Snow: it came, it saw, it stuck

(and probably will be for a very long time. I read an article that stated this winter had a very mild start, by Swiss standards, so who knows when we’ll get our next glimpse of sunlight.)

Only a few days after Ash left, I woke up in the morning to pure white landscape outside. I went for a walk along the lake which had frozen over, leaving the ducks huddled around the one small part that was still water. The rest of this month involved very few trips, as there was much to be done at Movimax, arranging pieces around the room which included a lot of hammering much to everyone’s annoyance.

Jury went surprisingly well, considering me and Chelsea had both followed Coventry’s assessment method and laid out every single piece of work to be viewed, when in fact it turned out that they would have preferred a more narrowed down selection of our work. The work I had made using old vinyl cases, and some other collage pieces caught most of the jury’s eyes, rendering a lot of the other work i had produced pretty useless - but coincidentally the work they commented on happened to be more in the direction that i wanted to continue in! We traipsed around to some other juries of people in our class, ones of which was held in a huge studio room with at least thirty people in there! The guy presenting his work, Diego, pulled it off well though. 

Annoyingly we discovered that there was another place to present work, a huge warehouse type building called USEGO, about a 5-10 minute walk from Movimax. It was terribly cold in there, I felt you must catch frostbite whilst you’re installing your work! I hope to possibly present there for next jury in June, depending on what work I create, and it will hopefully be warmer too.

We had a party that night at the Auberge to celebrate the end of the semester, and Chelsea and I made cake! Two, in fact! Although i did almost set fire to the second one. The next few days were basically just recovery I think. On the Saturday the 28th there was an open day for the school, free for hopeful students/current students and their families to look around. I was surprised when I received a message saying that my painting tutor had ‘stolen’ two of my works to put up for the open day exhibition! My friend Vera kindly put them up for me, as I had booked to fly home to the UK that weekend, as some high altitude relief from the stress of the past few weeks. Also I haven’t been home in five months and was in desperate need of a wetherspoons.

More Crans Montana

San Junipero blues

My means of transport are gradually shrinking in size. I began the summer with a car, moved here and bought a bike, bike got poorly and now i have a scooter. The next stage is a skateboard and i don’t fancy publicly humiliating myself more than i already do. The bike has a puncture but i’m being awfully lazy in the “fixing it” process. The scooter is pretty nifty though

I’m really struggling to come to any sort of definitive stance on where my work is at. I’m basically just making random collages entwined with paint and illustrations in the hope that something jumps out at me. I’m enjoying making illustrative portraits which i’m trying to go about more loosely with, and attempting to write some sort of narrative to fit alongside, but then i also just want to grab a ton of paint and smear it all over that huge board i’ve had sat in the studio for over a month now, temporarily abandoned because i’m scared i may ruin it

Wishing so much that i could understand the entirety of the content discussed in this Monday’s class. Speaking to the teacher afterward, she explained about how we were exploring the idea of the unconscious thought and how artists responded to it and involved it in their work. She suggested how the things that we do, without thinking, the way we speak our native language, are all unique to us but yet are not really a part of us but more of an addition. Something considered separate from who we actually are. the dream-state

In other news i attempted to walk up one of the mountains outside my window. I got what i thought was quite a way up, but looking at it the next day i realise i wasn’t even halfway. I was determined to reach the part where the snow began, but after zig zagging for over an hour (with no water oops) i decided it best if i returned down to normal ground level. The snow is just sat up there laughing at me

We took our third trip to Lausanne last week, did some more exploring and then went to the Cinema Bellevaux to watch/listen to “NEW METHOD GRAPHIC” by Julien Prévieux and “PORTRAIT OF FILMMAKER IN PSYCHOLOGY OF PERCEPTION” by Dork Zabunyan, the first presentation was in french, but which i have since read up on here. The second was in english, albeit American-English, and focused on the measurement and tracking of eye movements, taking into account the aesthetic created.

We’re taking a trip to a place called Thun tomorrow, which i’ll report on another time

ciao

Friend opportunity

At MAXXX for the second time! This time viewing René Pulfer’s vinyl art collection ‘Revolutions per minute’. There were some really neat pieces here

He also was displaying what I believe was a limited edition copy of a book ‘Sleepwalkers’ by Doug Aitken which I researched later and turned out to be a visual diary about a film installation of the same name, which was projected onto the exterior walls of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in Manhattan. René and I tried to speak about the work, with me asking if i could purchase a copy of the book myself, and from his broken english I understood that it would cost a bomb. He said there is a ‘box’ available to buy online in which you receive a vinyl, cd and dvd along with the book, but his repeating of ‘$200 - $300′ made me doubtful that i’d ever own it.

In other news, here’s some recent work i’ve been doing, i’m still very sceptical about the actual direction of my project so i have mainly been experimenting.

zZzZzzZzzzZ (arrival)

Never thought i’d be living in an Inn occupied solely by artists. It’s called Auberge des Collines, and situated above a Bella Italia restaurant! There are 14-15 rooms in the inn i think… my room handily has a sink and mirror, and a greedy three windows, though i suspect may get slightly irritating because of all the constant light entering through.

^This is the entrance around the back of the building. The house key magically open both the main door and the room door

We were welcomed with an amazing tea last night, made by one of our inn-mates of whom i can’t remember her name… but I know she was from South Africa.. there are also Venezuelans and Egyptians, and saying we’re “British” just sounds rather dull in comparison. There are mountains right outside my window, and a lake (which apparently we can swim in!) we’re going to the shops soon with one of the girls on our floor for groceries, she will shortly be finding out how awful our version of the student diet is