It turns out that the reason that we didn't meet up with Karl yesterday was because he fell down the side of the Wawel and got run over by a passing car. He is ok...

The following entry is a record of a visit to the Oriel Davies gallery in Newtown. I travelled with Tina and her son Tanis. These are her notes from the event. The subject of the discussion was place and landscape.

"Café artistique

Newtown Oriel Davies Gallery 18 March 2010

Simon Whitehead, Mike Pearson, Holly McLaren, Stuart Whipps

Observations

(Simon W) a direct physical response to place – dynamism (like life!) ‘anti-static’ (loving the intervention of the background sounds)…

She’s trying really hard to bring it all together

Separation ‘wilderness’ – notions of landscapes (Hafod!)

She’s a one for sidelining/tracking

arg his C-prints leave me cold bleuh HE’S SUCH A PHOTOGRAPHER ..?interrogate? –absence-

It’s an interesting mix of people – may not actually work – strange setting, with the sound, and observing a conversation – overlap – landscape/place – time – past is always a different space- landscape-separation/observation a ‘place’ is what’s lived in

physical encounter – invested space/place passing through places spaces – Tom’s current experiences will be relevant to that – a subjective experience – mediated through the telling – encounters – relics – revealing artefacts evidence

Multiplicity of response (even in self)

Simon is very generous (Stuart) prefers landscape to place (you can tell!) didactic, a photographer a la John Davies – his work appears as typical meh 80s/90s. ?Female/Male experience? Or at least feminine/masculine, is that the landscape/place preference? Process a sense of space/place – but the object IS photographing – framing (that old chestnut)

land/picture land/place Habitat – place Tim Ingold – anthropologist working space place

origin of place William Camden’s Britannia

here – NOT THERE

language – semantics – inner – outer – HEFTING

subjectify – instead of objectify, feeling – instinctive

You don’t always need art history background – in fact it can obscure –

ENTER THE PICTURE –

But Stuart – why did you have to choose sub-Burtynsky C-prints – couldn’t you have used PROCESS? Probably works far better for an urban environment – but hey – why tf does it have to use photography as the VEHICLE, the TOOL… Why does it make me so reactionary? OK I take (some) of it back – large-format ‘film’ camera.

Timing and zeitgeist he must be well chuffed.

(she’s slightly behind the times)

Why is it your own discipline becomes so contested?

She keeps trying to find/locate connections – (I love Tanis he’s so physically oriented) – I like the unresolved nature – strange space – we could have brought our own chairs in –

Archives! No wonder he has his glasses –

Individual response – perform the archive (Holly) –

Ritual – SUBJECTIVE

So why do the photos end up like digital prints… oscillation – sublime - banal

Argh he’s just talked about the sheen the surface the very thing that makes me go bleuch about PHOTOGRAPHY – surely the big colour stuff doesn’t necessarily do that, ‘attack’ it (notions preconceptions) it contributes and adds to the very thing he claims he’s challenging

Shift in practice Mike talks of involvement ‘in order to reveal’ CORAM PANES adjacent – Inter – again perhaps a male/female differentiated response/approach? Simon – consistency – relates to living in a place

Dialogue of vicinities

Rivers (think of Julian/Mark Macklin PhD plans)

Notion of connected – global – by stepping in the river. Manifest. that perception – non-human contact – is completely influenced by locality.

Never static, the only constant is change – work is in finding the response – being OPEN Find borders without maps

!Radical ‘80s geographers!

Interesting – contested borders and non-contested… sounds like (Simon) has a lot of fun in his interaction – then it ‘lived in the gallery’. Simon’s boots are really funky – they look expensive designated walking boots -

(suddenly got distracted by Tom’s eyebrows later realise Simon has the same thing going on but even more) Mike P has very well-defined/shaped ears .. oh no I’m onto ears and shoes.

Monumentality to orient where we look – perception of place/landscape/depth/archaeology – language.

But still large-format is a tool – it still makes the inherent process invisible in the ‘finished’ piece.

Interdiscipline is the way to go PLURALITY –

Practice and performance – borders

who am I going as – how am I going - this whole – pay-off – is it – academia – is it funding (arts council) what happens to the inquiry – yes – conversations – car – capsule – place +context.

Wish she wouldn’t keep trying to hold it together – but as T said earlier – we all want to be heard.

Geraldine Finn(?) we are all more and less?

Research!

(SW is a generous person)

- landscape ‘performs you’ (Holly) –

- audience – for whom is it intended – I like the way MP talks about it all – I go, you don’t, you go, we don’t, we go….

- intent – intention – aesthetic dimension .. or not. Not just for ‘you’ to know – it is integral, surely, how it is done.

SW ‘performing’ bird watching self conscious being seen

Implicit aesthetic intention (?)

(Tanis <3 Simon and Mike – it’s great to see that – so glad he’s finding his thing) –

Ooh she’s a timekeeper.

Antarctica – can’t create a picture to describe MP

SW 4y old daughter’s bedroom (in constant ‘flux)

Missed Holly’s

Stuart St Andrew’s B’ham"

Thanks Tina.