This month I have been…
About the anti-climatic feeling of life returning to a potentially* pre-pandemic pattern. Forming a new relationship between work, rest and play.
I’m wanting to “approach work with a playful sensibility or relationship to play rather than a relationship to accomplishment”.
Quote from poet and writer Ross Gay, full interview found here.
I am also reading, ― Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy (2021)
And wondering what “refusing the frame of reference: in this case, a frame of reference in which value is determined by productivity, the strength of one’s career, and individual entrepreneurship.” will mean for me.
Jenny goes on to suggest, “It means embracing and trying to inhabit somewhat fuzzier or blobbier ideas: of maintenance as productivity, of the importance of nonverbal communication, and of the mere experience of life as the highest goal”
After a year trapped in my home office, flat, kitchen, living room I am ready to be less of a blob and explore blobbier ideas.
It means doing, playing, tinkering, exploring -- without clear destinations.
Leaving the bad screens behind and more practically honouring a 4 day week with space for my own creative thoughts to grow.
Between moods, inspiration and deflation.
Syncrnosity and the pandemic. In the self-help/spiritual creative guide “The Artists Way” (1991) Julia Cameron writes a lot about the idea of synchronicity in a creative’s work and more widely your life. A sort of openness, to explore opportunities as they come, understanding that when you don’t force but instead are more flexible ... things will and often do fall into motion. I can be a bit sceptic of such things; a doer or driver rather than a more patient personality (by nature or culture, perhaps both).
The Artsits way, 1991, Julia Cameron
The pandemic gave me boundaries (literal ones where I couldn’t leave my house) but also mental ones. Not worrying about 6 months from now (which was far too scary) instead of moving, flowing and working in the here and now. I turned things over somewhat to the universe. It strangely forced me to live in the moment and carry this into my working life with greater effect.
As we move into a less regulated but still somewhat contagious year, I hope I can hang onto the power of synchronicity within my life, work, clients, students or creative partners.
Hilma Klint, February 10 1908, notebook
It’s part of the reason I have started this newsletter to explore what is driving me alongside my commercial work. To hopefully form more unexpected connections and opportunities, most importantly not to force it. But to gently put some thoughts out into the ether.
*I also reflected on this article for the new yorker about the “The Artist’s Way” in an Age of Self-Promotion”(2016) by Carrie Batton.
***The irony of me sharing my thoughts about changing my relationship to creativity and work in a way that somehow promotes my skills/work is not lost on me.
Modernist utopian visions come to scary fruition.
Charlotte Perriand: The Modern Life @ The Design museum: Closed on Sept 05th 21.
Plans La Cascade, designed by Charlotte Perriand and Atelier d’Architecture en Montagne, under construction in 1968 Source: Charlotte Perriand Archive / ADAGP / DACS
Seeing Charlotte Perriands work at the Design Museum I was struck with conflicting feelings.
How our personal creative freedom can lead to utopian visions of a future and over time give way to dystopian nightmares. How our ideas of personal, political and creative freedom change as context, time and space does. How my own creative ambitions have changed and aged as I continue to live and exist.
“The extension of the art of dwelling is the art of living” Charlotte Perriand
Perriand stands triumphant, facing a snowy mountain scene, in this 1920s image. Photo courtesy of © ADAGP, Paris 2019 © AChP
As I walked past modernist spaces, buildings, plans and models… I began to see flashes of the ever smaller, ever scaled spaces me and my peers occupy in the busy cities. I thought about “affordable” modernist furniture websites ripping off independent creatives and workers. I thought about “workspaces” designed so that people would never want (or have a reason) to leave, where leisure and work are one.
I thought it’s funny how things play out from maquette to reality.
I long for spaces dedicated to sole acts; to learn, to rest, to play, to create -- but all distinctly, please. Not everything at once, everything at its own pace and in its own space. (Can you tell I am ready to climb the walls?).
Rest, play and growth.
Luminous spaces, John Hopkins and Kelley Lee Owens.
*I also saw kelly in Cardiff and it was quite memorising.
Being Boring, Pet Shop Boys
"We were never feeling bored Cause we were never being boring, we had too much time to find for ourselves, and we were never being boring”
Mother Earths Plantsaia, Mort Garson
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1 These newsletters will contain cultural insights, thoughts, articles and ideas.
Maybe my work - but mostly the stuff, struggles and thoughts around my work as a creative and educator across fashion, culture and lifestyle projects.
As I approach life with a new pace it’s hard to tell … am I feeling rested or restless?
PS. I wrote (most of) the newsletter in September and never published it. It all holds now, and feels just as relevant … so I didn’t amend much. January feels like a mush of all the other months, and I only just now (in February) feel I've got a foot into 2022.