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.

Exposition !

On Tuesday (29th) we went to Yverdon-les-bains to take part in a sound workshop led by the school, and were booked to stay in the Hôtel de la Source for the whole week, the breakfast oh my, I think I may have eaten well over my fair share of croissants… Me and Chels were kitted out with the sofa bed, right next to the kitchen, sharing with two other girls, and i swear every channel on the tv was broadcasting I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, much to my horror. The first couple of days were spent wandering around the city - my plan for the workshop was to focus on the water systems within the area - so I followed rivers or streams that I came across, and luckily one of the rivers leading into Lake Neuchâtel had frozen in parts at its banks, and so i was there for a good half hour playing and poking away at the ice trying to see what unusual sounds may occur. Further down to the lake there was some nice sloshy/bubbly noises being made naturally. 

The second night there we went to the infamous thermal baths, coincidentally located at another hotel 2 minutes around the corner. It felt like we were cheating on our hotel, but the baths were amazing… the Thursday consisted of editing the sounds together and figuring out how to place our speakers in the space we’d chosen. Our ideas ended up working pretty well together and we played it numerous times throughout the night, and there was a pretty decent turn out from visitors! About an hour prior to the opening we all went out in to the town square to hand out some more flyers, and lo and behold, the local christmas market had just opened, so there were plenty of people to entice, that is however until an ice sculptor caught everyone’s attention and drowned out any nearby conversations. The final exposition was a success! Complete with vin chaud.

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