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03.06.2020 - Unfinished Work - whats next

Throughout the course of the MA I have started work that has been put to the wayside after feedback from tutorials. This post going to detail the work that is outstanding and future plans for that work, how it will inform practice, and what I intend to do after the MA with the unfinished work. Also what the unfinished work was supposed to be, the intention behind the work in the first place that hasn’t been fulfilled because there wasn’t enough time etc.

Wax paper experiments:

working with wax, a material that I found so much joy and satisfaction in using. It came about purely via a discussion with a friend about casting things, he knows my practice pretty well and how I like to touch strange things. His business is in special effects/events and he offered me the wax pot after I expressed my frustration at not being able to create transparent layers. The wax is just paraffin wax it doesn’t dry completely clear, I have yet to figure out a solution for that, but I started to play with coating my books in wax looking at fragility. This in capsulation aspect relates to access to knowledge, again with regards to suppression and females in the Middle East. There’s a lot of restrictions on information that’s allowed to be shared as well as information that we have access to. A lot of books that I own have been left at home in the Uk due to content. It lead me to think about the ways in which we protect information now, we are all using passwords and encryptions. Here, customs check books before they come into bookshops and if they have inappropriate content they will put sticky labels over it or even stick pages together in children’s books, a magazine will have a marker pen scrolled through the content.

I’m also thinking about transportation of information, how wax-seals were used to stop people from reading mail. I was considering how coating pages in wax would still allow the information to be seen but would obscure it slightly. It would also stop it from being censored by pen or sticky label.

The wax makes the paper really fragile, as you turn the pages the wax cracks and crumbles. We encrypt secure information but it can be accessed at any time people can get into our information and identities can be taken and password can be unlocked people are always watching you; under surveillance, especially now with a pandemic.

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The large scale drawing:

I love drawing, it’s also a medium and technique that frustrates me greatly. Similar to language, in a sense, as what I wish to put down on paper and what actually emerges are very different. Due to my issues with Attention Deficit Disorder I find it difficult to really concentrate and spend time on a drawing, so this large drawing was a challenge to myself. It’s a copy of a watercolour and ink piece I created prior to the MA. Actually it is a piece that was fundamental in re-establishing my practice after becoming a mother. Those pieces were really rushed; ink and watercolour, done during nap time. It felt like an appropriate thing to revisit to spend time on since motherhood has become a part of my life, it feels like time is really at a premium and difficult to come by. I feel very rushed in a lots of activities including the MA, trying to juggle the many roles that women have in their lives.

The drawing was really the beginning of me trying to slow my practice down. I am intrigued by the time spent on work by artists, and this was highlighted to me by a TED video by the artist Louise Despont:

https://www.ted.com/talks/louise_despont_thinking_with_our_hands_a_story_of_drawing?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

Louise Despont Ted Talk - accessed 03 May 2020

She draws with architectural stencils, currently living in Bali and also working with local craftspeople. I’ve been following her for quite a few years now, her drawings are painstakingly beautiful. She does outsource and collaborate and she has an assistant with her in the studio because since becoming a mother she was finding it increasingly difficult to create work. I think outsourcing is one of those things as an artist that is a difficult hurdle to deal with. There is a lack of control when you outsource but the intention is still there in that you are in the work and you’re telling somebody what you require from them.

After the MA, the intention is to slow my practice down and concentrate more on the key skills, the things that have frustrated me over the years. Now, with the residency motherhood, I’m planning to go back to painting and drawing and really start to bring together the materials that I have explored in the Masters. Looking at the materiality how to bring wax into the painting, what happens if I mix my pigments with the drawing and the temporariness of some of the drawings, especially with water-soluble charcoal and graphite; I can draw all over canvas and then place it in a shower and it’s gone with the acrylic paint underpainting still remaining.

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Collage:

There is a lot of collage work so I wish to. I’m looking forward to exploring aspects of my practice I’ve restricted so I do want to look into figurative work and figure out a way I can maintain that in the practice discreetly. Can I express what I need to do with sensuality and exposure without it being inappropriate or perhaps being discreet and hidden in unless you know it’s there.

Books:

I feel like my bookbinding skills are quite basic, still there is a lot of work to do to refine that and alongside the poetry work. There is a quiet joy in writing the poem is out and making these booklets. The works I’ve written for the final piece are currently unbound but I plan to bind them by hand together.

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Language works:

I really have flourished writing and speaking these language pieces. There is a poetry group in Dubai that I am going to look into contacting, I am already friends with a couple of people so I plan to maintain those relationships. I have around 200 poetry works in that are written, they’ve been typed up in a document, some of them need work, some of them don’t, so I’m intrigued as to how I can move this forward

02.06.2020 - audio and rewrites

This post is later than intended.

I have spent a lot of time speaking to myself over the past couple of weeks. My evening runs have slowed to walks and I take my microphone with me; those were not good recordings but I needed the practice of speaking the pieces.

I recorded over and over, opting to work in my car as it was the quietest place that I could access due to lockdown restrictions. I had to record at night when traffic was stopped and people were quiet. The rooster next door had other plans, as did the smaller birds.

I spoke, I swore, I spoke some more. I recorded for hours and lost the audio as my computer over heated. I borrowed my partners professional microphone and used that instead.

I edited.

The works did not flow from my mouth as easy as I would have liked, so I re-wrote them. And re-spoke them. Over and over.

I don't have space for them all but there are some singles here:

I edited some together as material groups, below are some examples:

I don't know whether to leave these as clusters or to create a large audio piece of the book format. I will try both and decide for the exhibition.

I like the idea of creating a piece that could be dipped in and out of, if it was in a physical gallery space it would be on a loop, so audience members would pick up headphones and join the track at the moment it was playing rather than at the beginning or the end.

28.05.2020 - Contextual Study reflection and Artist Statement

The contextual study was a struggle. I really felt so overwhelmed by it, I had so many ideas and was trying to cover so much. After a much needed discussion with a tutor I felt I was in a place where I could make some sense of it.

After it was finished I genuinely felt proud of it, I don't know if it is suitable for the submission but I do know it is written in my voice and expresses my practice and the things that have influenced it. Fingers crossed.

When it came to writing my statement for the exhibition it felt natural to revisit the study and utilise some of the descriptions from it. Below is the long version of my statement. for the catalogue it was reduced to 150 words.

Statement

Through my practice, I have found my voice and the many forms it can take. My work expresses the sensuality that is denied in societal conversations; it is touch that is prohibited for being too provocative, the language that is too sensual. Positioning tactility, that is taken for granted, and the sensual aspects of language, that is often muted, together to provide an encounter that questions their manipulation and consumption. Layering language into an overwhelm and packaging up the physical works to mirror the expectations and regulations that are placed on the female artists and many other women by those in positions of dominance.

My work is asking you to lose yourself in a moment, to experience the sensation of contact and material, to not think but to feel; to imagine. I am aware that there is a split in my practice, multiple truths, and by combining them something more potent has emerged, questioning…

I feel that my practice is quiet and unassuming, and I’m okay with that; it's easily overlooked as many women are. The agency is alive in the desire to share the work and subtly knock down the layers of women's suppression inherent in art theory and critique. Word by word, layer by layer, building a body of work, a catalogue, a tome of tablets; paper and performance that allow self-expression and the opening of opportunities for other women to allow freedom into their lives. Art and language combined are the tools to break boundaries, open eyes and change thinking; quietly and unassumingly. A ladder of language and material to climb out of the suppression, so large that it can not be ignored.

20.04.2020 - 24.05.2020 - After the Group Crit - Google keep notes

Notes from Google Keep:

22.04.2020-

We had a group crit and I offered up a possible sample page for my exhibition. I used a language piece I have been playing with for the past few months. It was initially submitted as a journal post (I think) in MA2, but just a typed piece, I wrote it out and explored how it would sound for this critique. See link below:

https://katievw.com/no-show-ma-fine-art-katie-venner-woodbridge

Now, let's not beat around the bush, this crit did not go to plan. My book format is housed on Issu, which means when it opens you get the Issu site and all their adverts etc, very distracting. I also included two audio files (also below) and had them BOTH on auto play and loop. this was too much and took away the control from the audience.

I was pleased with the feedback gathered from the critique however, regarding the content. The handwritten style of the poem gave it some personality and the layered audio was described as 'rich'. As the piece is read in the layered version certain words come in and out of frame, there is some coherency in the audio, but it wanes which draws the listener in.

25.04.2020 - Exhibition thoughts after the crit:

For the exhibition I want to present a book of the language pieces I have been working on over the duration of the MA3 year, and along side that I will present an audio file that will be my performance of the pieces. I have yet to decide whether I will perform the whole document or just a select few. I also need to decide on the order of the pieces.

As I have worked through the pieces a narrative has occured, the pieces are written about process during process. They can then be categorised as 'before, during, after' and also by their specific materials.

I have read a lot of poetry books over the past few months, contemporary poetry such as Wilder's Nocturnal, Rupi Kaur's Milk and Honey and Micheal Faudet's Dirty Pretty things, have a distinct style of presentation. They are defined by the partitions, these set the scene for the viewer.

Considering that style of the language works and how the context clearly changes the meaning, these sections are important, I feel, to open the works to readers who may require the guidance to digest the content. Not all audience members will have encountered the materials. The texts will be written in the material to give a visual nod to the references made by the artists for those without the tactile knowledge to grasp on to.

The language pieces clearly work to sexualise an inanimate object/material. In On Modern Poetry: From theory to Total Criticism, Robert rowland Smith addresses the object in poetry in a specific chapter. However I was left wanting more as he only discussed the use of urn and boxes etc, objects that have a funereal connotation and about the objectification on women. I would like to question how appropriate is it to discuss something that can’t talk back in such a manner? Sexualising is made ‘dirty’ and sin, and yet, women under go this inappropriateness regularly. My language works deliberately discuss the 'mess, dirt, dust' to get under the skin of the audience.

04.05.2020

Concentrate on contextual study

remember to write statement for exhibition

Add to PPP

Edit language pieces - speak first and edit after hearing

13.05.2020 - Exhibition Plans:

So the exhibition hasn’t gone to plan and everyone is quite upset about that. I was unsure of what I was going to exhibit in the Civic Center and decided I would make an illustrated booklet of my poetry pieces and then on the wall behind them I was going to enlarge some of the tiles, one or two of the pieces but really extra large. I have already scanned them in at a ridiculously high DPI so that they could be printed oversize and have the paper piece hang in the background.

Now that the exhibition is online that is unnecessary, I don’t need to fill the space with a visual thing to draw people in. Because we are using the website the book will be in an ebook format and it will still be illustrated and it will still be laid out as intended.

My concerns with the new format of the exhibition are regarding how many pieces to put up? What is considered a 'body of work'? I am considering the creation of a video from a section of poetry writing and audio submit or as a separate file with the audio files to be submitted as well like an album or EP of language works. How much noise can one voice make? Do I want it to be noise?

The issue is with the audio and whether we have the bandwidth on the server to have the audio on. It is an integral part of the work, so for it to not be present in the exhibition would be a problem.

In the process of designing the book for the final piece I am torn between how 'designed' I want it to be. I am hoping to achieve a professional looking publication that really emphasises the texture of the physical pieces.

With regard to the handwritten pieces, these make me feel so uncomfortable but can I write with a camera on my pencil/pen for video? Or over the top of my workspace? How would that sound with my words being spoken over the top?

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22.05.2020 - Eid weekend

Chat with friends over Zoom, we read bed erotic scenes from fiction to each other for a laugh. It gets me thinking.

I want to record my pieces in other voices, check the difference in agency. remove form myself. I pose the question and some agree.

23.05.2020

transcript of book section - pick one with a strong narrative (poss Wax)

write instructions for reading (normal, sultry, whisper)

consider how it will work with own readings

disclaimers?

Get in quiet space to read own work

Video drawing of handwritten pieces (redraw if needed)

photograph large canvas pieces

Check in with exhibition requirements with cohort.

24.05.2020

Transcript sent out and audio is collected. Files are huge, get help to cut them up. Using adobe audition I start to layer.

I had picked the Wax coversation, the narrative in this section has two voices, that of the casts and that of the hot wax. Leads to opportunity for male and female narraitve.

Male Dominated Narrative (hot wax)

Female Dominated Narrative (hot wax)

I worked with both and really enjoyed the female dominated audio. I opted to explore the layering of both together

Gendered Audio (blend)

This audio is fabulous, its overwhelming and deafening. I love the hissing of the 's' and the quiet moments when reads surpass each other.

However, I won't use this for the exhibition as I don't feel it has the same agency as one voice reading all the pieces. I have read some of my pieces and will upload in another post.

08.03.2020 - present - Social Distancing: a log.

Day 1 Sunday
Schools closed,
partner is at work,
child is home and I'm stuck
my work is inflexible,
the pressure is mounting so I resort to improvisations.
Pack a picnic, an armful of DVD's, iPad, chargers, laptop, water.
The car becomes a makeshift quarantine play area,
she's happy as she's with mum,
work will be happy as I/m
onsite and working on the server
the problem is,
they are not happy,
in fact, they think this is totally unacceptable.
I have to make arrangements I can't afford
or take unpaid leave
which I can't afford
why is my family being held accountable when I'm trying to do my job
when did reproduction become such an inconvenience to the masses
have they not considered that when they are elderly and need a specialist to save their life it might be my daughter?
When they need someone to turn on their water heater, fix their car, carry the shopping, our children may be the ones that will help?
I'm sorry that my breeding is such an inconvenience to you, I hope you are not seen as an inconvenience to today's young when you are old and need help.

Day 2 Monday
Let's make
we fold paper and chat about things we like,
coveting the pretty tapes strewn across the table
the time flows with giggles and sticky stuff
ideas are passed,
lunch is eaten
time is taken
lessons and concentration are enforced followed by play in the yard
bikes and chalk

Day 3 Tuesday
Tutorial
A productive day
paperwork is completed on time
dinner is cooked
children are occupied

Day 4 Wednesday
We make Notans
positive and negative space
expanding squares in times of restriction
play continues and time is gained in occupation

Day 5 Thursday
We make collages
the wind blows and giggles reverberate
paper and glue are a match made in quarantine
my offspring flourishes
the lack of creative restriction allows her to blend and position as she see fit,
a beautiful moment of creativity
trips to the supermarket for food
work is done in another's office
singing to kids songs
Birthday drinks and BBQs
almost cancelled due to contamination fears
friends making me laugh
meowing through the night

Day 6 Friday
Tears
feeling sick
advantages are taken
that's not appropriate
I'm not an object
you can't have me
Pool sitting
splashing and relaxing
time with family
pretend like nothing happened

Day 7 Saturday
Quiet time
working together
watching movies
running and eating
sleeping throughout the day
naps are needed by all it seems

Day 8 Sunday
no art today
we organise and make a plan
finding mixes for cakes
making objects from paper
playing and working in the house

Day 9 Monday
a birthday
cake
finding space in another person's place
getting work done
finding quiet before
a full house
swimming
pizza
fire and wine

Day 10 Tuesday
self-imposed lockdown 1
things have changed
anxieties have risen
overnight the tone has changed
we close the doors to playdates and cups of tea
we shut out the world and feel a little worried
meal plans are made
stocks are counted
arguments happen
tensions rise
I run

Day 11 Wednesday
self-imposed lockdown 2
a day of tension with the loved ones
no space
no listening
no let up
Driving too fast to get away
cycle place is closed
driving to a quiet space to cry
to feel sorry for myself
returning home to hostility
tensions maintained
distracted by
phone games with friends

Day 12 Thursday
self-imposed lockdown 3
more tension
a dead crow
fear-mongering
I'm losing my shit
I can't get a moments peace
I can't get any work done,
It's taken 6 hours two write this one piece.
I'm making planes, food, toys, more snacks, answering questions, getting drinks
Not doing any of the shit I actually need to do.
A walk is needed,
A walk works
with voice notes from friends
and songs to sing
and fresh air
for a moment's clarity
that I don't like being kept in.
The evening of games
via social media
friends keeping each other occupied

Day 13 Friday
waking in a better mood,
messages from friends spread globally
finding solace that for once this anxiety is shared
planning calls and making breakfast
teaching life skills and listening to music
folding more planes
making more plans
today we dance and sing
we take time apart in small corners of our tiny dwelling

The diary fell away, I had a meltdown, I got over it and then proceeded to melt down again.

I don't like restrictions, not many do, but some definitely cope better than others. There is talk of a new normal I feel that hides resentment, its another mask to cover the angst from the unknown.

I work, juggle, childcare, study, work repeat. Lather, wash, rinse, repeat. Women's labour comes under scrutiny, both for good and for worse, suddenly it appears we're over worked, suddenly we're more over worked. Default parent, default fixer, support worker, feeder, cleaner. suddenly the gendered roles come in to view, 'suddenly' as they were not there before, or perhaps they were just over looked with so many distractions.

27.02.2020 - 10.03.2020 - Photostudio session

Thursday's are the end of the working week in the UAE, it's a quiet day at work. I utilised the time to make use of the photographic studio at work. Precariously transporting all of my tiles to the studio in plastic tubs, shrouded in tissue and bubble wrap, slowing my SUV down over bumps to preserve my precious load.

I considered the state of the works and the black paper background so begain shooting the 'clean' works first, starting with the books.

My leporello books have been hoarded in plastic folders since the end of MA2, their only outing since their conception was the photo session on my living room floor for submission. I felt sorry for their neglected forms; their conjoined pages sleeping peacefully on top of each other or perhaps uncomfortable at the proximity and lack of breathing space, at least if they could breath that is.

Towering in a perilous pile,
teetering on the verge of collapse
I watch you
and pray
for one more moment
just a minute more of time
to admire your form
the innate elegance
of your form
stacked
displaying all your components
subtle foibles
I snap away
capturing this moment infinity
until you tumble down

All of the Books - Stacked

All of the Books - Stacked

Restricted Books

Leporello Books - unrestricted I

Leporello Books - unrestricted II

Leporello Books - detail

I splay you open
unceremoniously
you tumble on top of each other
looking for support you cannot give
As your insides slump to the ground
Your mass is sumptuous
A fibre, graphite and tape assemblage

Soap Faux Book I

Soap Faux Book I

Soap Faux Book II

Soap - Stacked

disappointingly only a few piece of soap tile, although their modesty allowed for opportunity. A faux book form as created, a consideration to display, to binding, and construction. how would this function, book of soap? How would it be held together, how long would it last. could the pages be turned, and if they could what or who's story would be told?

Wax -Stacked I

Wax -Stacked I

Wax - Stacked II

Wax and Plaster - Stacked I

Wax and Plaster - Stacked II

Wax and Plaster - Stacked III

Plaster - Stacked II

Plaster - Stacked I

Then I stack my wax tiles. These precious morsels of carbon and paraffin, flammable, meltable, solid yet fragile. Tiles of wax impregnated with drawing materials, monoprint combinations of hot liquid and cold pulverulence.

Automatically they take on a taxonomy of tone, the weight of the black pigment heavy at the bottom. This needs to be reset, a second session of differing taxonomies, of weight distribution, of material contrasts.

The light glimmers through their luminous forms, dissipating as the pigment consumes it lower down.

Steadily the plaster tiles of small form are placed neatly in their monolithic form, rising up to greet the wax stronghold, but missing the pinnacle.

Their codification is the antithesis of the wax, they lack luminosity, they are dense in their opacity, they are brittle in their fragility and smooth and powdery in their texture.

Wax and Plaster - Stacked IV

Wax and Plaster - Stacked IV

The large tiles complete the line up, their absorbing facades are hidden by each other, one lucky subject is exposed for admiration. How does it read to know there is the possibility of more faces to be seen, hidden in a mass of tiles. Multiples defined by the single that is credited with the dominant allocation.

Plaster - Stacked Precariously I

Plaster - Stacked Precariously I

Plaster - Stacked Precariously II

To contrast the classifications and grouping of the previous displays, These large tiles are given an opportunity to communicate. Piled high with a twist, exposing corners and edges that were previously unseen in the towers before. Dialogue ensues between the jostling of placements, the fighting for attention and consideration.

Tiles - Stacked Taxonomies I

Tiles - Stacked Taxonomies I

Tiles - Stacked Taxonomies II

Tiles - Stacked Taxonomies III

Finally the small tiles are arranged in aesthetics forms, with similar treatments grouped together in camaraderie. A bland a none taxing for of display. No mystery here, purely techniques that may or may not be deemed successful.