Posted by Each project in the ‘Regular Marvels’ series is a collaboration between me and an artist whose work I value. Although the conception, planning and delivery of the work are mine, the involvement of an artist working in a different discipline or form is an essential part of the process.
I’m a writer and my text is intended to function as literature, albeit not a very elevated kind. But whatever its qualities, it can only communicate a partial understanding of the experiences and people I’m writing about. So the perspective of another artist, like filmmaker Ben Wigley in Where We Dream, or painter Mik Godley in Winter Fires, offers another perspective on the subject of the book. The result, while naturally still partial, is richer than either of our interpretations alone. Perhaps it even creates a third kind of understanding.
‘Regular Marvels’ is an exploratory work, committed, among other things, to de-mystifying the processes of artistic research and creation. This blog is a key means of achieving that: the open, sometimes even contradictory nature of its posts enacts a commitment to thinking in public.
This conversation is a further step in that direction. A few weeks ago, Mik and I met in his Nottingham studio to talk through the experience of working together on the portraits for Winter Fires. We’d wanted to leave a bit of time after the publication, at the end of November 2012, to allow the experience to settle. This video gives a flavour of that conversation.
We spoke for about three quarters of an hour, and there is a transcript of the full conversation here, for anyone whose curiosity is whetted but not satisfied by the video. This text has been edited to make it easier to read, and checked by both of us.
Download: Winter Fires, A Conversation (470kb)
Regular Marvels 
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