Wartime Christmas Cake

I’m cramming in all my christmas socialising into one week, as I’m off to Brazil on Wednesday. (Expect numerous posts on love, misadventure and misunderstandings). (You’ve been warned). Anyway at my pseudo xmas-office-party-style do tonight I might make a christmas cake (can’t be that hard, right?) as I found my grandmother’s recipe book from 1940 this week. It was a wedding present, left blank for her culinary discoveries. It’s remained blank for the last 71 years, bar ‘Wartime Christmas Cake 1940′. So today I might honour the recipe. Honour the unfinishedness of the book and think of her being a new wife 71 years ago, trying to be a good one.

Telegram from the Queen

A new video I made on what would have been my grandmother’s 100th birthday.

Finding CSS

Last week I embarked on a task set by Amy Pennington. She wanted me to find one of her favourite bands, CSS, that live in Sao Paulo. It is part of ongoing investigation with hub centres in Miles Platting and Sao Paulo. Here you can see the beginnings of what I have been doing, which will be made into a book that will be released in the two cities. I made enquiries at MTV Brasil, posted flyers around the area they live and chased friends of friends for leads.

And then after weeks of investigation I met up with Ana! After a poster campaign and private investigations, it was a tip-off from Petra that we managed to locate the guitarist. When I get back we will be making a book about the task. You can see our previous attempts to find the band on older blogposts. Ana was lovely! Look how pleased I am!

Dilma and Me

It seems a bit cheeky to make a film with me and the new president of Brazil. It was a privilege to be in a country when something very important was happening, but also strange to not be directly affected by it. Like a lot of experiences here, I was both close and far away at the same time. What a night though!

Taking a Plant on a Journey

Finally here is the long awaited video to accompany the task Kerry set for me, to take a plant on a journey. This came about after the 100 Cauliflowers project I helped her with in London in 2007, when one cauli was left over. Laura and me carried the giant veg across London on the tube to give to our friend Brookie. I was surprised how much excitement a vegetable in public could create- people talked to me about their recipes and stories about cauliflowers. There is no documentation of this journey, just the memory.

Welcome to Twin Peaks

Mayor Dwayne Milford Presents, Islington Mill, Salford
12 December 2009

Part theatre, part ghost train, part club night, and part social experiment of what happens when you bring together 150 Twin Peaks fans. This night coordinated numerous installations, interactions and a cast of twenty in a former mill in Salford with lots of cherry pie, a Miss Twin Peaks contest, a Leyland Palmer disco and Red Room. After buying a Twin Peaks board game, I asked around to see who would like to play it with me and dress up as a character. More and more people wanted to come along, much more than could fit in my front room. We discovered a secret society of massive Twin Peaks fans and decided to put on a night for them all. A sell out success.

“one of the best and most memorable nights that I have ever attended” Kieron
“congratulations to all involved. A totally surreal night…can’t even begin to explain to friends who weren’t there” Penfold
“SUCH an amazing night” Katherine

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Congratulations, Withington

Congratulations, Withington, was a series of interventions in Withington that celebrated quite ordinary everyday events in the area. Here is a woman who was the twelfth customer in Help the Aged one morning.

Signs

From an ongoing interst in putting the personal in the public. This was a series of pinning memories to the places they happened in. This included using billboards and the BBC Big Screen in Liverpool City Centre.

Slug

A performance where I slithered across Manchester during rush hour in a slug suit I made out of an old sleeping bag. It was physically very gruelling, but intellectually less so. The morning´s work caused a lot of smiles and confusion.

The Happiest Day of Your Life

After placing an advert in a newspaper for unwanted wedding photographs (for whatever reason) I received the video of John and Nat´s wedding day (pictured) from John´s mum after they divorced. I then produced stills from the big day that caught a more human, fragile side of these two people, away from the ceremony and show, just scratching or sighing. Jack and Jean also sent me their pictures after being married for over 45 years, because they were having a clear out. We went on a tour of their wedding day together around Moss Side, and recreated their wedding photos all those years later.

Don’t Cry Wolf

I do like making things, and after a drawing in my sketchbook which presented a different side to this classic saying, I tried to break out of the book and into sculpture. I made this wolf by upholstering a wooden frame and inserting a tape recorder of someone crying on loop in his head. He had fake nails and a sinister, sad manner. He unsettled every room he sat in.

Mirfield Grammar 1925

After finding an old school photo at Burnley Market, I traced the school and recreated the school photo in the exact place where it happened, life-size. Afterwards, each face blew away in a paper chase along the old school path.

Cine City

A performance with artist Laura Skilbeck. Together we hung around a derelict cinema in Manchester, dressed as old film stars, desperately trying to make sense of what had become of cinematic glamour.

A Tape For You

A collection of recordings that I made on my ex-boyfriend´s deaf side for his hearing side to hear. The tape has outlived the relationship and the popularity of cassettes. Utterly futile but sincere.

Announcing the Arrival Of

A week long project based on some Baby Arrival Cards I found. I sent out one a day to places that would I would visit in advance of my arrival. It felt very exposing and anonymous; very self-important and insignificant; all at once. This is an image from a book I made documenting the week.

Sellotape Shoes

Again, based on a memory that I wrote about in a book, I wanted to get it out of the book. So on the advice of Alistair Payne, a very good artist, I thought sideways and made these. Quite pretty, and Cinderella-esque, and a bit impossible.

Sugar Mouse

I made a giant sugar mouse, after being very kindly sponsored by Napier Brown and Supercook. He weighed over 30kg, and became a beautifully embarrassing, sad, obese, awkward, shy, unneccessary object. I think we can all feel like that at times. Once he was made, I wheeled him for 10 miles to Altrincham to a nursery. There the under-threes ate, poked, drew, played and destroyed him.

Icing Manchester

One day I took a pot of icing and a bag of cake decorations and iced the tops of fences, bollards and anything else that came into my path.