proved. This no doubt is also why he has been patient with us vis a vis our loan and the the Wretched Painter series.
Look here those videos we made last year and which we have embarked on again really are beyond the pail in many respects no doubt but particularly in their length and self absorption. We said as much last post and the general aim to harmonize our practice with the social environment3 and to appropriate an online cultural norm can only be a part explanation. And so yet again we are moved to preemptively defend ourselves. We have for a while now sheltered from the storm in an attempt to orient our Doing to the times and that has meant sacrificing the idea of an audience somewhat but long before that, ever since the Carbielle reverse in Torpoint in fact, we have not been able to imagine the idea of a public to address our work to, at least not like we used to in the days of simple.4 With our DS residencies we addressed you and the The Wretched Painter addressed an individual and now in our address of the Borg the work is abandoning the idea of a public and even of a human audience altogether. Of course people can watch the stuff and look at the pictures but the ideas and thinking and opinions of any such viewers are not part of our process any longer.
I would like to imagine that we are somehow trying to regain that human/public dimension, that it might come back around so to speak, but the nagging and unavoidable sense that arises from all this is that our games of Doing, especially in these videos, raise the specter of that other 'n' word: narcissism. But surely we are more the fool than the narcissist? We are too reclusive too distant, more a diabolical introspectionist than narcissistic? We might be exploring ourselves in self institutional fashion, extending and bringing out artistic "personality" as Lewis5 would say of the improviser, but we have so little hope or expectation of "success", recognition, attention of any sort that we cannot qualify for the title of narcissist. Some might say a bit more of a narcissistic trait would help us along, but no, we are Wretched and a glance at our slow videos suggests at best the title of 'gentleman loser' but so be it, as long as the colour and sensation flow, that is fine by us.
Forgive me. This is no time to doubt our way, now is the time to hold the course, but why this theme is cropping up at this late stage in the game I don't know, perhaps its because of those Laws of Jante6 that I noticed you have added to the commentary. Going by those laws one could be accused of narcissism for merely waking up in the morning! Are they really still prevalent, those laws? It still seems to reflect something of what we see in public and would also explain the tension but we do not know enough of the språk7 to judge. You know I would like to invent a type of torch which could show up tension in the air for general use, so one can take a preparatory reading and act accordingly.
Tomorrow the birch forest,
John
1 Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience is a 20,000 square foot light and sound spectacular featuring two-story projections of the artist’s most compelling works. Encounter the brilliance of one of history’s greatest artists in 360 degrees.
2 Large screen cinema.
3 A similar sentiment was discussed in Torpoint Art Service Work 22 Three Crisis where John referred to George Lewis writing on improvisation: "the development of the improviser in improvised music is regarded as encompassing not only the formation of individual musical personality but the harmonization of one's musical personality with social environments, both actual and possible." The same quote was recited by John six minutes and forty seconds into Wretched Painter Work 27: Coffee in Biltemma and a study on Borgmästarholmen.
4 Likely a refers to the pre austerity/ breakage period.
5 George Lewis, see note 3.
6 See note 5 to Work 7.
7 John has used the Swedish word for language.