MA Tutorial report 1

Date:     28^th Feb 2011                                   Tutor:  Emma Bulley

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Reflection on outcomes since last tutorial

The first tutorial. Discussed my current Vessels/bottles project, and the different layers or reflections and meanings of reflections, and how I would like to include the viewer in the artwork, but NOT ignoring the actualities of what they are actually looking at, i.e. glass, frames, etc.  Discussed where the meaning lies – with the viewer. Aiming for a direct visual experience, not dependant on over-curation or explanation, but those layers there for more exploration, therefore, not a thin punch line kind of effect, but one which has layers of depth, after drawing the viewer in. 

Emma suggested reading JJ Charlesworth, a theorist who talks of the importance of the aesthetic. I mentioned James Elkins, whose writing and ideas about art and the viewer I think about. Also talked about where the vessels work comes from, if it is a new direction. I think it is a strong continuum from moving image, as that is a quest for me to suspend image, making it exist in different ways, finding ways it will swim and move in the viewer’s vision. I have made new work for vintage equipment before, and find this a similar venture and a strong thread in my work. We talked of the rise of actualities in art – objects, aesthetic, experience, after a period of much theorising and curation.

We discussed  visuals we can’t really see (obscured like Mona Lisa behind screens) – where the eye invites and refuses, demands looking – Emma referred to my previous piece Mask, which is a moving image of a face mask drying, the eyes unrelentingly unblinking – an experience of time behaving differently for the viewer. Emma liked the directness, while other works are more subtle. I am definitely happier with subtlety. Also have other images with dismorphic and distorted images of the face – I have put in dropbox file some to give a bit of context to face images in bottles. In effect, perhaps I am the onlooker, my work is not cold but cool emotionally, perhaps controlled. Distant but present.

What does the viewer relate to – Emma found she related to Mask more than other images. As a viewer, does one relate to simple or subtle images – which is powerful/intended. Things to consider..

In Vessels/bottles, there are things to work through – avoiding sci-fi horror with disembodied eyes. Also making the initial impact to overcome the variety of the bottles display in itself.

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Current projected aims and outcomes

I would like to make some larger works, with more complex layers, to broaden and deepen the paradoxes. It usually takes me several weeks to make each moving image – the longest has been about 4 months – it’s very intense, about 200 – 300 hours I think, but if these have been poems or short stories, I want to write the novel now in Moving Image – spent a year or half a year on the same piece, and broaden and deepen it.

Themes in my work – I feel they are all current – the idea of presence, and how little of a suggestion you need to imply humanity. I am always hoping to find new ways to explore the relative aspects of time and have different ways of time existing in moving image – to give the experience and human reminder of the internal or life-long experience of time. It’s time I looked again at important elements in my work - space – spaciousness, spacelessness. And line. It’s a while since I really considered these. The whole thrust for me is the analogies I find between the experience of time, space, and the working of the inner mind. I feel all my moving image is about how thought works. I am seeking to express the internal universe.

Influence of novels and exploring and researching ideas – Sebastian Faulks, Joanne Harris.

Discussion and recommendations/further research

Robert Morris – glass cube at Tate Britain

Gillian Wearing – 60 minutes silence – 26 police

Sophie Calle

George Saxon – escalator, Housewatch

JJ Charlesworth – theorist/aesthetics

Sebastian Faulks –  novel - a Week in December – memory/time.

Bring to mind artists I relate to, influence me. Susan Derges, Surrealist photographers, like Man Ray. Saskia Olde Wobers – but without the narrative. I find it so difficult to do this – I’m quite resistant in a way – there’s so much! And it feels like pinning myself down or committing myself to something I don’t necessarily subscribe to, but I understand it helps to locate work.

Emma mentioned an artist who uses her hair as a paint brush. I notice that tutors often recommend to me artists and video artists who have a strong performative element in their work – people who capture the moment. Marina Abramovic. I feel this may relate to how I make the work and how I approach what I film – I do perform with intensity while I am filming, but it is not my intent. I feel that is a different kind of practice.

 I want to take material and performance and transform it into something else – something more considered and polished and edited and intended. I feel the performance is the material and the film is the art. I have to have a way in my mind to organise it all – to understand it to myself. I want to be able to sum it up and encapsulate it in a beautiful glint – a moving glint that makes me ponder in the right directions. I want art to work like music – you experience it itself – it is a musical experience, but it makes you think about how life is lived, about time, as well as what the music is about.

2nd March 2011

And another thing first tutorial

Have since remembered that Emma and I talked about where I position myself in art - not just in relation to other artists, but about what I am framing and including. She described the stance as cool - not emotionally distant, but definitely the onlooker. It's true that I do not like to intervene in any way - I will, and have stood around for hours waiting for the right reflections or shadows to pass my camera. I don't want to manipulate people and include them against their will. I mention this in relation to the project take two influences, where I plan to leave invisible traces upon a building.

3rd March 2011