‘Walk On’ is an exhibition being held across four venues in Plymouth city centre; a showcase of work created through the act of walking.
In the second venue, The Peninsular Arts Gallery, what struck me first of all was the comments book that greeted you upon entry. I don’t normally look at books like this but you don’t often see them in contemporary art galleries on show in such a prominent place. What I tend to find is that it tends to be a love or hate response to work which provokes a reason to record your feelings, almost like a message to the establishment. The topic that frequently appeared in the book was the lack of labels on the pieces of work in the exhibition space. A message was left from the gallery in the book, claiming that the curators asked for no labels, so that the viewers could ‘experience the work’ without prejudice or distraction. An interesting concept in a gallery space, but the way that the dialogue has been carried through this book is fascinating. Sarah Cullen’s ‘The City as Written by the City’ is a collection of 16 drawings that have been made using a drawing box; an invention created by Cullen in order to create marks in response to her walking style and pace as she walks in different locations. What I really liked about this work was the unusual method of mapping a journey through the use of marks. Because the box is sealed there is no way of knowing what marks are being made, they are unprejudiced. Cullen herself had left a comment in the visitor book only a few days before my visit. A label identifying the date and place of each drawing, integral to the presentation of her work is not on show (presumably to fit in with the rest of the non-labelling theme). This shocked and upset me; even the artists own wishes were ignored in the hanging of the work. This experience has reminded me of a publication called ‘What Does the Word Curate mean to you?’, published by mac Birmingham in response to ‘Anticurate’, a series of exhibitions curated by artists who have never curated work before in 2011. During the course of the exhibitions, art professionals were asked to respond to the question What Does the Word Curate mean to you? And their responses have been recorded in this pamphlet. Similar to the comments book, it is a collection of responses. This is an idea which has intrigued me and I want to take this idea further into the development of my ideas.
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From the initial deep listening exercises that I did on Thursday I have been doing a lot more research into my tinnitus condition. Despite having the condition for over a year, I have always found it tricky to describe to others what it is that I can hear, but I found this video online which describes the condition itself rather well in addition to giving some examples of what tinnitus sufferers can hear: If you listen from 1.41 that is the sound closest to what I hear all the time. Of course it can change depending on external factors, for example if I am in a room with something very loud, I find that the sounds I hear in my own head increase in volume. I also find that I can hear more ‘crackling’ at times, or the sounds can change completely, sometimes sounding similar to a dial tone or television static (like at 2.10).
A phrase that Gillan used during our seminar was making ‘sound out of focus’, similar to the use of images in and out of focus to create different effects. This made me think about my struggle to hear things because of the constant ‘fog’ that is in my head. I would like to somehow present this in a visual format so that it people can visualise what it can be like for me to try and listen to things. A phrase that Gillan used during our seminar was making ‘sound out of focus’, similar to the use of images in and out of focus to create different effects. This made me think about my struggle to hear things because of the constant ‘fog’ that is in my head. I would like to somehow present this in a visual format so that it people can visualise what it can be like for me to try and listen to things. Essentially, I want to create an experience that mimics my every day; an insight into the human condition from a personal perspective. There is no silence. After taking part in the Kurt Jackson workshop a couple of weeks ago, I was asked to help out with a series of drawing workshops being held in the Maritime Museum for ‘The Big Draw’, in relation to the exhibition of Jackson’s work being shown there. Children visiting the museum could take part in a number of creative activities throughout the museum including printmaking, drawing and animation. This afternoon I was involved in setting up a number of drawing and 3D modelling stations that the children could take part in.
I always find working with children very rewarding; their enjoyment and sense of pride for what they have created is infectious. And by helping children with their drawings and models, I felt as if I was passing on the basics that I had learned from the workshop I had taken part in a couple of weeks before. Today we were introduced to the idea of ‘deep listening’, listening to everything that we can hear and writing it down, ignoring the sources of the sound and focussing on the properties of the sounds themselves. I found myself smiling as the brief was being presented to us, as I already know exactly what it is that I will be recording; my tinnitus. I have already begun to look into my condition by drawing what I can hear, but this time, the act of recording through words was really challenging. How do you describe sounds without saying what it is? Footsteps Door Slamming Cough The campus library was the setting. As much as I tried to concentrate on the other sounds in the library, due to it being such a quiet place, there was an overriding sound that just wouldn’t go away. Surprise surprise. By writing down what I hear I am beginning an editorial process; it cannot be a ‘complete’ recollection as it isn’t possible to write down absolutely everything. It is an impossible text. White noise; that is my tinnitus. The more I was concentrating, the more overwhelming it became. I still found myself drawing what I could hear, tracing a path across my notes. We are being encouraged to use sound as a material, and consider it as a substance to work with, so I am now considering starting a ‘listening diary’, where I can continue to make recordings of what I can hear, through words and through drawings. Since nobody else can hear what I hear, it is tricky to make a sound recording of it; if only I could shove the recorder in my ear; it unfortunately doesn't work like that. After the initial introduction to the project, a group of us began to discuss the themes which stood out to us, like the idea of body horror, and the visualisation of dreams. This led on to remind me of a series of experiences that I have had since about the age of 9 years old. Usually, it happens whilst I am doing something rather monotonous or repetitive; such as walking, sitting in a class, or cutting paper with a pair of scissors. It is a very rare occurrence, and I can only recall it happening a handful of times, but what happens is that I have a sort of outer-body experience. It is as if my mind floats away, and I feel as if I am floating above my own body, whilst continuing to perform whatever action I was doing. I feel like an outsider looking in on myself and my immediate surroundings, and whilst in this state I find myself contemplating my existence;
What is my existence doing as a part of the universe? What is it about my life, my existence that is important to the workings of nature? How far does the universe extend from existing knowledge? Do I even exist? Do the people around me exist? Am I significant? It is as if I have been trapped in a bubble, sounds become dampened and time seems to slow down, but when I look around me everything is travelling at the same speed, and once I become aware of my surroundings this is usually when the feeling stops, and I come back to being my normal self again. Re-discovering this in context to the videos that we have been watching and discussing, I would like to be able to somehow capture some part of these experiences using moving image. I would also like to experiment with sound and see how potentially changing the sounds that you would normally hear when looking at a moving image could change the perception of the piece. 2D > 3D > Time > Space > Duration > Frame > Sound > Temporality
Rotation project 3; Temporal Practices. The study of time-based environments through the use of video, sound and object; creating settings where something develops or emerges where it can then be encountered, recorded and collected. It is an expanded view of creating work for me, as although I have considered working with video and sound, for me it has always seemed as a means to an end; a source rather than a creation of my own. From the videos that we were shown yesterday, including the works of Matthew Barney, Gelatin and Ulay and Marina Abramovic, it has opened my eyes to the potential of using video as a working medium. What seems relevant to all of the works is an element of philosophy; questioning what is real, the blurring of art and life. There is also an element of confronting boredom and how the idea of ‘nothing’ can be made visual. What I also took from these works was the potential of the body, in addition to the ‘non-human’, where humanity is confronted and questioned. From this initial introduction we now have to make a series of 1 minute films, using a still and a moving camera, filming stillness and movement. Again we are encouraged to work with things, not about things which I think will prove difficult seeing as I am more comfortable working from some sort of starting point, but I will see where the experimentation takes me and work from there. I was told in my group critique that I spoke very well about my ideas, and that I sounded very convincing and confident in my ideas. To me this is a massive compliment, I always get the feeling that I ramble on way too much about my work, I fear that I repeat myself, or worse that I’m boring people! But to hear this makes me confident in my methods of presenting my work and my thought processes.
At the end of the Paint and Purpose project, I feel a little underwhelmed. I am frustrated because the ideas that I have generated I want to be able to explore. But the fact that we have now moved studios again and are now starting another new project with new tutors means that this is going to be put on hold as we face yet more briefs and introductions. I hope that despite this, the new projects could potentially open up new avenues of ideas for me to explore. Throughout this painting project we have also had a number of printmaking sessions to introduce us to the etching process. I like how in this process the printing plate can become a piece of art as much as the prints made from it. To correspond with my current work I made a hard ground plate and traced lines from the 360 degree view drawing that I had created in response to my 3D cardboard sculpture. The fact that you can continue to draw into the ground once it had dried means that I could work on a drawing for days without compromising the plate, I hope that I can use this to my advantage and make really detailed drawings that I can etch in the future.
I am also in the process of making a soft ground etching plate; this process differs to hard ground etching because of the nature of the ground on the plate and its ability to remain soft. Pressing objects onto the plate enables details from those objects to be etched and printed, allowing for textures to be created which couldn’t be done with a stylus in a hard ground etching. I am currently using plant matter to create my plate but I hope that I can experiment with other textures and potentially combine hard and soft ground etching together. Today I had the fantastic opportunity to work with local artist Kurt Jackson in a drawing workshop, in conjunction with his exhibition ‘Line Caught and Local’ being shown at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. The aim of the workshop was to open our eyes to the idea of quick and spontaneous drawings that capture moments in time. For Kurt, drawing is a fundamental part of an artist’s working practice. It is a visual diary; a way of collecting, gathering information; a way of creating a visual library of knowledge. Never working from photographs, he always works directly from life or from sketches. His work ranges from making drawings whilst out on boats with fishermen, to working directly onto board or linen on the beach, to painting the seafood on his plate before he eats it. He told us that he felt that this is the only way he could give something back to nature, for the sacrifice the wildlife has taken to be on his plate. He also draws and paints local wildlife underwater in their natural environments whilst out snorkelling (an idea that I am very keen on trying). The aim of the workshop was to open our eyes to the idea of quick and spontaneous drawings that capture moments in time. We were encouraged to set ourselves limits to draw objects quickly, using gestural lines and marks in order to capture the essence of the subject matter. When he goes out on fishing boats, Kurt only has a matter of seconds to draw some of the things that he sees, so has become accustomed to working quickly under pressure. With a range of fishing tackle, live lobsters and crabs, shells and stones we had our very own nautical still life set ups, to draw from. We also had a member of the fishing crew that Kurt works with modelling for us in his working clothes. Funnily enough Kurt joined in with the dressing up too, claiming that drawing people with clothes on was more interesting than a typical life drawing class; the clothes made the body more ambiguous. What I learned from this workshop was the element of spontaneity, and how making quick drawings with little thought can help to build up a body of collected ideas, a visual documentation of thoughts. It also has made me think about the use of photographs as a source to make drawings and paintings, and how I should try and work more from sketches to see what a difference this makes to my work. I definitely want to use my sketchbooks in a freer and spontaneous way; I am so used to making perfect drawings every now and again, and I want to progress my working practice so that I can be less precious about every page and focus on making a body of work full of experimental pieces rather than just more refined work.
I have been brainstorming ideas for how to explore my themes in several dimensions, and I have been drawn to my default; the human form. This is an area of art that really fascinates me, and exploring the human form is a really eye-opening way of creating art which becomes so personal as it relates directly back to me as the artist. I had the idea of creating a full body blind portrait of myself in the last project, and thought that this would be a great starting point to get back into exploring the human form. I occasionally opened my eyes whilst making this drawing so that I could get limbs in reasonable relation to the rest of the body, as the idea that I have involves projecting this (and potentially other drawings of my body) onto a large scale maquette which I make based also on my own body. Similar to the models of the artists that we were introduced to at the beginning of the week, I want to use more basic materials such as paper and card to build this model. The idea is to wrap paper around parts of my body, making a very basic cast, before attaching together to then create a very loose 3D interpretation of my body. I have not decided yet whether I want this to be free standing/hanging or a relief emerging from a flat surface. I want to see how the projection of a drawing can translate onto the 3D model, and if the body parts correspond, or if the form becomes completely disarranged. I would like to use photography to compress the 3D back into 2D, and potentially make drawings or paintings from there, interpreting the ‘body’ that I have created. But this week has been somewhat annoying; the fact is we have been given a fantastic brief which I really want to get stuck into but with only 3 days to make anything to then talk about in a group critique tomorrow. Quite honestly I feel as if there is very little point in delving into a project which I know I will have to cut short due to changing projects again. Yes, I could continue these ideas in the next rotation but I want to explore as many ideas as possible without being distracted by more briefs and introductions. |
AuthorThird Year BA Hons Fine Art student studying at Falmouth University Archives
April 2017
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