Artist in Residence.

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE, ULAAN BAATAR

I was given a huge studio within the sculpture school at the Institute of Fine Art in Ulaan Baatar where I would work for 3 weeks.  Actually it was hard to get on with any work as I was constantly whisked off to meet people, to give interviews and to attend Private Views.  When I WAS in my studio it was hard to know what to actually do, how I would respond, artistically, to being in Ulaan Baatar. As is my wont I began gathering things that I found locally on the ground  such as scraps of advertising material, odd shaped pieces of metal, a child’s sock, tiny plastic toys, a cigarette packet, a card label, string etc. and I began to glue them into my sketchbook.  There was some amusement and bewilderment from the students – but the on the whole students and tutors found all this interesting and i guess it gave them a purpose to visit the studio – WHAT on earth  is she doing?

Students would come up to me, individually or in groups to show me their work or to look at what I was doing. When the weather got warmer the school decided to switch on the heating in my studio!  So I then decided to work outside where students would come to sit on the low wall in the shade with me. One young man insisted that we went back to my studio, despite my protestations that it was boiling in there.  The book he wanted to show me was in fact a photograph album containing photos of his family, including one of four generations – he was a baby in that particular one.  Trips abroad, family gatherings, all his growing up was documented.  He then gave me a photo, which he signed, of himself as a 10 year old, sitting on his horse. I was touched.

One day the Principal, Bumandorj, asked me to give these two talks, twice: for students and tutors, and also for professional artists and journalists.  Oh and it would be tomorrow!  Of course I would do this – why not?  Panic!   Enkhe’s English was not up to the standard I needed for the translation and they did not have an overhead projector for my slides.  I made an appointment to see the sweet Mongolian girl Sara at the British Embassy with whom I had been corresponding for about a year; she put me in touch with a lovely girl, Sanaa who would interpret for me (for a fee of course).  Sara then gave me the phone number of the United Nations office where she was sure they had a projector I could borrow.   They did and Canadian Ken phoned me to say that he would send his driver along to deliver it the next day! Sorted!

Another day as I was about to begin some work in my studio Bumandorj whisked me off to the recording studios of the main radio station in Mongolia.  I was to be interviewed for the daily half hour arts programme.  The studios were housed in a large Russian built building, and having been led down many corridors and through lots of large wooden doors we reached what was I guess the ‘mixing room’.  Bumandorj, Sanaa and I waited there for about half an hour; it was very smoky and the huge reel to reel recording system on the wall looked none to reassuring.  About five minutes before we went on air I was asked if there was anything particular I wanted to say – I just had time to scribble down some ‘thanks’ and pertinent comments before we were ushered into the next room.  There was one wooden desk, one large ashtray, one microphone, a window into the recording room and the interviewer welcomed us, with a cigarette in her hand.  Too few chairs meant that the interviewer stood, leaning towards the mike when she asked the questions.  And I had no idea what questions I would be asked which was a bit nerve wracking, especially as I had been told that the programme is broadcast live to Japan and China as well as all over Mongolia!