a plan for december

I am on the verge of a new phase of construction, my studio is overflowing with 2' by 4's, boxes of newspaper, bags of bags, boxes of boxes. plastic. paper. wood. to make dividers between spaces. I am wondering whether I want to go ahead and by some drywall for the altars room. I'm really attached to having some walls that have that perminent look of Wall. that I can paint a great color and will read as a neutral background, rather than an object, a sculpture, so that I can place other sculpture on top of it and have the content of that object read. Drywall does not read as a materia because in the gallery and most places it just means wall. divider. I don't think its going to work out to use the ethical loophole of taking art materials from other students once they're done, because kerry is the only one using drywall and I'm sure he's going to want it for his project...so I guess I'll buy some. I am a consumer, too.

Backing up: I feel like I've settled on some definitive ways I'd like to divide space and content. I'm resisting the urge to think of these six spaces as representational of any six approaches- to not think of my space as comprehensive in an anaylitical manner, but rather to work from the messiness of many different impulses and approaches and let that messiness sit because its' honest. Not to sort. Or, to sort but not feign completion.

I hope I will stay open enough to let this list morph as the construction takes place:

THE PORT:
If we live in one world with one set of material expectations
it must be so that materials move around.
cola across the ocean is scissors across the studio,
consumption is trade is contaninerization
I am not separate from these processes.
art materials are materials, too.

THE BUNKER:
All this information causes panic and, like the people we are, we think about self-protection.
Isn't that just what eco-products are all about?
natural organic packaged everything is so interesting, and I wonder if these objects will speak for themselves.
buying food is an interesting space in trying to be an ethical consumer, because I buy so many foods that I think are terrible to buy, despite rules for myself about it. Buying food to make art out of feels totally okay, because then I can sell/give the food away and it will get eaten, and thats necessary consumption.

THE OFFICE:
Making flow charts is futile and I want to do it anyway. directly on the wall like Daniela keeps saying? why does that communicate such urgency?
I need a desk to call home base/put my computer at a la abigail's little studio a la elswhere's desks.
Walls of newspaper here, too.
That's interesting: the two types of walls- wall as neutral surface with art on it and wall as art. both are vehicles for content.

THE TRASH ROOM:
What do we do with material once we're done with them?
This was the seed of the project- save all of my trash.
I still wonder if it will be visually interesting enough to stand on its own.
also, videos about electricity, gasoline, water? maybe also one to represent food waste?

THE ALTARS:
I am not an Autonomous Artist, not alone in my thinking
I want to recognize explicitly the shaping of my ideas and explore the way this becomes a process of idealizing other individuals as autonomous thinkers/doers in exactly the way I do not want to be thought of, seeing them as embodying particular aesthetics, ideals. This is what happens to people when you know them as thinker/doers not people.
this makes me think back to the book I made for laura's class sophmore year. "all art is autobiography?"
buckminister fuller. mierle laderman ukeles. bell hooks. andrea zittel. thomas hirschhorn. bread and puppet. elsewhere. greg moynahan. maybe a couple of authors? don't know who yet.

This room is probably the least clear, makes me the most nervous. that's okay.

HEAVEN MADE OF PLASTIC BAGS
big room full of plastic bags.- it just has to happen.

Writing out my ideas is both exciting and scary. Am I over-solidifying by putting in writing?
I know about myself that making a plan enables me to work in a more focused way, even if the plan is entirely going to change. I feel the need to write that, as if to make an excuse for approaching the work the way I am. because it is different from where my studio neighbors are in their senior projects? Interesting.

The definition of the actual spaces will determine a lot. Before I leave for vacation, I would like to have all the walls up. This means building a second loft above the trash room. Putting walls up around the alters loft and below the bags loft in the trash room, also building a connection between the two lofts. If there's time, it would also be great to build the port, because I want this to feel like a structural element (even though it isn't). I guess there are a lot of steps that have to take place before making it, though: stuff off shelves, shelves off the wall, paint the walls? at the very least, lets get prepped to paint before I leave.

that looks like a plan!