Sculptural sketch

cock up! is a sculptural sketch, using found materials collected originally to setup our studios frohsinnbergprojekt
but alas the light didn't work and even after prentending i could pull it apart and tighten screws and adjust wires it still didnt' work, so then I kept it aside for arts sake. A few days later some parts of the light were mistakenly thrown out. I have also been finding shuttle cocks in the streets, so I laugh and create.

It is true.....

It is true what they say, Berlin is poor but sexy and here's one of my postcard moments to share.

Lock up your daughters zine sketch 1

Some cool ladies we meet in Glasgow do this queer zine called 'Lock up your daughters' - here are some sketches I did for it.

Ah Bauhaus

I am a bad tourist, I won't go somewhere because of hype or advertising or because someone says I should, but I am a fan of design, architecture and day trips. The trip to the Bauhaus at Dessau was amazing! We went with a lovely bunch of people via the couch surfing community and we all chatted and took as many photos as each other and I will let our photos do the talking... all the closeups of the industrial door hinges and window latches and lights that hummed on and off and wall edges of primary and pastel tones (not mixed!), a feature texture wall of hessian perhaps and how lucky to feel and see all the museum relicks and houses where they lived...Klee, Kandinsky, Gropius..... WOW!

Bauhaus trip

We are off to see one of the three locations where the Bauhaus existed in all it's glory at Dessau (1925-1932) alittle bit South West of Berlin.....looking forward to it, it'll bring back found memories of university and form follows function, ahh flat rounded dining chairs that push under a perfect mirror shaped table to save space......oh no thats eich-ika. Well imagine being taught painting by Paul Klee or Wassily Kandinsky, dreamy scenes filled with bright colours and geometric wonderlands...weeeee the fun the talent, the freedom to lash out against the industrialists.

Manymini residency 7th July

So the date was Saturday 5th July we checked our email later than we hoped, due to our highly active free furniture gleaning over the past week and weeks to come as we set up the studios and live in space. We read that the opening our friend had told us about finished at 10pm...it was now 10.30pm, hum! Okay we keep reading the links to the openings host, the Manymini residency and they still have time slots available, we apply and they say yes come make art.

On the 7th July, we wake with the swallows, at 6.40am, other days we've been waking much earlier but today the sun is mellowed by a light smattering of clouds. We are super excited to have the opportunity to get going again on our art making and in response to the Destination: Berlin works-on-paper opening that we missed on Saturday the 5th, these words from the invitation stand out "carefree backpackers artists suitcases various destinations with no confirmed schedule or order of travel works on paper" we relate so strongly and so we head off on foot, with our art suitcase.

We walk to the manymini studio in Kreuzberg, from our place in Prenzlauerberg, it reflect how we have spent the past year, walking slowly with no set schedule, i take photos of all the street treasure I'd like to collect, but don't necessarily unless it fits into our suitcase. I take photos of the journey, of the new streets we walk along. It takes us about 2hrs to get there and we have 2hrs remaining for our residency.

I start building a textile homage to all the workers in blue overalls......

I noticed so many of these overall clad people during our walk, wow I have always loved the 11am slot, but here in Berlin this new time slot 7-9am on the streets brings out all the people in overalls, it's fantastic I'm somewhere different. Even if it's not just Berlin, Germany, this funny phonemena speaks to me and yes perhaps it is because my head is in a different place I'm waking with the masses to work, this is different after living the backpacking lifestyle.

I love that we walked past this couple seen as a speck over my shoulder in the photos on flickr, on the way home as we walk back retracing our steps in exactly the same way, we walked past the same couple, uncanny! By this time the couple were in a park....I shyed from taking the shot, darn it.

For Cara it's more about taking stock of what art paraphenalia we have brought with us on this leg of the journey, she unpacks and sorts the suitcase and ponders and continues drawing the airmail envelopes we've been drawing since Glasgow and she drinks coffee. I notice how much we talk whilst we work, the energy from my mind flitters out then we are both working side by side on our different paths of spontaneity and then cara is talking more and i begin to focus and then there is calmness.

I spotted a free bread shop, and we got two loaves of lovely grained brot, they were sturdy...not the freshly baked variety and it triggers an idea based on a facade that looked like it was still damaged from the war, all overgrown with vines and entry prohibited ...and an artice I read saying that there are still undetinated bombs maybe 700 sites in Berlin, waiting to be cleared safe for human use. In response I shot and edited a playful short video 'Brot des bombes', with Cara's helping hands and sound effects (scroll to the last day, 7th July to find us and enjoy the other participants work too.)

Our new studio called Frohsinnberg Projekt

So we (Kyla, Cara and On Yau) have been busy setting up our new have a flat in Berlin, in the East coolie area Prenzlauerberg. We have been busy finalising the 'sublet' which took just under a month and since the 1st of July we now, somehow have a massive flat to call our home, studio and more space for others to join us, here in the Frohsinnberg projekt.

After chilling out on the streets near the kanal in Kreuzberg watching all the locals and others ride and walk past us sitting perched on top of our luggage, we gave vague directions with some hand waves and broken English German. The we meet a friend of a friend and early this night at 2am over welcome drinks and energetic banter with a our new friend whilst we slogged back ouzo and sipped on tea came along the old German word Frohsinn.

Frohsinn means warm hearted, gleefully ah hearing the word and the meaning triggered my wide smile, rather a faux ami don't you think, sounds like frozen and means quite the opposite. So this word brings me closer to the 'communication project' that I have been thinking of for years and now whilst setting up a small cluster of artist studios this project comes closer to life.