This year really pushed my critical engagement, I resisted at first. I found it tough to move the practice out of my comfort zone, not the practices comfort zone as I have control over it until it is released. Starting the projections inside my place of work maintained the security, I really didn't see the works potential until I projected the videos on to the supermarket, it didn't matter too much about the engagement of the audience, but mainly that there was one. It presence became routine, it was there when they entered the building and still playing when they left, I would like to explore this further with much longer viewings, perhaps over days to see how this varies the engagement. I'm interested in the philosophy of the Event, how can a staging of and Event change the events experienced by others, the constancy is the time and location, the collision is within the events of their own lives.
This year changed the notion of 'chaos' to 'collision' and brought with it the theory of the event in philosophical writing. Inherent in the event is the notion of time and space, these things were so glaring obvious in my practice, I had already referenced them but in a subtler way. Clarifying this context was an epiphany moment. I am so grateful to the tutors on the course for guiding me and allowing this to be unearthed!
Writing is a sticking point for me, I really enjoy story telling, I like the way words play to the point that it has made its way in to my practice. However writing the contextual study was hard work, I was nervous about relating my work to that of others, which I do believe is a confidence issue more than a writing one. I need to work harder next year on maintaining a consistent writing practice. Allowing the work to be compared and discussed in the same space as other artists looking at similar themes or working in a similar way gave the work strength and validation, this was unexpected as I had been taught in the design space to strived of originality, but finding these contemporaries also open the doors for growth and possible collaboration.
I ended up really enjoying the Testing Boundaries task, although I do wonder if I would have felt the same if I had not had the opportunity to project the work at the music festival. I felt such a high from the work being so large and consuming, and the feed back was great. I don't know if it would receive that same feedback from a critical art audience though. Showing my work in public was empowering as an artist and led to self-evaluation and further development of the work. I am taking away from the project that perhaps some works are better shown in their current state and evaluated after rather than striving for perfection and never getting them out there.
A visual of the course. Missing are some photo-books I created and didn't have time to photograph and a video that is under construction.
My submission for MA 2 is defined by three sections.
Sparse Collisions:
three book forms and a collision diptych
Exploring the notions of constancy, materiality and collision.
Dense Collisions:
a book form, two diptychs, four videos (two have an accompanying drawing)
Tactility, space, repetition and fracturing
Language Collisions:
A book of poetry in digital format, two videos.
Violence and texture of language, repetition, pause, motion.
The poetry book:
I feel that although separating seems counterintuitive for cohesion, these varied paths make a lot more sense over the whole practice. It defines and clarifies the intentions behind, the search for weight, for space, and for interpretation.
I felt that a cohesion appear when I completed a rewrite of my artist statement for the year. I complete a minimum of one revisit a year although it has been more the past few year due to submissions to programs and exhibitions. I really enjoy this process as it helps clarify the practice in my own mind, identifies the key elements and points of passion.
Statement 2019
My practice explores the ways in which every-day rhythmic collisions provide opportunity. The overall aim of the practice is to explore the boundaries between awkwardness, manageability, quietness and the containment of collisions. Fixated on reoccurring compositions within my work, I studied commercial textile techniques; creating work using techniques that had replication inherent in their processes such a weaving, printmaking and embroidery, embedding my practice in materiality and tactility.
Working through these repetitive processes that produce singular outcomes, I was intrigued by the monotony that leads to a conclusion. Reflecting on how humans transmute routine to accommodate changes of circumstance, and how the minute collisions provoke disparate reactions and actions in people, I aimed to capture the gradual decline of routine through the repetitive cycles of discipline and disruption.
My current research augments this conundrum involving tactility, consumption and time. I’m currently working between handheld artworks that challenge the audience’s security in viewing, and a larger, more immersive practice utilising projection. Interestingly I am most inspired by the concepts behind the work of installation artists James Turrell (Deer Shelter Skyspace, 2006), Miroslaw Balka (How It Is, 2009) and Olafur Eliasson (The Weather Project, 2003). Their works promote a state of meditative contemplation in a communal viewing space and are best observed over a length of time due to the artists use space and light. They raise questions about public space; creating collectivity while maintaining individuality. They coerce the viewer into relinquishing time, breaking routine and halting motion while consuming the work.
Sent with submission
In the Karin Mamma Andersson video from Articulations and Intersection she discusses that the artist is innate in the work, that there is always an element of subjectivity. I agree with this, I am entwined with my work, I have a need to create it and it comes from a passion. What the drives the work forward is the community of knowledge that I access to discover more, the thoughts of those before me and those along side me. The work does take a life of its own, my job it to allow its voice to be heard and not over shadowed by my hand. I feel I have come some way to embracing that this year, to allow hints of myself into the work while still allowing it to stand alone.
Badiou, A. (1988) The Event in Deleuze. Translated by Roffee, J. from the original French "L'événement selon Deleuze" in Badiou, A. Logiques des mondes; Paris: Seuil, 2006. Parrhesia: A Journal of critical philosophy [online] Available at: https://www.lacan.com/baddel.htm (Accessed: 14.02.19)
Baker, C. (2010) Tracing the Physical. Studies in Material Thinking, Vol. 4 (September 2010), ISSN 1177-6234, AUT University. [online] Available at: http://www.materialthinking.org/papers/15 (Accessed: 14.02.19)
Deleuze,G. in conversation with Parnet, C. (2002) Dialogues II, London & New York: Continuum. p.124. Moulard-Leonard, V. (2008) Bergson-Deleuze Encounters, New York: SUNY Press. p.8. In Foa, Maryclare and Grisewood, Jane and Hosea, Birgitta and McCall, Carali (2009) Drawn Together: Collaborative Performance. Tracey: Drawing and Visualisation Research Journal. ISSN 1742-3570. [online] Available at: http://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/6187/1/drawn-together.pdf (Accessed: 14.02.19)
Dewey, J. (1934) Art as experience. New York, Minton, Balch & Company, Ebook format.
Foa, Maryclare and Grisewood, Jane and Hosea, Birgitta and McCall, Carali (2009) Drawn Together: Collaborative Performance. Tracey: Drawing and Visualisation Research Journal. ISSN 1742-3570. [online] Available at: http://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/6187/1/drawn-together.pdf (Accessed: 14.02.19)
Serra, R. 1977 in Borden, L. 1994 in Hoptman, L. (2002) Drawing Now: Eight Propositions. The Museum of Modern Art, ISBN 0870703625, 9780870703621
Ballah, Kay. (2014) Preparing My Daughter For Rain. ISBN:1500233439. Self Published.
Carson, A. (2016) Float. London: Jonathan Cape.
Danchev, A. (2011) 100 Artists’ Manifestos From the Futurists to the Stuckists. London: Penguin Classics Random House.
Frost, R. (2013) The Collected Poems of Robert Frost. London: Vintage Books.
Gregson, T.K. (2014) Chasers of the Light, poems from the typewriter series. London: Penguin Randon House.
Hemmings, J. (ed.) (2012) The Textile Reader. London: Berg.
Kaur, R. (2015) Milk and Honey. Missouri: Andrew McMeel Publishing.
Magi, J. (2015) Book of excavated notes book text. Self Published for exhibition September 2015.
Midgley, M. (2001) Science and Poetry. Oxfordshire: Routledge.
Phaidon Editors. (2013) Vitamin D2, New Perspectives in Drawing. London: Phadion Press Ltd.
Online Resources:
BMW Tate Live: Performance Room series, Tate Modern, (28 February 2013) Joan Jonas, Draw Without Looking, https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/performance-at-tate/resources/films-and-videos/joan-jonas
Brieber, David et al. (2014) Art in time and space: context modulates the relation between art experience and viewing time.”PloS one vol. 9,6 e99019. 3 Jun. 2014, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0099019 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4043844/
Debord, G. (1967) Society of the Spectacle. London: Rebel Press.
Dorfman, E. (2014) Foundations of the Everday, Shock, Deferral, Repetition. London: Rowman & Littlefield International.
Eraut, M. (2004) Informal Learning in the Workplace.
Etzi, R. & Gallace, A. (2016) ‘The arousing power of everyday materials: an analysis of the physiological and behavioural responses to visually and tactually presented textures’ In: Experimental Brain Research, 06/2016, Volume 234, Issue 6 [online] At: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00221-016-4574-z (Accessed on 17.04.18)
Foley, M. (2012) Embracing the Ordinary: Lessons From the Champions of Everyday Life. London: Simon & Schuster.
Heartney, E. (2008). Art and Today. London: Phaidon Press.
Highmore, B. (2002) "Crashed-Out: Laundry Vans, Photographs and a Question of Consciousness." In Crash Cultures: modernity, mediation and the material, edited by Jane Arthurs and Iain Grant, 53-62. Bristol: Intellect Books, 2002.
Highmore, B. (2002) The Everyday Life Reader. London: Routledge.
Lefebvre, H. (2014) Critique of Everyday Life: The One Volume Edition. London: Verso.
Lefebvre, H. (2004) Rhythmananlysis, Space, Time and Everyday Life. London: Bloomsbury.
McNiff, S. (2008) Art-based Research in Knowles and Cole (2008) Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research, SAGE.
O’Dougherty, B. (2007) Studio and Cube, New York: The Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture.
Relyea, L. (2013). Your Everyday Art World. London: The MIT Press.
Stiles, K. and Selz, P. (1996, republished April 2011) Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artists Writings. London, University of California Press.
Sullivan, G. (2010) Art Practice as Research: Inquiry in the Visual Arts. London and Thousand Oaks, CA, SAGE.
Ward, O. (2014). Ways of Looking: How to Experience Contemporary Art. London: Laurence King.
Since the last tutorial with Catherine Baker I felt pretty motivated to create work. The making day was the next day so I managed to get quite a bit done. From then on I created relatively consistently although I hadn’t realised that until preparing for this tutorial (see previous post).
Prior to the tutorial I sent an email stating I was overwhelmed and unsure of expectations, whether I have ‘achieved enough this year and how to get the submission completed on time.
I have managed to work on more of the Leporellos. Simplified books by keeping content to one simple line that goes on a journey through the book. Highlighted the occurrence of time in my work, the line is the constancy of the work, that materials and actions create the collisions or ‘events’ as highlighted in the contextual study.
Working on discussing the videos, their reception and the thoughts of the work. Video work takes time but feels necessary.
Collision and Event - this feels better in the work but might be getting lost in the drawings.
Drawing out the different veins of the work, knowing it is okay to be exploring different things simultaneously.
The issue is that I am paralysed by fear of failure, worried blog/journal posts will be wrong so avoiding them concerned about diarising the actions and question what is happening - confused as I didn’t think I was but it keeps coming up. Trying to speak about how the piece feels and what is coming from it. Generally feeling lost and struggling with time-management, the desire to create complex/labour intensive work and the frustration of not creating ‘enough’. Working on simplifying but maintaining my truth.
Kimberley highlighted things for consideration as I work to complete my submission:
A lot of the work seems to be about language and translation - poetry is evocative, difficult to read, fluid to drawing and unfolding. How do I value the poetry in the context of the work? Its role is an ‘Unsticking’ -when I am ceased with drawing or line and don’t know what to do the words come in an ‘Unravelling.’
How do I position it? And what's its relevance to the practice? - relevance - nature of books, drawing -
The video work ‘layers’ contains punctuation points, like accusations, it's like a ‘take that’ to the viewer, its arresting, important aspect - what are they important? Confronting.
BLOG POSTS - fear of failure is creating procrastination
Focus on:
What have I learnt through making, partaking listening?
Clarify the essence of the year, - JUST MY TRUTH - how to articulate what the work means for me, my intentions and evaluations/reflections.
Reflect on the tutorial with Catherine, how this was a turning point
The festival was a turning point
Action and performance, physicality
If I need to be safer- use the criteria and clarify, tab on work to link to a blog post, or add an index to highlight what links to what, don’t assume they will know, SPELL IT OUT!
Link to boundaries
Overview in posts - this is how I understand my process - map against criteria, this can be a way to break down aspects of the making/thinking which can help.
The critical and punctuation - the moments that stand out and changed or impacted the practice
The ‘To Do’ list is a strength and is valuable. Use it to get the work done and prioritise.
We discussed keeping on track and concentrating on the positive elements that had taken place through the work and the connection points between them. We discussed clarity and how to feel more in control of the finishing stages by using the list that you made and remembering the important aspects learnt and experienced through the work produced.
Work to be completed: Video to be completed: Continuous line (a collection of lines filmed and assembled, travelling forward and then back on a loop) Save the Making and made videos Revisit the stop-go animations for MA1 and speed them up, as displayed in the desert)(https://vimeo.com/273836648 & https://vimeo.com/273833616) Physical work: 1 books to be finished, either bound or filled, (1/2 day each approx if a stint in the studio is managed) 1 book to be started (large scale, people size books if possible) Photos to be printed at different sizes and bound into a book format, 1xA5/A4/A3 colour, 1xA5/A4/A3 BW, 1xA3/A2/A1 colour, 1xA3/A2/A1 BW Print poetry into book? - zine? Tashkeel?
Blog posts to write: Feb -making day Mar -intersections and articulations Apr -Visiting lecturer tutorial Apr -Making day Apr -Intersections and articulations Apr -Group crit May -Tutorial KF Artists that influence Testing Boundaries: Reactions to video in environments Testing boundaries: supermarket sweep Testing boundaries: Music Fest Testing boundaries: reflections, Artists that inspire - where to go next Video making - why, how does video make me feel, what do I want from it PPP Overview of work - time line -ref;lection
Display - frieze master talks - the best display disrupts the expected.
Research: Notes for video work: syncopation - see the dictionary of film studies from SMW
Solid external relativity, willing suspension of disbelief, contract of viewer and filmmaker, letting go of what you know to access what's in the film
Julian Rosenfelt - manifesto
Books:
Tira de la peregrinacion - codex, codices. Paper, vellum, papyrus, the trunk of a tree, block of wood, book, Maya/Aztec - concertina fold, random access as opposed to a scroll - sequential.
