Shelf-life of ideas
Part. 1
I have never really found myself out of ideas (touchwood, I guess). It has been like that for the past three years with a lot of developments and changes along the way but the making never stopped. There was always something on my mind that has to be realised via my hands the next day. This year however, I have noticed that I am producing much lesser than before, maybe because I am building bigger, and thus it takes longer. But something about the way I process my ideas is taking longer too.
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In Berlin, I have once again had to move into a new space and unlike autumn winter arrived without much sign. It is taking time to adjust, the clay is too cold to work with and I don’t know where to begin. As I unpack and place my work neatly on the shelves, I look at my work not as a physical entities but for the ideas they try to capture. I take a step back and without doubt feel the need to reorganise, everything.
Part. 2
“We are capable of creating only one great work in our lifetime.” I heard this somewhere and though I cannot remember where, I am sure it was in the context of art and an artist’s work. I have repeated this statement to a couple of my friends and they find it sort of accusatory. I strangely find it to be very humbling. For me, it begins to implies that it can take a lifetime to do that one great thing. This to me is beautiful. It frees me from a lot of pressure that I put on executing every idea that pops up around my work. I recognise the importance of time, and time given to a practice, and an uninterrupted level of sincerity that goes in the making of a great work.
I feel insignificant and yet, driven. I think of the time when someone might ask me you how long it took me to build, and I get to say ‘many many winters.’
Part. 3
And so I have been feeling I need to approach my work differently. It is not that I am out of ideas, I am just deciding to not execute them all. Also the world would be way cluttered than it already is. After two weeks of organisation, when I look at my shelf now I scan for those ideas nearing their expiry dates and those that could last me for a whole lifetime. Maybe this can help me to begin.