THE BLACK SERIES: 16 – 18 July 2 - 6pm Opening Friday 16th 6pm onwards Südbalkon gallery, Hamburg, Germany www.südbalkon.org
I experienced technical problems and was unable to document the entire show - hopefully Paul will send them from rainy Jamaica. You may have noticed (from the original map of space) that there is a new addition... a kind of bump that appeared for the show. I thought it could be a sort of heterotopia, Paul might disagree with me though...
untitled_Wall Hill_blackstar series 2009 from Paul Jones on Vimeo.
Black star (detail) 2010 Paul Jones
Intuition cuts in when one has to make something urgently. I can’t talk for anyone else here – we all have our own ways of doing things… I never really manage to do all the thinking research and making in the same sitting. It’s more like cycles for me, times when I can’t make, I read or look at someone else’s work. But when I want to make my own, I can’t look elsewhere for months!
So working earnestly towards this show I was very much in the state described above. In some ways I wonder whether it’s a failsafe to stop criticism and doubt from creeping in - disrupting my resolve. It doesn’t make one open to in-depth critique though... Mainly I like to watch people navigate the work spatially, but the few conversations I had were useful.
Black Star 2010 (Background) Untitled Black series (foreground)
I had less preciousness about the situation; the space had its own ethos. Because it had music nights and so forth, there were many coloured lights - we didn't change them. As darkness fell we were plunged into a strange twilight, it felt rather comfortable. We spent most of the night there, some how it was like keeping the work company or maybe it was the other way around...
going the distance @ 3am
Located in the middle an industrial complex on Elbe island, the area reminds me very much of post-industrial sites/neighbourhoods in London - ready for the big cleanup. Wilhelmsburg is undergoing a huge regeneration initiative, there is always a level of insecurity for the inhabitants, what will be the future for the area, and will they be a part of it? In Germany (as in the UK) artists have now become the social face of these regeneration initiatives. In one respect it allows artists to eat and realise their ideas. In the other, the political and moral implications of these collaborations can be rather difficult to swallow. Recently the officially invited artists addressed an open letter to IBA- Hamburg in stimulate debate about the areas future.
We didn't have an 'official' invitation - we were more like graffiti…
