New Drawings at Homebase Lab, Berlin

I have started the first of a new series of drawings in my studio here at Homebase Lab. 

My drawing seeks to merge my night time dreaming adventures with my waking hours; encounters, conversations, impressions both visible and invisible from the experience of living communally with 16 other artists here in Berlin. 

The drawing is constantly shifting, like an animated facial expression.  Fellow resident artist Elena Dahl has started to photograph this process for me as the work shifts and changes.  I hope we will create an animation from this collaboration.  

I seem to be pointing to the "Sheep Cafe" a place I visited in a dream last April.  

Seven

I am working on a new site specific performance in collaboration with Joseph Patricio here at Homebase Lab, Pankow Berlin.  

This new work is devised for only one audience member at a time, and involves a journey, a crossing, an intimate encounter.  During the course of the conversation it is not clear if the stories are real or imagined. The piece aims to take the audience across a threshold into the subterranean world of the unconscious.  

The piece will be shown for the first time during an evening of performances, installations, and encounters this Tuesday 21st May as part of MPA Berlin.  

The performance is for a small audience of only seven people.  Will you be one of the lucky ones?

Swedish Wolf

In search of seeds for the garden, and for a bicycle, Diego and I wandered through the city of Berlin.  We followed our intuition and our feet and after several hours we found ourself in a Scandinavian quarter not far from our home at Homebase in Prenzlauerberg/Pankow.  On Kopenhagener Strasse we discovered a bicycle shop named "Wulf" and in the window was a sheep skull.  

On close inspection you can see that I am wearing my "swedish wolf" bag.

Homebase Residency, Berlin April 2013

Sheepwoman and I and settling in to our new home at Homebase, an international site specific residency exploring the notion of home, located in the offices of an old brewery in an area between Prenzlauerberg and Pankow, Berlin.  

My studio is one of 18 studios in the building with a corridor so long that I need a scooter to get to the bathroom.  My studio overlooks the garden where I will be working with Diego Zavana Aldana to plan and establish a kitchen garden, creating a relaxing social space and growing  fruit and vegetables for the kitchen, the weekly cafe and for the resident artist community and it's neighbours.

We started work in the garden today, digging over soil that had long been frozen during the winter months. We found some strawberry plants and potted them up for safe keeping, whilst we were serenaded by our neighbour Johnny Zabala on guitar, singing blues and Captain Beefheart songs.  

More pictures to follow.

Portrait of the artist as a Sheep

Thankyou to Agnieszka Badger for taking this portrait of Sheepwoman and I during a photoshoot arranged by Mim Saxl at Studio Blanco, Oxford.

The People's Supermarket, Saturday 16th March 2013

Sheepwoman really proved her worth on Saturday as she spent the day working at the People's Supermarket on the Cowley Road, Oxford. Sheepwoman was very well behaved and did her best to stock the shelves with fresh fruit and vegetables.

Unfortunately Sheepwoman was caught on CCTV unselfconsciously stuffing her pouch to the brim with delicious carrots. Ingrid, the head chef (who prepares wonderful meals from any excess fruit and vegetables that would otherwise go to waste) saw exactly what was going on and with a firm hand demanded the return of the stolen goods and put her to work serving customers.

Sheepwoman did her best to provide a good service, although trying to kiss the customers was perhaps a little forward.  She accurately weighed and priced these delicious leeks, but then ran away with the money fortunately Sarah tripped her up in time and gained control of the situation.  In an overenthusiastic attempt to make amends Sheepwoman grabbed the leeks and ran away up the Cowley road, her action was sadly misconstrued as she simply wanted to offer a free delivery service, stealing the leeks couldn't have been further from her mind.  However, having previously run away with a loaf of bread, some delicious Oxford cheese and several pounds of carrots, Ingrid decided Sheepwoman could not really be trusted in a customer facing role. 

Ingrid set Sheepwoman to work answering the telephone, dealing with queries and placing orders. Sheepwoman's inability to speak did not help matters and after she inexplicably managed to place an excessively large order for carrots, Ingrid was beginning to wonder why on earth she had invited Sheepwoman to help in the shop. Sheepwoman was ordered to update the members information, as there are now over 500 members of the supermarket, the ruffled Ingrid hoped that this would keep Sheepwoman quiet and busy for several hours.

 

Unfortunately Sheepwoman had carrots on her mind and within minutes was back to her old tricks. 

Luckily the beady eyed Ingrid caught her in time to prevent her from filling her pouch.

Sheepwoman was marched to the till and ordered to pay for the stolen carrots and cheese.

A volunteer was asked to make sure the goods were paid for in full and to check that no more carrots were hidden about Sheepwoman's person.

Despite her shortcomings Sheepwoman proved to be a great help on a busy Saturday afternoon in The Peoples Supermarket.  Perhaps if she can learn to stock the shelves nicely, not get into the trolleys (and demand to be pushed round the shop whilst grabbing crisps from the shelves), not frighten and chase children out of the shop, or climb onto the bonnets of customers cars, if she can curb her insatiable appetite for carrots, not tap dance when she should be stock taking, or run away with leeks and loaves of bread, perhaps she will return once again to The People's Supermarket as a useful and productive member of the team.  

Photographs taken by Mike Bingham, thankyou to Ingrid and Sarah for having faith in Sheepwoman's abilities as a customer service assistant. 

A Sheep in Pankow, Berlin

Thank you to Adrian Brun for inviting Sheepwoman to make an appearance during the final exhibition of a three month winter residency at Homebase, Pankow Berlin. 

The Homebase Project was founded in New York City by artist and curator Anat Litwin.  Selected artists came together to live and work in interesting/historical disused buildings in run-down neighbourhoods, to explore the notion of home, build networks with the local community and find new models of living and making art.  Several successful residencies in New York led to the establishment of Homebase Berlin in an old brewery in Pankow in the north-east of Berlin.  The Homebase project now plans to set up in Jerusalem this summer in an old leper hospital where people of all faiths once healed together. 

Sheepwoman is featured above with the founder of the Homebase project Anat Litwin, Francesca Romana Ciardi project manager for Month of Performance Art Berlin and Adrian Brun curator at the Homebase project. Thank you to the Homebase team for making me welcome,to Ilya Noe for feedback and photographs, to Grzegorz Lepiarz for his  photography, and to all the wonderful artists I met there. More links below.