It’s been quite an exhausting few days, Thursday I took the excuse to pop to Glasgow and visit Tramway – amazing space! Not so sure about the film I saw there though, somewhere between artsy video essay and docu-drama, hmmm, reserving judgement. Then back to Edinburgh working at the Toby Patterson exhibition at the Fruitmarket. I love the Perspex maze, standing in it is a bit like being in some kind of early nineties videogame. His paintings layer themselves up around you; a web that you slowly and laboriously work your way round trying to separate one image from another. Gallery assistant work is not the most interesting of jobs, you spend a huge amount of time staring into space then pouncing on anyone who looks like they can be bullied into talking to you. If that fails there is always the task of shouting at small children as they head work-ward brandishing sticky hands. This exhibition has the added bonus of looking like a kids climbing frame! In summary, not much work made but got a few ideas now. I’ve found a nice shelf design, maybe I should make that first and then decide what to put on it!

Another Year... This time I WILL keep this updated (in the 13 week countdown). Progress on degree show ideas = 0. I started to make a research wall today to photograph - in a panic I started writing research directly onto the wall and soon realised that the quantity of blank wall space in relation to the lack of research to fill it was rather larger than anticipated. I've been mulling over the idea of doing something with pastel lights since I saw a girls performance in Prague where she moved white foam boards in front of pastel lights to create this weird cushioned, pulsating space. I think the memory was triggered by the Karla Black exhibition I visited at Inverleith House this weekend. The repulsively sticky, makeup colours in soft shades - like swimming in candyfloss! I'm bored of minimalist, monochrome text, on cheap photocopies taped to walls with masking tape. In Black's exhibition there was paint on the floor, foot prints in the plaster, mud, crumpled paper. If I remember rightly the fun thing about art at school was the legitimate mess. Now the studios look like offices, bring back the mess I say!