Reflection
Summarising and condensing these blog sections was not easily - for some reason it had not clicked to summarise until near the end. There is much to leave out and edit - of course that can be a good thing, and it is also now time to reflect on whether my initial approach of adding to several blog entries in categories was successful. I think it certainly helped me in developing and linking thoughts, and also in building up a more complete approach by gather all research thoughts together, and all music, and so on. It created a body of related research. What I was left with when it came time for preparing for the assessment was imbalance, as some blog sections were naturally more extensive than others. Overall, I think it was an effective way for me to work, and resulted in me being able to identify and be more explicit in references and influences without feeling I had reduced my practice to a set of points.
Artist Statement The
Future Past Tense
This statement is
designed to accompany the Moving Image piece The Future Past Tense in exhibition, with or without the drawings.
The Future Past Tense is a one hour
Moving Image piece which plays on loop, potentially forever. I made the piece from
sixty drawings completed on consecutive days. Each drawing was finished in an
exact hour, and I gave myself rules: I would not plan or decide upon a drawing
before starting; I would not stop or give up on a drawing until it was
completed in the hour. I relied on an inner mechanism to ensure that my
intention and the allotted time would correspond.
My intention was to allow an element of automatic drawing;
that my inner sense or consciousness would reveal images that a more conscious
planned drawing would not. Such rules are perhaps made to be broken, and so I
allowed myself to follow what occurred, to let patterns and ideas emerge which
would be outside a purer form of automatic drawing espoused by the Surrealist
artist Masson. My version is to allow a crossing over between areas of
mindfulness and the unconscious.
Compressing sixty drawing hours into one could give a
different idea about time, one that I often explore in work. Scientists
Einstein and Hawking indicate that time may not be absolute; poetry and
philosophy remind that time is an idea, and our own experience shows us time is
malleable. Moving Image is an especially fruitful medium to explore issues of
time, as artists can manipulate the normal pace of life.
The word Tense brings ideas about concepts of
time, qualities of the surface layers of things, and properties of tension. The
sound was made in a similar way to the image – isolating and then layering
harmonies to create waves which roll in and out of synchronisation.
I especially relish those unanswerable questions that come
from transforming drawing into video – if I digitise them are they still
drawings; are the drawings images or objects; if I change them further, what do
they become? I was able to see the drawings through the camera, and capture
further what I consider their essence. Looking through a camera lens, I feel I
can really see a thing, can isolate the way I see light working and reacting,
can scrutinise the surface matter and say – that, that is it. The camera showed
me the nature of these drawings – the metallic, tarry presence of the graphite,
the leaden, shiny sheen and the black entity of the darkness.
Making the Moving Image mirrors the drawing process with
hundreds and thousands of decisions, choices and judgements. These decisions
are where art practice lies, trusting the inner self to see and to visualise. It's
both a discovery and a recognition, reinforcing years of practice whilst
subverting it at the edges.
Shadows and lights, contrast and lines, implied movement.
That is all drawing is really. The
Future Past Tense moves through the drawings ideas, shifting through
surface to image, through the layers of what drawings suggest, collecting the
shades of inner activity, offering a vision of a language not really to do with
words.
500 words
Art & Today notes
Choosing a chapter from Eleanor Heartney's Art and Today
through which to contextualise work makes me realise what chapters may be
missing from the book - chapter titles which more exactly relate to my work.
It's a little difficult to realise and limit direct influences - I remember the
impact of seeing a painting by Baselitz many years ago - an upside down
painting of Nazi heads. I know that made an enormous impression on me and
somehow informed what I now do, and likewise with so many other different
artists and approaches mentioned in this book, influences and concerns are
multiple. I can think back at many artists and art that have had a profound
effect and influence - Francis Bacon, Marina Abramovic, and yet I think I'd be
hard pressed to show that within my work. Ideas come out in all sorts of ways.
So in the absence of a chapter about me that helps me to
define myself, I choose what I relate to, and by a process of elimination, find
the relevant chapter. Of course the Art & Time chapter is relevant, and I
certainly relate to some of those concerns, completely in some cases. But the
chapter Art and the Quotidian Object, and to some extent, Art & Abstraction
also particularly speak to me. Of course, most artists would probably not rule
out the relevance of some content of each chapter to their work, but this process
of fitting in one's work to a particular chapter heightens main concerns in
art.
I am looking to create the paradox, the moment of confusion
when one does not really know what you are looking at, although it is perfectly
clear. There is a moment when you are lost in the abstraction - when you are
aware of the positive and the negative space at the same time, when you see
through the illusion but are still caught up in it.
What I relate to in Art & The Quotidian Object is a
reframing of objects and what meaning they bring which can be incorporated
within art. So much of art and human activity is all about our relationship
with objects, acquiring them, rearranging them, desiring them, using them, and
so on. We spend so much time in this material world that of course objects of
all sorts are rife for retelling as art.
The main stance that I don't relate to, however, is the idea
that using readymades is somehow anti-art, and a cynical kind of
democratization in a diluting way of objects deemed worthy of the status of
art. The idea that fascinates me about objects is in remaking their meaning,
changing them, and presenting them as vehicles for other art ideas. Using
objects of glass, plastic, gold, stone, objects - it makes us more aware of the
molecular nature of all things, and their equality in that way. It elevates
matter to be used for art, rather than diminishing it.
I'm not interested in kitsch, or commenting on the
consumerist nature of society - I'm only interested in adding more layers of
meaning, context and references - more shades of interpretation and triggering
memories by using and reusing ready made items in order to serve the
philosophical or psychological ideas or insights I am seeking.
Art Manifesto
When I was doing my art foundation a tutor gave us a project
one day of writing down our internal art rules and writing them out as if we
were creating an art manifesto by which all art must be created. I was the one
who came in with screeds of rules, and although little came of it at the time,
this felt like a trigger point for me, and something of a revelation. I
realised that I already had a considerable internal manifesto, and I have often
thought of this and reconsidered my rules. These rules are often inverted,
tested and broken, however, the more I define them to myself, the clearer is my
artistic intention to myself, especially if I consciously ponder such ideas
while I am engrossed in making work.
This is the beginnings of my Art Aesthetic Manifesto.
Some rules include:
Work must look effective from near, middle distance and
afar.
Work must look effective upside down as well as right way
up.
Art must be the right size for itself, whether small or
large or human scale.
Art must fit into resources available.
Art must be translatable into black and white or colour.
Art must either – have strong contrast, and well placed
areas of light and shade to emphasise these, or encompass a washed out, barely
there aesthetic.
Things must be placed dramatic centre, with infinite
disembodied black around or things must be off centred so that composition is
imbalanced, or things must be offstage, as if they are about to happen or have
just happened.
If seams show, they must be part of the artwork.
Things must be done as best as possible – precisely by hand
is better than a machine finish.
These rules are immutable and yet changeable. There can be
no cheating! If a rule does not seem to be working, it must be remade, or a new
rule made.
I further realise that I already have other lists and
writings to add to my art manifesto, which I would like to add here. Some
visual examples would also make sense.
I do like the idea of artists' manifestos. It seems like a
previous idea, although I'm sure it's all still going on somewhere, but one
thinks much more of late 19th century to mid 20th century artists -
brotherhoods and earnest fellowships. I have never been too much of a
collaborative artist or person, and I have never yet met anyone with whom my
ideas about art so concur that I could write anything other than a personal
manifesto.
Drawings
I uploaded images of
sixty drawings as completed, along with comments, observations and ideas about
them and about drawing, and so this page acts as a written sketchbook:
I am always looking to subvert myself when drawing, not to
revert to favourite solutions, and to find a new aspect I haven't given myself
before.
I wanted to make a drawing with an imbalance, with elements
that didn't fit, but would play off each other. I had the scribbly bit, and a
big round cluster of more organic shapes that I thought I would obliterate. I
got more involved in the obliteration, and would like to make drawings with the
original intent, with an underneath drawing more visible. The drawing still
needed something that wouldn't fit. I though of what the painter Jules de Goede
once said to me at Middlesex in a tutorial, when I was doing alot of centred,
glowing work - he said to try to fit in something odd, something different,
like a pink straw. This drawing needed something illogical - the strip of
masking tape.
All this writing is me thinking aloud about drawing and
other related thoughts, on the nature of thinking and time. As I hoped, in the
end the meandering led to create something else. The eye can't help filling in
the lines and shapes to create figures, to imagine bodies and figures, to
imagined the shapes coloured in. It's interesting that writing gives no clue or
dynamic, in shading and emphasis, and can only be decoded with the right
syntax. The overall meandering lines tell something, but you never know what
may be hidden in plain sight. Thinking of concrete poetry, fluxus, and especially
minimalist music by Steve Reich, which repeats over and over with small
variations in repitition, very like waves of thought.
Another drawing which started out as one thing and ended up
as something else. The truth is, I like being in that uncomfortable state when
I have ruined something and have to retrieve it. I like allowing that inventive
and resourceful part to take over, and believing that an inner clock is timed
to complete in one hour. I turned this drawing into a structure containing
energy, but what I really like about it is that it doesn't really make sense -
it is illogical even according to its own terms - the boundaries and what
contains what. I seem to know what I am doing while I am drawing, although I
would like also to retain control of the aesthetic in some drawings, rather
than let the process take over - in other words, sometimes to imagine something
I would like to draw first, and then render that, instead of following what
happens.
In order to draw the negative space, alot of the other must
be filled in. I like the changes of direction and unevenness. I think I've
decided now not to move into colour with this series of drawings, and to stick
to the few pencils I am already using. And I'm ready to look back and through
what I have done, and possibly use some as starting points for new drawings, so
that I have alot of interrelationships, and build up its own visual world.
The idea of layers of maps, splats, and how colour can both
signify and deceive. The ruinous scribbles, the shadows, the possibilities.
And so I end at a good place to begin. A simple idea really
that I imagined and then had to try to match what I visualised, and how to get
that. Dramatic. A searing fissure into something else. The idea of an
indistinct boundary, moving. I like the line going outside of the page, and
that it might be any scale imagined.
Film
With Moving Image, I can show not just the image, but which
part of the image to look at. I can make the eye follow at the right pace, see
the parts I emphasise. This sounds more controlling than I intend. It's not
about forcing a vision on the viewer, but presenting for myself, and in turn
the view
How I make Moving Image. It is impossible, really impossible
to describe how I actually make the moving image. I have been thinking about
that as I make some now, and have to conclude that I either make it or describe
how I tend to make work. I can't describe the thoughts that lead me make all
those choices and decisions, but here is an attempt.
Like the drawings project, I tend to amass images and clips,
and hone them, edit them, until they are exactly distilled and have no more
than I want - this means polishing them, checking they do not include extra
lines, marks, images, etc, getting them to the right colour and light balances,
saturation, etc. Especially with stills work and black and white work, I will
have all along also imagined it in negative, and at this stage I will have
every image in positive and negative, ready to go. I tend to keep them in
making order so that I can remember where to find them. For the drawings I have
120 images, so 60 positive, 60 negative, which I can keep in my head.
Then I make the piece by making each frame or clip move as I
want it, bearing in mind what it will be moving into or from. During this
process I may reorder them, make them go forwards or backwards, and as if
moving in another dimension, near or far. I find that the pace of the work
emerges then - what seems right overall, which I can micro-vary or disrupt as
appropriate. I balance the strength of images with the more subtle, perhaps the
background with foreground, bearing also in mind the extra shapes and imagery
created by layering and juxtaposition and negative spaces.
I'm including all the shades and versions of the images I
can muster, while also editing away weaker or boring ones I try not to linger
too long on the most interesting parts, but echo those or counter them with
something different. All this while I will usually still be thinking of a title
and some writing to summarise the work, and which is part of the work, and so
it seems that here I am seeing and understanding what the work is about, and
looking for ways of grasping and expressing that. I am also looking for beauty,
and other things that I might describe as lack of scale, certain illusions of
movement, conflicting time-lines, subtlety, things that can be mistaken for
something else, suggestions, a certain clarity.
I have multi-streams of moving image in my head with these
images, which I aim to resolve in one flow, like a complex thought. What is
going on in my head is employing, stretching, breaking the rules in my Art
Manifesto. I add to these rules and discoveries through each work, and
sometimes have unifying theories about my working and creative processes, which
I adopt from then on.
Crucially, what I refer to when actually making work is
aesthetics and imagery I have made before or seen and registered - ways of
looking at things, memories, works I have made. I look to my own visual
language and repertoire and make those links and connections. That is the only
validity for me. Everything else, outside ideas, influential artists, novels,
films, are all secondary.
Research
I subtitled this
Research page: “A Search For Context” . I have been more used
to allowing audiences to draw their own conclusions about links and context,
but now see that referring to other ideas and works only opens more doors
rather than closing them. I linked references and images of artists, writers
and musicians to my own work and concerns in art.
Something that really struck me about Turner and Monet, was
that these painters' vision was at the very brink of the leap into abstract.
Some paintings could have been painted yesterday, or tomorrow, with everything
that has happened in art in the 20th century informing them - a type of
abstract expressionism expressed through colour. It's only with a final
suggestion of form, a slight focus of colour suggesting place or landscape,
which make them a picture of something. A denseness indicating the sun.
It's such an intriguing thought to wonder if Turner or Monet
ever truly thought of missing out the signifyer of reality, or if that thought,
that a painting was not a painting if it did not have some connection with
landscape, however tenuous, simply did not yet exist in the shared mind. There
must have been points while painting, or in mixing their paints, when the
colours and form already seemed complete, that it already delivered the emotional
and imagined world they were creating. Today we would read their palettes as
works of art rather than byproducts.
When I was at music college I joined what was then the 20th
Century Music ensemble. I found I really took to playing some contemporary music
and interpreting some challenging scores. At home I was listening constantly to
various pieces including Steve Reich Violin Phase. I remember vividly the first
time I heard it - it struck me as exactly the way my mind works. I also related
to the out of synch, different timescales - it reminded me of when I was about
ten and used to go to sleep with a watch on each wrist, listening to them go in
and out of time with each other.
I have not particularly noticed before the painter Ed
Ruscha, but browsing through Art And Today, his painting jumped out at me. These
movie stills as paintings seems so exciting to me, such an insight. I have for
the previous Exploratory Project in the MA collected and used such stills and titles
for a Moving Image piece.
As imagery, I have felt there is much more for me with that,
and I feel really thrilled with Ruscha's paintings. They give an insight into
time and the medium of film and how we experience the convention of created
film time in the way that Gerhard Richter's paintings reflect to us,
conversely, insight into the photographic image and how our sense of vision is
reflexive with the photographic images we look at - we remember memories
through photographs - they become our memories. Roland Barthes also talks about
this in Camera Lucida. Richter's paintings are indebted to photography as
Ruscha's are to cinema. Richter somehow shows us both the truth of what the
camera sees, and the falsity of vision. Through painting, and the
transformation of medium, the transposed medium is enlightened.
Scheduled
Conversations
I had scheduled
conversations with MA students Alexa Cox in June, Clare Parfree in July, Jo
Keeley in September, Jennifer Mawby and Sarah Lundy in November. We discussed
our progress in the Studio Practice unit and the MA in general.
Alexa. Alexa
talked of the things the MA has made her feel challenged by, and how it has
made her look at her painting more critically in order to progress - to really
see them as others see them. My challenge with the MA so far is not so much
about the art, but all about the framework. The reason I'm doing the MA at all
is so that making my art would not just end with me, but would actualise
somehow in the artworld. Assessing and reassessing everything is indeed
challenging - ploughing through the restructuring and paradigm shift of the
dyslexia tutorials, trying to restructure.
Clare. I am
reminded to research as I go along, as intended. Rather than pulling in all
sorts of random possible related things, or all things drawing, I am looking
for relevance in approach, and may hone in on practitioners in other fields
such as music or writing. I almost find it too distracting and confusing to
research everything possible. That must be edited and chosen for a point - to
create a case. At the moment my drawing project is about the process and where
it leads me - with the moving image end in mind - I am looking to create a
structure directly drawn from a more subconscious part of my mind.
Jo. In the MA we
all feel a little disconnected at the moment, with Emma leaving and other
issues. It's actually reassuring for each to hear they seem something rather
than a piece of paper when looking at work, and progress and depth. Also
noticed that in recent group crits and seminars - we may feel a bit more
scattered, but there is progress being made.
Jennifer. Both
agreed that having time, or the space to really think deeply enough about work
is what is essential and missing, or out of synch. Such head space has to fit
in - we multitask - think about things while travelling, etc, but that is not always
enough - and for both of us - not enough now. Commitments and life and worries
are pressing, but there is no alternative. There may not be three consecutive
days to take, but I am going to schedule a day to think, without being
efficient and doing other things at the same time - just to think about the
drawings, work the moving image, to try to grasp it. That's all I need - to
gain a handle into its meaning so that I can make art from it.
Sarah. With the
assessment deadline very much in sight, Sarah and I discussed the essay,
statement and submission to finish. It's a good time to reflect how this year
is quite different to last, and how we have come on - or not. Writing an essay
doesn't actually get easier, and writing about own practice, and within 2,000
words, cramming in all research and so on, is a challenge.
Sound
This page contains
notes linked to research and thinking about sound and music, and charts some
ideas towards how I may translate ideas of sound for the drawings as minimalist
music.
I am considering my internal rules and preferences in making
sound pieces, and how these may differ or concur with my moving image and art
making methods.
I have been collecting sounds and ideas to use, thinking
about what sound the drawings may have, and the moving image. The sound is a
separate piece, and yet integrated and accompanying the rest. It must be
sympathetic yet potentially anonymous. I am constructing it by serial methods.
Serial music - generally from early 20th century composers
such as Schoenberg, creating new scales and new forms based on deconstructing
the traditional scale, and remaking it in more mathematically constructed
version - notably the twelve tone series - again generally, atonal and
irregular to a Western ear.
So I am using these structures as a model for sound,
constructing it as I construct the moving image from drawings, with every
changing, ever moving apparent repetition, and other things.
Sound for Drawings
Each of the sixty drawings has a sound. As they are layered,
so the sound is layered, although not necessarily synchronised. The principle
of minimalist music, although on a rather large and complex scale. It's such a
neat solution, and feels exactly right. It may take me a long time to realise.
I feel I could repeat variations of this entire project yearly for the life,
and perhaps I will - the drawings, the moving image, the sound, and how they
all connect and interrelate to each other.
Studio Practice
Structure
Have examined otherwise, I realise again that I find it
difficult to make work without a purpose or deadline, and do not like at all
having unending, open-ended practice or exploratory meanderings. I need to say
to myself and commit, that I am writing a novel, or making a piece of Moving
Image, or an exhibit for a specific project. It's the commitment more than
anything. I need to have it all mulling over in my mind, making the
connections, filling in the layers, ideas and solutions, and allowing the
creativity processes to lead me. Then I am able to explore, meander and
experiment. But I must have the reason, the idea or set of ideas I am
exploring, the concept I am attempting to manifest, the feelings and thoughts I
want to process through work.
I am taking on the structure of eight blogs for the Studio
Practice project - initially dividing the task into eight sections and updating
them as I go along, so that by the assessment at the end of the year, I will
already have them divided and formatted. It feels like a different way of
working - still linear, but more multi level as I go along. This has much to do
with recent dyslexia support, and evolutions in thinking and working practices
I feel I need to make for the MA. The reason I passed my degree was by
realising that I needed to break everything down into parts, stitch them
together, and then reform them in a linear fashion. Now, I feel I have come to
a pass where I need to work at things differently - integrating different
aspects at an earlier and more multiple way, so, for example, I weave research,
projects, working, etc, into work at a much earlier place, rather than
unravelling everything at the end.
I have assiduously pursued working through the Studio
Practice project as decided, and largely found it workable. Dyslexia tutorials
and IT training have added insight, but everything has to be worked through. I
perhaps I am just beginning to feel I am getting the hang of researching in
ways rather than patching things together. Thinking of allowing research and
references to seep into my work, to allow all that to be part of the work
rather than secretly behind the scenes.
It's been different. I have felt my mind working differently
and making new connections. No matter how much you try to do in advance, things
for all projects, exhibitions and this MA, can only all come together at the
end - and I could only hope and anticipate how everything, the essay, the
research, would work out. And so I found myself in a strange place in the end
while writing the essay - I found that, yes, I had developed the ideas and
research as I went along as intended, and yet, irony of ironies, there was
still a confusing gap about how to weave them all together - I have given
myself a workable solution, which involves frequent printing out, cutting and
pasting by hand, and patching in post it notes of research, and so on. In a way
I created a completely different way of arriving at a similar problem. It's
also bemusing for me to notice that while I am doing this, I am making the
moving image piece, which involves keeping multiple images and negatives of
images in my head, keeping in mind the variations of relations between them,
and imagining counter currents of video flowing in and out - basically a much
more complex process than forming the ideas into an essay. The visual things
and the concepts I can handle, but I have to resort to getting into a mess of
papers for the essay. As long as it gets somewhere in the end.
Writing
Although this MA is in Fine Art, it is an essential part of
my creativity to write. I've long been fascinated in the processes of
creativity, and what works for the individual, or generally. It's often a
process of discovering, or uncovering, inner mechanisms which are already
there, or of responding to ways of thinking and reasoning. I have written much
over the years, stories, poems. Over time I developed discipline in writing,
and figured out formats which made sense to me. I stopped the unsatisfying
writing of endless story and novel beginnings ideas, and realised that I was
much happier and infinitely more productive when I had committed to a
particular project, and therefore completed it.
Aspects of my own creativity mechanism which writing has
taught me, I have also applied to visual work. My approach is not identical,
and although I write or make artwork as different mediums in pursuing similar
aims and ideas, they are not directly related, and neither illustrative or
descriptive of each other.
The point now, is that in the three years before the MA, I
wrote two novels, each about a year-long pursuit. Since starting the MA I have
realised that I wouldn't really have the time to write another until it was
finished. However, I can't go back and unthink what writing novels has given
me.
Although I'm not a painter, I have done some paintings, and
I often think of writing novels or making moving image as working on a big,
complex abstract painting, with its own internal logic and equations.
Basically, although writing a novel is difficult, in fact gruelling at times,
it's wonderful to be so engaged and engrossed in solving all the problems
within, and finding the ideas which will propel towards completion.
Sky
I search the sky for the meaning
Of today.
Come on, clouds. Where is your metaphor.
I thought I spoke cloud,
Read it.
How can it be that it is all further away.
Further
Further
Evaporating like a cloud
I thought I could touch.
Installation /
Exhibition / Sound / Size / Equipment instructions
In exhibition, I would indicate from a variety of ways for
the moving image piece and the drawings to be shown. They may be shown
separately, as autonomous pieces, or together. A solo exhibition in a gallery
would show the pieces altogether, but mostly it is the moving image piece which
I intend to exhibit.
Over the last few years, I have experienced sending work
with specific installation instruction to galleries, only to find that in
exhibition these have been changed or compromised. Sometimes that will be for
pragmatic reasons, and sometimes it is to the detriment of the work – for
example showing moving image in unsympathetic bright light. However, these
experiences have made me flexible in the installation and curation of my work. Sometimes
I have been pleasantly surprised to see how work can thrive in unpromising
situations. Additionally, setting up exhibitions and pop-up gallery events have
given me an eye for installing work according to the venue, exploiting the
quirks of each place. Even white cube galleries tend to be irregular and could
host a variety of options for showing work.
As an artist it is fascinating to see the same work in
different venues, and there are a couple of works of mine I have had the
experience of seeing exhibited from a small TV monitor to a cinema screen to an
installation in an awkward space.
It is always my intention to make work that can adapt to
different exhibition contexts while ensuring that an intelligent and
sympathetic approach prevails. I like experimental approaches to display, and
personally set up multiple screens together when possible. I also appreciate a
more traditional projection in a dark space of a gallery, a setting which would
usually be my first default choice.
This is a long way of saying that although for a particular
exhibition venue or license, I understand the importance of specific
instructions, in this case for the MA assessment, the installation of this
piece is not what I wish to emphasise at this stage, but the work itself.
Ideally I would hang the sixty A3 drawings mounted in plain frames either all
around a room singly, or else closely together upon one wall. For the MA, they
are available as portfolio work.
I realise that seeing the moving image and the drawings
together is a very different experience from seeing them separately, and I
anticipate that I may exhibit them in both these ways. One is not dependent
upon the other, and I especially want the moving image piece to be able to
stand alone.
Projection and installation are possible for the moving
image, but for the moment, please view it through a TV monitor, an older style glass
fronted TV is my preference. I have not yet had the opportunity to see it
projected, and I do not object if you do that during assessment. The sound
volume should be comfortable.
Rogue frames or anomalies in the piece at this stage of near
completion will be edited out.
December 2012
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