Dream

“A reminder on the door, to always remember perfume. When walking up the stairs to the studio, I could usually smell the perfume Sands was wearing.” – RR.

“About solitude. very fragile. Tracy Emin scrawled figures… in a way. She’d probably be appalled by the comparison.” – SMW paraphrased by MH.

“Details of the Signature Collage, that would form a significant part of the exhibition ‘In Good Company (Horsepower)’ later at mistral.” – RR.

“You can’t make work for a total public, because every viewer has a different approach. This is the kind of knowledge I’m mostly interested in, subjective and personal. My worst nightmare is when artists try to control their reception.” – SMW. “This makes me think of Adrian Piper who seems to do that a lot, and Megan mentions that indeed every work relating to her archive should be approved be her. Sands thinks there are two sides of the same coin when it comes to rigour, but that they might make a different-conscious- choice: to control reception or not at all, and ‘every artists makes their choice about how far they want to go and where is their limit’. From the meta-archive process diary, March 30, 2020. In the collaboration between Sands and Amalia, Amalia could have her own associations with the work, and write texts in the database as she pleased, Sands would not edit her. The conversations and weekly archiving sessions in the studio formed a relationship of trust.” – RR.

“This became a new ritual, holding a painting or drawing together. This is one of the ‘working 2000s’ that has been archived and moved to mistral in an archive box. Sands has one of these pictures with each of the GSA collaborators. Image taken after a recorded conversation between SMW and AC, about their collaboration, feminism, looking back at the past months.” – RR.

“Working on archiving Working 2000 drawings.” – RR.

“Sands and Robin together on the couch, a few minutes after I stopped recording. A bit tired after talking for 2 hours and 20 minutes, but also excited and happy-it felt like everyone in the room knew this was an important conversation somehow. SMW and RWM surrounded by works they have been collecting, and a framed drawing from Sands on the left.” – RR.

“Living room of SMW and RWM, where the triangle is present again: Carolee, Adrian, Hannah.” – RR.

Rijksakademie Internal Open Studios – 07.09.20. “… bring roughness and playfulness into this serious art discourse.” – N/A. “Funny that you say the word playful, because when you read the (horse cloud) sentences, they are quite heavy, and it makes you draw from your own experiences […].” – SMW. “When I draw them (horses), I feel better.” – SMW. “So it’s like magic!” – N/A.

“There is a gap in this diary but that doesn’t mean things didn’t happen.On March 6th the first process event took place, in a crowded studio, sitting with a beautiful sprawling horse cloud as the backdrop for a flowing conversation (with interesting questions from the audience), I remember how the temperature was literally rising. The video documentation + recording + notes that Amalia took can capture the event. It was also one of the last public events before the corona virus arrived seriously in The Netherlands, and evolved into a worldwide pandemic over the past few weeks, which brings us in a very different situation by now: we can’t meet in person, Sands didn’t go to the Rijksakademie anymore, Amalia moved back to her family in Spain for now, and also Megan works from home instead of the IICD office. How should we continue with this process-that for a large part is dependent on actual people, bodies, meeting in space to collaborate, have rose tea together, touch, measure and discuss the materials of Sands’ his studio.” From the meta-archive process diary. – RR.