A selection of photographs of my two artworks; ‘Manifesto for Work’ and ‘Note to Self’ on display in 44AD’s ‘Art+Text’ show. The exhibition ran from 21st-26th February, and details about the show can be found here.
Photographs courtesy of 44AD artspace.
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Emptiness The second in a series of online publications using edited sketchbook extracts. The book is a space. When approaching my sketchbooks I consider it a challenge to fill the pages. The pages are territories to be filled. In a book of printed text, taking the text away neutralises the book’s original purpose and leaves behind areas of negative space. There is an inversion here, the space that has been cut out now becomes the negative space, and the previously blank parts of the page become positive. This shift in status is something to play with and to be pushed further.
MAKING
> insert definition here < The first of a series of online publications using edited extracts from my sketchbooks and other digital material. Two of my pieces have been selected to be on show in 'Art + Text', a show in Bath's 44AD artspace. The show runs from Tuesday 21st through until Sunday 26th February, and showcases work from an international group of artists. The show has been curated by Kelly O'Brien and Sveta Antonova. An initial attempt to map the empty space on my studio wall. If nothing is here: Then that must mean that ‘something’ must occupy the space either side of the arrows. How far can ‘nothing’ stretch? In this case, it is as far as the arrows – until confronted by other labels telling us that the space next to it is now ‘something’. The wall text takes these labels further. And what was originally pieces of handwritten masking tape has been upgraded into a more permanent wall text. But how can this be so? No space can truly be empty, there are always visual markers that demonstrate the presence of something ‘other’. I want to attempt to highlight these things and map them out in order to make them visible, and with the addition of the labels fill the originally ‘empty’ space. In order to solve the “problem” of an empty space, put measures in place to ensure that the space is not empty. In reality the space can be occupied with a minimal amount of things, yet the concept that informs the work can be complex enough to fill the room. The audience’s own enquiry into the work can fill the space, in addition to the physical presence of their body in the space. The space is not physically or conceptually empty, it just requires the input of the audience to complete the work, and completely “fill” the space. > Place the audience in a negative space < Catalogue of the currentBlind spots
Vision Reveal part of... Conceal Isolate Control Suspend information An open book An open container A vessel A vessel to be filled Occupation Fulfilment Opportunity Success Outreach Capability Chance Suspension Overwhelm Underwhelm DON’T MAKE MEDIOCRE ART Throughout my practice there has been a constant ‘need’ to fill space, with imagery, with words, with objects. In my head I have always told myself that a space needs to be occupied with something. Yet what I have come to realise is that empty space is needed for anything that is present to function. What I have seen in my most recent work is the requirement of this negative space, and perhaps this all along is what I need to work with as my subject matter. Throughout my degree I have always struggled with feelings of doubt; "have I made enough?" "have I done enough?" "is there enough there?" I came to use text in my practice through its original use as a problem solving tool, and perhaps this struggle with the desire to fill space is how I use the text; as somehow to address this desire and mitigate the anxiety around unoccupied space. There has also been the desire to impress, to try and please everyone with something "fully rounded", yet I have now realised that not everyone is going to like or understand my work. The work I am making at the moment is minimal, and there is calmness with it. I want to stay true to myself and retain the calmness in my work. What I need to do now is to find texts that address these ideas of emptiness and use them as material to work with. |
AuthorThird Year BA Hons Fine Art student studying at Falmouth University Archives
April 2017
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