Repeated the act of drawing by mapping the walk from my front door to the front gate of our home. Walking using same materials as the classroom walk. The paper was found and the shape considered a challenge for display.
Construction
I considered how to display these separate pieces with the lines attached. To maintain some consistency to my existing practice I experimented with a book form.
Although not as secure as I would have liked it made an interesting object.
I activated it by suspending it from the roof of the house. A horizontal journey given a new perspective vertically.
On the 3rd of December, we will be having an Open Discussion in which we can have time to discuss emerging issues within our practice/writing/thinking. what do you NEED to discuss and share - what is exciting you - what is preoccupying, puzzling, interesting you. Can you share a question, or an image or a quote, or text or….. by Friday 30th, please.
we can see the practices you are involved with as a whole, not just making, not just thinking, not just theory…...all of it.
Make it useful!
KF- how we manifest practice - Charles Garoian - how we make things concrete, how we see things differently when they are outside of our heads
https://youtu.be/MKY6VN2Tsis
conceptual wonderings, the ideas of what practice can be and how we find our route through it.
Slide show - - how do we take risks? the ways we all take risks are different and appropriate to our own practices. Kettles Yard - small things are shifted and made a little more interesting - Jim Eade - Keep off the grass - signs that were ignored and then one that wasn't - things that we are afraid of that we don't know, the sudden fear of what we don't know. - whats our grass? what are we afraid of?
my question - think through the making - that is your research - allows there to be concrete links through the process and be embedded in the practice - so we are researching through the materials
Art pursues knowledge and yet resists the assimilative urge to know. This is the why, the what and the how - the questioning through our stuff not just in our heads
Speculative and emergent - a relationship with the work - acknowledging the movement - try to feel unity while in flux - understanding that I am part of the relationship -
Greenhill - thinking and the aspects - can you replace the word making - is that what I need - this list, to consider that practice and thinking are the same, that research is the making, that thinking needs to happen through the making - let the making research and think for me.
meeting point - this is something I want to articulate - how do I make these ideas come together - worrying away materially and conceptually - trying to get to the foothold. trying to find the foundations -
the questions are mapping the practice and doing so appropriately - the difference between thinking and making - having an intention and playing purposefully.
audio film from Joseph Bouys - link to come.
My moment was actually at the end of the session - I have included the notes from othere members moments below my feedback.
Changing a practice - more art based from design led
Influence or guidance - how to get comfortable
Can a practice change dramatically with a simple term change?
outside sources impacting directly on practice - to credit? ownership?
materials led vs research led - help!
KF - entanglements happen - differentiate between what you know, what you learn and what you are influenced by and how to unpick it. constantly influenced but don't reference it all - when you find something that influences perfectly and understands your position within it - how do you determine which part is yours. the drawings are coming from me - it's been read through my work - she saw it and offered it - she saw it and found it there in the work.
jv - would the it help to stop questioning?
KF - don't have to do either or - allows you to play you can do both and allow them to coexist and that they are interdependent and correspondent. complementary - what its doing is enriching - don't have to say whether I am practice-led- or concept based - push the 'what I am doing' sometimes labelling it actually blocks us in to a corner - shift it out of the head and allow the work to happen and realise that the thinking and creating happens at the same time. Let it happen and the drawings take shape.
chatbox:
-We are all building on the work of those before us
- we all need a framework to give our practices context! you are tethered!
- By a chair?! You seemed so happy on making day getting into the materials
- I guess the difference between design based practice and art based practice is intention even if the outcome is the same physically
- I recognize what you say. I can easily get overwhelmed by my thoughts. That is why I tend to focus more on making because I know my head will continuously do its work; this makes its way easier for me.
- I always thought that fine art is a deeper version of other art/design disciplines
- Some of the best scientists are artists too
- also Katie: embrace the experiences from the past. I always try to use whatever I developed in the past
KF - the shift from the architectural - to joins and then built - back into drawing and flattening. all the work to happen - allow the drawings to grow in their potential - just let them grow and be surprised by it. Interesting questions of authorship and influence - do my work! collision - disruption - confidence - drawing colliding.
Immediate reaction after the session:
That felt really awkward - there was a point where the pause for feedback was too long and no one had anything to say to me. How do I read that? Were my questions not challenging or engaging enough, was everyone just over it and I was the unfortunate soul a the end of the session no-one could be bothered to engage with as they all wanted their beds? I feel like I'm at a different point to the other members - I spent last year questioning my research and how it feeds into my work while everyone went through materials and making and now I'm going through materials while everyone builds on their research and concepts. Is there something wrong with my practice? is it weak? Some days I question what I'm doing here and if I belong - the language frequently evades me and I spend so much time looking things up to play catch up.
Perhaps sleep will help.
Takeaways from other peoples moments:
questioning time - images that are timeless - or from time? unmooring time - I’m thinking about the way we digest time - the photo is a second in time - a time-lapse is time past but sped up - the piece at Ways of Seeing in NYUAD
tactile materiality and physical experience of visual experience - the tactile eye by Jennifer Barber
Paul Klee - taking an line for a walk -
lens based media - analogue vs digital - scale, time and distance - how close you become to something -
carve out time - using the commute to make work - the car journey productive.
Is the possibility more compelling than the product? How much consideration should there be for the audience? How much research do they need to see? Is a poem enough to let them in? KVW - My students and I had a conversation about the conceptuality of space last week - the fact that we talk about space being ‘out there’ but that we are also in space - it’s around us and in us - a vacuum is still something though—nothingness is still a 'thing’ A metaphor - Zen nothingness
Interpretation of objects - looking for a similarity of object - for validation? symbolism - semiotics - scientific drawing to understand an art practice studying objects - how they speak to us - question how long is culturally acceptable to listen to an object?
Are all art pieces related/connected to ethical questions? Is the term political correctness* intertwined with the term ethical responsible? Are artists expected to be politically correct/ethical responsible? Or are they may be expected to sometimes deviate from it? Related to the previous question, to what extent can artist behave ‘unethically’ for the sake of increasing awareness or making a statement?
if we are seen to be misrepresenting something - being open to the fact that you might trigger someone or something. Do I need to know what happened next? blocked the path - put our work out there consistently. working with others narratives to be simple, but multiple layers can add to the complexity. the chance element is really interesting the butterfly effect - that aspect of a happening having a massive impact or a nothing impact and not knowing work put out there - let it off and it's beyond the control - the instigator playfulness is fascinating and reminds me of this http://playthecitynowornever.com/
KF - punctuation of every day - situationist's - happenings - a shift has happened with the work as you can see it and it is beyond you. People being annoyed by it - slinkachu - model people enacting things with the debris of daily life
Things are changing, my thoughts are rapid, getting quicker and picking up pace, which sounds great but is actually a nuisance as my physical practice doesn't keep up.
Things I'm discussing mentally:
How can I change my practice; to move away from the design based thinking and be more 'art'? Does that sound weird? The processes are different as the end points have various requirements, how do I 'forget/park/ignore' the old habits?
How easily influenced am I? Does that matter? Is it influence or guidance? Am I simply being enabled by people with the tools and insight to guide?
I am drawing again and I'm loving it.
I discovered a talk by Amy Sillman which I have linked below:
https://youtu.be/BLOgc466nRk
Like Richard Serra she lists verbs to describe what drawing is/can be.
I took from the talk and my tutorials with both Catherine Baker and Kimberley Foster that drawing is so much more than pencil on paper....leading me to reevaluate my previous work. Dr Baker changed the word 'chaos', which I had been clinging on to with urgency as I really felt it was important, to the term 'collision'. It's was a moment. The moment. You know the ones....where you hit your self in the heard for not seeing to and celebrate the release at the same time. Where everything flashes before your eyes in a new light, a new frame, glistening and invigorated.
This leads me to the question, can it really be that simple? To change a couple of terms, give new frames and different angles and give a body of work more agency? I say simple although it doesn't feel like it. It feels like I've been banging my head for the past 6months hoping to shake something loose. Is it okay for these things to come from outside sources? Is that still organic? Is it still mine? Can I still say the work belongs to me?
How does a material led practice work? I'm confused as I have worked hard over the past 5years to create a practice with a conceptual context. Diving head first in to research, how do I balance the two?
Discussing her research - discussing things and nothingness how we can know things - spiritual aspects - practice is embedded in research object-based practice and also the work is done with artists in different space and in museums in their collections - the potentiality of objects - beyond themselves and allowing new work to emerge. RUMMAGING
words that shape who she is - poem - Pablo Neruda - an ode to common things - ode to things - pillars, scissor, rings bowls hats, love, all things, - link to a poem - loves the notion that objects are alive with us - the notion of an object to have agency and potential and be imagined into new words.
our objects and what they say about us: Jessie - tiny bucket- life is like filling a bucket with experience and memories all mixing together. Rachel - night sky viewer - past a future - represents something much bigger than itself Mark - pocket multi-tools - feels like he is ready - fix anything with it. always with him, shiny, heavy, tactile. Makes him feel ready. Mozhdeh - Pencil - comfortable, reliable, erase it, correct herself, trust - made of wood and connected to trees - trees are evidence of history - grew until their last day. Elaine - hat - love to be outside - always planning to go out - with her hat on. Not the hat she wanted as she can't find it. IT gets lost in pockets and in other peoples homes - they always make their way back to me. Loss of objects - hopeful it will come back. Tina - Rock with a hole in it! - had stones - always finds the rock with a hole in it. from childhood - had one with a rope that she dragged around, looking through it. Jo - picture of a chair - not a chair - the ubiquitous white plastic chair that is neither special or not, can be both comfortable or uncomfortable - strong yet fragile. meta-layer - the boundary of what an object is. Rhoda - earrings - jewellery - obsession- draw full and buys when travelling - used to make some - upcycling - tactile - customising Me- Moon kaleidoscope - multifaceted - breaking up into beautiful patterns controlling my environment - control my environment - see what I want to see - finding patterns when they don't exist - making the mundane interesting
AW- object as an idea - is an idea an object? if an idea were an object what would it look like? objects as ideas.
An issue with technology being able to touch stuff and hold it in your hands. putting things in your pockets studied theology The cloud of unknowing. the only way we can know something is to unknow something - undoing - reflecting against the grain for what knowledge it. trying to know stuff that we can't really ever fully know. Mphil - in medieval theology -Cambridge not religious and didn't want to be a vicar or something teacher training - taught religious studies? realised the power of their imagination - massive ideas were easy for them to talk about adults were closed off from them. children - worked at kettles yard - loved talking o people about the things in the house.
Cut out again
Museums Sheffield Ruskin gallery There she met Kimberley - Object dialogue box - unravels across the floor - the objects within it are like compasses that can guide you or interact with the exhibitions/displays Manchester gallery - object dialogue box - beehive - trolley - tower
Phobia to buttons - a cat with buttons on its head -koumpounophobia fear of buttons Mary Greg - 1850-1950 - collector - spoons, textiles etc - not displayed. Mary Greg box - like a house sewing kit - BREAK a box to take it out - the first version is a museum-style box - plastisol - uses for holding objects can be cut with a hot knife house box - Karl Foster - used to take the collection out
Royal Armouries - Leeds - a collection of weapons, guns etc conservation cf. access
Sainsbury centre for visual arts, University of East Anglia - Norman Foster architect - aircraft hanger - supposed to look like their living room - intimate but situated in a big open space. Lie down in a gallery - booklet
To give poetry a voice is a tricky thing; its translated in such an individualistic way when read as a flat text that to speak it can provide agency or urgency but may also change its perception to those that have already perceived its voice in their own head.
At the end of MA1, I was starting to share some text-based work - I was uncomfortable and unsure where is would sit. I sat with it though, stopped resisting and let is flow when it was ready; normally when I'm uncomfortable or thinking too hard. The release has been greater when I'm FEELING, the angst of a teenager in a group of peers, the threat of defeat, in a discussion/debate, the worry of time.
I'll share some below in their formatted nature:
1.
Expectations to be freely burdened selfishly open marinating in practice Non-stop Til it pops Or the plot lost.
2.
Choosing the cliché, The ego wants it; to be outlived beyond genes, suffering for satisfaction.
3.
Stitching, embedding, encasing it in, binding stories entombed into work to speak for itself. Be unseen while being seen, read less of me, read my visual language. Don't understand? That's not my problem. I'll dilute it for you, a sprinkle of me to digest. Maintain the intensity, judgement on women, expected, judgement from society, a given. Sacrifice for it sacrifice all of it it does not matter just the work. Want them. Want me. They are commodities I am a commodity.
Consume me.
4.
Layers Distance Transparency
Layers add transparency Layers make opacity Layers make body Body makes validation Validation gives weight Weight gives body Body made of layers Layers are opaque Opaque avoids transparency Transparency avoided.
To see through is to see clearly Unobstructed. Does obstruction give interest Or avoidance? To see clearly removes the layers, looking for transparency removes the layers that are needed, layers of interest and context.
To be layerless but be layered.
5.
6.
To feel numb Withdrawal To be judged, Expectation To be in a world Existing
7.
I will not be judged by my writing so I refuse to make writing. I will be judged for not writing.
I will be judged.
8.
Hostility, condescension. Movement. Allegiances pledged, Movement requested, status stationery. In out, back forth, struggle. Struggling Seen Unseen remaining vague. Complaints Unwanted Speaking out stay quiet.
9.
Requisitioned power, Ignored incitement, that is uncomfortable. Clean it up, please. Honesty is requested, But make it metaphoric, coded. Think as a 'we', in a loop of narcissism. A truth to be worked at, unresolved introspection. Show the struggle, without victimisation. Within the complexity remain visibly invisible.
10.
Collision of dialogues Practice Colliding of people Practice Colluding of counterparts Practical Conclusion of parts Enviable Crisis of conclusions Inevitable Critical collisions End.
After the group critique, I acted immediately on the feedback. I utilised my eager-to-please students as camera holders so I could take some equipment for a walk. Gathering materials around the art room I found some synthetic mohair in a slightly shimmery grey, a thick charcoal stick, a couple of soft graphite sticks, and a Berol thick marker.
Lassoed with the yarn, the 6B graphite stick was first for a stroll, happily dragging behind me as I paced the classroom. The students giggled, and watched on hesitantly and expectantly - the line was faint. The process left me feeling slightly deflated at the vagueness of the traces left behind.
Softer graphite was next. This would work, I was sure but alas, after the initial pacing and expectations a line just as vague as the first was left. The process felt a little easier though, less exposing.
The third walk was accompanied by a thick chunk of charcoal, who also accompanied me on a fourth walk after being worn down on the paper to see if the rough edge would make a difference. Still, the paper resisted the instruments and the traces were light and tentative.
Action was required. This activity needed an outcome; the students were watching, starting to feel disappointed by the repetitive act that left them without a conclusion. The noose was cast around a thick black marker, the pace was slowed and the angle of the instrument was adjusted slightly; this time it would work and I would make sure of it.
A sigh of satisfaction was heard, the students were lifted at the sight of the black line following their teacher as she paced up the three sheets of paper once more. They giggled about the marks on the floor and the lack of shoes. They were satisfied that the goal had been achieved and a line had been drawn.
In one final stand, I bunched the instruments together, hoping their collective might would give a product that would fill me with a similar satisfaction that the students had voiced. It did not appear during the act, or in the moments immediately after. But something changed when the work was lifted from its horizontal position on the floor and hung on the classroom wall; vertically from floor to ceiling, lines dropping to the ground in a slightly wobbly fashion. Here there was some gratification. The long strip of paper required a ladder to handle it, it felt unwieldy and I liked that. As it hung on the wall behind the door, but on the facing wall of the classroom, various students inquired as to what it was. They discussed it when I gave no indication: a road, a tree trunk, a path. Regardless, they almost always offered something that took them somewhere, indicating movement, or growth; direction.
wanting to explore process and materials but struggling to link the work
and then Catherine Baker happened!
materials led practice - I don't know what that is or how to approach it - unlearning design background.
it felt good and the feeling of feeling felt good!
the sensuality of the materials.
Feedback from cohort:
Continuum of calm across a rocky road - put an object in (to the book form)
thread - the thread has potential
took the line with me - over concrete and drag graphite - temporality -
possibility and a period of time.
fabric or glass - horizon/division
space and anxiety - draw lines on to different elements - powerful and architecture of space - in a space
boundaries and bound - continuum- Jacobs ladder
windows - line above and below
sewing a line through lots of different things
the terminology refreshes
reframe
understand the material process of being an artist - going through the process of making
scale
What happens when you take the line outside?
or a line that disappears after a bit of time - prisons - the great escape - soil dumping.
francis alys
materials that graphite can't stick to
what happens walking through that line?
integrate previous in to current
Anthony Gormley - steel lines crossing a space @ketttles yard - walk under/around
do you feel more comfortable using textile techniques? as in sewing a line as you did in your previous work?
I'm interested in knowing if this work in direct response with your feelings? What happens when you rotate some of these pages so that the line is broken up? - I wanted to ask you about scale too
