#033: Musical feels in your own space and time (Let music rouse, stir and move you!)

Sit, just sit, maybe with your head on your knee, and put on a song, maybe THE song, or a piece of music, maybe THE piece of music, that makes you feel the most, tingle the most.  Close your eyes and listen as it stirs you inside, sets your hairs on end, gives you chills, brings tears to your eyes, a smile to your lips... let it rouse, stir and move you!  Lift yourself away for a few minutes, live outside the world and yourself.  Just your mind and your music.  

#032: Silence where no sound is made (Does Silence Exist? IV)

A blank piece of wall in an art gallery.

(Or, equally, a blank page in a book or an empty museum case, etc...).

#031: Self-portrait VI: Doorways

The doorways of your life positioned around an exhibition with short explanations as to their importance.  

They could be your bedroom door(s) growing up, dorm or hotel or caravan doors from holidays, doors to particular rooms at school, cabin doors, car doors, front doors, back doors, side doors, garage doors, shed doors, attic doors, hatches, trap doors...  

Anything of significance to you.

#030: Lightbulbs

A gallery with blank walls.  Around the room are many bean bags and other comfortable chairs.  In the middle of the room is a long table full of pots with pens in and sticky notes in boxes.  Several copies of the following instructions are fixed to the table:

“Sit down and have a think.  Imagine.  Invent.  Have an idea.

Write the idea down on as many sticky notes as you need and then stick those on the walls.

If you need some inspiration, before or after, read what people have written before.

Go home.  

Keep thinking.  Keep imagining.  Keep inventing.  Keep having ideas.

“He [John Lennon] once said that it’s an artist’s job to imagine … because that’s where new ideas come from.””

Further signs on the table ask for the return of the pens and there are separate bins underneath for old pens and discarded sticky notes.

#029: Self-portrait IV

An old diary, calendar or other record of what you did for a period of time.

#028: $ix Dollar Bills

Six United States one dollar bills displayed so that both sides of each can be seen.  They all have a four-letter word written in large capital letters on either side with a short sentence (or part of one) written in smaller letters underneath.

Bill #1 Obverse: LOVE 

                                        I love what you can do for me, the doors you can open.

                Reverse:         HATE 

                                        I hate how you shut me out, the walls that you build.

Bill #2 Obverse: TALK 

                                        You talk to me, promise me the stars.

                Reverse:         LIAR 

                                        You lie to me, every offer is fake.

Bill #3 Obverse: RISE 

                                        Each rise you offer, the most amazing views,

                Reverse:         FALL 

                                        Each fall ends badly, crushed by hidden traps.

Bill #4 Obverse: CHIC 

                                        Yet you are so chic, an accessory that talks big.

                Reverse:         JUNK 

                                        No matter the junk, the shit empire I’ve built.

Bill #5 Obverse: RICH 

                                        Tissue of the rich, liner of the nest,

                Reverse:         POOR 

                                        Cruel bane of the poor, a necessity too rare.

Bill #6 Obverse: FREE 

                                        And so, will you set me free, open roads to me?

                Reverse:         SERF 

                                        Or will you enslave me, shut off every forking path?

#027: Self-portrait III / Joint self-portrait III

Make lists of your favourite things: books, songs, albums, films, food, places, artworks...

Later on you could combine with others, finding similarities and differences to form joint self-portraits.  Venn diagrams, perhaps, showing where you meet, overlap and lie together.  And where you are poles apart.  Or opposites, in a way, circles completely separate but still interacting.

#026: If I was brave enough: An imaginary entry for The Jonathan Cape/Observer/Comica graphic short story prize 2020

Four pieces of A3 paper each containing an area marked out to a ratio of 150mm wide x 260mm high.

Page 1:

The title, “If I was brave enough..” written in block letters in a banner across the top of the page with full credits.

A box stretching across the page under the title banner reads: If was brave enough, I would have: 

The majority of the page is divided into two rows of four boxes, with the following contents:

Row 1, Box 1: Caption: Written the Dark Warrior novels… Picture: The Dark Warrior;

Row 1, Box 2: Caption: ...gone for the job... Picture: narrator at a laptop writing a CV;

Row 1, Box 3: Caption: ...to the interview... Picture: narrator at a panel interview;

Row 1, Box 4: Caption: ...gone somewhere abroad alone... Picture: narrator at the Eiffel Tower;

Row 2, Box 1: Caption: ...not stayed outside for fear of not being wanted... Picture: narrator as a child standing outside a room within which we can see children playing;

Row 2, Box 2: Caption: ...asked for help... Picture: narrator as a child raising their hand in class;

Row 2, Box 3: Caption: ...at least attempted to draw this or find an artist… Picture: split box of narrator drawing a comic / on phone speaking to artist friend;

Row 2, Box 4: Caption: ...or entered the unknown cave. Picture: narrator walking towards dark cave entrance.

A box stretching across the bottom of the page reads: And so many other things..

Page 2:

A box stretching across the top of the page reads: …the classic of asking someone out seems to be missing, right?  Well, many years ago I used to write “poems” I referred to as ramblings.  One, called The Battle, probably sums this all up quite well.

The majority of the page is given over to The Battle.  This middle section features, on either side, the narrator’s face in profile (with the one on the right being a negative impression of the one on the left).  Between them are speech bubbles containing each line of the poem (see below).  The text for the negative narrator, on the right, is in italics, the text for the narrator is regular.

Narrator: I’ll ask her out tomorrow.

Negative narrator: No you fucking won’t.

Narrator: I will.  I’m strong enough.

Negative narrator: You aren’t.  You spineless freak.

Narrator: I am.. I will, she’ll say yes too.

Negative narrator: No she won’t, why would she?

Narrator: ‘Cause she likes me… I’ve heard.

Negative narrator: You don’t even know.

Narrator: I do.. the looks she gives me..

Negative narrator: As if to say- I’ve never seen such an ugly freak.

Narrator: No it’s something else.. in her eyes.

Negative narrator: No, it’s repulsion, horror- remember, I see it too.

Narrator: Is it?

Negative narrator: Yes.  She hates you.  All women do.

It’s not as if you’re good looking or anything.

Narrator: True, I best not bother, then.

Negative narrator: Exactly, save yourself the pain.

Narrator: Yeah, you’re right.

Negative narrator: I know.

Underneath is written the date, “28/12/1999”.

A box stretching across the bottom of the page reads: That was 21 years ago, more than half my life.  Little has changed.  I can talk myself out of anything.  I will always avoid the unknown cave.

Page 3:

A box stretching across top of the page reads: It is the same for everything, my two sides face off.  Positive vs Negative.  

Underneath is a row of 6 boxes with the following contents:

Box 1: Caption: I see a good job and I think about it, Picture: Narrator looking at job ads in paper with thought bubble reading, “Looks great for me!”

Box 2: Caption: until I convince myself it’s not possible. Picture: Narrator with whirly/confused eyes with thought bubble reading, “No,”

Box 3: Caption: Then, either don’t apply, Picture: Same picture as Box 2 but with thought bubble reading, “it’s not for me.”

Box 4: Caption: cancel the interview or Picture: Narrator typing an email thinking, “I just don’t think I am ready…”

Box 5: Caption: enter it in such a tither I don’t stand a chance. Picture: Narrator at panel interview (like on Page 1) with a dark cloud above head.

Box 6: Caption: Even if just one questions unseats me. Picture: Similar picture to Box 5 with sweat rolling down narrator’s face and a question mark over his head.

Box 7: Caption: One lousy point.  Picture: Narrator in an interview feedback meeting crying on the outside, angry, almost fit to burst, on the inside.

Box 8: Caption: On and on, until I give up. Picture: Narrator sitting at a desk working, with the negative narrator standing behind him.  Each wears an identical contraption on their head with a wire connecting them - power is transferring from the negative narrator to the narrator.  The narrator himself is starting to become negative.

Box across middle: I need to break free again.  I did once before.

Box 1: Caption: Once, I fell for a colleague. Picture: Narrator with colleague at a toy shop counter, love hearts in his eyes.

Box 2: Caption: I asked her out twice.  By post. Picture: Narrator posting a letter with a love heart on it.

Box 3: Caption: Years later, we met up a few times for drinks. Picture: Narrator drinking in a pub with the colleague (no love hearts).

Box 4: Caption: On a night out, in a club, she asked me out (properly).  Picture: The colleague looking toward the narrator (in Box 5) saying, “That way you felt about me?  I feel that way about you now.”

Box 5: Caption: I told her I didn’t. Picture: Narrator looking towards the colleague in Box 4 saying, “Sorry, I don’t feel that way anymore.”

Box 6: Caption: Before that moment, my mind had been in a cage. Picture: A brain in a cage.

Box 7 and 8: Suddenly I was free.  Picture: An empty cage with the brain flying free.

A box stretching across the bottom of the page reads: For years I’d (inwardly) moaned about being single.  Now, it was my choice.  It took time for me to start doing something but, after accidentally stumbling into a relationship, a true thirst began, changing my outlook entirely, so that, when it failed, I found myself actively trying to start again. 

Page 4:

One large picture of the narrator holding a flaming torch aloft and striding towards the dark entrance of a cave.

Text in little boxes in the following order spiral around the edge, moving around toward the cave entrance:

I just need a torch - A flicker of hope - Warm, like holding a hand - It could just be some inner hope, ignited by a kind word - It could be help and support - but - with that torch in hand - it becomes possible... - a way to see - to explore - to try - the unknown cave. 

A box stretching across the bottom of the page reads: I have never been able to raise my hand.  That needs to stop. “Maybe it’s time for a change,” Neil sings to me.  Let’s see, Neil, let’s see.

#025: Beauty (All at once)

The most beautiful person against the most beautiful landscape in the greatest artistic style.

#024: Self-portrait II / Joint self-portrait II

Your space.  Your garden, your room, your desk at work, a drawer, a cupboard, a shed - any space that is yours.

"You" could be yourself only, a couple, or a group.  

#023: Does Silence Exist? III

A white canvas on which is written in simple black lettering, “TACET”

#022: Does Silence Exist? II

A blank canvas.

#021: Does Silence Exist? I (A question that has already been answered)

A C90 tape continuously plays a number of field recordings.  Each is 2 minutes 20 seconds long and are ordered without spaces between.  The tracks (all apart from the last of which are repeated on each side) are: under a tree with birds singing, in a park with crickets, on a windy hilltop, at a beauty spot with distant traffic noise, in a garden while a plane flies over, in a room with air conditioning, in a room with a clock ticking, in a front room while it is raining, walking along a street, in a library, in an art gallery, sat still breathing, tinnitus, heartbeat in chest, nervous system, blood circulation, space “screaming”; Side A ends with a performance by The BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Lawrence Foster, of John Cage’s 4’33” recorded live at the Barbican on January 16th 2004, Side B with a realisation of 4’33” made for the Radio 3 podcast Hear and Now by Robert Worby and Felix Carey, 2’ 52”.  The remainder of each side is blank tape. 

#020: Are you there?

Imagine how you see all, or any, higher being(s) or power(s).

You have now created your own imaginary religious art.

#019: Diptych: Then and Now

Your first painting alongside what you would paint today.

A piece of string connects the two.

#018: The Creativity of the Mind

A white canvas that features two lines of simple black lettering.  

The first line larger than the second, they read:

“A pen.

This is not a picture.  But do you see one?”

#017: Colour your emotions (Inside Out)

Take a notepad or an exercise book.  Assign colours to your emotions and create a diary by filling each page with how you felt that day.  Perhaps a coloured shape for each incident through the day or a slowly changing line to scale for time.  You could create a succession of coloured circles along the lines of the paper or in swirls or other patterns across a blank sheet.  You could use graph paper and fill the squares as you feel appropriate (perhaps more or less squares depending on the intensity of the emotion).  It is up to you, it is not for me to say how you represent yourself or feel.

Then look back on good days, bad days and in between days and see only colour.  

#016: Joy coursing

The empty wrapper of your favourite snack.

Feel the joy coursing.

For, unlike with Magritte, you got to taste it.

Even just in your imagination it feels good.

#015: Neutral state, or In the Beginning, or Infinite potential, or Fill it with your mind

A blank canvas.

#014: Multiple copies: A joint self-portrait, or We are made from the same building blocks in different concentrations, or sizes

A room whose floor is covered with hundreds of evenly spaced copies of the same product in different states of use.  The same in the next room with another product.  And so on and so on throughout the gallery.  

#013: Vibrant escapism

In the carnival of your mind the sun shines brightly, every footstep treads lightly.  

Remember this as you close your eyes and think of the most colourful place you have been.  

A garden, perhaps, with a thousand flowers.  A multitude of painted festival faces and vivid costumes.  The warmth of the yellow seaside sun, the cool of the clear blue sea, the kiss of the soft sand on your bare feet.  

Let the vibrant escapism fill you and warm you as would the embrace of the person you would most like to be in the arms of right now.  Let it fill you up until you can feel those arms as if they were real; feel the sun, sea or sand as if it were right there, hear the sounds of the procession as if it filled the air or smell the fragrance of flowers as if under your nose.  

And stay there.  

Remain.  

Until you are ready to return, knowing and accepting that it was not real, no matter how real you were able to make it feel.  

#012: Potential energy (finite)

A pen in a glass case.

Full of infinite potential.

But only so much.  

(And none while here).

#011: High Tea (Formal to the end)

Oil on canvas.  

A couple take high tea at the top of a high cliff being crashed into and eaten away by enormous waves.

#010: "Cut Off", or The Modern Hermit's Dream

A plugged in, fully charged, phone that never makes a sound.

#009: Pass it on

Draw a two metre line on the ground. 

Stand at one end and position someone who was not there, or does not remember, at the other.  

Recount your memories of the pandemic.  

#008: Artist's Shit

A box reputed to contain all of an artist's greatest fears.

It is padlocked shut and bears a sign reading, "Do Not Open."

#007: Self-portrait

A mirror.

On it is written in clear, but unobtrusive, letters:

“Look between the lines, see beyond the words.  

“Look and see yourself at this exact point in time.

“Look into your eyes, look around them.  Take in your face, your mouth, your nose, your cheeks, your hair.

“This is the you you have made.


“Look beyond your skin to the experiences within.  

“Every moment you have lived has led to this person looking into this mirror.

“Think of all the people you have been, who have stood here before.  Think back to all the events and people who have brought you to now, that have made you this person.


“Look beyond yourself now and away from yourself before.

“Where would you like to go?  Think ahead and about what you might need to do to shape your ideal portrait of the future.


“Repeat, frequently or infrequently.  Reflect and return.

“Here, or at home.”

#006: Telling it like it is, or Setting the record straight

A picture of a white shape with a black outline made up of four equal sides and four right angles.  A caption reads, "Rectangle."

Open up the door and see a truth totally or largely kept from the world - it could be personal or an aspect of history or literature, or any subject, buried by those to whom it is uncomfortable.  

Continue every day until the new world is born.

#005: For prosperity

Sell whatever you have for the highest price that you can.

#004: For posterity

Record everything you want remembered that would otherwise be forgotten.

#003: The long slide to death in old age as viewed by a reasonably young person (38)

A rotting apple.

#002: Deep Cuts

A series of images showing the interior of a library.  At first it is full of people and the shelves are full, not just with books, but every sort of resource available through the library as well as every service offered by the local council.  Soon, though, the resources and services begin to disappear.  As they start to do so, people begin to replace them with urns containing their incinerated lost futures.  Eventually only urns are left on the shelves, the library is deserted and the building begins to collapse.

#001: Artist's Intentions

A notebook in a glass case containing explanations for every work by an artist.  

On the cover is written: 9.6.7 18.8.14.20 14.15.4.13.10 9.23.24.8.14, 21.9.6.15.21 15.8 6.25.20.3.23 7.2.10.13.6.5.