Feedback from coursemates (emailed due to internet going down)
nervous about putting ourselves and our work out there.
ways of doing so on our own terms, pushing the boundaries without breaking them. Quieter ways of engaging with an audience.
like idea of an unwitting audience, and showing work surreptitiously. - Changing someone's day when they stumble upon it.
why unsure of including your writing?
The video piece you made was intriguing, questioning, especially in the way the words linguistically morphed from one to the next.
The layering over each other reminds me of your layered drawings, and the act of making lines.
There is an insistent and urgency to it.
concentrating on the forming of words and wouldn't have noticed the hairband if it hadn't been pointed out.
Was it different performing the act of drawing to projecting a finished piece?
It was fascinating to see work projected in so many different spaces. a very brave thing to do. I imagined walking around constantly with a mini projector, how surprising it might be. Does it change things to be doing them by night?
Could abstract letter forms be part of your geometric visual language?
written work is strong and would love to see it entangle with the rest of your work.
How else could you use process/video? Where else could you find homes for it? (People love seeing them on Instagram, and they work well on artist's websites.)
some really interesting stuff going with the projections! I couldn't help but think about these in relation to the paper works you showed last week in the group crit, and wondered about projecting those images onto those"bookworks".
To test the boundaries they need to first be defined:
What are my boundaries:
This project, the physicality of contacting people - phone conversations make me feel sick, I get nervous at public speaking and I am not confident in my work, I sometimes feel like being an artist is a copout and I don't fully believe in myself or my work. I undervalue myself and am not very good at ‘putting myself out there’. (Eek!) Easily intimidated and compare myself to others to my own discouragement. I commonly think that if someone is doing something similar I should probably give up as its already been covered
So the limits of my work at the beginning of the project:
My work has been exhibited in gallery spaces - group shows
Work is traditional media - textiles, ceramic, paper
Largely concept - based on scope of people and routine - philosophy led
Audience is the arts community - friends rarely come as I don't invite them.
How to test the boundaries:
Work in new media
Exhibit work outside the gallery space
Rework concept, what am I actually exploring?
Find a new audience - an unwitting one? One that knows me but not my work? Invite friends to exhibition openings.
So what did I do?
It doesn’t feel like much (which makes me question my expectations of myself):
I performed a drawing work in class around students as they worked - this was projected onto the wall using the visualizer
My drawing performance for the students. I utilized the visualizer on my desk and the projector. (disclaimer: this is not the original piece, I forgot to take a photo of it in the set up so I printed a photo of it so I could do this! haha! )
I made video works and then submitted one of these for a group show
https://vimeo.com/304603717
This was initially a poem, I have felt unsure about including my writing as part of my practice but at this point it didn’t feel like a had a choice. The work became a video as I waited for my colleagues to submit their texts, I advanced my piece to performance. It is part of the Tashkeel group show Play, which opened on 12/03/2019. While the setting is the same as previous work, the audience for videos works differ somewhat.
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I submitted pieces I felt were ‘failures’ to a group show discussing artistic process and the act of failure, I also held workshops around expressive drawing techniques that lead to failures and took part in a panel discussion.
I produced a drawing piece during making day, filmed its production, edited it and overlaid it onto the finished piece and projected this in classrooms and public spaces.
The piece in production
Projected in Math during a cover period
Projected discreetly in Art
Projected on the big screen in Art
In the park by a road
Outside the supermarket
A driver stopped to watch
On a villa wall
Next to the liquor store and rider parking
The feedback
Drawing as performance:
When performing the act of drawing in front of students it was mainly awe which is flattering.
It was a useful device to open dialogue about artist expectations, talent vs hard work, process vs product.
They were keen to see the progress, coming in to check each lesson.
Some emulated in their own work, some did not engage with it at all but at that level art is not optional.
A few students used me as an example of why they won’t take art as they were intimidated and felt that they could not keep up with the expectations.
Video work in the gallery:
Those that commented gave congratulations, which is expected at an opening, although felt a little forced. There was not much dialogue. Some were surprised I had submitted a video piece.
In critique with my artist group they only remarked on my hair tie around the wrist and asked I re-shoot without it. The gallery did not require this.
Work in the House of Failure exhibition:
Non-art audience, mainly families and tourists with a keen interest or stumbling upon it. It was part of the SIKKA art fair which is set in the historical district and runs parallel with the Art Dubai fair (commercial).
Hard to understand why it was a failure.
Workshops: most left happy, having created a mass of work that they had fun creating. Many did not take the work.
Video work in a displaced context:
The students: art classes noticed it, it took them time as they were in activities. Most thought it was ‘a ghost’, a couple actually jumped, then they would take a moment and realise it was my hand. They were more confused about where it was coming from. Maths students made no comment and as far as I’m aware only one actually saw it.
The the big projector they noticed it quicker and made connections to my work. They thought it was ‘creepy’ or that I was tracing an existing work. Once I explained they looked a little perplexed but would open a discussion about the concept.
In public, some cars slowed down, many passed without notice. A man in a car watched me set up and watched the video while he waited for his wife. As they drove away they paused in the car in front of it.
One man stood outside of his car, smoking and watched. I took a creepy selfie to capture him! Ha!
What can I take from this?
Video work feels like it's hard done by. I’m guilty of it myself, I will pass by in a gallery due to time constraints or lack of focus. The showing of the video work left me a little empty and also a little embarrassed, like I could have tried harder.
Projecting outside made my work feel insignificant, which actually makes me want to make more work as it really doesn’t matter! People passed by but were not interested. Some noticed and paused. A couple of guys hung around by a car and watched. It wasn’t important though and I questioned what I was expecting. Did I think that the road would come to a standstill and I would be heralded a genius? Of course not. Did I think some might stop and question? Maybe, but did I need that? I was self-conscious, I felt guilty taking over a wall that wasn’t mine, I felt self aware, like I was flashing too much skin on the side of the road.
Performance felt similar but as I was fully present it offered more dialogue, more interaction. I was intrigued by the assumed unattainability of the outcome and how many perceived it as ‘talent’ rather than learned skill.
The display of ‘failure’ produced some dialogue, this was mainly from non-artist audience claiming that even the failures were better than their skill base. They felt like the failure was token, or that it should not be discussed adn we should be more positive. This left me feeling frustrated.
The development of concept/context:
Feels less strained. It is flowing a little easier. I’m reinvigorated and keen to work, frustrated by time management and non-masters commitments. I am concerned about it form of the drawings and whether the abstract lines/shape/forms need to be justified or whether I can continue with them. The constraint of the linear forms feels necessary for the exploration of collision between process and product. I feel that organic forms distract the focus from the materiality of drawing and drawn, that the abstract is needed to allow the collision to take place.
The boundary of making and made is now being tested. How is it viewed and perceived by an audience, how much does education play a part in the perception of process and product? Can process and product exist at the same time? Although process will always be in reflection of the product as the work is deemed unfinished if it is still being worked on so it there for ‘in progress’.
Enquiry: Intersections and Articulations: Listen to audio files through LMS, titles to be advised
audio are saved in my drive for replay - no transcript made available.
Alexa Cox - Artist interested in role of artist as storyteller - are we all storytellers? Is this not simply a default. How does it go from being a default to a determined practice and subject. What are the stories about? Does that matter? Is it more the physicality of storytelling rather than the subject. Canvas works and drawings, multiple mediums, various surfaces. Series makes reference to stories and pages of a book. Does she makes books, does she need to? How does her work relate to Debjani Bhardwaj?
constant dialogue with making and research.
Artists she aligns with contemporary painters - storytelling and memory Peter Doig, - construction and the painterly qualities Paula Rego - storytelling, references literary characters. Francesca Woodman - photographer - return to, sense of play and menace - power relationship of self and place - contact sheets that are drawn on, exciting.
Research is key in way work is made - changed over 4 years, reverse how initially worked. Changed from applying theory post-making to allowing the work to come from research. Developed a visual language - how it was interpreted by the viewer - partial trace figures - suggestion. - ambiguity - without loosing the viewer in the process of looking
Read broadly - outside of art theory - read stories - anthropologic texts that talk about journeys, the poetics of space - a large body of visual research - use photography to build a resource . - research through drawing and experimentation - like the freedom to create a lot of work with the pressure to make finished pieces - playful - a sense of mapping and drawing out ideas - the build up to create a bigger picture f practice - the link reoccurrence
writing, mind-mapping and venn diagrams to describe practice - was a revelation - bought clarity to properties as a maker - audience responded to the clarity with the same words without stimulus -
lines- a brief history- Tim Ingold - writing about the relationship of gesture and story telling - the retelling old stories and the gestures that are made by the hand. Discusses that meandering and deviation of journeys, to learn and discover new things by going of track, try to have a loose ideas and allow the practice to inform itself - challenge the making, ask why you have made an assumption- unless you challenge and risk take you might not find something that works for you . This links to my projection work - -need for constant and honest reflection - to allow practice to grow
traces - the in-between - the potential energy thats captured, the fleeting, capturing gesture - what is authenticity and truth? does the audiences know that you are preforming when they see the work
reduced colour palette allows focus on composition, the reduction of the subject -
excited about the idea of the edge of the frame - where does the image end, does it move across the surfaces, outside the surface, dissolving and emerging
Francis Bacon inspiration- the dealing of the surface, the oozing and dissolving of the figure and the surface of the canvas
now- moving towards research into landscape and memory - identified four strands to look at and create work around - this links to so many of our practices -
ppp - work on a small scale to allow it to be transportable .
My thoughts are that this interview reeks of MA fine art - OCA - the description of process, research and PPP along side the texts and authors we have been asked to read or recommended. I'm concerned by the numerous similarities that can be drawn within my own work and that of my peers, are we in danger of creating a bland outcome similar to those that have gone before? Can we all be inspired or lead by the same research/texts etc and still create meaningful and original work (yes, I know nothing is original but you know what I mean). To counter this point it is also fascinating that we are using similar or the same inspiration and research and coming out with variety of outcomes. Some of us take the same points from it, others read it differently. The Process works, as is visible here.
Sam Wilkinson - director of InSite Arts - London exclusively with artists in public realm - various media artists - 20 yrs trading. Clients are non- arts organisations. Funding is mainly related to planning - arts culture and community -
roles: work takes a very long time to develop, raise aspiration and understanding of the role of art in a place, education on working with artists and establishing framework for artists to join project so it is positive for those involved. Strategy based, idea development - process to appoint artists, develop brief and work together.
most important thing is the brief, to be interesting and contribute tot h project. make it clear to allow artist to have freedom and also be relevant to context. be clear and give expectations relating to concept and ideas Important that space and time is given to artist to allow them to develop a body of research and creation to get the most out of it. relevant to artists own practice
space and time to develop ideas properly through research. we believe in the unexpected and building the potential for risk and to allow for exploration. A period of research is essential.
The company will research initially but the considered research that goes deeper is believed to be where the artist comes in to push the boundaries. Allowing the artist to explore and research the area/project themselves can lead to exciting outcomes that may not have been projected if the client or supervisors had control of the creativity.
Great to see a company that understands and supports the needs of the artist and it process required to make work. They actively promote the research aspect, providing some initial start points, knowing their artists well enough to make considered decisions about suitability and requirements. The education they provide to the organisations they partner with is invaluable, it allows the artists time and space to provide enriching outcomes that enhance and add to the communities or projects they are working with.
Too many keywords which reflects the broad and loose thinking - Materiality, Collision - movement, fragments, fractions, Repetition, Tactility, Defamiliarizing, Layering, Boundaries - constraint, containment, Consumption, Space - constraint, Visibility, Transparency, Binding, Drawing, Performances (added from Rhoda’s feedback)
Initial questions were: To what extent could collisions in drawing reflect materiality of practice? or How can the practice of drawing reflect the materiality of collision? - these are uncomfortable and don’t feel like they are reflecting practice right now. They feel like an attempt to make something sound important or interesting to fulfil criteria which would make writing about them difficult and lacklustre.
Definitely need to provide definitions with the writing to clarify the viewpoint being examined and not allow for assumptions. Rhoda had asked for clarification of tactility, and Kimberley had discussed the notion of event and collision.
Through Testing Boundaries I am exploring the collision of making and made and producing work that brings these two together. layering them, in performance and documentation. Kimberley had provided the suggestion of Richards Serra’s Drawing as a verb. An addition from KF: this was an an example of how the action of art relates to the language that was discussed in the tutorial.
Rhoda had cited that she was clear on my thinking once she had seen the drawing in practice on the making day.
Discussion and recommendations
Keywords in discussion:
density, feeling the drawing, tactility, process, questioning accuracy, act of doing a drawing
questioning accuracy - criterion of drawing - what is a drawing, what is and isn't, ways to determine a drawing, the boundaries of making something by drawing that doesn’t represent a drawing.
Act of drawing - process - action or performance of drawing, act of making, about the maker - action of the mark - leads to….
… the significance of outcome - value of outcome - the performativity of drawing, action and it being viewed - define
focus more on the ACT than performance - understanding of the artist in the act, who is seeing it, who is it seeking out, is it the intentionality that makes it the work? or is it the product that makes it the work? an addition form KF: yes we discussed how performativity sits differently from the act of drawing and this is why we questioned how you were identifying the important focus of the drawing.
filming the layering, moving on of practice - Process on Process - staggering of process -
reflecting on process and being seen, understanding that it is all drawing, what drawing id?
2000 words - the so what? - a series of questions, how do I allow them to support my thinking? purpose of practice? clarify density.
scaffold with others thinking - ideology may be the same but practice is different, think about what you do know rather than what you don’t know.
me: Agnes Martin, Ellsworth Kelly ( I couldn’t think of any more which was frustrating as I’ve read so much!) (Susan Morris, Robert Morris, Kenneth Martin, John Latham, Joan Jonas)
Kimberley: Sol Lewitt, Richard Long, Tacita Dean - read the beginnings of the Vitamin D 1-2 books
In discussion these words came out: layer, pressure, embedding/mark, erasing - create a Venn diagram - how this impacts the practice.
Feeling a lot clearer after the discussion. excited to listen back to the tutorial as I know that will really help. I am looking forward to writing as I feel this will give me further clarity and confidence in having a ‘practice about practice’ and moving away from the overly conceptual aspects I was clinging uncomfortably on to.
Agreed actions (if any)
10 keywords
5 keywords
3 questions for myself as possibilities to claim space
can drawing enable….
is it the physicality of drawing…..
this is what I am doing, this is what I’m interested in - land it in the practice
be specific as my practice is specific
email Kimberley in the next 3 weeks to check in that question is focused and working.
Thoughts the next day (after discussion with students regarding documenting work)
The act of drawing in a performative context or in a private and personal aspect. The initial; exploration began with the creation of a 'walked' drawing video. This process was repeated in a different location and a change of ground.
The viewing of the work being made at the time was unimportant and felt like a 'show' which was not the intention, the audience was initially enlisted as a support and to provide aids in filming and looking.
So to discuss the act of drawing as either performative or function based within the context of the practice, how the collision of made and making transforms the reading of the piece. How can they coexist? The beginnings are always separate, it is not possible for the made to preexist the making, the making always preexists the made. In juxtaposing them in film their space and time is collided and colluded. Visibly it appears as if the drawing is being traced, the ghostly shadow of a hand moves over the paper, the image becomes darker as the images conjoin in the making process.
I wish to explore further how the drawings will be read if the making is repetitively screened over the top, staggering the intervals of the videos. the possibility of misalignment, reflecting the impossibility of making and made being mutual and coexisting. How can this transfer of time and space conflict blur or transpose on the the viewers reading of the work.
It was set up at the beginning of the class, they were aware of my movement across the room but paid no heed to what i was doing. I rested the projector against the wall so the video was displayed on the ceiling. It went unnoticed for the first 15mins, when an interuption to the lesson occurred with other students coming it it was spotted by one female student. She exclaimed at first then proffered her confusion before realising the tablet projector was providing the image. The initial reaction drew the attention of the other classmates who also exclaimed their confusion.
They are a very open group and we're happy to discuss their thoughts. The main thing was where the image was coming from, initially they thought it was a 'ghost' or a mysterious phenomena, they didn't pay much attention to the image other that it was 'some girl drawing' on the ceiling.
We discusssed the video and the conflict of made and making, how it looked like someone tracing something. What it actually was and what I was going to do with it.
5th March - yr 9. - math cover. Out of context of the art room. The students are mostly familiar as I have or do teach them art. One of them noticed when I set up the projector on the teachers desk. No questions were asked. Even when I obviously watched the video myself they did not engage with the projection. It has been playing for 21minutes and they have not reacted.
reference to Docherty and the white cube - is it enough to make work for the self, is it important that work is made for people or space - how is it encountered, does it need happenstance, or planned to view -
White cube - the audience - spectator, viewer, observer, perceiver - I tend to say, consumer -
CW- list - witness, observer, audience, participant, spectator, perceiver, viewer, collaborator, partner, conspirator, - the consumer - investigator, invigilator, instigator, the enquirer
peer, look, study, dismiss, power struggle -
How is the audience perceived with he works
how is the work seen
how does the display of the work affect it
15 mins in a breakout room to discuss the audience for our work and what the other person thinks - alternative audiences and ways to engage with them. analyse what role they are taking
Break out with Mark, which is great as Les had suggested I talk to him about the work.
we discuss the projection of work and he suggests. pocket-sized projectors for a phone - Samsung - luminaire phone - will look in to this.
both of us are currently working on the unintentional audience. On producing work/displaying work where it will be happened upon or where the choice of consumption is removed from the audience as they will encounter it unscheduled to them. WE discuss how i may display my work, possibly through the school the newsletter and other published or accessible forms. Then we discuss the lack of access, projecting it into a sealed box or a room that's locked - a sign that says in this room is a video but you can't go in. a non-audience - deliberately not allowing it. the daylight and throw windows and into a room from the outdoors - people will see the projector, they are aware of the happening but perhaps not the work. the visible and the non-visible - when it's happening in a contained room they are aware of it, but when the source is moved outside it creates a new sense of audience - the layers - don't plug it in or leave the lens cover on.
doesn't feel like its art - to busy doing masters in fine art to do the art you want to do.
guerilla audience taking - how to get an audience without having to ask for one. the work has been put to the side to create work for the task, its lead to interesting work but not that was expected. un intention audience - but it is intentional for us as artists, but their consumption is unintentional to them.
accessibility - exclusivity - engagement - comfort and awareness - authenticity and it does the same job if the job is an engagement or a change in thinking - the art world has an exclusivity - self-importance -
not making claims about the work - that we as makers make connections that others don't see - the potential to make a claim that appears unsubstantiated - what the work is about and what is actually visible etc. Where language sits with artwork, how artwork reaches people and its cloaked in the text.
the first audience is the person assessing the open call/ exhibition selection.
how do open calls help move an artist practice - what do they bring to the work, the career, etc
doe it enables the production of work, dies it refine medium or practice - explore boundaries - medium specificity - theme specificity - how to apply to and gain feedback from an open call.
PPP - 1000 - 1500 words - including last years words.
career plan - summary and map of practice - one year ahead, three years head, 5 years ahead. - dreams aspirations - realistic, identify networks, need for skills or facilities, appropriate ways of presenting other professional considerations work back into it in a different colour for this year - be honest - where you are, where you want to be, etc.
reflection of Testing boundaries- - what do we take away, did it work. Would we continue, what would we keep. how have we changed etc. what have we learnt and have we found a seem of investigation that is burgeoning etc.
15 mins on one person - really be generous and question the writing - go deep, ask the questions - how, why, where? tell me the answer. find the parts that feel like a hurdle. the parts that challenge. make sure that what is being said is clear - not over complicated - know overarching comments that may be stumbling blocks.
Feedback FROM Rhoda -
After the making day - my description on the work I was doing and the fibres helped with Rhoda’s understanding of the 500 words
Performance of drawing - the recording of the drawing - the contrast of the time of working - the projection of the work on top of the finished piece - use the drawing and the programme to do it.
The last paragraph - the layering of the discussion and my practice- really tightly - reprition of - the accuracy of the drawing so it looks like a print
My practice is integral to the writing - a
Add performance to the keywords as it is a performance -
The tactility of drawing and the fibres covered in a drawing - could they be collected - fibres really intrigued Rhodas thoughts and what was left behind- - what's left before - what left behind
Carbon paper - whats left behind- - really embedded in practice- the tactility and the performance are being enacted in the work I’m doing - a layering in the drawing the writing and the practice -
Keep the work narrow and not to broad - not as linked with the collisions but more linked with the tactility and the performance -
The speculative act of working and drawing - and know - how do we know - the layers of the work have now become the performance layered over the made - the making and the made -
Decided to make some books ready for experiments. Thinking about density, time, the act of drawing. How can the books link to the act, become performative objects for and of drawing?
A small but lengthy book. I have yet to measure any of them but they were all made to be uncomfortable to read or handle.
The tactility of this book really thrilled me. I found some off cuts of heavyweight drawing paper to use for the covers. The rest of the papers are sugar, craft or cartridge so although the length and the varying shapes of the pages make the book unwieldy it has a strength to it.
The book above is made with preused layout papers. Dependent on what it is filled with it should give a layered effect.
A book of found papers
The largest book I could make with materials available. A little over A3 in size, cardboard to hold the heavy papers together.
This book has been filled. It was time consuming and consumed a part of me in the process. The time and density is reflected in the patterna dnt he layers of graphite that line its pages.
