I have what might be called a Love/ Hate relationship with Art though it's never really veers into hate, well, it never does, but it does go well into not caring much.
What that means is that I never stop being artistic, as such, I do very much stop caring about having a career in Art especially when I go into territories which could only be called craft and even into what might be called restoration.
I think what it is is that first and foremost I love stuff and how it relates to us as humans in the world we are constantly recreating around ourselves and Art, as a career, can be a part of that for me but it's merely a tool and not a product or end in and of itself. And that stuff, whatever it may be, always has a story. It either came to me with a story already told that I might frame and re-appraise in some way or it is in need of a story and, for me, that seems to be the all-encompassing life that is an Artful life. It's not the end product being sold in a gallery that be added to a CV, even though that's part of it, it's me on this planet, in this body, living in this country and finding ways to be best at what I do and passing those insights and discoveries around for discussion and review so that we all might find better ways of making this life, we all share, enjoyable and interesting.
So fads in the Art world have no real consequence to me. Yes they can be invigorating and inspiring and I'm more than willing to steal what I need but in the day to day experience of my life they're just like anything else on the periphery, mildly entertaining but essentially reasonably remote to what I see and feel everyday.
Maybe then it's that my whole life is my own fad. I am my own fashion which is the sum total of the places I've been, the people who are there and what they do within there own lives. So I guess that's what I want this exhibition to be about. That I am a man brought up and living in South Auckland who has decided to do it my way and at this time in my life, and always recurring, is a love of furniture. My pallet to tell stories of the past finding its future, through the now that is always of the greatest importance, is that of the things we use to sit on, store things in and place possibly more important things on. It's like making art of the frame, being a bit hidy hidy about what I'm actually saying, hiding in plain site.
And what will I be saying with a few scratch built pieces of furniture, a bunch of experimental works made up from discarded chairs and tabled pieced together with extras and some high end stuff redone from 60's and 70's South Auckland sitting room classics... and a few paintings done with spiritual discovery in mind?
I'll be saying thankyou to South Auckland for constantly inspiring me to live here and, guess what, we have a totally unique view of life and we need to remember that, not only is it more than enough to be proud of, but it's also more than enough for more conservative and richer places to start seeing us as the rich and diverse culture that we have.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Ideas having their time part2.
I think what's more important than ideas being found and brought more into reality is how they are fitted into society especially ideas where we might need the help of others. If an idea is couched in the wrong way and meets the wrong person for approval then it's not that it's time is wrong but it's placement and as time goes on and the ideas I'm given seem to be much more in this territory then it behoves me to think more about this idea of placing ideas where theres more chance of them being accepted.
And I kinda realise too that the idea itself doesn't matter so much as the underlying understanding that'll come from being more realistic about applying ideas in a way that makes their approval content greater and more likely to see fruition. It's like the flow of water and paths of least resistance so the idea is just the little boat and the placement is putting it on the water to see how the stream flows.
Getting the buildings behind the ASB in Grey Lynn using the Mens shed prototype combined with a art gallery of sorts then is the little boat and the stream of water is the ASB management hierachy and the challenge then isn't so much just about the boat but placing the boat within the watercourse where it'll have the longest journey.
Now the selling point to get the ASB on board is somewhat convoluted and would require quite a bit of foresight on the part of the reviewer to even see the relevance of such a step and what I have found over the years is that foresight is not something in common usage at least not in the lower echelons of commercial life. People are just trying to get on with the work they're given within a structured and understood model of how it all works and no matter how efficient a suggestion of change is it'll rock that boat so any rocking of boats has to be in a place where the boat has a chance to rock, can be viewed rocking, and any ripples created allowed time to wash on shores that won't destroy the marine life living on those shores.
This is why ideas need to find the right bay to be tested in. The idea doesn't really matter even if it's brilliant and required and all that other stuff... that's completely beside the point and the point is that structures in needing stability will resist instability even if it offers a greater stability in the long run.
This is the thing with structures. Our most efficient structures aren't actually structurally strong until the very last piece goes in and makes them stable and this requires, this type of building, a soft touch and alot of effort put into stabilising networks to get this unstable, until finished, structure working as a whole.
Mostly, what we do as humans, is overbuild from the foundation up where each successive layer is a structure in itself that allows each individual part to stand alone whilst other parts are added. Immensely inefficient really but it's a way of building that while limiting height and adding inertia it's something we all feel is safe because we add layers of rigidity, rigid upon rigid, and so safe footings upon safe footings.
The trouble with this though is that it becomes very difficult to change the structure. It can only really be changed from the top down simply because the top is resting on all that below it and if you take out parts of the middle or the bottom so much above it is reliant on that foundation of overbuilding then the whole becomes unstable.
Whereas efficient design of structures where all the parts are equally stressed to hold up the structure any attempt to enact change or modify the structure is felt by the whole thing and to remove one part is quite simple as it's job is determined by it's use and so all one has to do is remodel the use and add the required support to undergo change.
This is somewhat the same as the overbuilt structure except the quality of perception of change is modified by the rigidity of the layers of structure which inhibit the feedback through the structure and so change acts in convoluted pathways and is more easily misunderstood.
So while I can stand off to the side of the ASB as a structure and see that the idea I'm carrying is valid, that the banking giant would be in the advantage by being associated with changes in the economic environment which are yet to be easily seen and the simple fact of them being in possible association to such ideas is an advantage they would reap the rewards of without actually doing much... it is an altogether different proposition to see the benefits from within the structure of the ASB itself with all it's overbuilt preponderance.
And I kinda realise too that the idea itself doesn't matter so much as the underlying understanding that'll come from being more realistic about applying ideas in a way that makes their approval content greater and more likely to see fruition. It's like the flow of water and paths of least resistance so the idea is just the little boat and the placement is putting it on the water to see how the stream flows.
Getting the buildings behind the ASB in Grey Lynn using the Mens shed prototype combined with a art gallery of sorts then is the little boat and the stream of water is the ASB management hierachy and the challenge then isn't so much just about the boat but placing the boat within the watercourse where it'll have the longest journey.
Now the selling point to get the ASB on board is somewhat convoluted and would require quite a bit of foresight on the part of the reviewer to even see the relevance of such a step and what I have found over the years is that foresight is not something in common usage at least not in the lower echelons of commercial life. People are just trying to get on with the work they're given within a structured and understood model of how it all works and no matter how efficient a suggestion of change is it'll rock that boat so any rocking of boats has to be in a place where the boat has a chance to rock, can be viewed rocking, and any ripples created allowed time to wash on shores that won't destroy the marine life living on those shores.
This is why ideas need to find the right bay to be tested in. The idea doesn't really matter even if it's brilliant and required and all that other stuff... that's completely beside the point and the point is that structures in needing stability will resist instability even if it offers a greater stability in the long run.
This is the thing with structures. Our most efficient structures aren't actually structurally strong until the very last piece goes in and makes them stable and this requires, this type of building, a soft touch and alot of effort put into stabilising networks to get this unstable, until finished, structure working as a whole.
Mostly, what we do as humans, is overbuild from the foundation up where each successive layer is a structure in itself that allows each individual part to stand alone whilst other parts are added. Immensely inefficient really but it's a way of building that while limiting height and adding inertia it's something we all feel is safe because we add layers of rigidity, rigid upon rigid, and so safe footings upon safe footings.
The trouble with this though is that it becomes very difficult to change the structure. It can only really be changed from the top down simply because the top is resting on all that below it and if you take out parts of the middle or the bottom so much above it is reliant on that foundation of overbuilding then the whole becomes unstable.
Whereas efficient design of structures where all the parts are equally stressed to hold up the structure any attempt to enact change or modify the structure is felt by the whole thing and to remove one part is quite simple as it's job is determined by it's use and so all one has to do is remodel the use and add the required support to undergo change.
This is somewhat the same as the overbuilt structure except the quality of perception of change is modified by the rigidity of the layers of structure which inhibit the feedback through the structure and so change acts in convoluted pathways and is more easily misunderstood.
So while I can stand off to the side of the ASB as a structure and see that the idea I'm carrying is valid, that the banking giant would be in the advantage by being associated with changes in the economic environment which are yet to be easily seen and the simple fact of them being in possible association to such ideas is an advantage they would reap the rewards of without actually doing much... it is an altogether different proposition to see the benefits from within the structure of the ASB itself with all it's overbuilt preponderance.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Ideas having their time.
I went for my big drive out to the Northwest the other day and two ideas found me whilst doing so. Ideas, though, are something I've never been short of and even get to throwing lots away but this isn't about that.
The first idea was pretty straightforward and might have been a logical extension of dropping in to Adventure cycles to get some ball bearings for a particularly nice rolling pin. After leaving and being well impressed by Bruce's place and all the youngsters he has working with him and seeing his particular form of education which always involves people learning to teach themselves by always going beyond themselves and having to figure things out, as in risk, it may have been reasonably obvious to see the next stage of a transport revolution combined with a education revolution which is what the idea I got seems to be about.
Simple really, just have buses that go up and down the motorway and have stations along the way where the buses can stop. But the important part is taking out 1/2 of the buses sides and installing bike racks. I then discussed this with my brother yesterday and the logical conclusion he had was to supply bicycles on a mass scale so then we don't even have to carry them. Oh, and have fleets of little buses, and slightly bigger buses doing small circuitous routes that feed into the big buses on the motorway. Okay well and good... sorted but it ain't going to happen and heres why.
It couldn't be privatised and if it was it wouldn't work and that's our main problem these days. The divide between corporate and social welfare is a divide that doesn't need to be there but is ingrained in our society especially with the decision makers that seem only able to function from one side of that particular fence.
Because the next idea which came to me was in the form of a response to the ASB bank after having asked if I could possibly rent the space behind the Grey Lynn branch which has three garages and a courtyard. They said, the property manager, that they might need it so, basically, no one else can then.
My idea for the space was to have a workshop and gallery space set up which would revolve around doing up old things that are broken and in doing so get into that whole thing about taking care of what we already have but the trouble with such a setup is that it would have to be non-profit profit making or profiteering non-profit.
Basically what that means is that as a maker of money you do that to be able to get what you need but at the same time you are there to help others as well as enable them to save money. Its seems reasonable doesn't it and many people are already out there doing it but it's yet, as a business practice, to be accepted as a way of doing things in the charitable sphere... and it needs to be.
At the moment you either set up something that's for profit and be charitable where you can or you set up a charity but it's not allowed to make money in the sense of individuals being allowed to do so within the framework... except they do and this is where we end up seeing large charitable organisations taking on business models and employing managers and marketers to expand the donations and therefore expand the 'company'.
So underneath all this we actually have people realising that profit making and being charitable can work together and theres absolutely no reason why they shouldn't but we have yet to legitimise the practise which might even be as simple as naming it.
Crossover economics just came to me... purple money! Where the red of socialism meets the blue of capitalism.
Mens sheds are a good start
But, dare I say it, it's a bit silly ruling out half the population but in today's economic climate could they have called it 'the peoples sheds' or is that just a little too communistic? Either way the naming of it doesn't really matter unless the slogan still reads as more important than the content and if we keep moving in these types of directions then wahtever it's called doesn't matter and the sloganeers who've managed to divide and conquer the free expression of individuals regardless of their race, gender or creed will have had their days in the sun and be consigned, by their own obvious ineptitude, to the scrap heap of been there, done that, and it's fuckin' useless! Why did we ever buy into it!
The first idea was pretty straightforward and might have been a logical extension of dropping in to Adventure cycles to get some ball bearings for a particularly nice rolling pin. After leaving and being well impressed by Bruce's place and all the youngsters he has working with him and seeing his particular form of education which always involves people learning to teach themselves by always going beyond themselves and having to figure things out, as in risk, it may have been reasonably obvious to see the next stage of a transport revolution combined with a education revolution which is what the idea I got seems to be about.
Simple really, just have buses that go up and down the motorway and have stations along the way where the buses can stop. But the important part is taking out 1/2 of the buses sides and installing bike racks. I then discussed this with my brother yesterday and the logical conclusion he had was to supply bicycles on a mass scale so then we don't even have to carry them. Oh, and have fleets of little buses, and slightly bigger buses doing small circuitous routes that feed into the big buses on the motorway. Okay well and good... sorted but it ain't going to happen and heres why.
It couldn't be privatised and if it was it wouldn't work and that's our main problem these days. The divide between corporate and social welfare is a divide that doesn't need to be there but is ingrained in our society especially with the decision makers that seem only able to function from one side of that particular fence.
Because the next idea which came to me was in the form of a response to the ASB bank after having asked if I could possibly rent the space behind the Grey Lynn branch which has three garages and a courtyard. They said, the property manager, that they might need it so, basically, no one else can then.
My idea for the space was to have a workshop and gallery space set up which would revolve around doing up old things that are broken and in doing so get into that whole thing about taking care of what we already have but the trouble with such a setup is that it would have to be non-profit profit making or profiteering non-profit.
Basically what that means is that as a maker of money you do that to be able to get what you need but at the same time you are there to help others as well as enable them to save money. Its seems reasonable doesn't it and many people are already out there doing it but it's yet, as a business practice, to be accepted as a way of doing things in the charitable sphere... and it needs to be.
At the moment you either set up something that's for profit and be charitable where you can or you set up a charity but it's not allowed to make money in the sense of individuals being allowed to do so within the framework... except they do and this is where we end up seeing large charitable organisations taking on business models and employing managers and marketers to expand the donations and therefore expand the 'company'.
So underneath all this we actually have people realising that profit making and being charitable can work together and theres absolutely no reason why they shouldn't but we have yet to legitimise the practise which might even be as simple as naming it.
Crossover economics just came to me... purple money! Where the red of socialism meets the blue of capitalism.
Mens sheds are a good start
But, dare I say it, it's a bit silly ruling out half the population but in today's economic climate could they have called it 'the peoples sheds' or is that just a little too communistic? Either way the naming of it doesn't really matter unless the slogan still reads as more important than the content and if we keep moving in these types of directions then wahtever it's called doesn't matter and the sloganeers who've managed to divide and conquer the free expression of individuals regardless of their race, gender or creed will have had their days in the sun and be consigned, by their own obvious ineptitude, to the scrap heap of been there, done that, and it's fuckin' useless! Why did we ever buy into it!
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