Reflective Interviews

Interviewing and being interviewed in groups, 22nd July 2013.

My questions and interview of Alexa:

1. Did the Reflective Practice unit go as planned, or were there unexpected developments?

Still half way through the unit. Didn't plan except for the reflective strategy. No concrete idea to start, but honed in on certain aspects such as colour.

2. Have you discovered new aspects to your art practice?

Yes. Realised things. Had to let go something previously thought ok. Thin layers now towards gestural painting. Still like the initial MA painting, and retaining the translucency, but have let go of the aesthetic for the sake of the idea. Something of a revelation.

3. Have you reinforced and recognised aspects of how you work?

Still using similar techniques of drawing, painting and photography, but monthly reflection gives more revelation of the idea coming through, rather than more immediate reflection which tends towards technical skill.

4. How has your work and practice developed since the beginning of the MA?

Hugely. In the way I think. Physical appearance completely changed - more factors. Was simple and easy, now complex, coded and multi dimensional. Still looks like my work, but polarised. Investigating the journey from there to here.

5. What ideas/artists inform your work?

Reading Marina Warner - Metamorphoses - hatching, splitting. the constructed narrative. Anti chronology - a series and what characters and scenes the viewer encounters. Still lusting after Peter Doig's paintings. Also Paula Rego, but more the process of making in the studio, the history and performance behind works. Want to keep away from the fairy tale and be more menace-like. Setting up a power struggle or dialogue.

6. Do you think there are other media and genres you could work in?

Not moving away from the idea of narrative - it strings everything together. Have used video still for movement in painting. Would like to do more printmaking for graphic qualities, also for series and replicas. Would like to make objects, creatures, animal heads, not as sculptures really but more as props.

7. How would you describe yourself as an artist?

Prolific. Slow.

8. What advice would you give to a much younger you?

All the decisions you make now will work out, so have confidence in your own confidence.


Reflection

Alexa had some really deep and interesting responses to my questions, and really came up with points to ponder. we discussed how a couple of years ago she had found it very difficult to talk about her work at all, but now has the vocabulary and the examination of ideas to be able to talk to anyone.

...................................................................................................................................................................

Alexa's interview of me:

1. Which was the most challenging aspect of the reflective strategy?

Coming up with a reflective tool which would work throughout the unit proved difficult, and caused my reflections to be more disordered and chaotic than they would normally be if I had reflected more organically as I went along, responding to happenings rather than to a time-scale. I have a lot of notes and filling in to do.

2. If you were beginning the unit now, what would you do differently?

Em. I actually glad of the tussle because it has been an interesting, deepening and reflective process, although I still feel I have a lot of work to do to resolve disparate work for the assessment. But if doing it again, I would allow the reflections to evolve more naturally.

3. To what extend do you work outside your comfort zone?

This question had me a bit stumped, as I thought a. I didn't, b. I don't have a comfort zone and c. I don't relate to the question. I suppose collaborating and allowing others to make creative decisions in my work is uncomfortable, so that would be outside my comfort zone.

4 .How have you developed or changed practice since the MA?

At first I was very reluctant to allow other aspects to be part of my work, to show where my ideas have come from, what other artists and influences I think about. Those things were private to myself, and now it has become second nature to be open and explicit about them, and I see the point of doing so, in location and referencing ideas. We all this year have recognised the codifying elements in out work, and I work at those levels much more consciously now. I have allowed all sorts of aspects to be part of my work - music.

5. What are you taking into the next unit?

Hopefully the different rooms I am working in, the street and brick imagery, and unpeeling what they mean to me, and the Symphony moving image piece, will come together into one resolved piece of work. I like to reconcile ideas and give myself a big problem to solve, but this still seems cryptic. And so, assuming everything works out alright in the end - soon, what I will take into the next unit is this way of integrating both what I plan and what happens, no matter how disparate.

6. And what are you leaving behind?

Doubt. I am sure, but clearly there is still doubt. Doubt doesn't do any good, so I may as well leave it behind.

Reflection

More difficult to takes notes of and summarise my own responses. My answers seemed more split than I am really feeling, but at this stage in the unit I am still unravelling work before I build it all up again. I know that must happen soon, and so those different elements to resolve are in dialogue. Alexa said she sees me as sure and speculative - a perhaps person. I am aware that the deeper I get I both seek to define my work and make it indefinable.

...................................................................................................................................................................

Group Reflection

This was a good conversation, but rather marred for me by fiddling about with my headset and losing audibility. I think there is a consensus amongst we MA group, now that we have been through nearly three years together, that we have built up a good place of trust in discussing work and other issues. The Reflective Practice unit has made sense of all previous study, and embedded many of those skills and attitudes in our practice.

We all found the interviews enlightening, and also found unexpected responses emerge. there is a feeling of trusting space and time around work, giving the cycle of thinking, reading and making and so on their proper place, and not panicking due to lack of immediate production. Wheels of creativity are still turning, and the value of downtime is in investigating what lies under the work.

Having a reflective process gives a logic and scientific approach to what can be a very esoteric world. It's time to prove one's thoughts and prove yourself right. It grounds floating ideas and gives roots, a foundation and a framework to develop from.

I particularly like this analogy - that it is like showing your workings out in a maths exam. It puts mistakes and decisions into context, and means you can retrace thoughts and go in different directions.

The question is how to apply this to the rest of the MA and beyond. the process and mechanics of how to reflect is still forming through this unit, and I personally will allow a form to emerge through a more organic method. But method there must be - the point I tried to make is that it makes a difference whether the thoughts rattling around your head are always just your own, like a self justifying autodidact, or whether you allow and build in another voice or angle so that the reflection relates to the world. Talking to other artists in context is key, as is having a critical process of reflection.

Time periods also make a difference, whether the reflection is immediate, or given time to process and ponder. The process works deeper when reflections are revised. New perspectives occur, and reminders of ideas not yet followed through.

23rd July 2013