Friday, 9 Nov -Visiting Lecturer Tutorials - Catherine Baker

November 10, 2018 in Home, MA 2 Studio Practice, Nov '18, Research

Visiting Lecturer Tutorials - Catherine Baker

My thoughts and discussions with Catherine Baker:

Feelings about my practice: limited in terms of…. What am I trying to tell them [the audience]?

articulate a regular routine
punctuation of encounters
punctuate routine
celebrating or mundane?

Talking about the process - what does it mean when I do that.

1 - entity - collisions - in terms of happenings

2 - different materials - drawings on tracing and sandpaper - bring them together - butt up against, a more difficult counterpart.

Fixing them together - simple and how they collide.

-----Go back and see how they collide [previous work]

Leporello approach - concertina approach - a continuum - the fold creates a new space - make the folds out of new materials - wet and dry sandpaper -

a line is dictated by the substrate it's on - one material across all surfaces.

Allows for the intimacy of a book but could be 12 foot long or A2 so awkward to handle or attached to the ceiling.

How do you want people to behave? looking up and being intimate at eye level, allows for intimacy and distance in its framing.

I’m a materials person - embrace it!

What do materials represent - the difference through materials - the materials are anchored into the everyday - found materials - cardboard packaging, plastic bags; start with the simple materials and then look into the materials and what they might mean?

Structure line.

put work away - sit with them and unpack them.

not diarised - what did it mean when the same line travelled from one space, from entity to entity?

Lebbeus Woods

Julie Mehretu

Agnes Martin

Sol Lewitt

collision - unpredictable

bringing together, sand things down - reinstate - erase parts to leave the junctions

To summarise:

FOCUS ON WHAT IT MEANS

how do they engage with it?

do they understand my intentions?

Leporello - small to large-scale - intimate object 20 versions x 12 feet long

Wallpaper by B. Makhoul - a line in space within so you can’t separate - immersive

bullet wallpaper - Palestine - looks pretty but symbolises violence and conflict - in the home

watch out for diarising the actions and question what is happening.

moments of collision

KFoster & CBaker Collision paper

-in chemistry - in proximity, they react

NOT CHAOS

Notes from Catherine Baker:

These are some of the words I wrote down as you were speaking:

Collage/fusion/adaptive reactions/ circumstance beyond control/ invented narratives/ routine/collision – collision of materials/requirement of proximity/ folds and joins in a Leporello.

I think you need to embrace the fact that you’re clearly a materials-driven person and explore the way in which two (or more eventually) materials can collide and how a repetitive act across them that is identical can be shaped by the interaction with the substrate.

I’ve attached an image/part of a Print I saw as part of IMPACT 10 in Santander on September 18. Plus the screenshot is Victoria Ahrens whose work is really interesting. Also classically you could look at Anselm Kiefer (also attached his lead books) and the idea of a Leporello type construction. I’ve included Kiefer as the ‘happenings’ collisions could be material based i.e. A chemical reaction; if you leave a watery gel drop overnight on a sheet of mild steel by the morning there will be a rust spot that signifies and records the ‘collision’ encounter.

I hope all these things help and remember to give yourself space to unpack what you’ve made and contemplate both it and its meaning for others.

Agreed actions:

FOCUS ON WHAT IT MEANS
how do they engage with it
do they understand my intentions
Leporello - small to large-scale - intimate object 20 versions x 12 feet long
watch out for diarising the actions and question what is happening.
moments of collision - everyday with everyday materials.

Sat, 3 November - Making day: Group 1

November 02, 2018 in Home, MA 2 Studio Practice, Nov '18, Research

Making day: group 1 - KF

Sat, 3 November, 8am – 12pm

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Feedback:

what would happen if I added a million layers?!

Collagraph - print

buildings and constructions

maps - constructing up and laying over

building a new utpia

getting to know the 'flatness' - having a conversation with the work - asking it what flatness means, what building up/construction is?

Monday, 29 Oct 2018 - Enquiry: Intersections and Articulations

October 31, 2018 in Home, MA 2 Studio Practice, Oct '18, Research

Enquiry: Intersections and Articulations

Description: Listen to audio files, access through LMS calendar

Going forward: Next week there will be audio files available for you to listen to through the LMS calendar. The second session for listening to the files is on March 18th. Therefore I have decided to split them between these sessions. They are provided to carry on the discussions about the different ways of encountering art, the roles and positions that people may choose to take, or the different ways that people may talk about art. These short files should appropriately fit in with the conversations that we have been having so far. They are really about professional practice.

how you perceive the information that you hear,

what connections you are making,

what interests you and why

what you might disagree with.

You should be reflective in your writing so that it is useful and embedded within the thinking that you are involved in your own practices.

Draw out key points.

Fran Stafford - Artist, Curator and designer - Canadian in Berlin and Bahrain,

Thoughts and discussions:

I wonder how old the recording is as I think the arts and culture scene has really expanded in the Gulf, although it is still very much in the developing practice.

She wears many hats

feels like a spokesperson of the arts- or maybe a 'coloniser' of the arts - yeesh! the fact is its someone coming from the outside and 'showing' 'them' how it's done. I don't have her background so I don't know how much that is true. - a group of friends recently discussed this phenomenon in the UAE - that most of the 'high flyer' the gallery owners, curators, CEO's of arts companies and institutions are actually white women - I'm pro the feminine aspect of course but is it correct for outsiders to govern a nation's culture?

Uses very 'western' names and brands ie: Redbull - and the term 'test platform' makes me feel uncomfortable, is it right to experiment in other peoples cultures?

Representing a culture that is not yours? is that okay? Can you comment? - Julie Mehretu - paintings about places she has never been too. ethics of this practice?

I question how much time this woman has? How is she doing all of this stuff? does she sleep?

This market aspect is something that is flourishing here in the UAE as well.

She sounds like she is dominating the arts/culture scene - which is great for here, but where is everyone else? I am aware of people that have really struggled in Bahrain due to the cliquy nature.

She's had no experience but has been entrusted with these tasks - proactive or taken advantage of?

She sounds very confident in her capabilities and achievements - is happy to wear her many hats and build up her experience. She doesn't talk about her practice as an artist although has described herself as one. I couldn't find her work other than her current designs in her new role as a fashion designer.

John Barraclough - Royal Standard Artists collective in Liverpool - drawings, sound works, drawing machines and drawing as human connection, mapping thinking and how the brain works and alternative spaces to create artwork and view.

Thoughts and discussions:

Doesn't consider himself an artist and curator but understands the connections due to financial implications

Bruce Nauman- work outside the studio is responsible for itself - the artist has to let it go.

Curator - exhibit, preserve, conserve artworks

Newspaper 'Drawing paper' - collab with a fellow artist. A project in curating - funded by the artists participating so it could remain free to the public so self-promotional in effect. Not published regularly - as and when ready.

Content connections - stylistic connections - challenge what drawing is - providing the viewer with possibilities of conversations and varying viewpoints.

distribution is how it is seen - it takes art into a different dimension, one that is portable and easy to ship - repeatable

there are other platforms as well, such as online in blog and Instagram.

Do include own work but not overly comfortable with it, aware that this can be seen as self-promotion and remove some of the agency of the paper.

Creates drawing workshops as a 'living curatorial activity' - so the participants and the leader create and curate their work as part of the final product. utilises the paper in drawing workshops and using it to create discussion. Becomes a tool to instigate discussion.

curators - a tool - the artist can have trouble seeing the value in some work and the lack of value in others so the curators role can help expose the artist to this and guide a practice - rejection, acceptance - use of work beyond intention or out of intention - the critical debate of work and its sitting - in a show how do they interact? If a collaborative group of artists are working together they should work to ensure it works in the exhibition and be open to the fact their work may not fit and be 'deselected'.

To compare the two speakers:

Their input into curating is very different, Stafford is more formal yet slightly ad-hoc as she, herself, says she lacked the experience and had to work out how to produce her projects, whereas Barraclough is very informal and organic yet he is using his experience as an artist and educator to inform the process.

Barraclough discusses coherence - whether stylistically/aesthetically or dialogically. Stafford discusses curating from a cultural and logistical background, moving cultures around and displaying them, and what needs to be in place for that to happen.

This feels like the two sides of my own practice, the practical design-led practice of working out a 'product' vs the more organic process-led practice that I'm trying to work with. Barraclough's talks interested me more as it felt exciting and unknown whereas Stafford's felt familiar and easy to comprehend for me.

Moving forward: think about the connections my work is making, am I missing the value in it, am I overlooking its potential due to my lack of confidence?

Mon, 22 October - Enquiry: Intersections and Ar-ticulations

October 23, 2018 in Home, MA 2 Studio Practice, Oct '18, Research

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In a group with Mozhdeh - Display - What is Display. My take can be seen in the slideshow above.

Mozhdeh made a comment that I always answer a question with a question and this 'makes her laugh' as I avoid answering the initial questions. I was a little offended by this accusation as my intention is not to avoid, it is simply that the question that was asked provoked a process of enquiry in my own mind and I am sharing that. I looked it up as I was sure there was a term for it. There is: Maieutic - Socratic method of cooperative argument, answering questions with a question with a view to eliciting new ideas from another idea.

Comments from others and thoughts about the other presentations.:

Site, as abstract, site as body, markers - territory - claiming as own, inaccessible makes it desirable, politics of a site

the aggressive element of display - documentation - Tino Sehgal -doesn't document - present is authentic to you. - install our work rather than display so it's about the experience, it must own and belong in the space.

Where does the work live? - Where does the work take place?

T- is the gallery a site where the audience goes to display itself?

How do we stop an audience and still have a debate? - use what is appropriate but you need to understand it. Would the presentations work if we changed the titles?

without audience participation - the work is dead.

internet penetrations - the presentations say so much about who we are.

do we all need a wiki page? - critical dialogues - wiki page?

Mon, 15 October - Enquiry: Intersections and Articulations - Helen Rousseau Lecture

October 16, 2018 in Home, MA 2 Studio Practice, Oct '18, Research, Uncategorized

Enquiry: Intersections and Articulations: Helen Rousseau lecture and seminar (procrastination, testing things in the studio) - KF

Mon, 15 October, 5pm – 7pm

Helen Rousseau -

sculpture & installation - structure, precision and chance encounter

materiality and speed - slowness of materials - temporal

Gilbert Ryle - the concept of mind

procrastinations manifesto -

drawing as process - moving towards something - amplifying itself when in its own process

Nicola Tyson

Tom McCathy - how Marinetti taught me to write

Jane Bennet - Vital Matter

O'doherty - Studio and Cube

performance based practice - sculpture pulls towards this

Jan Verwoert - control I am Here - Curating and the Educational Turn (pronounced Yan VerVert)

Misreadings - Fred Sandback

APT london - Mariam Holm-Hansen

reading group - August Collective- 1 week

Caroline Wright, Jamie Lee Patel

Role of curator is a present happening.

KF- notes from seminar -

Key points: Themes and questions arising from the session;

Practices that don't quite settle

Practices in and out of the studio

Finding value

Different engines of practice

Considering the quality and speed of materials

You can slow down an experience

What is the temporal condition of sculpture?

What is brought into being through the work?

Can you see the process within the work- is it inherent?

What definitions to we put on practice?

Questions from HR

Where is the edge of the work> How are the limits of a work established? take a particular example(s) of work (own or others) you are familiar with and discuss
How do you make use of/i=understand/consider the 'in-between' in relations to your own practices? Take a particular example

Break out room 1 - Helen Rousseau, 15/10/2018

Jo, Mark, Mozhdeh, Katie

Where is the edge of the work? How are the limits of a work established? Take a particular example(s) of work (own or others) you are familiar with and discuss.

Mark: I was interested in the idea of edges between artists and audience. I like the idea of the gallery/studio space is open and accessible

And takes away curator issue

Jo and Mozhdeh spoke about accessing galleries and types of galleries and how accessible these opportunities are globally and regionally. How are they accessed?

Katie: Not necessarily where but more ‘Who’ actually sets the edges of the work? Does the artist have a say in it, or does the work and/or the viewer decide? Once the work is out of the creator's hands its edges are its own. Does the work need an ‘edge’? Can it be open? Who requires the definition of ‘edge’?

Kimberley: Emergent practices

Not really an edge but a punctuation, a comma or a stopping point, a moment to breathe

Other notes:

Hermeneutics?

Gorden Matta Clark

Joseph Kosuth

Preoccupy

On Kawara Date Paintings - the moment that you experience the 'I wish I thought of that' - the boxes, the lettering, the language THE RULES!!! of the Rules! I love this capturing moment in an intricate simplicity.

THATS WHAT IT IS I"M STRIVING FOR AN INTRICATE SIMPLICITY.

yes, Martin Creed, On Kawara

Karla Black - formal - composition form materials

Monday, 1 Oct 2018 - Tutorial - KF

October 03, 2018 in Home, MA 2 Studio Practice, Oct '18, Research, Uncategorized

Regarding the collage:

Incongruous

Gordon Matta-Clark - I link to /James Turrell

Sam Griffin

How important is it that they existed before? this is about thinking how much the origins are important in the collages or images - could it be anything or is it in the details of the work already created or in specifically made images to deconstruct and reorder.

How important is it that it's my work?

film it & photograph

materials and interaction

thread of thought and connection, gathering, pull - rupture, a way of thinking

space -

&where we place ourselves -

planes - punching through and mapping

what happens outside the frame image & territory that is known - mapping

the territory of practice - table or frame

a photo of table & work, then sideways - multiview, what is beyond the piece - untangled threads, pulling away

google - the relationship of something I can’t grasp

What do I want? seeing the ‘other’ in it

Manifesto- who you are

the lense

informing the work & the dialogue

& the entanglements of matter around the clarity & the perception

the knot & embroidery what is clear and ordered about the stitch and what is knotted and complicated. we discussed the difference between the front of embroidery and the back.

the unpicking

repetition & what is found

What do we overlook -

contain, contrast & leave out

tendrils

What is lost and what is found in repetition

Agreed actions:

explore collage further - continue with own work collage as that has urgency and explore the possibilities of found image collage, how does that change the work?
consider the territory of the work - where does it start and finish? what happens outside of these parameters? How does that affect the work? Consider the frame.
delve into the possibility of the thread and its tendrils, what does the repetition of embroidery do for the work? How does this thread metaphorically and physically move through and within it?
Keep notes of reflections and discussions I’m having about my work.
question scale and the imagery that is on the outside of the frame?

29/09/2018 - Update: Work Over the Summer - Where I am Now

September 30, 2018 in Home, MA 2 Studio Practice, Research, Sep '18

In our initial meeting on September 17th, I remember saying I felt like I hadn't been very productive. However, in drawing my work together in preparation for a tutorial I realised I had actually produced a relatively good amount of work, I was being proactive but for the enjoyment, which is perhaps why I had dismissed it.

I took the time to revisit my photo collages. When I had created these pages I had always intended to paint the left page to merge the images together. My mental disposition means I get distracted, easily, really easily, and when I do drift off into my thoughts my visual focus tends to blur, meaning the visage in front of me turns into a hazy merging of lines and shapes. When this happens 'Distraction Point Two' creeps in and I veer away from my thoughts and into the patterns. These pages are an attempt to make sense of the visual clutter, the cyclic process of distraction and focus, the redefining of attention. These feel like an interpretation of the visual clutter of daily life, the distraction techniques used to keep us focused inwards.

On the pages above I returned to the process of layering. The aspect of preservation and building up feels indicative of many cities or even countries, especially where I am now. Preserving tradition and cultural ideals while building up and merging into emerging markets, opening doors for layers of society from other locations to lay foundations and develop something new for themselves and the inviting country/city.

Rough sketchbook notes: I had a couple of sit-downs both alone and with a friend and visited the goals and ideas I have in mind for the course.

These charcoal pieces were done in a frenzy, a physical manifestation of the speeding anxiety that seared through during the summer. These fragmentations that represented daily routine were metaphorically torn apart in the summer creating angst and instability. I question how I could recreate that instability and anxiety in a gallery setting without endangering the viewer.

Excitingly these works were created while leading a drawing workshop at my studio space. Evidence of collaboration of materials between myself and my guests. One member bought with her some children's watercolour crayons, they were slick in texture, almost like a lipstick and oddly satisfying to work with. I avoid colour but there was an inner rebellion against myself that urged me to explore them. I don't hate this work. The colour adds another dimension but for the use of colour to continue I need to explore the reasoning further. The psychology of colour is pertinent as I would not want misinterpretations or forced ones either.

Lastly, I am currently working in to collage. I feel like the work needs to become heavier, mirroring the change in daily routine since returning to work. Also looking at the daily routines of many families that become dense with activities, social engagements, errands etc. This process of collage is addictive and therapeutic, I envision many more of these coming into fruition. The papers are photocopies of early sketchbook pages, I would like to explore developing these into paintings, perhaps using modelling paste to build texture, something to squeezing into as we squeeze so much into each day.

Questions:

Is now the time to make work for the sake of it and allow the research I have already done to sink in? Do I keep on researching? Once you've begun researching do you ever actually stop, making that last question void?

I want to maintain the elements of repetition, that is fundamentally important to me, do I need textile techniques to do that? (embroidery)

Do I want to be labelled?...

constructivism - abstract - nonobjective - reductive art - radical art - postminimalism - formalism

Do labels matter? How can I change a label? Who gives work labels?

Reading the book '100 Artists' Manifestos', questioning whether I wish to be associated or inspired by movements/artists whose morality and ethics I question. Can you still appreciate an artwork even if you are fundamentally against the believes and concepts behind the work?