30th June 2008. Residency day 26


Today really was to tie up loose ends. The cushions fit perfectly, the inside is looking smart. I cant believe it compared to the way it was last summer when we slept in it. Then there was bad fitting foam cushions to make up the bed, they used to stick to the old carpet tape on the wall and rip. Now, it is looking so homely.But, it also feels so kind of over cutesy. So olde English.

Went out bought the jam and cream and ingredients for scones.Fixed thatch bundles to the roof, painted the gables black, attached the window box. Sorted insurance, bought a hairnet and new baking trays.

We are going to make our cottage into a public space. We have decided to organise the tea party in a speed dating fashion, so with one minute changeovers, we can have 10 pairs visiting the cottage an hour, 5 minutes each inside with tea and scones. Thats 20 scones per hour.

28th June 2008. Residency day 25

Sunday went into Walsall with my Dad.
more work on the beams - don't know when they'll be finished.
Dad had a wander round the town and a welcome sit down on the leather couch in the studio.

had lunch at Wetherspoons which is an old cinema /theatre. you have to walk down into the old orhestra pit to get to the bar. Sat in a snug where we saw a photo of "Epstein and friend" and a barmy portrait of Epstein by Augustus John.

nipping back to the gallery in the rain I walked thro the bus station. A glazed circular flat-roofed building with holes cut out of the canopy. it looks 70s Sci-fi though it was probably built in 80s or 90's.

had some really good responses today for the cottage and enjoyed
the slower Sunday pace of the gallery. Didn't quite finish the beams
but have to really concentrate on the thatched roof tomorrow.

27th June 2008. Residency day 24





Did our 4th day this week,things are starting to come together.

It as about an hour and a half to two hours drive each way. We have been getting really tired of driving it because there have been so many road works. One town we drive through is Sedgley and its traffic is usually really snared up, so we have been thinking of routes to avoid it but cant find any. Last night, we found out that Alex's Grandma lived there as a child, around 1910. So today we saw it in a new light, maybe thats why we couldn't avoid it.

There were two significant happenings on todays journey:

1) i am sure i saw a ghost, at a junction, i looked over the road and saw a woman, wearing a sage coat, white hair, moving quite fast, then it appeared to change like a transition on a video and she dissappeared, i looked all around but there was nowhere she could have gone. I got the shudders and goosepimples. The Stourbridge Specter had spooked me.

2)We saw a burnt out tractor on the back of lorry, it was the image of rural decline. it conjured Images of a mad farmer setting it alight in pure desperation at the state of the industry, or of a couple of vigilantes or townies burning it down during a vandalism spree in the countryside.

Absolute inspiration. We wish we had turned around and tried to find out where it was going or had a decent camera to take a picture of it. We both said at the same time that we would love to put it in a gallery just as it was. But like our split village hall, it just isn't possible. The art world is so future planned that it is impossible to just rescue a large object and use it. Unless you have a big bit of space or are extremely well connected.

We got the cushions back from being fixed, plus we picked up the covers- put that together but we need to make adjustments after the tea party.

Fixed the interior walls, Mike, the technician, made us a window box.

Getting loads of ideas for works.

26th June 2008. Residency day 23

This our our 3rd day working on it this week, we are going to put in extra days until it is ready for the tea party. Produced a user manual for the cottage.

The cottage seems to be coming on really slowly, inside the walls are still not constructed, we still have to make a flower box, we still have beams to make and the roof to perfect. We have bought items for the cottages users.

This project has taken alot more work than i expected and we really wanted more time to think about our work- instead it has become mainly focused on production. I am really pleased that the caravan has been reconstructed in the open public space of the gallery foyer. It is really interesting to have actually brought this practice of caravan reconstruction into our work as yoke and zoom, previously it was very separate to our practice as artists.

As the residency has developed we have become less concerned with the fact that we are working in a very visible environment. Often the barriers are up- if we are using power tools or making a mess-

Sometimes, i find my self sat inside the cottage, working on something- like putting up the curtains, and someone looking in catches my eye- that is odd because i am not a performance artist and there is an awareness can you are working in a performative way.

It is like living in a very public environment in a protected space.

There is anticipation that something is being created that is emerging from the private to the public realm, as on the days of the tea party the cottage will itself become a public space.

24th June 2008. Residency day 22

I found 1 four leaf clover and 1 seven leaf clover today, the seven leaf clover was a real gem- it was formed into a perfect front facing four leaf clover with a 3 leaf clover on top in reverse- like two plants had fused.

3 working days until our first Walsall tea party. This residency has gone so fast and there are loads of things we dint get a chance to do.

23rd June 2008. Residency day 21

We worked on the beams, repainting the interior, damping the thatch, constructing the flower displays.

juneau projects were working in the foyer, putting up something in the window....

17th June 2008. Residency day 20

Went to see kerry to get a quote for making covers for the new bed cushions.

Had a meeting with Vicky and Helen who organize the residency, to work out the logistics of the two tea parties we will be holding in July.

Did a load of work on the beams.

16th June 2008. Residency day 19

This morning we brought our friend Sveta, he agreed to assist in putting up the corner beams and was also an official yoke and zoom mobile cottage photographer. Which we are glad of because he knows his cameras.

The cottage is beginning to look like something from a fairytale, like hansel and gretels cottage.

We have recently discovered an amount of rotten framework that we will have to replace. We still have alot to do and time is running out.

Tommorow we are having a meeting to plan the tea parties we will be having on the 1st and 5th July. We will make scones and serve tea. in the gallery square.

We have now added roes around the door and have selected a cariety of fake flowers for window boxes or a garden.



Images courtesy of Sveta Stamenkovic




Images courtesy of ourselves.

10th June 2008. Residency day 18

Found one four leaf clover today, but earlier in the day we got a 30.00 parking ticket.

The cottage is beginning to take shape.

9th June 2008. Residency day 17

Our eldest son came with us today as an assistant, there was no school. The day started off pretty bad, we overslept, and had to go and get a punctured tire fixed on our car.

When we tried attaching the beams we couldn't get a good bond, we thought that it would be straight forward and its a nightmare.

By the end of the day we had managed to find a way and have now attached over half of the exterior beams.

It was really good to work with our son, he is our harshest critic! He didn't like the thatch.

Images courtesy of Phoenix Coulson-Johnson.

5th June 2008. Residency day 16

We did an extra day this week, we are becoming increasing aware how fast time is passing on this residency. We are thinking of doing up to four a days a week on the project during this final phase.

We spent the day replacing the beams and trying the fit the exterior corner mock beams, which have to bed around the caravan.

We are just starting to feel at home and soon we have to leave. We found out today that we have received the funding for MOVEMENT our project space. So after this residency we will be plunged into renovations, dealing with the building contracts, and beginning MOVEMENT projects.

We were looking through our sketch books and found this old drawing of a freight container cottage, from 2004.

3rd June 2008. Residency day 15

Found 16 four leaf clovers today in the park near to the house of Yoke and Zoom.

Only one of us went in because our middle son was sick.

Worked on the roof and pulled out one of the panels inside the cottage to reveal a rotten beam.

Got sent a review on the project.

http://sites.a-n.co.uk/interface/reviews/single/436650

2nd June 2008. Residency day 14

We dind't go into Walsall last week because it was half term, and it rained all week.

Its good to be back in the cottage. On our way into Walsall this morning, we got stuck in at least 7 sets of roadworks. It took over 2 hours, so we were late.

We met KADN who we have been sharing the foyer with.



We thatched the roof today. Thanks to Dean the technician, who worked with us to fix the thatch mats to the lattice frame that he had made for the cottage. The thatch mats fit really well and only need to be cut down a bit at each end. We are weighing the thatch down for a week to hold its shape on the roof.


We painted the walls inside, they were covered in carpet before and we couldn't get all the carpet tape off them.

Thanks to Nat Pitt for these Tudor Roses.