In my ever de-cluttering mode I have been looking at my notebooks from the last two years and wondering if I should get rid of them. They are full of handwritten one liners, newspaper and magazine clippings, sticky post-it notes and paraphernalia. Have they been useful? Yes, as I realised when I looked back at them.
I am about to do an interview which will reflect on the experience of my solo show at An Tobar Arts Centre and the year long project it took leading up to the exhibition. I certainly feel more in control with my work. My approach is more considered and I feel more confident. There is a shift and I have taken a step forward even if it is not necessarily massive. When I look back at my notebook entries they seem unsure of themselves much more at the beginning than they do now.
I am piercing paper again. There is so much more that could be done.
I am thinking more along the lines of the sculptural qualities of paper, both on it's surface and now more directly as a 3 dimensional object. For example, depending which way you fold a piece of paper depends then on which way the fold line is raised on the paper surface. Which way should pierced holes be presented - flat side up, or tear side showing? The angle or slant of the pierced holes you are making create different surface patterns. What is the relationship between a folded line and it's neighbouring pierced holes? There are many questions.
I am thinking about scale and starting to consider working in series. This will take time, and I need to think about how repetition operates within my making, as a continuous process or in blocks of pattern or motion.
I went on a book making course last month on the island of Iona which was lovely and I met some very nice people all who wanted to create books for various different reasons. I'm still not sure I want to make books per se but certainly use the connotations of what books are about, their structure, shape, content etc. as influences in my work. As you will gather I have been paper folding, and stitching, folding and joining paper together - paper, holes, thread.
One of my notebook entries from the last two years writes "... state of homelessness to one of domesticity". I have been living in one place for over a year now, but am curious as I have little idea in what context this was originally written. We keep a clean and tidy home here but house keeping is not my main activity in life. When I think about the sentence, I'm starting to wonder if for me, my making has become my form of 'domestic'? Before it has often been paraphrased as a displacement activity, "something to pick up and put down", "something physical and practical to do", I quote.
My de-cluttering objective still exists but there is more of a sense of a re-use, re-cycle, make (do) and mend feeling. I still aim to get rid of the unnecessary 'clutter' in my life though, that doesn't stop.
Many articles are written about immaterial labour and that we as a society work (generally) in a service industry. Manufacturing and manual labour is on the down turn and the power that making things has for the human, either as a job or recreation is no longer high on the list within our lifestyles. Am I responding, with my choices in life and method of making, to what is happening in our culture?
I continue to question what is the role of the artist in society and I have had two interesting comments lately that could answer some of this. One was during my show when a gentlemen, being in the gallery with my work, realized the importance of process (through seeing me making) in his work and that it is not necessarily the end result that always matters. I think he worked in social services.
Secondly, and more recently, I had a chat with a stranger who had never thought about why someone is an artist. From our conversation it seemed to enlighten them. They had never actually thought about why someone would want to be an artist. We spoke about looking, feeling, being and questioning the world, whether it is on a personal or public, local or global scale.
As I continue to make, I've been thinking about the oscillation with my work between it's usefulness and it's uselessness, yet both stance have their merits, having value, balancing one another out intermittently.
Saturday, 13 April 2013
Friday, 1 March 2013
Blog 35
What was highlighted from my solo show last year is that there are five main threads to my practice:
Process, Performance, Sculpture, Materiality and Craft
and I would like to pursue these subjects in more depth.
So how and where do I go from the work that I made for my solo show, that is the big question for me having made something so big, so 'spectacular' and for so long (1 year)?
The first port of call was to take a look at Mark Rothko, the painter who my work has been referenced against a few times. I love the black pigment that I have been using but it is extremely messy and can be difficult to work with. How could I 'contain' the material whilst still retaining it's powdery quality? I mixed up two solutions of paint, one oil based, one water based, as samples to try, but the powdery texture seems to have been lost. I think I was more excited by the dust that collected on the paint surface whilst it was drying! What did come out of my investigation is that I should work in series, using small sections to make a large work, and continue to retain an overall blankness in initial visuality which on closer inspection is full of life (as my work does).
On the craft side I have been experimenting with crochet, having purchased a bigger hook which has made my samples a bit more successful! I am looking for a process that doesn't involve the formality of sitting to a table, something I can pick up and put down, and perhaps can be making when watching telly or taking a journey for example. I don't want to make clothes and I want to remain within a fine art context, but there are times when I like to be using my hands, 'fiddling' about. My drawing at the table can make my arms and hands ache and I need other methods of making to alleviate this from time to time whilst still enjoying the act of making. My crochet samples aren't that brilliant but I found the process very comforting which was a surprise. Perhaps it is a form of mending rather than the destructive process of piercing holes in paper?
From the crochet samples that I made, I traced their patterns onto paper and have started a large embossed series from one of them which I am still working on. I like the visuality of the patterned marks I have made and I need to think how to highlight some of these marks, bring them out, perhaps with graphite dust or ink? I don't want every mark to appear and I don't want every repetition to be exactly the same, but I would like to bring out some of the marks by the processes I employ, at random, like a trace, from the original embossed drawing.
The tracing template that I have used from the crochet sample could perhaps be plated up as a collograph, mechanical drawing verses hand drawing?
I also moulded another one of the crochet samples around a bowl as an exercise to see the potential of the crocheted material as a sculpture. The shape of the object produced isn't brilliant but it shows the possibilities for sculpture.
My work is usually repetitive, as process can be, but has always been as one whole piece. I have never worked with blocks of repetitions. I have read a new publication called 100 things not worth repeating: on repetition edited by Marianne Holm Hansen. Repetition can appear a negative but it can also be a way of working something out, learning something, an emptying out. What was interesting is the suggestion to what is happening in the gap between the repetition? And when is a repetition complete?
At some point in the future my partner and I hope to head out on the road again to travel a while and we have been talking about our possessions and what to do with them and what to get rid of. I often talk about the idea of de-cluttering and this is an ongoing 'project' of mine. I was reading about the artist Abraham Cruzvillegas in Art Review this last month who describes how some Mexican families build up their homes bit by bit, over time. It feels like I am taking my home down, bit by bit, material wise anyway, which actually is very refreshing.
When researching how to crochet, I came across how to make yarn from recycled materials. I love the idea of 'make do and mend', especially in these difficult economic times, but the concept of recycling, I suppose I'm thinking on the home front, feels problematic to me as it seems you just take one object and convert it into another object, and the object still remains, just in a different format. You still have all this 'stuff' and clutter.
I've had a go at making yarn from newspaper, tissue paper and then dress - making pattern paper, which I have carried around with me for the last eight years. I tried knitting with paper yarn which was disastrous as it kept breaking and had no 'give' at all. I had a rage and threw it on the floor!
I'm wondering if crochet and knitting are not the way to go forward in terms of art making, although the process has fed into some of the drawings I am making. I really like the look of the dress - making pattern paper yarn, but it feels complicated by it's subsequent knitted process. My work is simple, for example, a pierced hole in paper. What could I do with the yarn itself, as a material to look at and play with?
Finally, whilst making my paper yarn, I have been questioning how does or how can, or where, does (my) 'performance' come into this? I have learnt of the artist Ivano Vitali who will sit in a gallery space knitting on a gigantic scale, and another artist, Emma Noble who is currently at Aspex in Portsmouth, where she is sewing in the gallery cafe, producing new work as part of her exhibition. There is also John Court who exhibited and performed last year, sharing his drawing processes, at Spacex in Exeter, and Ralph Macartney who filmed himself drawing a banana, the film presented at the Jerwood Drawing Prize 2006. I'm sure there are many more examples to be had.
Next week I head off to the island of Iona for a bookmaking course. I don't necessarily want to make books per se but I am keen to open up the possibilities of paper, form and text, and take part in the opportunity to create in a new environment.
Process, Performance, Sculpture, Materiality and Craft
and I would like to pursue these subjects in more depth.
So how and where do I go from the work that I made for my solo show, that is the big question for me having made something so big, so 'spectacular' and for so long (1 year)?
The first port of call was to take a look at Mark Rothko, the painter who my work has been referenced against a few times. I love the black pigment that I have been using but it is extremely messy and can be difficult to work with. How could I 'contain' the material whilst still retaining it's powdery quality? I mixed up two solutions of paint, one oil based, one water based, as samples to try, but the powdery texture seems to have been lost. I think I was more excited by the dust that collected on the paint surface whilst it was drying! What did come out of my investigation is that I should work in series, using small sections to make a large work, and continue to retain an overall blankness in initial visuality which on closer inspection is full of life (as my work does).
On the craft side I have been experimenting with crochet, having purchased a bigger hook which has made my samples a bit more successful! I am looking for a process that doesn't involve the formality of sitting to a table, something I can pick up and put down, and perhaps can be making when watching telly or taking a journey for example. I don't want to make clothes and I want to remain within a fine art context, but there are times when I like to be using my hands, 'fiddling' about. My drawing at the table can make my arms and hands ache and I need other methods of making to alleviate this from time to time whilst still enjoying the act of making. My crochet samples aren't that brilliant but I found the process very comforting which was a surprise. Perhaps it is a form of mending rather than the destructive process of piercing holes in paper?
From the crochet samples that I made, I traced their patterns onto paper and have started a large embossed series from one of them which I am still working on. I like the visuality of the patterned marks I have made and I need to think how to highlight some of these marks, bring them out, perhaps with graphite dust or ink? I don't want every mark to appear and I don't want every repetition to be exactly the same, but I would like to bring out some of the marks by the processes I employ, at random, like a trace, from the original embossed drawing.
The tracing template that I have used from the crochet sample could perhaps be plated up as a collograph, mechanical drawing verses hand drawing?
I also moulded another one of the crochet samples around a bowl as an exercise to see the potential of the crocheted material as a sculpture. The shape of the object produced isn't brilliant but it shows the possibilities for sculpture.
My work is usually repetitive, as process can be, but has always been as one whole piece. I have never worked with blocks of repetitions. I have read a new publication called 100 things not worth repeating: on repetition edited by Marianne Holm Hansen. Repetition can appear a negative but it can also be a way of working something out, learning something, an emptying out. What was interesting is the suggestion to what is happening in the gap between the repetition? And when is a repetition complete?
At some point in the future my partner and I hope to head out on the road again to travel a while and we have been talking about our possessions and what to do with them and what to get rid of. I often talk about the idea of de-cluttering and this is an ongoing 'project' of mine. I was reading about the artist Abraham Cruzvillegas in Art Review this last month who describes how some Mexican families build up their homes bit by bit, over time. It feels like I am taking my home down, bit by bit, material wise anyway, which actually is very refreshing.
When researching how to crochet, I came across how to make yarn from recycled materials. I love the idea of 'make do and mend', especially in these difficult economic times, but the concept of recycling, I suppose I'm thinking on the home front, feels problematic to me as it seems you just take one object and convert it into another object, and the object still remains, just in a different format. You still have all this 'stuff' and clutter.
I've had a go at making yarn from newspaper, tissue paper and then dress - making pattern paper, which I have carried around with me for the last eight years. I tried knitting with paper yarn which was disastrous as it kept breaking and had no 'give' at all. I had a rage and threw it on the floor!
I'm wondering if crochet and knitting are not the way to go forward in terms of art making, although the process has fed into some of the drawings I am making. I really like the look of the dress - making pattern paper yarn, but it feels complicated by it's subsequent knitted process. My work is simple, for example, a pierced hole in paper. What could I do with the yarn itself, as a material to look at and play with?
Finally, whilst making my paper yarn, I have been questioning how does or how can, or where, does (my) 'performance' come into this? I have learnt of the artist Ivano Vitali who will sit in a gallery space knitting on a gigantic scale, and another artist, Emma Noble who is currently at Aspex in Portsmouth, where she is sewing in the gallery cafe, producing new work as part of her exhibition. There is also John Court who exhibited and performed last year, sharing his drawing processes, at Spacex in Exeter, and Ralph Macartney who filmed himself drawing a banana, the film presented at the Jerwood Drawing Prize 2006. I'm sure there are many more examples to be had.
Next week I head off to the island of Iona for a bookmaking course. I don't necessarily want to make books per se but I am keen to open up the possibilities of paper, form and text, and take part in the opportunity to create in a new environment.
Friday, 8 February 2013
Blog 34
It is the start of a new year for me, a month late perhaps, but we have been on holiday, over in Portugal where we stayed for the winter of 2010/11. It was wonderful to go back and visit the area and meet up with friends. We have certainly got the travel bug again. But hey, back to the grindstone and it's time to get back to work.
I have one more piece of filming to do with Stephen Hurrel for the documentary of my working process and this will complete my year long project at An Tobar Arts Centre on the Isle of Mull.
In March I am going on a three day course to learn more about book art and making with paper. I will be staying on Iona, a small island just off the Isle of Mull. I am really looking forward to this creative experience and the chance to explore paper and books, and with a stay on Iona.
I have joined a group called Plastic Propaganda. Visual artists, painters, sculptors, printmakers and writers, the group have an active programme and have invited me to join them for one of their shows in Amsterdam this summer. If anybody can offer me information on accommodation, places to visit, and things to do, art opportunities, please let me know. I would like to stay out there if possible for the duration of the show, with a residency, or project.
Whilst on holiday I had the luxury of reading time and am just about to finish my forth book, couldn't quite finish it before coming back to the UK. They all involve travelling in one way or another.
The first was by Jose Saramago 'Journey to Portugal'. A famous Portuguese writer, his book is written in the third person, referring constantly to '... the traveller...' (himself). What struck me with this style of writing was his personal account of what a traveller is, or could be, or is not, as compared to a tourist or visitor. The best bit was the last paragraph when he describes "The end of one journey is simply the start of another". How true, this could relate to a lot of things in life.
My next two books were by Scottish author Kathleen Jamie, 'Findings' and 'Sightlines'. An excellent read, simple to understand, relating to the everyday, including snippets of family life, mostly about and surrounding the countryside of Scotland. Kathleen follows her interests with research trips which she then writes about or 'reports back', as a big part of her text. Most of my working life has been in research and development and I like how her research feeds into her love of writing and her writing feeds into her love of research. It can even be something she is curious about outside her backdoor.
My last book, nearly finished, I am attempting to read electronically, on my iPad. If and when we go travelling again, I will not be able to take all my books with me. It is a travel log of a young man's trip around the coast of Britain, something we did back in 2009/10. Happy days, happy memories...
I have done a little making whilst we were away. I have been crocheting, well, trying to. Ever ambitious, I am using the finest embroidery thread and a small crochet hook to try and create a lace effect / string net / spider's web / cluster of holes. I have since come home and purchased some bigger needles. I want to find a process that I can sit and do without the formality of using a table, and still working with my hands, as a process activity.
I also need to create an artwork for Amsterdam.
http://www.plasticpropaganda.co.uk
I have one more piece of filming to do with Stephen Hurrel for the documentary of my working process and this will complete my year long project at An Tobar Arts Centre on the Isle of Mull.
In March I am going on a three day course to learn more about book art and making with paper. I will be staying on Iona, a small island just off the Isle of Mull. I am really looking forward to this creative experience and the chance to explore paper and books, and with a stay on Iona.
I have joined a group called Plastic Propaganda. Visual artists, painters, sculptors, printmakers and writers, the group have an active programme and have invited me to join them for one of their shows in Amsterdam this summer. If anybody can offer me information on accommodation, places to visit, and things to do, art opportunities, please let me know. I would like to stay out there if possible for the duration of the show, with a residency, or project.
Whilst on holiday I had the luxury of reading time and am just about to finish my forth book, couldn't quite finish it before coming back to the UK. They all involve travelling in one way or another.
The first was by Jose Saramago 'Journey to Portugal'. A famous Portuguese writer, his book is written in the third person, referring constantly to '... the traveller...' (himself). What struck me with this style of writing was his personal account of what a traveller is, or could be, or is not, as compared to a tourist or visitor. The best bit was the last paragraph when he describes "The end of one journey is simply the start of another". How true, this could relate to a lot of things in life.
My next two books were by Scottish author Kathleen Jamie, 'Findings' and 'Sightlines'. An excellent read, simple to understand, relating to the everyday, including snippets of family life, mostly about and surrounding the countryside of Scotland. Kathleen follows her interests with research trips which she then writes about or 'reports back', as a big part of her text. Most of my working life has been in research and development and I like how her research feeds into her love of writing and her writing feeds into her love of research. It can even be something she is curious about outside her backdoor.
My last book, nearly finished, I am attempting to read electronically, on my iPad. If and when we go travelling again, I will not be able to take all my books with me. It is a travel log of a young man's trip around the coast of Britain, something we did back in 2009/10. Happy days, happy memories...
I have done a little making whilst we were away. I have been crocheting, well, trying to. Ever ambitious, I am using the finest embroidery thread and a small crochet hook to try and create a lace effect / string net / spider's web / cluster of holes. I have since come home and purchased some bigger needles. I want to find a process that I can sit and do without the formality of using a table, and still working with my hands, as a process activity.
I also need to create an artwork for Amsterdam.
http://www.plasticpropaganda.co.uk
Thursday, 13 December 2012
Blog 33
Here are some images of my Solo Show at An Tobar Arts Centre on the Isle of Mull which is running until the end of December 2012.
Installation Shot
Installation Shot
Installation Shot
Pierced White Paper - Detail
Installation Shot
Pierced Black Paper - Detail
Installation Shot
Photographer: Shannon Tofts
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Blog 32
I am into the third week of my solo show at An Tobar Arts Centre on the Isle of Mull and it is only now that I feel ready to write again and express myself verbally. The week setting up the show was quite traumatic in an emotional sense, something quite personal, the culmination of a project which I have been studying all of this year. The art I have been making is no longer private but out in the public domain. This week I feel calm again and on a new level. I have ventured back into my studio and am writing this whilst in there.
The installation in the gallery looks stunning and the beyond what I had expected it to do. By opening up the 10 meter roll of paper you can see all the tiny marks I have made on it over this last year with islands of pigment and trails of holes, minuscule marks and all over pattern. It looks quite painterly, someone had remarked a bit like a Rothko painting, and I never could have planned what has appeared before me, consciously, knowingly.
It is hard to photograph what the naked eye can see to something through the digital lens and yesterday a professional photograph came to visit me at the gallery to take photographs for my portfolio - results to follow in due course.
I go into the gallery a couple of times a week to carry on piercing the paper and I intend to finish the work right to the very end of the roll during the time of the exhibition. I want to provide creative transparency with what I do for the viewer, by making in public. It is performative, staged, yet real, a visual conversation about what is an artist's studio and what is a gallery; what is private and what can be public, and what I do as one representative of the art world.
I am fascinated by the response of the viewer. Some people are unsure whether they can come into the space or not, and if I am there I deliberately make eye contact and smile, inviting them in silently, and then carry on working. Some come in, some don't; Some ask questions (sometimes loads) and some don't speak at all.
The film I have made with Stephen Hurrel supports the paper work in the room providing context, stimulation and thought to what I do and who I am. It runs with a mixture of sound, visual imagery and silence, and not all at the same time. A couple of people were caught fiddling with the projector because they thought the film wasn't playing properly. I found this quite amusing. My art is quite new for some of the audience.
A gentlemen came in yesterday and said how my work was helping him to think about his work. Not an artist, he was realising as he contemplated my work, the importance of process in his job and not the end result. We are too often a results orientated culture. Later on he came to find me again and said 'I feel relaxed now'. It is a pleasure knowing that I have helped somebody with something in their own world through my art. I question the role of the artist in society and I got one answer yesterday.
I am re - engaging with the work now it is in the gallery space and had quite an intense day with the photographer photographing me. I worked and he clicked away. He could tell when I was getting tired as the rhythmic sound of my piercing faltered. I am looking forward to Stephen, the film maker, coming back and studying this further. Not only have we made a film to show during the exhibition, Stephen is creating another film that documents the whole process from start to finish, a recording of the whole project. We are at the third stage of this piece - the gallery.
I am trying not to indulge in too much other artwork at the moment, wanting to concentrate on this show as my priority. Rebecca Gordon, who has written an essay to accompany the show, has described my practice perfectly and helped me to understand with more clarity what I do. There are some new threads forming, creative thoughts on what I should do next and I look forward to taking further what she has written.
The show is still young and it will interesting to see how the next few weeks develop, with more responses from the viewer, the completion of the film and the continuation and finishing of the artwork within the gallery space. A lot could still happen.
The installation in the gallery looks stunning and the beyond what I had expected it to do. By opening up the 10 meter roll of paper you can see all the tiny marks I have made on it over this last year with islands of pigment and trails of holes, minuscule marks and all over pattern. It looks quite painterly, someone had remarked a bit like a Rothko painting, and I never could have planned what has appeared before me, consciously, knowingly.
It is hard to photograph what the naked eye can see to something through the digital lens and yesterday a professional photograph came to visit me at the gallery to take photographs for my portfolio - results to follow in due course.
I go into the gallery a couple of times a week to carry on piercing the paper and I intend to finish the work right to the very end of the roll during the time of the exhibition. I want to provide creative transparency with what I do for the viewer, by making in public. It is performative, staged, yet real, a visual conversation about what is an artist's studio and what is a gallery; what is private and what can be public, and what I do as one representative of the art world.
I am fascinated by the response of the viewer. Some people are unsure whether they can come into the space or not, and if I am there I deliberately make eye contact and smile, inviting them in silently, and then carry on working. Some come in, some don't; Some ask questions (sometimes loads) and some don't speak at all.
The film I have made with Stephen Hurrel supports the paper work in the room providing context, stimulation and thought to what I do and who I am. It runs with a mixture of sound, visual imagery and silence, and not all at the same time. A couple of people were caught fiddling with the projector because they thought the film wasn't playing properly. I found this quite amusing. My art is quite new for some of the audience.
A gentlemen came in yesterday and said how my work was helping him to think about his work. Not an artist, he was realising as he contemplated my work, the importance of process in his job and not the end result. We are too often a results orientated culture. Later on he came to find me again and said 'I feel relaxed now'. It is a pleasure knowing that I have helped somebody with something in their own world through my art. I question the role of the artist in society and I got one answer yesterday.
I am re - engaging with the work now it is in the gallery space and had quite an intense day with the photographer photographing me. I worked and he clicked away. He could tell when I was getting tired as the rhythmic sound of my piercing faltered. I am looking forward to Stephen, the film maker, coming back and studying this further. Not only have we made a film to show during the exhibition, Stephen is creating another film that documents the whole process from start to finish, a recording of the whole project. We are at the third stage of this piece - the gallery.
I am trying not to indulge in too much other artwork at the moment, wanting to concentrate on this show as my priority. Rebecca Gordon, who has written an essay to accompany the show, has described my practice perfectly and helped me to understand with more clarity what I do. There are some new threads forming, creative thoughts on what I should do next and I look forward to taking further what she has written.
The show is still young and it will interesting to see how the next few weeks develop, with more responses from the viewer, the completion of the film and the continuation and finishing of the artwork within the gallery space. A lot could still happen.
Photographer: Shannon Tofts
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