Don't look back into the sun

So after the initial dazzle of getting the exhibition comes the actual meat and potato details of getting it arranged.

I’d booked train tickets for the 1st of Feb originally to take some paintings back from a previous exhibition, but as it would turn out I was taking more paintings up. One large version of my ‘untitled’ painting - 2400x1350mm -  rolled up to be framed by the lovely people at Happenstance to frame and three additional ‘Glow’ paintings. Saturday I dashed down to my studio, trimmed the ‘untitled’ painting, wrapped it up in cardboard, arranged for some other paintings to get framed, and bubble wrapped the other three and attached them with bungee ropes to the portable trolley I’ve bought for these occasions. 

I had to pop down to my studio Sunday morning and do a bit more work, and via a taxi I got to Cardiff Central. On the trip up – where I managed to do some writing - I thought “Yeah, maybe I should get a taxi the other side.”  I got off at Paddington and wobbled my way to the taxi rank. “How much to Hoxton.” “Twenty quid, probably more…” Fuck that, so I wobbled onto the tube. As luck would have it, right then there was a tube to Whitechapel and almost straight away there was an overground train to Hoxton High Street. Naturally I was busting for a piss almost as soon as I got on the tube at Paddington. My first order of business upon getting to Hoxton was to find a public convenience, but as soon as I got out the station there was a sign to the One Hundred Years gallery which wasn’t far.  So I pulled my trolley and wobbled up the cobbled road. My first words to the gallery owner upon arrival were “Can I use your toilet?” I believe Andy Warhol asked the very same question upon entering The Factory for the first time.  I pretty much managed to get to the gallery more by luck than judgment.
 

The gallery is in the basement and a nice space it is too. I saw a stressed looking Olu Essien Popoola from Happenstance trying to set up a sound piece with some other people. So I handed over the work, took some pictures of the walls to plan and then buggered off. I would have loved to have stayed but I’d started to feel rotten and had to get a train back to Cardiff which would deliver me home at a reasonable time. It was a massive relief to drop off the paintings though! I missed the train I was booked on, which gave me time for a Burrito and then a leisurely journey home, with a further opportunity to write.

So a section of staging the exhibition is done, just have to get the rest of the work to the gallery on the 18th, hang it and get the large ‘untitled’ painting there. Fun, fun, fun…