Hey guys,

I am going to use this space as my notebook for a while. So it won't be personal (nothing on what's happening in my life) or generally informative (top 5 things to do). It's just going to be related to what I am interested in and need to soak in, there's probably no other place I feel comfortable writing in, so I thought I'd just put it up here.

For anyone who is interested in contemporary art, performance, community, public art or art that uses food, actions, exchanges, music, gatherings and dances as art forms, this is where it's at. lol.

In the last few months

• I have been churning out work, see my website (freshly updated) here: www.samboleaptol.com
• I have been trying to understand my microversion of world through many (non) physical experiences. I have the tendency to 'theorise' a lot of things, I guess it's my university background (I studied media and communication at Erasmus University/Sydney University in a different life) which sort of influences the way I think and approach information. I have found it quite disturbing in the beginning of my Bfa, so I have liberating myself from it by really not engaging in any sort of formal pieces of information and going through life non-fiction text free. I experience and see life through everyday encounters and thoughts - though my work in the last crit has been commented as having a anthropological or phsychological experimental approach.
• I have been deliberately, as a result, abstained myself from 'spaces' where the emphasis is on these types of things, like museums, galleries, schools, libraries (unless necessary), watching documentaries, reading the news and have stopped reading shit on the internet and reading books altogether. Instead I have been going clubbing, out to concerts, supermarkets, getting my nails done, sitting on the bus, eating fried chicken in chickenshops, sitting in my room, watching silly youtube videos and scrolling through my instagram feed, having conversations with people.
• As I am developing my practice and sharpening how I experience and see the world I want to see/believe in/express I find myself more alienating from contemporary artists which until this post has not really been problematic, but I came across a video by Martin Creed who has been saying some inspirational stuff and I think I am at this point where I cannot just use 2pac, Michael Dapaah, Kendrick Lamar and Dave Chapelle as my main points of reference.
• It's impossible for me to use contemporary art without making a point about contemporary art. I have been literaly fighting the thought of a gallery space in my mind. I LOVE contemporary art, I love performance art, I love community art, I love this shit but I HATE white cube/hipster run down warehouse exhibition spaces. Hate them. Fucking hate them. I can't just hate shit so, I have arrived: I gotta do my research and educate myself, for the sake of finding a sense of community among fictionalised contemporary artists and their statements. For the sake of not drowning in my white cube pessism. I am not a hater usually, I am generally cheeky and happy.
• Text is cool, making lists is not, or trying to make an argument. But still, maybe it's cool now. For now. Yo.
• Oh yeah, so I also have some specific ways of doing the things that I do. So now I am just finding people that do the same.
• I'm probably just going to be updating this post.

Quotes

Acconci about how visual art being gazed upon is fucked up and lame
0:10-1:30

'There's a big problem with art, and the biggest problem with art is if you go into a space and you can't touch it, so that you really can't use it - it's saying that either the thing is more important then you are, or the institution that is housing, at least for the moment that thing, is stronger then you are. So you are there to gaze, you are there to view. And I think in order to really be with something you have to do more then viewing, you can view something in a magazine. It should be an interaction, and not a 'I am in front of this art and I am now letting the art sink into me', it sounds too much like religion to me. And I think art is asking to believe in the value of art. No - I think you should question everything. What I want is a space that you are in the middle of. Sound is more important to me then image, because image you just see what's in front of you. Sound if you close your eyes you might don't know where that sounds comes from. So, being in the middle of things is one thing that makes architecture.'

Creed on how words are overrated
7:22-9:13

Often... It’s difficult to talk, without, you know making statements, you know, or ending up making a statement, I think that you know and eh, almost like by definition of someone talking is, like as if there, it’s kind of like uh, it is sort of self-important (chuckles) or self pompous I think. I feel like it’s very difficult to talk without thinking, without you know because almost like if someone’s talking they obviously must want other people to hear what you are saying, you know, and so, I mean why would you talk if no one else is, so then you have to talk louder if you want people to hear, and then, ehm, now I don’t know what’s going on then, but ehm, I feel like it’s difficult, to, and also because words I think narrow things down and words are just never, you know, good enough, they don’t, they don’t, they ehm, don’t match, I don’t think they match up to the feelings I have at all, you know, so it’s like using words is a matter of, like it’s a sort of guessing game, a little bit I think, to try and find words to match up to your feelings. I think, often it seems to me like, em, well, I don’t know, I don’t know how it works, you know.

6:48
Acconci not giving a damn about consistency
'I don't care about consistency, I don't want to have a technique. I don't want somebody to say this is a Acconci project, I would love somebody to say "Gee I wonder who did that". I think if you do too many things the same you start to fall back on the same things. I would love people taking some hints from work I have done."

Creed about doing the same shit
"I like that .. but .. I don't really know what ideas are ... I try not to have one thing lead to another, although I think... that if you make something that youare happy with and that you like ... It's very tempting to take that as a given and work from it. But to me, that's dangerous. I think it's always better to try to start from nothing as if you haven't made anything before ... to just try to do something - to make something. You know. Whenever I've ... trusted something that I'd made and moved from that to make another thing I haven't been so happy."

text
Creed on whether he ever had a job

"When I was a teenager I had a paper round, you know, I only lasted about two days before I ended up throwing a stack of magazines in a hedge. I couldn’t get up. [Laughs] I just couldn’t get up to do it. I think I’ve always found it difficult to do things that I don’t believe in, you know. And I didn’t believe in that paper round. And then later as a student, I had a job working in a café, just a coffee place and I think I also lost that job because I couldn’t get up for it … you know. I used to have a problem waking up. So much so that when I was a student I had three alarm clock arranged around my bed. Everyone else in the shared house I lived in used to wake up from my three alarm clocks, but not me, I slept through them."

Creed on making dumb shit
'His' more interesting than the others on accont of the fact he's more stupid. And I mean that in the best possible way, because stupid is good to me. I want to make stupid work. I never really got into the other artists."

My thoughts on my own stuff (here I am talking to myself, yeah?)

• Don't make lists, ever
• If you don't feel like it, don't even try
• All of my ideas are fucking sick (I decided to go Kanye mode in 2k18). DONT LET ANYONE DOUBT YOU.
• BE FEARLESS
• Don't push it for the sake of anyone else, push it cos you feel it internally
• Everything will make sense afterwards
• When it is time to be corrected, it will be. Trust yourself that your own instincts are good enough critics on the moment the work is created.
• Don't let money scare you.
• Do it at your own pace. Get up at your own pace. Eat when you want to. Take a dump when you want to. Trust your own instincts. Stop punishing yourself. Stay up until 5am like now if you want to. Do whatever the fuck you want.
• Dream BIG, sooooo fucking BIG! Articulate the dreams. Every little step you take is toward dem dreams.
• Every little fantasy is worth chasing
• If you stay true to yourself (and you will) it doesn't matter if you are staring at the ceiling or looking on IG, it will take you closer to where you want to be. Trust the universe, the powers, the Gods
• Feel. Feel being grateful. Feel being humble. Feel being helped. Feel the support. Feel the power. Feel the inspiration. Feel the creativity. Feel spirituality. Feel love. Feel deep intense love. Feel hatred. Feel.

TBC!