4 October 1999

Back home safely

>Hi Ju,

Hi Rita :-)

>Welcome home, hope you had a reasonable journey.

Thanks - yes, it was fairly tiring, to say the least of it (seven and a half hours from the hotel to get home) but very smooth. As with the outward journey, it was actually easier travelling on my own when the airline is forced to take responsibility for helping you than with a companion where you just get left to get on with it. I also very much enjoyed the latest innovation on Finnair (I was on British Airways going out), which is a screen over each seat displaying an undercarriage camera's view of the flight. I have to say, though, that this did not seem to be widely appreciated, and in fact seemed to increase any fear of flying amongst passengers by a factor of ten!

I have had great fun being in a place with lots of technology - I couldn't believe that there seemed to be even more mobile phones than in London, it was like some kind of continual background chorus. I wonder if the birds learn to mimic it! I did however find some of the technology within the Kiasma design rather confusing - walking into apparent dead ends where the wall then opened automatically just before you decided to turn round again, and wondering desperately how to turn on the tap in the loos before eventually realising that it was sensor-operated. But I felt that this rather served me right, given my ongoing love affair with technology!

>l assume you need a few days to land again.

Well, for the rest of my head to catch up, anyway. After I signed off to you yesterday I spent my last hour or so in Helsinki going round the Kiasma once more, and found - as indeed I have before! - that art can really be best appreciated when you're absolutely, totally and 150% f**ked. So I really got off on what was also my final performance there (I hope to send you the newspaper pic, but have to get permission first). Having said that, though, it's great to be at home, although I can't believe how cold it is compared to Helsinki! As soon as I have sent this and got the site up to date I am off in a taxi to spend some of my Kiasma fee on a fan heater for the studio - I spent the whole of last winter absolutely freezing, and it's so nice to be in a position where I can afford one. I just hope there hasn't been a weekend rush and there is one left to buy!

>It's yet another Monday morning, and l am now taking life on a slower pace today after a weekend of very hard work. It's great to see how things have turned out, the structure is so heavy that I am not quite sure how we move it all. Things need finishing off and drying out before we can paint it with silicone to protect it a little. Enclosed are a few pics.

I am *so* excited to see the photos from yesterday and today, I just can't tell you. I am also wondering whether we should think more about the finish etc. I was very struck by one of Sirkka-Liisa's images from her exhibition, where she'd used a plaster body cast and just written "touch me" on it. This had real resonance for me - not just my fear of being touched unless I trust someone not to hurt me, and thus the way in which I project "touch me not" very strongly, but also my experiences of people not wanting to touch me because of my impairment. I guess last week has also made me very focussed on transformation and adornment of medical materials. Anyway, tomorrow . . .

>When we're finished it'll be hell of a dickens to move it, all hands to the deck eh!

I will be with you in spirit! (And would have bought you some spirit from Helsinki, but of course like everything couldn't carry it. But never mind, I will find some in Yorkshire for us to share when I come up.)

Once again, very excited to see it all coming together!

Love from a very tired

ju90

Webmaster/site slave and Multimedia Storyteller
Created by Nature Modified by Life

ju90@netmatters.co.uk
http://users.netmatters.co.uk/ju90/ju90.htm