saturation and sleep

Is it possible to see too much art in one day? Probably yes.

I went to Frieze yesterday, then on to a meeting with someone to propose an idea for a show and then to the opening at Fieldgate. One or perhaps two of those things would have been quite enough, as I felt absolutely shattered when I got home. And in spite of the fact that I didn't indulge in the usual PV alcohol consumption, I felt quite fuzzy and, in a way, hung over today. So much so that in the studio this afternoon I couldn't seem to string a coherent thought together, which is a shame, really, because open studios is next weekend and though I'm only opening my space for the Saturday, I haven't even thought about it until, well, now. Oh, dear.

I enjoyed Frieze though, and the best bit was the interesting chat I had with the director of Vitamin, a creative space in China. Among other things, they are showing a sort of performance / installation whereby a woman is asleep in a bed at the fair. I found it really unsettling, disturbing and compelling. People came up and looked very closely at this woman; the underling tension of whether they would actually invade her personal space and touch her to see if she was really asleep was almost unbearable to me in a weird sort of way. I felt protective of her.

It was very weird.

But I liked it because it made me think deeply about a lot of things.

Yes, Ok, I know it is similar to Cornelia Parker's 'The Maybe' a few years back at the Serpentine, but I had never actually seen that, and in spite of the fact that Parker is someone whose work I have a lot of time for, I had always thought that piece a bit silly. So in a way this was fresh for me, and incredibly powerful.

For me, it re opens the dialoge that Parker initially created.

By the time I got to Fieldgate I was feeling pretty saturated and could not really engage with the show, nevermind conversation. But what an amazing space. If you haven't already been, make a point to go because it won't be with us forever.