Quick cup of tea and check through emails that came through while i was sleeping. These are always from overseas or from the HK late nighters, like Florian who seems to get up at noon and go to bed at 5am. that used to be me but now I'm up at dawn and in bed before midnight.
The emails get my mind spinning even faster than it was when my eyes first opened, scanning through the never ending list of things to do. It roughly reads:
Neon signs, overdue commissioned work, chinese translations, mannequins, meetings with possible sponsors, connecting with arts organisations, Crass, board game, comic book, trailer, flipbook, crusade, pressure plate, logo use......and on and on...
This project is so big. When I've done a single exhibition it's taken maybe a year to prepare but this show is 21 exhibitions at all at once and every part needs a years worth of management and consideration. Everyday my mind flips from one part to another and back again.
So, today the first thing is re-checking the press release a few times, making sure not to have forgotten any contributors. Then I start re-ordering my files of images into separate banks in preparation for the book we'll have to produce of the show. Inspiration images, pre-production shots, etc.
I flick over to iMovie and carry on editing 2 of the films for the show. This is a slow and painstaking process. I do an hour or two every day at the moment.
All these activities lead me to write other emails. Direction for people working on the other films, meeting management, a lot of back and forth with curator Valerie about the forum series and with Dr Peckham about plans for our foundation. Thoughts on graphic design is another main concern, for the book, the poster, invite and website. I'm constantly sending emails to try and fine tune direction on this.
A few hours later and I head off to the studio. Today I have a couple of volunteers in. Elia and Sana. These are random people who offered their help for free. It's a really nice thing to have happened, that people have heard about the show and just want to get involved. These guys are young HK artists so it's really encouraging to see that drive and creative energy.
I get them started on tasks with Alvina, who is always in before me and always in a good mood, making more costume stuff.
Then I have to review early soundtrack examples from James Lavelle. With UNKLE he's just finished a new album and I have the pre-release version, it's awesome and there are elements that we will modify for parts of the show.
Then I head off to meet Stanley Wong, anothermountainman, who is one of HK's leading artists and all round amazingly talented guy. he produced the skull image for the show and we talk about solutions for the other graphic design elements necessary. The skull is awesome but it's a bit cliche. I've seen one too many skulls and it also doesn't completely articulate the show...or does it, i can't quite decide. Stanley also wants to get involved in the book and we throw ideas around for some time. My friends at Absolute Creative have also offered to handle the book, ideally I'd like to get them both on it. Will try and discuss with them Monday.
While I'm there I bump into one of the Louis Vuitton guys who reminds me about the dinner on coming Friday. It's the HK Cancer Fund ball. I'm a big supporter of theirs and Sally, who runs the charity, has invited me to sit with her at dinner. Louis Vuitton asked me to sit at their table too and somehow I got my wires crossed and I've said yes to them both. So I tell the LV guy, hey i'm sorry I messed up but I guess I'm obliged to sit with the head of the charity and he was like, 'yeh that's cool'....but I'm not sure if it was cool. I think he may have been a bit offended that I would chose to sit somewhere other than the LV table.
Anyway, I digress. So after being given a monumental amount of work to collect information for the book and other graphic design I leave the meeting with another long 'to do' list.
then I pick up my bro Errol. He's a very old and good friend. We actually used to work as bouncers together at a night club when i first came to HK. He's helping out today by modeling one of the larger alien costumes. he's the nicest guy you'll ever me. He brings his 10 year old son with him who already speaks fluent canto as well as english.
So we get Errol dressed up and film him as the sun goes down. He's very patient.
Filming takes an hour or two and then we're back to the studio to undress. Florian has turned up too so we have a quick discussion about the plan for the week ahead. Then another discussion about some further costume design.
Then, having not eaten all day, I zip over to dinner at a friends place and then back to the office where I get back on the mac for more editing and then I look up and it's midnight already.
And now it's 6.23 am and I'm writing this blog on a Monday morning. here we go again....
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