Glasgow, long lunches, evening drinks and late night lock-ins all postponed.

 

I’ve just returned from The Highlands of Scotland…serendipity took me on a paid singing job to Brora north of Inverness and for such a long journey and being with the KlangHaus collective, we decide to rent a cottage and do some planning and scoot over to Glasgow for COP26 chats with partners venues. The cottage was near enough to a possible partner venue The Barn in Banchory near Aberdeen. We met with artists and academics who we have been speaking to on zoom for over 9 months. Seeing them in the flesh was extraordinary. A new life experience of forging bonds through work purely online and then meeting people, it was emotional. Everyone looked more beautiful and feeling their energy was intoxicating.

Scotland had bathed us in sun and dramatic skies until we headed south to The Barn, where the initial mizzle gave way to torrential downpours. Apparently the rain style has changed from soft constant drizzly rain to harsh downpours and then sun. We talked and talked for hours. The Barn has a solid, bonded community. I’m learning more and more that art can flourish outside of the metropolis in interesting ways. Lockdown has shone a light on the richness within our own local community. We have for so long been seduced into desiring far-off lands and robust cities, but it only takes a shift in behaviour to see the value in other ways of being. I’m hoping this will be reflected in our climate problem…a shift in ways of being.

On my arrival to Scotland, Glasgow was making headlines. A community revolt involving sheltering two men who were going to be deported. The police had to change tactics and set the two men free because of community power and pressure, amazing. Then news of awful sectarian riots dressed up as football rivalry. It slowly emerged over the next couple of days that Glasgow was to remain in Tier 3 lockdown. As we gazed across the Murray Firth our dreams of visiting Glasgow faded. We were planning to travel on public transport to get to and around Glasgow, we would potentially be spreading the new variant around amongst our colleagues in Glasgow and then bring it back to Norfolk. With a heavy heart we cancelled all our meetings in Glasgow, long lunches, evening drinks and late night lock-ins all postponed. We even had a site visit arranged of a possible COP venue, the planetarium, gutted.

This is a photo of Joker, a little cat that would join you whenever you took in the stunning view opposite the cottage we were staying in, in Boddam, near Peterhead. She used to live next door, when her owners left and sold up, she stayed, sassy! She looks well fed and content...a happy free spirit. 

As 3/4 of KlangHaus we spent several days in the cottage planning and thinking....a real treat.... definitely go somewhere breathtaking to do some big thinking and some boring business planning, haha.

Glasgow, we will return!

Winter Lockdown....

 What a journey, like an obstacle course. Two rejected funding applications last week, allowed myself a small sulk before brushing off my knees and getting on with things. I’ve stumbled across Embedded Artists, I want to be one because I’m kind of doing it with my vertical farm project and I love it. Talking with folks who speak a different language and who get excited by things that are just part of your normal everyday thoughts. Talking to people who speak a different language and listening and deciphering and aiming to be gentle. I hate the stereo-type of the fiery artist, because I’m not one, but I seem to keep being one…weird.

I’m asking venues for help, space to work and I’m happy to fundraise to pay for the space. The venues I want help from can’t spare the brainpower capacity to think about helping us. Frustrating. What’s disappointing is that the conversations are stopping there, I can’t seem to keep the door open to see if we can be self-sufficient. We are used to looking after ourselves. It feels like the stress of Covid and no income is showing for institutions.

The show for COP26. Is it real? Currently it feels like something I’m pretending to do. The Government application is in, we’ll find out in May. In the meantime I’m trying to garner partners to support the show and be ready to host the show if the Gov say no. That’s real isn’t it, yes. Keep going Reils.

Easter always puts the breaks on communication, perhaps that’s why I find it tiresome, but it’s also the anniversary of my Dad’s death, Easter Saturday or April 10th, so it’s a time for reflection and a reminder to get on with stuff before it’s soil time.

I hope I make good soil, I attended a zoom about soil, it’s brilliantly complex stuff. I didn’t realise that when, say, a carrot grows, the bacteria in the soil move towards the carrot to eat it’s sugars and then the bacteria make other stuff that the carrot needs and then bigger things come along, protozoa and tardigrades and they eat the carrot sugars and make stuff the carrot needs and so on and so forth.

Nature is clever and amazing, animals are clever and amazing, we humans think we are so clever but we are on a mission to self destruct so we aint that clever. ‘Seaspiracy’, whoosh, that’s fish off my diet…bugger. I’m keeping cheese… please let cheese be okay.

The Journey to CoP26 Continues

 

It’s now 3 years of chat about getting to CoP in some shape or form. Even though the thought of advocating 30,000 delegates flying in from around the world to this conference is insane, mixed feelings, but for now the journey into ideas is continuing…

Can we cut through the red tape of finding a venue and go sustainable airship? I approached Airlander H.A.V based in Bedford, firstly to see if it’s possible to project from the inside of the hull ( balloon bit)… Yes… I’d mentioned CoP26 in my email and they want to go to CoP, but have no prototype or any ship we could use until 2025. ‘Try Zeppelin’, they kindly said. It’s on tomorrow’s list.
Meanwhile the potency of our show Dark Room has been resonating and we started thinking… being in complete darkness allows the audience to make the art for themselves, have feelings conjured from within. Taking away a sense can be powerful ( I know you know that, I’m talking to myself) could this be the show for CoP26 with the mannequin choir making an appearance. Hmmm things are starting to make sense.

How to make a room dark

 Notes for my future self. Use layers of materials on the windows. Step one was foil. I had bought some extra thick foil a few weeks before but ended up using it during cooking and was left with the inferior stuff. Not fit for purpose really. A good roll of low-tack fabric-style gaffa tape, not only saves the window surround paint work but is a pleasure to use.

Next I cut polystyrene to size, obviously I'm not a fan of the stuff, but we had a package delivered that had  lots of it in, perfect for the moment.

Then because I was projecting on that wall, some very thick white paper. 

Then on the other side of the window, outside,  a huge tarpaulin clipped to the window frame. We started the shows on the shortest day of the year for maximum darkness. The first show was at 1pm. This didn't feel so dark, but by 2.30pm it was pitch! Audience comments included 'it was dark, then it seemed to get darker'. 

We made sure people started off in a very bright room, as it was nearly Christmas, we used tonnes of fairy lights. They walk into the room, are sat down, shown the safety light and plunged into darkness.

Folks were brought back into the light gently by my lovely companion, the slide projector. They found themselves in a darkroom. Which gave us all the idea to do a KlangHaus in a photographic darkroom in the future.... ooo... pictures emerging from the dark, the smell of chemicals, sounds whizzing round, red lights, shadows.

Here is one reaction that made me glow...

Dark Room : Listen In

 

How could I have not written about this until now? Today would have been the last day of 200 shows in our house. One audience member at a time, in complete darkness for 10 minutes listening. It had a couple of surprise live elements and some sensations, haha. No one was ever touched, a big fear for the incoming audient. Covid-safe with people wearing masks, us sanitising the armchair they sat in during the show. We opened doors, kept our distance, closed doors. It was safe but on Dec 26th, day 5 of shows, Tier 4 came into play and all non-essential business was halted due to the pandemic and a second more contagious strain of the virus doing the rounds. We had performed 80 shows. It was an impactful, emotive show. The darkness was the star. I was in the dark room for safety and for crawling about doing stuff. I emerged on Christmas Day pale and broken with fatigue. More thoughts soon

Hum

 I totally forgot that 'You Can't Hum Your Way Out of This One' was originally inspired by David Cameron's resignation speech from the UK Government after the Brexit results. As he walks into 10 Downing Street, he hums a little tune.... very clearly .... 

You Can't Hum Your Way Out of This One Video

 This song came about after some home truth serum activity and Jeron messing around with his drum machine… We knew that it needed a guest vocalist and, ‘though this is the first time that we’ve worked with Jimmy, he has really meshed well with the band and done a superb job. Huge thanks to the puppet theatre for the loan of Jimmy.

It took me a while to bond with Jimmy, I had to mend his trousers and then we just had to get on with getting on. I remember Sal saying how she had to take up Nick Cave's trousers for a video shoot and that had a similar affect. Similar types of guy I guess, haha.

A lot of practicing with lip sync and eye position, you can only move his eyes by moving his head. The mouth movement is a strange metal hook on a lever in Jimmy's back. The body is made of paper mache the head is plaster I think. He'd had a little accident with his face before we met. 

As you can hear, he's noisy, but I think he can impersonate my voice really well.  When Mark came up with the idea of a ventriloquist dummy for this video, I said, what for.... knowing that I found them horribly creepy, but it was great fun and working with puppets, you learn stuff about yourself, sounds like a cliche, I know, but give it a go and then you'll see.