What do I do for a living?
It's a question that comes up pretty regularly when you're a freelance artist. But after a festive break full of the customary booze, trivia and sleeping a lot why is it always so hard to go back to work?
That said, the christmas break did give me some good time out to think about the performance 'Midland Aquaphiliacs' that is making its first steps on Friday the 13th Jan (no getting superstitious now).
At present it's a mix of recorded conversations, portrait photography and a bit of end of the pier charm. That's the theory anyway...a week of development in Battersea could turn it into an all singing all dancing rock opera. But somehow i doubt it.
Here's a clip of text from the current script for anyone who's out there.
Click the BAC link here http://www.bac.org.uk/whatson.php?view=current for more details
"I met a man with a plastic hip who liked to be at the edge of everything. He enjoyed the edge of everything so much that he decided he wanted to walk around it. ‘I’ve got a new hip’, he said, ‘Now I’ve made the decision to do something with it’. He went to Cornwall, and started at a place called Lands End, not a bad place to start. He thought, ‘If I do one day it’s better than none’.
But the thing was he was a fanatic, he never missed anything out. There were rules, strict rules; he could never walk more than two kilometres inland. He could never take a boat or go on a bridge over tidal waters. Do you know how far it is to walk the length of the British coast at high water? He told me. There’s a thing called the fractional geometry of nature, which means it could be infinite. I didn’t understand, it’s something to do with the pebbles. He chose a five thousand mile journey.
This is Britain in the early 21st century. Britain is a small island.
The cliff sides.
Deserted beaches drenched in light.
Beaches that were far better than anywhere in the world as far as he could see.
Images of darkness and branches.
Hinkley Point Nuclear Power Station.
Atomic Kitten in the Blue Peter thing.
He saw old groins rusting up and wondered if a plastic hip would do the same
A lone fisherman, nowhere near the sea and he’s fishing.
Newquay town centre on an August day
A family group he would have loved to follow just to see what they were up to.
They looked pissed off, they looked worn down with life but they were supposed to be on holiday. Even the baby had a strange expression."
Happy and successful New Year, Jake