08 10 2026

 Maybe one rat left... unwilling to start cleaning until I'm sure they're all rotting under the floorboards, yes indeedie - there are horrid smells everywhere.

My sense of powerlessness is beginning to turn on me. Yesterday I bought a new coat - first hand - at vast expense, something I've not done for 25 years plus. In shock after the event; sussed that its about control, taking it where I can.

Today is allocated for the knocking-down of the pediments in the London house. The fundraiser in the church opposite has paid off the groups' surveyor, hurrah, but the council are going to charge us for repairs we don't want, don't need nor are insured for. They are in the region of 10K per household. Only plus is that the council (RBG) will attach the debt to the deeds and not charge us interest

No rent coming in, of course - tenant also forced out.

The council claim that after they've knocked down the groups pediments, so making the houses safe, we can move back in. The actual cause of the collapse, which points rather obviously to the many building sites that surround the houses, has not been addressed. The new building around the houses has paused. This is doing no favours to anyone at all which means we don't have enough information. What is actually happening? 

The only thing imaginable is that the building sites can be united across our houses and gardens if the houses fall or are sold off cheap, making a huge estate huger and higher in profits. 

No doubt the actual reason will become clear and no doubt it will be unimaginably impossibly daft.

04 10 2026

 Too much rattiness in studio to make any work possible - waiting to see if they have been poisoned off, after which I can clean and get back to angst.

Ideas flitter and faint. 

03 10 2026

 

Friend sent this;  its in Bergen. Cant find out how to copy whole article - would like to get there but will probably opt for saving for the catalogue due in December.

 

The exhibition will span 25 years of artistic production through more than 125 works at Kode’s main venue for temporary exhibitions, Stenersen, bringing together seminal works of Einarsson’s oeuvre, as well as new works commissioned specially for the exhibition.

The purpose of a system is what it does (POSIWID) is part of Kode’s ongoing series dedicated to mid-career artists with personal and professional connections to Bergen, where Einarsson studied in the late 1990s.

Einarsson works across a wide range of media, including installation, painting, sculpture, printmaking, video and photography.

Drawing on his own ever expanding artistic archive, comprising photographs, archival material and other collected sources, Einarsson uses found materials to explore the visual culture that surrounds us.

The Purpose of a System

The exhibition draws its title from a phrase coined by the British theorist Stafford Beer: “The purpose of a system is what it does”.

The phrase explains how the observed purpose of a system is often at odds with the intentions of those who design, operate and promote it. How visible, and invisible, power structures in our contemporary society play out and affect us, has been a consistent theme in Einarsson’s practice.

Einarsson’s visual language addresses both the ways in which resistance can arise in response to a surveillant control society, and how extreme individualism and countercultural positions have, at times, manifested in terrorism and crime.

In the same way, he also addresses the art world as a system that balances between communication and exclusion, where questions of style and real political conflict can unfold simultaneously.

Recurring themes in his work are the outsider position, the tension between group mentality and personal freedom, and countercultural movements such as activism and punk culture.

Einarsson dissects the English language with precision and wit, distilling the zeitgeists of contemporary culture with bleak levity. Despite his often dark themes ridden with paranoia and doom, humour lurks in the background.

The accompanying catalogue, to be published by Skira Arte in December 2026, will offer new perspectives on Einarsson’s practice by Dieter Roelstraete, Huey Copeland, Mathias Faldbakken, and a essay by
the exhibition curator Synnøve Marie Vik (Kode).

30 09 2026

 Complex time away. Catastrophic falling house made it to Private Eye - what is happening beggars belief - but still no sign of being allowed to live there. Only news is that the council are rendering a home that the insurance company has called 'without damage' into a building site that we must pay for. The insurers wont.

So, hotels and friends took the brunt of me.

Conference was a huge success, a sell-out, and a hot thang of ideas and info. Very proud to have been involved.

Came home to a rat infestation which Bob has niftily avoided by going to London!! 

Only show I saw was the amazing Anish Kapur and so glad I saw it, however disturbing and uncomfortable it was - and it was, indeed.

Here's a mysterious sign...

08 09 2026

 Off to assess the damage to the London house tomorrow - v frightening - thence to a birthday conference for my dads 100th., Manchester Uni.

I was asked to bring books to flog and of course can't, luggage being luggage - even if I could afford it I haven't the strength to carry it. And non of the conferees will be able to carry books in their return luggage. Allenna suggested a flyer - she's so clever - 

AI did it because I hadn't a clue, and it does the job. 

Conferees can go home and choose books at their leisure. 

And no trees are abused as its print on demand. 

Can't help thinking Stafford would be OK with that.

Been cleaning brushes and the like, ready to hit the ground running when I get back. 

(Watch this space, hahahahaha.)

06 09 2026

 Been restoring an old pic dated 1983. It was Ians, I gave it to him; he died under it. 

Then it started to grow mould.

Washed, scrubbed, sprayed with vinegar - oil paint is fantastic, lasts forever. Even when it homes monocellular fungi. 

Beastly hot (fires locally, three nights of fire fighting) Spent a chunk of today in the bath, reading.

05 09 2026

 The ink is rather good, slightly viscous and nicely transparent. Gave half to Bieke. 

Otherwise, Im dibbling at ongoing things, some of which have been ongoing for a very long time. 

Trying to keep travel panic under control. London house still sealed up, not allowed in- getting a sofa hopping agenda organised and worried that I'II fall apart. Or it might all be terrific fun :)

Took this snap of a geckko last night and this morning when I opened the balcony door, it fell on my head.