THE TEMPORANEA JOURNAL - DAY II

Martin Johnson - The Great Game

Saturday7^th May 2011

Today was the first opening day, which was inaugurated with a downpour of rain after six weeks of constant, freak summer sunshine. As Murphy dictates, we were expecting that to happen, so we had to refrain from installing EMIT, Nest and Cascade, which was a real shame. The rain continued well into early afternoon, so after the morning staff meeting, the first thing we did was do a site check and set up Martin Johnson’s paintings in the Barn. 

As there was little else to do other than unload more stuff and wait for the rain to stop, we returned home to have some ‘brunch’ – we’d missed breakfast – and pick up the rest of the things we needed. Fortunately, by the time we got back to Kenilworth Castle the rain had gradually started to subside, which left us free to do other things. Instead of the empty rainy castle just a few hours before, we returned to a castle swarming with people and very ‘mischievous’ children.

We set up Luke’s video piece, Poveri Fiori, for the afternoon showing in the Education Room. I stayed to invigilate and Tim went off to add some finishing touches to Two Feet Deep and set up Nest, a diorama of a small town inhabited by ghostlike, white figures of extinct creatures, animals and warring soldiers, hidden away in the far corner of the Keep.

Meanwhile, a few people came in to see the video and discuss the works, and the response, I’m pleased to say, was really positive.

Before we knew it , it was almost five o’clock and the castle was closing for the night, but we still had work to do: Cascade needed to be installed by the King’s Gate and we needed to cover Snow Flower, by Concetta Modica, to protect it from the rain.

Concetta Modica - Snow Flower

Yet more loading and we set off to assemble the work. Well, we must have taken nearly two hours, because we left after seven, leaving it incomplete, but most of it is sitting there right now in the moonlight (and torrential rain), waiting for the finishing touches tomorrow morning.

Right now, it’s 11.38 pm and Tim is finishing the templates for EMIT, which will be unveiled for the private viewing tomorrow afternoon and I’ve got a speech to write...