The idea of the pop-up site/school/shop/restaurant has transcended its original (rather idealistic) beginnings; a site accessible to all, initiated by anyone, a site without the stress, strain, chance and investment required in starting a business. Perhaps this change occurred when Michelin star chefs jumped on the band-wagon taking over small country pubs to peddle their gastro wares or when Faberge opened up the mother of all pop-up shops in one of the most exclusive ski resorts in Switzerland last month. Never the less, the notion of the pop-up school as a method of initiating and promoting a fledgling idea, testing the waters of the cut-throat wide world, has always appealed to me in an era where business ventures are deemed a disaster, closed down and sold on for scrap parts before they have had a chance to get their money-making feet off the ground.It was with this in mind that I tentatively walked into my first class of the pop-up school ‘Doers and/or of Doings’ at Edinburgh’s Sierra Metro under the instruction of artist and thinker Travis Souza. The subject appealed to me - ‘Impasse’ or ‘Creative Block’ - (‘general art vs. life crisis’ as another member rather eloquently put it). It is the well trodden path of the art student on leaving college, full of hope and enthusiasm, to then find themselves a year past, working in some dingy pub, depressed with not a single artwork to show for themselves. I could see myself following suite feeling inexplicably like, rather than increasing my life prospects, the five year masters had instead placed me in a vacuum from which I emerged, out of touch with reality with little more than an accumulation of paper under the bed and a diverse selection of fine-liners to show for it. It was this or the pop-up school!
Little did I know the twist in the route to follow. First came the email - a presentation on said ‘Impasse’, a selection of images and (heaven forbid) A TWITTER ACCOUNT were all required for the first Sunday (leaving me exactly three days). Having not spoken about my art for over six months and always associated the idea a twitter account with, well, self-indulgent twits, I was flummoxed. After the first meeting however, I came away more relaxed with my mind fuller and much less haphazard than I had felt in many a month. Twitter proved to be quite addictive and I secretly justified it to myself as being ‘for art purposes’. I slightly competitively attacked the task in hand, intent on throwing myself into researching the other member’s Impasse while stubbornly ignoring my own.
Then came the next issue, I had absolutely no idea how to research since leaving the drowsy confines of the university library. I tried the Central Library, panic selecting books on the merits of their front covers, read exhibition reviews and finally landed on typing in words and phrases into Google trying to hit upon some happy coincidence that might be in some way helpful to the other member’s practice. Sunday evening I emerged from session two feeling dazed and confused after six hours tucked in a small room, huddled round an electric heater working on schedules for the week ahead for the other participants. The idea was that these schedules would exist within day to day life rather that trying to create art outside of reality. When I got my weekly plan back it read something like a mad old woman’s to-do list. I had to orchestrate and document a 1970s themed Valentines dinner party, make a short film to the recipe of papier-mâché, fish and nesting among other things. I shall let you know how this pans out. Until then however, the image is a taster of the week that followed.
Many thanks to the pop-up school for making this the most manic, creative and hilarious week in some time.
http://doersandofdoings.wordpress.com/
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