Colour from the day....

...Saw a baroque orchestra playing Violino Italiano in a 500 year old cathedral (many of the instruments were very different  :  www.capricciobasel.ch)

May I introduce to you the:

Theorbe:Violoncello: & Cembalo:

which was pretty special.....

ok let's bring out the sublime word while we have a reason, for a change: it was actually quite sublime. There was one tear (on the left side). Afterwards, I  swooned about in the heavy snow fall skidding my bike through the cobbled streets to get a celebratory beer on my way back, at Hirschenek (that's a famous anarchist's bar). Then, I folded and rode to the station to get a pack of fags. Came back for a late night helping of my potatoe and leek efforts from earlier in the day (laced with very old Italian Blue cheese). 

An evening of certifiable luminous anonymity.....

Once again I may show a passing resemblance to gaunt brit-pop proponents.... almost identical. The swiss ladies will be hysterical to know:

that's a huge relief to me, gaining 10 years in 10 minutes... it's a pic-me-up I cash in every 4 months or so as you  know.

Time well spent, you'll agree.

Back to Zurich wednesday.... have numerous galleries to see there, so we'll call it research..... or process....  or something.

Have a small showing of my progress so far (yikes!) the night before here at The Dock. and then swiftly on to the Tanguely Museum opening... so unless I'm mistaken I'm unlikely to see Zurich before mid-morning looking for a greasy fry-up.

But I'll have to go hangout with a dude I met in Soloturn the other day. He's a Canadian poet Moez Surani (of Palestinian extraction I think) who's supervisor at University of Toronto is my Auntie from Kalkbay's brother in law. What are the odds on that!? 

By the way it was a hell of a day in Solothurn.

They had a big film festival on, but I had a full day of meetings and exploring so I only saw one right at the end called Winter Silence.

Also, I ate horse........    !

They made me do it.

Lovely Swiss Pinot Noir, celerac, fennel..... and a piece of horse.

Jeez!

Actually it was completely delicious, but I did sit through the movie feeling a bit like a jakals with carrion on his breath.

Haute cuisine in a lovely existential sauce.

Apparently the muscle fibers are different and shorter, so it doesn't get tough.... Hence the butter knife.

They've been chowing them since the middle ages.

I'm off to taste some buro, tomorrow!

That's where salami came from originally, and if you know a certain Italian on Markplatz...... it still does.

chuckle

Anyway, this is bordering on virtual diarrhea,

... which is taking up your time.

Ciao!

love to you all

j

Like a big pendulum.....

So they have this ingenious system of ferries here in Basel that you can use to cross the Rhine River. They have no engine, but they are clipped to a static cable that spans the river. When they push their nose out into the current they kind of waterski across magically. They have no engine and are half wakeboard half foofy-slide. They are very cheap and a quaint tradition. Very ecological too. Here's a little time lapse vid of the one that shuttles people to and from just below Meunster Cathedral: 

Of an evening you can see them candle lit and moored a little way off shore, and I am told that they are rented after hours to practice the secret Swiss ritual of  Fondue. Oh, my..... I look forward to that!

Yesterday my "coach" (as they call her), Martina escorted me out to Schonental to look at the old monastery there and stomp about in the snow in welly's looking at the collection of art in the sculpture park. What a dream venue to leave your work at. It being in the Swiss countryside there is a little farmstall with a coffee machine that you can buy local fair at; like mutton salami, cheese and preserves. It's in a wendy house on the road, but nobody mans it. It runs on an honesty system. You serve yourself, add up your own bill write it all down and leave the money in a draw and take your own change. Pah! 

Martina is turning into somewhat of a guardian angel, what with unforgettable trips like this and repeated fabulous meals with her and Rolfe in her extraordinary apartment. She makes sure I don't miss any crucial culture in the city and there's lots of it and also helps me access anything that is particularly of interest to me and my work... advice about glass artisans, carpenters, a stream of Jean Luc Goddard movies and the odd sneaky train-fare evasion lesson etc etc. She knows every single person on every single street and as she is a lecturer at the University she can be provoked into a very erudite address on the history of Land Art.....    of a ramble.... in a snowy Sculpture park. Lucky, lucky me. It's so nice to be this old, this interested and  this ignorant  all at the same time and suddenly get all this access. 

Take care all

j

Well that's just aswell, because something bad just happened to me.

 My friend just sent me a mail in the nick of time (I'll paraphrase):

I hope you are doing well in the distance, that you started your year crisp and unrestricted.

Jack Johnson line: people are only lonely animals with too many tools that can built all the junk that they sell (oh sometimes it makes me wanna yell....)

I was at a overcrowded christmas market of utterly pointless human creations, each creator convinced their decorated brick, cement shoe cactus pot,  knitted coat hanger was what the world and its dwellers had been waiting for. I left heavy hearted with a red shwe-shwe mouse, that I couldn't bear to leave amongst such hopelessness. Later as I found myself alienated in some or other chrome and marble mall the thing I kept thinking about were those graceful wooden spoons that you made for christmas presents.

I hugely value the fact that I can write my ramblings to you after having met you for.....5 minutes? 

They seem clear crystals on streets paved with politeness. And I'm grateful!
Have a beautiful time!
Y

She's Dutch (which might come with congenital madness) and a honey..... 

Emails like that really help me... 

I don't know,  something along the lines of make me believe.

I'm tired and it's a bit cold and lonely here in Basel at the moment. Mainly because I worked really hard last night trying to make something beautiful, so I got to bed at 2, without much joy. But also because something really bad just happened to me.

You got to make beautiful things. Particularly if you know how. Or you got to die trying.

I wanted to bring some work over with me to Switzerland as I've only sold one thing from my Japanese residency exhibition 2 years ago. and I've showed them a bit in Cape Town, but unless you're one of the chosen you can't really reach the commercial galleries. Besides people in Cape Town don't really collect art in the way that would help me  (It's the work you can see on my website, which is a joke, because you can't see f%ckall on my website because I make little experience machines that you have to touch to understand properly.)   So this work has been sitting in my lounge, and up about my flat for years now, and it's a privilege for me and I show it to people, but it doesn't sell. I packed three in a crate to bring over here rather naively hoping I could get them here and present them to an economy which is lucky enough to be be able to spend  five or ten thousand euros for something special and/or for advancing an artist's career. I was hoping to maybe find someone who would show them and then if-so leave them here, as otherwise I'm afraid they are destined to live in my lounge.

So I opened the crate just now which is always a bit nerve wracking as they are fragile and sometimes take some untangling, this time it was worse:

They're all pretty broken.

I'd like to say I know I can fix them, but it's a bit of a train-wreck...... & a bit discouraging. 

It doesn't look reparable...

A pale sorry memory of how fragile and engaging these works were can be seen here:

http://www.justinfiske.com/portfolio/stretch-108/animation.html

here:

http://www.justinfiske.com/portfolio/helix/animation.html

& here:

http://www.justinfiske.com/portfolio/oblique/animation.html

"Der kampf geht weiter"  which is what Google Translate would have me believe is....

 "The struggle continues."

spent most of the day moving to my new studio apartment .... in the snow,

 

love to you all

Pyrrhus

Water Water....

So there are lots of little water features about Basel. Dragons spitting water, little alcoves with water piddling into a puddle. Yesterday I saw this wishing well type pond. No coins, just the odd rust shadow

On closer inspection there was the shadow of a pair of kids scissors. I wonder what they wished for? Perhaps another pair of scissors?

Then there is a pond in central Basel that has numerous kinetic sculpture/creatures by Tinguely. The colder it becomes the more burdened with ice they become until belts slip off of drives or they just choke up.

Yesterday was chilly...... last man standing in the Tinguely pond was this little hot-stepper:

Love to you all
Justin

Some Things I Made This Last Year

It occurred to me that there are numerous things that I have made this year that haven't seen the light of the internet. All for private people. All kind of out of the scope of my fine art practice. I love these distractions and they help me, .....er, distract myself and try new things and buy new tools and often throw more time and care at a present or commission than is entirely prudent,....... just to see what comes out.  Normally if you're concentrating, for long enough, it's gonna be pretty. And just sometimes,

You might find....

Ya get what ya neeed!

This little snakey number went out to my baby, Gabrielle for her birthday . It's Jap-cedar because that always  sounds posh to me, 

& for 2 days.... I had to whittle it real good. Maybe even 3...?! The time sure flies when you're making things. Hangs next to our bed now.

Then this little sharky-number went out to my babe's godson Roberto:

And she moves like so:

And last one for this evening while we are dealing with wood, I made this for the ever patient Mike Edmunds to reach his law books. It had to be made with care with wood that had a story....? I found a couple of old salvaged Teak  (railway wood) beams and a million examples of library ladders and then shot for this Naoto Fukasawa-esque goal.

 

The pictures don't really do it justice. It's a sturdy and beautifully proportioned reincarnation.... Anyway, more memories from last year's labours at another stage. Tomorrow more about Basel. 

love to you all

Gepetto

Rapidly Approaching Planet Fatherhood

So we all know that a baby is coming, yeah? Me and the missus have been pregnant on an off for 18months  now, but by the look of things there will be no more setbacks, reprieves, extended adolescences or such. With a bit more miracle the end of march will bring a new flat-mate wriggling out into the light with it's attendant bodily functions and needs, a vocabulary of.... "Waaaaah" and a long list of arcane and very precise expectations that it won't explain very clearly. A whole new world of parenthood will need to be navigated.  Okey dokey, so this is what all this baffling heterosexuality has been about. I'm ready...... er..... big lie! 

I'm.... I'm looking forward to this. Um.... this is happening to me, I out of time.

Here I am doing paternal warm up exercises with Jasper S. the exquisite boychild of my friends t & j.  He very kindly invited me to his party and got me drunk on champagne, which will warm me to a man. I've always been warm to Jasper and if you have an ounce of humanity in you, you will be quite able to see why, mainly 'cause I'm a boy and in a slightly narcissistic way small beautiful boys make me ....... understand.  I can't really do better than that for you. Something along the lines of literacy... Of course in return I've been granted a full 3 years of surly Southwood restraint of emotion. Clearly a withering "Stranger Danger until amply established otherwise", is the rules..... 

Anyway, here we are winning a small victory in boyness together. Me drunk and tieing knots in fine cotton (dejavu!), him conducting me with a teaspoon ... it seems. Actually I'm giving him a small solar-powered car for his birthday (why didn't I think of that a year ago) which is a hit. Actually, it's my solar car (I'm 35 now I think) I bought it recently, which I'm giving to Jasper. 

Are you getting all this...? Understanding, literacy,  magic & light, small overwhelming victories? Solar powered cars? 

That's not to say that Universal "snotklaps" being  what they are, haven't tucked a little babushka doll princess up my princesses jumper. Our odds are decided, but we have only 50% chance of guessing what they are. 100% chance of being pleased as two little witogies, though,  when it comes out and reveals it's gender. Come on MA BOOOI!

So I'm looking forward to all that. And here it comes: 

 Tucked under that jumper is my new house mate of soon to be revealed gender; Gabrielle and my most ambitious collaboration to date. We've listened to one another's heart-beats with curiosity, we've had Glen Gould play us some Bach, we've had repeated games of kick dad in the face, which is nice. It doesn't sound nice, but I assure you on various existential levels a nudge on the cheek from your unborn child is reassuringly .....nice! 

I wouldn't mind a kick in the face from "ma booi", now..... but sadly I'm in my apartment pictured here across the Rhine,

   missing them.

All systems go for the 24th of March 2010.

love to you all

(but especially to my creature)

Justin

The privilege, the privilege.....

I find myself up a certain European river. It's a torrent, that you can only just keep pace with on foot. I feel some empathy to old Kurtz in the Congo, being far from home and all, but in many ways this place is like a home coming. I am living here for the next couple of months, for a start. At the moment my very lovely apartment studio looks straight out onto the Rhine:

That's the view from my bedroom window that I'm currently blogging next to the radiator beneath..... which is ok by me. (Well, if you take enough mescaline that would probably be the view from my window). So, home in that sense, and home too, in that (I was trying to explain this to the missus in a mail last night):

"all that stuff I moored my young understanding of culture, progress, civilization and achievement to, well it's here. I don't mean it came from here, I mean it's here, people have put it here. They are living in it riding on it, guarding it, lighting it beautifully. It's like I've been holding my breath, or looking through a gauze for 35 years.

just in the last 2 hours I saw all these and beyond:

Yesterday in the Beyeler Foundation I stood 200mm away from this:

Last night I went out on my own ( popped past a famous anarchist bar called Hirscheneck) and then filtered into a million drunk swiss teenagers in luminous anonimity. Drank some beers quietly to my self  with a big smirk on my face and then the new year's fireworks went off above my head. It was a cadenza and a spectalce.

What a way to start a year...... a happy new one to you all.

 

The privilege, the privilege......

love 

Kurtz