A number of long-term projects have come to fruition recently.

I’ve been been involved with Gemma Anderson-Tempini’s Artangel installation And She Built a Crooked House, at Burton Grange in Leeds. Gemma and I have been bouncing ideas on-and-off for the best part of a decade so it’s a real privelege to witness her work coming to fruition. Scholars who come at higher-dimensional thought from a creative angle are few and far between, so being able to discuss the concepts with someone who understands them deeply and visually has been extremely generative. Gemma’s work proceeds from a theoretical mode of drawing which enables her to bring to life the most abstract geomtric objects and concepts, and this show combines reflections on motherhood and the domestic history of the fourth dimension with her astonishing erudition and beautiful art-making. I say without any hesitation that anyone who visits will be blown away.

I’ve contributed an essay to the brochure available on site and online, am a co-contributor to an Offal audio-piece on the ground floor, and participated in a film and a Q&A event that took place during the opening weekend.

I’m delighted to report that Gemma’s work – which manages a rare feat of being intellectually rigorous, aesthetically beautiful, curiosity-inspiring and warmly engaging – has already won admirers in the local and national media.

It’s been a source of huge pride to be involved also with Artangel, who I first became aware of as an MA student writing on Jeremy Deller back in 2007 (Artangel produced his seminal piece The Battle of Orgreave). Since then I’ve visited numerous Artangel installations, and indeed make a regular pligrimage to Roger Hiorns’s Seizure, which is now permanently homed at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park where it acts like a form of teleporter to Southwark in 2008. Artangel’s site-specific approach to making and showing art is fascinating, engaging and rich, and I’m still pinching myself that I’ve contributed to one of those experiences as a writer, researcher and even as a maker.

Meanwhile, the Selected Nonfiction of J.G. Ballard is in bookshops and various events have taken or are taking place in promotion of that:

• An event at Burley Fisher Books at which I discussed the non-fiction with Gareth Evans, who programmed the first ever film retrospective devoted to Ballard, and who was absolutely brilliant – if you ever need an interlocutor, I can recommend Gareth’s skills and relaxed charm
• An episode of Open Book on BBC R4 which is now on iplayer, on which Toby Litt and I were interviewed by the superbly welcoming and generous host Chris Power
• An episode of Free Thinking on BBC R3 on Crash – 50-years-young this year – which will air live on Thursday night at 10pm

I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed talking about a book as much, which makes me realise how much more comfortable I am talking about the work of others than my own. It’s intense, but rewarding, commentating from the sidecar while Ballard takes the bends.

And then there have been bits and piece of journalism, both in support of the book and more broadly. I’ve re-eastablished a freelance practice over the past couple of years and have a long-form investigation and some shorter commentary pieces coming down the line, and hopefully also some dafter and more idiosyncratic bits. Updates to follow.