New series.....

Statement for degree catalogue;

'My work is concerned with the elemental nature of existence. I am fascinated by what we leave behind in every room or place we have inhabited. Layers of dust sift over the edges of books, on the periphery of furniture, in the corners. Hair and skin ground down into a fine powder, an ongoing residue. The beauty of dust as it catches the light, watching the particles float, swirl and fall evokes contemplation. We are so quick to discard our dust, and yet it remains

The project has slowly become an obsession. The very nature of collecting something that is intrinsically everywhere has meant I am continually equipped and prepared; seeing how the dust differs from person to person, place to place, filming it when falling. I am intrigued by the similarities and differences between the samples. My knowledge of the individual contributors leads me to search for identifiable features.

One obsession leads to another; a personalized act of the documentation and categorisation of the samples, seeking order from chaos. The status of my obsession becomes elevated in the process. The particles become evidence, the mundane is rendered special. That which is around us but which we often overlook, becomes precious.'

taking advantage...

...of a late shift at work to take some more photographs in projection, this time with different samples. Recieved a couple of packets of dust in the post, lovely stuff.

what remains...

'Avoid the world, it's just a lot of dust and drag and means nothing in the end.'
Jack Kerouac

Field Trips.

Spent yesterday going to Cromer to help with Bryony's project on journeys and trains. It's very odd what journeys remind me of. Such as spending the first year of my degree going back and forth between Cambridge and Norwich, feeling like two seperate entities, two different lives. By the end of that year I had memorised every station announcement, I knew all the prices for the AMT coffee stand by heart, I'd spoken to an average of 4-5 strangers a week on each journey. It felt as if I had cried, shouted, laughed, slept, worked and day dreamed on every train in those two stations. This is what I thought of as we sat watching the platform slip away yesterday.

I took some dust with me, a sample from a Miss Celia White as it happens (thanks Celia). It seemed interesting to put a natural material back into a natural environment and it looking completely out of place....

A Sketchbook of Mostly 'To Do' Lists;

Sunday mornings.

She wakes up at 8am, eats 3 bananas and spends her morning filming dust falling and catching light from a projector. Any doubts of her insanity that might have creeped into the mind of the projectionist vanish, he genuinely seems concerned for her mental state. She returns to her cave, Photoshops images of her housemates onto prawns, laughs a bit too hysterically at bad jokes on the radio and begins referring to herself in the third person.....

Website ideas..

Lets hold out for Something Good...

'I am more curious about the elements that, by being so widespread, are usually for that very reason shielded from view. The voices of dust, the soul of dust, these interest me a lot more than flowers, trees or horses because I take them to be stranger.’, Jean Dubuffet.

Also, Something Good is happening next Tuesday at Take 5, un-amplified and full of deliciousness (and me) http://somethinggood.tv/

If I leave it any longer, I'll just forget.

Last night I had a dream about running. Dreams about long distance running are something I've always been envious of, I want the sense of endurance, a rhythm. This wasn't like that. For a start I was wearing my birkenstocks and they kept falling off my feet, so as I ran over a bridge I threw them off into the river below and briefly glanced at them floating rapidly away. After a few minutes I realised I was by the river in Ely, I also realised my hands were full of coins, mostly pounds and 20 pence pieces that kept falling threw my fingers and out of my pockets. At some point I almost ran straight into this kid, a boy of about 10 who looked a lot like the kid in Son of Rambow. He asked me why I was running in bare feet and I told him it felt more real. He looked scared and when I said he should be getting home, he asked me to come back to his house and meet his dad, I ran with him to his front door. His dad was sitting at the table not saying anything and looking really menacing, the boy waved a piece of paper under his nose that said he owed £12 for his music lessons and if his dad wouldn't pay then he'd have to stop, the man ignored him. I went to leave and then turned back and put all the falling coins I had into the boys hand and told him to promise me he'd only use it for the music lessons. When I left I started running again, slowly but steadily, and for what seemed like a long time. As I reached my road again, which was back where my old house was in Ely, I bumped into Shane and Clare each holding a beautiful baby. Twins, two boys, they wore matching striped hats and I kissed each one on the cheek before running on back to my front door.

Collections part. 2

Collections part 1.

deposit, fragments, grains, leavings, rubble, scree, sediment, shavings....

It has been a good week. Saturday was my birthday and despite being a miserable **** in the morning and moaning about getting older and under-achieving, I actually had a really brilliant day and had an internal telling off about being grateful for the opportunities I've had. My favourite moment was receiving a gift from my friend David, which was lovely, and then getting worriedly more excited by the envelope of dust he also gave me! I've got about 10 samples or so at the moment but really would like more to experiment with and use in the degree show.

Friday I'm hoping to get back into the projection booth at work with a decent camera and take some footage. I'm still a bit stuck as to what to do with the various samples of dust, I'm fascinated by the idea that there is some difference between them as they are from different people. Hmm......

My friend Jane has kindly, and sneakily, recorded a live set I did at one of the Howlback Hum events last month. You can have a listen on my myspace; http://www.myspace.com/emilyhirst