In the corridor of uncertainty

For many artists their relationship with the studio is a complex one. A studio can mean different things at different times. The studio is often the place of invention, the place of escape and sanctuary, a lonely place, a desert, definitely a fridge, a kitchen, an oven, a torture chamber and talking of chambers, what about the echoes in there too?! It is also a storeroom, where work, materials, and tools accumulate and stand around, waiting for me to act, like Betjamin’s ‘munching by-standers, who offer nothing’*.

The studio is like an ante-room, a corridor, between one door and another. The long corridor of the mind even, down which thought heads optimistically for the door and returns prejudiced by experience. The corridor is an apt metaphor in another sense too; it is the place where worthy art goes to hang out. Largely unnoticed, sited in a place of transit for others to commute through on their own daily journey between the internal and external worlds.

It’s a curious thing, but just before I go back into the studio the day after working on something, I can’t remember what it looked like when I left it. Paradoxically, this forgetfulness offers a precious, but short-lived moment of clarity. When I walk in I see it properly, as it really is, before the over-bearing-problem-solver in me regains control and marches me back down the corridor of uncertainty, as Geofrey Boycott might say.

Generally speaking, In the studio I oscillate between three lines of enquiry, all distinct and seemingly resistant to curatorial cohesion. I can’t seem to settle on just one, which is a bit awkward for a painter (discuss) perhaps I do it through lack of conviction, or because it’s a failsafe? On the other hand, I’m no scientist, but isn’t the antithesis of the oscillating wavelength probably the flat line? Nobody wants to flatline do they!?

Anyway, all of this is academic, because in recent times I have ducked the issue completely and taken my paints outside to work instead. So what is outside then? Well, balance, or actually I mean imbalance, or let’s call it redressed balance: more external experience and less introspection (c.f. virtual), which seems about right for me presently.

*I think it was Betjamin, but I might have paraphrased him