I don’t have ideas | I don’t do research | I am not original

what are ideas

what is research

what is original

I don’t have ideas

Actually I have too many ideas

ideas are two a penny

ideas can be a way to avoid meaning

or a way to imagine an answer

or a coat hanger to hold an emperors coat

either way

if we think only about ideas

we will forget to think

because we lean on the idea

and not feel responsible

if things go wrong

we stuck to the plan

we were only obeying orders

someone said

it is better to have no idea

than to have the wrong idea

we live in a place

where ideas are like a kind of currency

and they allow us to not look

as long as there is an idea

we can all relax

maybe I just don’t know how to relax

but I resist the idea of ideas

because I see it not only as a tyranny

but also as something that forgives

stupidity

an idea is just a whim

I like the idea of a whim

because they have no substance

and are not logical

and seem flighty

and insignificant

but actually the best things

begin with a whim

sure ideas happen

but usually they breakdown

because they are fixed

rigid and inflexible

where as a whim

on the other hand

is like a whisper, or a gentle breeze

it floats into our life

and we play with it

and have little expectations

they are flexible

soft

and they are not fixed

because they have no substance

a grass survives in a powerful wind because it bends

a big tree strong and rooted, is easily blown down

I like ideas that are more like grass than trees

Also grass has a shorter life span

and that suits me

because I love

things that are temporary

that exist for a moment

that are ephemeral

I have not now

and have never had

a desire to make monuments

there is already enough stuff in the world

but I just don’t want to be history

I want to be present and here and now

In all of the building interventions

probably around 160 world wide

only two still exist

that they have a physical existence

that like me, like us, temporary

pleases me

Those that are gone are best served as memories

where they don’t have to suffer aging and discovery

Most of them are photographed

but some I forgot to photograph

or I just could not be bothered

or I did not see the point

Documentation is a tricky fellow

when I make site-specific interventions

there are a few ways that I approach project

here are two of the ways

route one, I make a site visit some months in advance

then return and make the work. Typical installation time is 4 to 5 weeks

route two. we set the time and date and title of the show.

I come to the gallery a week in advance and make the work

I make the work with whatever I find in the space or in the area

no preparation, for the gallery this is scary

for me it is thrilling

I like to make mistakes and actually I need mistakes

I am not scared of failure, I am scared of mediocrity

Anyway, Its Wednesday  25th and at time of writing its 3 in the afternoon

I have a lot to say, and I have to focus on this text and not look out

of the window, where I can see the mountains

My first building interventions were made in 1994

There were some house that were about to be demolished

I asked permission to make some work in them, but I was told no

I don’t except the word no. So I broke into the buildings

and made the work anyway

My advise don’t accept no

always look for people who say yes

and stay close to them

in the same way, choose your teachers

Anyway, my first international intervention was in 1995

and I have made many projects

in the beginning for the site visit

I would take photographs and video

and get back to my studio to review the material

almost, well all of it was useless

so bit by bit I would take with me a sketch book and

take pictures and make some drawings

then eventually I got brave enough to mainly draw

then I got even braver and left all my cameras at home

all the drawings were useful

because when I drew I looked

when I photographed is did not see

I hoped the camera would look for me

so now on site visits, I draw and measure by pacing out

and see how far I can reach.

When I get home, I know the space, like an old friend

but I like photographs

and I like photography

and I like photographers

I just know that I need to record things

in a different way.

But I love digital photography

and I love analogue photography

I love them both for what they cant do

Research

well, I have seen such a lot of work

there was a trend a few years ago

to have exhibitions where the work was a kind of proposition

( actually I think all work is a kind of proposition)

Anyway its was all about research

I don’t do research. I look, I listen, I learn

I don’t have to give is some academic title

to make it seem serious and important

Research is the stuff you throw away

art is not an academic subject

its poetic and intuitive

and lovely and gorgeous

and delicious

its evocative

and unstable

and flirty

and sexy

its tempting

its getting things wrong

and not caring

its making mistakes and celebrating the mistakes

its failure in all its glorious Technicolor

its fuck ups and fuck downs

its smelly

and sticky

and revolting

and pretty

its ugly and beautiful and

its awkward

and clumsy and

its clean

and its dirty

its dizzy

and spinney

its collapsible

its implausible

its unreasonable

its unnecessary

its left handed

right handed

left footed

right footed

and wrong footed

its painful

and sore

its tight and oppressive

its liberating and beguiling

its all consuming

all embracing

generous

and kind

and cruel

its unforgiving

its revealing

and hiding

its open

and closed

its knowing

and unknowing

its thinking

and unthinking

it’s a mess

and its tidy

it can be loud

it can be quite

it can be liquid

it can be solid

its everything

you want it to be

it has no bounds

and has no rules

it can be a whisper

it can be silence

it can be frantic

there is nothing it cant be

its everything it can be

it can be everything at once

it can be what you don’t want

it can be a rhyme

be what you fear

or what you hold dear

it can be a five second pause

one

two

three

four

five

time takes a cigarette ( David bowie)

so

does all this make any sense

maybe not

but I am not trying to make sense

I am not sure what I am trying to do

not sure if I am trying to do anything

I think I am trying to be honest

the American film maker John Houston said

never apologies

and never explain

so while I am quoting

I want to share someone with you

I want to introduce you to someone I have only just met

her name is Eleanor Roosevelt

you probably know her already

she was a writer, political activist, politician and diplomat

her husband happened to be an American President

she was born in 1884 and died in 1962

what follows are her words

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

‘A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong it is until it's in hot water”

“Do one thing every day that scares you”

“Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway”

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.”

“You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.'

“You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

“You wouldn't worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.”

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams

Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart

The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience

Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.

Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively; unless you can choose a challenge instead of competence

What could we accomplish if we knew we could not fail

Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn't have the power to say yes.

Once I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: "No good in a bed, but fine up against a wall

END