the 3rd and 4th Space

I have been contemplating my ideal working space. As I am theatre trained - naturally I move towards a blank black space as this is where I eventually install my works. However, this time in Iceland in a visual arts set up with space and place in mind has got me thinking differently. Rather than my journals consisting of frustration - they now note ideas such as

"I've been pondering this idea of S.E.A.S (the title of the NES festival) - the sea - lapping at the shore like a lazy dog. Boats seems to mean so much here. I saw an old boat in the paddock lying on the side. I want to make a futile attempt to take it back to the sea. Balloons tied to one side to set it right and take it back. Futile I know. but maybe that's the beauty of it. Maybe that's the beauty of everything. Poetry, art, love, life - a futile but heart warming attempt to bring things to where we envisage them. I don't mean futile in a harsh sense - but more a small, considered attempt that invariably will not come to fruition but we try, none the less, for the pleasure of poetic action"

So - potentially my space where I move, create, work and put together needs to be a studio of mess and clutter than I construct in and move the finished products into place in the theatre. I want to start organising a studio space as soon as I get back to Brisbane. Melody, the director of NES (and a good friend), called the space you go between work and home your '3rd space' - the space you go to escape and I think this studio is my third place. I go here for entertainment and release. Actually -  I have been rolling around these ideas of spaces in my mind - considering my spaces and where I exist and I am thinking that this could actually be a fourth space?

Potentially we have four 'spaces' in which we exist.

1st  Space          -  Home
2nd Space         -  Work
3rd Space          -  Elsewhere (coffee house, cinema, park, pub) that is completely removed 1 and 2.
4th Space          -  Studio Space (for experimentation with the ideas that boil down from existence in                                the 1st, 2nd and 3rd space. Maybe the 4th space is what makes an artist what                                        they are. It's the point of distillation, where all the ideas from the 3 dominant
                             spaces filter down and trickle into some kind of expression of existence.

I think to have the space to let things organise and unpack themselves is this 4th space. Since having a dedicated space for these things I have started to journal and draw for the first time in years. Here is my offering from my fourth place. The first image I have drawn in many, many years. 

I'm curious to know about other people's 4th space and where it is / why it is / what it is. Please feel free to comment below. 

The battles of site

Site specific

Falling in love with a difficult site is like falling in love with someone that is already taken. You know in all sensible thoughts that it should not happen - you list all the problems involved and the shit fight that will happen, but despite this you can't help but stare longingly at it and want to mold it into something workable, something achievable, something more magnificent than anything before. I am in Iceland currently, in a little town called Skagastrond, and am currently looking sites to stage a floating dinner (like pictured below) and, of course, have fallen in love with a very difficult space.

It is an old coal chimney stack that used to power the town fishing factory. It looks quite ugly from outside. And is dirty as all hell inside.

But the view upwards is so beautiful. And the brickwork is stunning.

And so I want to make it work, more than anything else. I would build the table inside as the opening is 50cm wide and the inside is 3m in diametre.  I would clean up the floor and dig deep to see if there is a brick or concrete bottom underneath the muck. I would see if I can run power from afar and talk with the town electrician about lighting solutions. I would make it warm and inviting and a dinner for 5 or so people.

There are two other spaces to visit today - the church and 'fellsborg' which is a function space. They make more 'sense' and are user friendly but how my heart aches to make an incredible experience in a chimney stack. And if we go with the definition of site specific as being 'an artwork created to exist in a certain place. Typically, the artist takes the location into account while planning' - then this feels more true to a) creating an experience specifically in the space, rather than finding a space to suit a 100% formulated experience (more like a 'venue') and b) this is a part of the old town and it feels like this responds more to the history of the town, and enlivening unexpected spaces.

I'll keep you posted either way :-)