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.
Lines were collected on random papers, donated by students intrigued by their strange art teacher's activity. Without planning it produced a selection of books in colours that could be grouped together.
These books feel crude but necessary. The vulgarity of the bright colours and the primitive lines mirror the naivety of the children that created them. They are not what I am looking for in this project. To present the tangible line of time, the sophistication of something os beyond control need control and clarity. A cleanliness that does not discriminate the viewer. The colours will turn some people off, close them down to the viewing of the work. It certainly repulses me.
For testing boundaries, I was beginning to get lost in the multidisciplinary soup I was concocting and opted back to drawing and video to simplify the practice:
Simultaneously Laporellos were constructed in various sizes, these began to be filled.
Each book equates to a measure of time,
24hr, 72hr, 36hr books
72 hour book. Over 13ft long (4meters)
To be filled
24hr book, large size.
These are not fully chronological, there is overlap between projects.
Issues are my own expectations of how long work takes to be created, the timing of work will hopefully help to correct this. The comparison with course-mates (yes I know I'm a grown woman but it still happens), practices are different as are time constraints etc so its all relevant.
To test the boundaries they need to first be defined:
What are my boundaries:
This project, the physicality of contacting people - phone conversations make me feel sick, I get nervous at public speaking and I am not confident in my work, I sometimes feel like being an artist is a copout and I don't fully believe in myself or my work. I undervalue myself and am not very good at ‘putting myself out there’. (Eek!) Easily intimidated and compare myself to others to my own discouragement. I commonly think that if someone is doing something similar I should probably give up as its already been covered
So the limits of my work at the beginning of the project:
My work has been exhibited in gallery spaces - group shows
Work is traditional media - textiles, ceramic, paper
Largely concept - based on scope of people and routine - philosophy led
Audience is the arts community - friends rarely come as I don't invite them.
How to test the boundaries:
Work in new media
Exhibit work outside the gallery space
Rework concept, what am I actually exploring?
Find a new audience - an unwitting one? One that knows me but not my work? Invite friends to exhibition openings.
So what did I do?
It doesn’t feel like much (which makes me question my expectations of myself):
I performed a drawing work in class around students as they worked - this was projected onto the wall using the visualizer
My drawing performance for the students. I utilized the visualizer on my desk and the projector. (disclaimer: this is not the original piece, I forgot to take a photo of it in the set up so I printed a photo of it so I could do this! haha! )
I made video works and then submitted one of these for a group show
https://vimeo.com/304603717
This was initially a poem, I have felt unsure about including my writing as part of my practice but at this point it didn’t feel like a had a choice. The work became a video as I waited for my colleagues to submit their texts, I advanced my piece to performance. It is part of the Tashkeel group show Play, which opened on 12/03/2019. While the setting is the same as previous work, the audience for videos works differ somewhat.
T
I submitted pieces I felt were ‘failures’ to a group show discussing artistic process and the act of failure, I also held workshops around expressive drawing techniques that lead to failures and took part in a panel discussion.
I produced a drawing piece during making day, filmed its production, edited it and overlaid it onto the finished piece and projected this in classrooms and public spaces.
The piece in production
Projected in Math during a cover period
Projected discreetly in Art
Projected on the big screen in Art
In the park by a road
Outside the supermarket
A driver stopped to watch
On a villa wall
Next to the liquor store and rider parking
The feedback
Drawing as performance:
When performing the act of drawing in front of students it was mainly awe which is flattering.
It was a useful device to open dialogue about artist expectations, talent vs hard work, process vs product.
They were keen to see the progress, coming in to check each lesson.
Some emulated in their own work, some did not engage with it at all but at that level art is not optional.
A few students used me as an example of why they won’t take art as they were intimidated and felt that they could not keep up with the expectations.
Video work in the gallery:
Those that commented gave congratulations, which is expected at an opening, although felt a little forced. There was not much dialogue. Some were surprised I had submitted a video piece.
In critique with my artist group they only remarked on my hair tie around the wrist and asked I re-shoot without it. The gallery did not require this.
Work in the House of Failure exhibition:
Non-art audience, mainly families and tourists with a keen interest or stumbling upon it. It was part of the SIKKA art fair which is set in the historical district and runs parallel with the Art Dubai fair (commercial).
Hard to understand why it was a failure.
Workshops: most left happy, having created a mass of work that they had fun creating. Many did not take the work.
Video work in a displaced context:
The students: art classes noticed it, it took them time as they were in activities. Most thought it was ‘a ghost’, a couple actually jumped, then they would take a moment and realise it was my hand. They were more confused about where it was coming from. Maths students made no comment and as far as I’m aware only one actually saw it.
The the big projector they noticed it quicker and made connections to my work. They thought it was ‘creepy’ or that I was tracing an existing work. Once I explained they looked a little perplexed but would open a discussion about the concept.
In public, some cars slowed down, many passed without notice. A man in a car watched me set up and watched the video while he waited for his wife. As they drove away they paused in the car in front of it.
One man stood outside of his car, smoking and watched. I took a creepy selfie to capture him! Ha!
What can I take from this?
Video work feels like it's hard done by. I’m guilty of it myself, I will pass by in a gallery due to time constraints or lack of focus. The showing of the video work left me a little empty and also a little embarrassed, like I could have tried harder.
Projecting outside made my work feel insignificant, which actually makes me want to make more work as it really doesn’t matter! People passed by but were not interested. Some noticed and paused. A couple of guys hung around by a car and watched. It wasn’t important though and I questioned what I was expecting. Did I think that the road would come to a standstill and I would be heralded a genius? Of course not. Did I think some might stop and question? Maybe, but did I need that? I was self-conscious, I felt guilty taking over a wall that wasn’t mine, I felt self aware, like I was flashing too much skin on the side of the road.
Performance felt similar but as I was fully present it offered more dialogue, more interaction. I was intrigued by the assumed unattainability of the outcome and how many perceived it as ‘talent’ rather than learned skill.
The display of ‘failure’ produced some dialogue, this was mainly from non-artist audience claiming that even the failures were better than their skill base. They felt like the failure was token, or that it should not be discussed adn we should be more positive. This left me feeling frustrated.
The development of concept/context:
Feels less strained. It is flowing a little easier. I’m reinvigorated and keen to work, frustrated by time management and non-masters commitments. I am concerned about it form of the drawings and whether the abstract lines/shape/forms need to be justified or whether I can continue with them. The constraint of the linear forms feels necessary for the exploration of collision between process and product. I feel that organic forms distract the focus from the materiality of drawing and drawn, that the abstract is needed to allow the collision to take place.
The boundary of making and made is now being tested. How is it viewed and perceived by an audience, how much does education play a part in the perception of process and product? Can process and product exist at the same time? Although process will always be in reflection of the product as the work is deemed unfinished if it is still being worked on so it there for ‘in progress’.
Decided to make some books ready for experiments. Thinking about density, time, the act of drawing. How can the books link to the act, become performative objects for and of drawing?
A small but lengthy book. I have yet to measure any of them but they were all made to be uncomfortable to read or handle.
The tactility of this book really thrilled me. I found some off cuts of heavyweight drawing paper to use for the covers. The rest of the papers are sugar, craft or cartridge so although the length and the varying shapes of the pages make the book unwieldy it has a strength to it.
The book above is made with preused layout papers. Dependent on what it is filled with it should give a layered effect.
A book of found papers
The largest book I could make with materials available. A little over A3 in size, cardboard to hold the heavy papers together.
This book has been filled. It was time consuming and consumed a part of me in the process. The time and density is reflected in the patterna dnt he layers of graphite that line its pages.
Poems in a bottle and throw them out to sea - don’t want to contribute to ocean pollution, would have to be biodegradable
Post to random address with a return address of course! - would need postage to be prepaid, what would they do with it? Is there an expectation of participation? How would you feel to have work thrust upon you? - would almost defo have a high failure/non-return rate.
Publish a book/pamphlet - group publication - was in process but has gone quiet. Now to explore my own personal publication. Researching poetry publications and recitals - not sure I’m ready for performance but we’ll see.
Skywriting - if only I had a plane?????? - other options: Drone? Banner? Drone with a banner? Sticker on the side of a plane!
Wrote poems in the toilet - illegal to vandalise property, could be down in chalk pen or something washable, they would only be seen for a short time and then wiped away.
Stickers - distribute - like the AC adverts around Dubai - again could be classed as vandalism. A lot of street artists have ‘tag’ stickers they use - see Fats and Katie Wilson etc.
Put them in pigeon holes - at my work and other peoples? Could I recruit friends to distribute pieces of work like stickers of postcards into their places of work?
Stand in a public place and recite without warning - performance piece - would anyone take notice? Does that matter? Would need to be documented so at least one guaranteed audience member.
Print on a massive banner and hang off the school - the house - neighbours house - a limited audience - school are up for use of some space though.
Postcards for purchase? - gifts. come back to the postage one above. Could place them in the community boards (was that one of Les’s ideas?), or in galleries and exhibitions around Dubai, would need a distraction - guerilla art.
Put it in the school newsletter - limited audience, not sure its the right boundary to test.
Embroidery on to clothes and wear it - or paint on to clothes (Ivanka Trump coat repercussions) or t-shirts and give them out. - labourers - free printed t-shirts - what does that say about me and my work, using my privilege?
Different words on t-shirts and move people about - make a video or a performance in a public place.
Submit a video for open calls - check craft council and art res programmes - a-n website. - from Elaine.
Possible collaboration with friend Ben - graphic design background - the boundary of working with others will be pushed! Labour camps - reaction Translate poetry into Hindi and distribute it in al Quoz What does that contrast say - with regard to privilege?
The business card like the lucky-lucky girls - Tart cards - calling cards - stuck in windows of cars. Implement on one stretch of road and then collect the next day and count, consider all collected as loved. What would they say? - Pose a question... ‘we have collided. Is this art?’ ‘Bring your collisions to me, make me feel something’ ‘Are you able to break me? Let's collide and find out’ ‘You want me, my child wants uni tuition, call now’
A considered pause - I am a card stuck in your window.
What does it need to represent? Human trafficking Can we subvert that Be funny Without being illegal - defamation
The collision of ideals, lifestyles.
What emotional response do the cards envoke?
Guilt, lust, pity….
17th Jan 2019 - Tart card research and ‘pilgrimage’ to Tecom (now Barsha Heights):
Current drawing practice:
These are A4 graphite:
This is A3 graphite, being completed at work with an audience of pupils each session:
School news latter - the interest that that audience might have. Giving a visibility.
Use the class - a way in to thinking about challenging and changing
The dialogue is fascinating - enabling other people to see it or hear it - the value of art to evolve the thinking behind it. Give out a piece of work. People can come collect it, a give away of the pieces. Focus the audience into members of staff and the children etc on a daily.
What is success? Would it be the conversation with parents and guardians -
Free art - a political act - you don’t have a choice you have to take this. The conversations that people have.
Educational aspects - have the making projected - can it exist somewhere else? Project on to the windows me making the work. Project on to the windows - in the street the making - - on a street.
Recording the making - projecting it to be viewed - projecting the making on to the work being made. Very exciting - both there and not there - the thing that it is and the thing it will be.
Mark - really knows how to play - not getting arrested! There's a flow and a transgressive element to it - his interventions -
Battle drawing - tie hands opposite and draw a portrait -
Work exchange - whole cohort experimental session, Caroline, Les and Kimberly.
This session was a first for the MA. Having the new platform for video communication has opened up horizons it seems and our excitable tutors were ready to test it out! The only preparation we had was to expect a package and have some dry art materials to hand. I was impressed by the dedication to getting everyone involved, even the lack of a mail system in the middle east didn't stop them as Les diligently couriered packages to myself, Mozhdeh and Rhoda. We were the last to receive them, and I believe possibly the only ones out of our year group to not accidentally open them.
What are my thoughts: This envelope contains a piece of work that Les has started, we will be given prompts throughout. the same prompts to produce different outcomes similar to the drawing walk I did at college and do with my own students. It has the potential to feed into all of our practices if we are embedded in our work enough that it shows evidence in this piece. Some of us will hate this task, feeling uncomfortable and frustrated. Some of us will be non-plused about it, and some will love it, thriving in the anticipation and collaboration. I am hoping to thrive, I'm excited. Tired but excited. What did anticipation feel like? - my anticipation was shorter, or was it? I wanted to receive it, or to open it?
3 things about the act of opening the envelope? awkward, I'm quite small, tiny hands, it was clumsy to open it on screen. inquiring, what is in this envelop? what state would it be in? relief, the burden of a full envelop that is full but has unknown content.
make an aperture
make a screenshot looking through the aperture at the screen
cut an aperture
cut an aperture (image 2)
Text for the reading from Les performed: What makes Argia different from other cities is that it has earth instead of air. Fill a small bowl or jug with ice cold water and put near the stove. In that empire, the craft of cartography attained such perfection that the map of a single province covered the space of an entire city Grease a tin of approx. 30 x 20cm. and the map of the empire itself an entire province. Put all the ingredients, apart from the vanilla, into a large, heavy bottomed pan and bring to the boil, The streets are completely filled with dirt, clay packs the rooms to the ceiling, on every stair another stairway is set in negative, stirring constantly. over the roofs of the houses hang layers of rocky terrain like skies with clouds. In the course of time, these extensive maps were found somehow wanting Boil for 12-20 minutes, still stirring all the time, until the mixture is golden and, the College of Cartographers evolved a map of the empire that was of the same scale as the empire and that coincided with it point for point. We do not know if the inhabitants can move about the city, when a bit is dropped into the water, it turns solid but still squidgy widening the worm tunnels and the crevices where roots twist: How long this takes depends on how ferociously it bubbles as well as on the properties and dimensions of the pan. the dampness destroys people's bodies and they have scant strength; This is hot work! everyone is better off remaining still, prone; anyway, it is dark. The following generations, less attentive to the study of cartography, came to judge a map of such magnitude cumbersome From up here, nothing of Argia can be seen; and quite useless and it was abandoned to the rigours of sun and rain. When the fudge is at soft-ball stage, very carefully remove the pan from the stove and stir in the vanilla. In the western deserts, tattered fragments of the map are still to be found sheltering an occasional beast or beggar; Preferably using an electric whisk beat for about five minutes, by which time the fudge will have thickened to the texture of stiff peanut butter - some say, "It's down below there," in all the land, no other relic is left of the discipline of geography. and we can only believe them. this is quite steamy and strenuous - and pour and push into the prepared tin. Smooth the top as well as you can. The place is deserted. At night, putting your ear to the ground, you can sometimes hear a door slam. Put in the fridge to cool, but don't keep it there for more than 2 hours, or it will set too hard, then remove and using a sharp knife, cut into squares. This is not a geometrically accurate term, as you can see from my cutting skills. - text from Les
My response: squares on the pages - the size of the tin
reaction to reading by Les
consider - what are you listening for? what sticks, how do we react
Text for the reading from Caroline - small agency of worms
Bennett J (2010) Vibrant Matter: a political ecology of things, London: Duke University Press pp 95 The "Small Agency" of Worms
Darwin watched English worms: many, many of them for many, many hours. He watched how they moved, where they went, and what they did, and, most of all, he watched how they made topsoil or "vegetable mould": after digesting "earthly matter," they would deposit the castings at the mouth of their burrows, thus continually bringing to the surface a refined layer of vegetable mould. It is, writes Darwin, “a marvellous reflection that the whole of the . . . mould over any . . . expanse has passed,and will again pass, every few years through the bodies of worms. But the claim with which Darwin ends his Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Actions of Worms with Observations on Their Habits (1881) is not about biology or agronomy but about history: ·Worms have played a more important part in the history of the world than most persons would at first assume”. How do worms make history? They make it by making vegetable mould, which makes possible "seedlings of all kinds; which makes possible an earth hospitable to humans, which makes possible the cultural artifacts, rituals, plans, and endeavours of human history (Mould, 309). Worms also "make history" by preserving the artifacts that humans make: worms protect "for an indefinitely long period every object, not liable to decay, which is dropped 00 the surface of the land, by burying it beneath their castings; a service for which"archaeologists ought to be grateful to worms". Darwin claims that worms inaugurate human culture and then, working alongside people and their endeavours, help preserve what people and worms together have made. Darwin does not claim that worms intend to have this effect so beneficial to humankind, or that any divine intention is at work through them. Rather, that the exertions of worms contribute to human history and culture is the unplanned result of worms acting in conjunction and competition with other (biological, bacterial,chemical, human) agents. Darwin describes the activities of worms as one of many "small agencies" whose "accumulated effects" turn out to be quite big.' It would be consistent with Darwin to say that worms participate in heterogeneous assemblages in which agency has no single locus, no mastermind, but is distributed across a swarm of various and variegated vibrant materialities.'
My response:
Kimberley's text is from 'the prosthetic pedagogy of art -embodied research and practice' by Charles R Garoian - I do not have a copy just a link.
My response - the red line that became an act of frottage is the wax crayon lifted the wood grain from my desk. This was a beautifully serendipitous event as the text refers to a student project in which a piece of wood is sand down to dust, combined with cake batter and then consumed by the critique group in the form of muffins. This moment excited me. The work produced itself and the link was visible but accidental.
Think about how the work is guided, incidental and deliberate or unconsidered.
Student task: create instructions - set up instructions for the object. BREAK OUT GROUP - Bob MA1 and Jon MA3 my suggestion: wear your object while manipulating it for as long as possible. Their suggestions: Cut it, re-assemble it and turn it around use the tape We settle on wearing the object for the rest of the instructions.
Back together - we go first - so we asked everyone to wear it The next instruction was to create it into an object - most people took it off, tutors to read every third word from their pieces alternatively - excavating the piece - this was difficult and turned the activity around on to the tutors. we did not create work from this. I continued to wear my piece. The synchronicity was what was being asked for - regurgitating work, collaborative - for the tutors to partake in, so the task was changed. The task turned in to the tutors reading a word from the initial text - the instructions were slightly lost on my due to the connection. - Thrive - it was awkward, Caroline said 'abrasive' . the negotiation of practice. process.
Lastly we were asked to do something drastic with the piece, and then put it back together. It was left open for interpretation. I ripped my piece off of my head, in to segments and taped it together in a longer format. It was then attached by the tape, using different tape, to the wall of my studio space.
In anger I lashed out at the page, I needed the hug of the charcoal on paper - I never thought I'd hear my self say that. The abandonment of life drawing has finally caught up with me, the charcoal is haunting my thoughts, sneaking in with its lustful desires, calling and tempting me with its sensuality. My person and my business collided, I felt the anger and frustration well up - I decided to drown it in the paper and the charcoal; satisfyingly building the piles of dust on the pages as I scratched out the work.
I looked and felt like the collision was missing from the work - then I saw it - the devastation on the page, black smears tainting the pristine surface, fingerprints and smudged edges, dust and layers colliding with the white expanse. The collision happened both physically and mentally, the lines collided on the page, the thoughts collided in my head, my fingers collided with the charcoal and the page. The devastation was satisfying, the aftermath was beautiful.
