Lines were collected on random papers, donated by students intrigued by their strange art teacher's activity. Without planning it produced a selection of books in colours that could be grouped together.
These books feel crude but necessary. The vulgarity of the bright colours and the primitive lines mirror the naivety of the children that created them. They are not what I am looking for in this project. To present the tangible line of time, the sophistication of something os beyond control need control and clarity. A cleanliness that does not discriminate the viewer. The colours will turn some people off, close them down to the viewing of the work. It certainly repulses me.
I took a leap of faith and stepped out of my comfort zone. I had a contact at a music festival I was attending. I reached out and made a suggestion that I bring along my tine projector and play my video in one of the chillout tents, would that be okay?
The chill out tent I had proposed
He said he'd inquire for me...fast forward to the next day and I've been offered a 20ft sand dune as a projection surface. I made some calls, manage to borrow a 3300-lumen business projector, my husbands work laptop and pull together my previous video works on to memory sticks.
The set up was simple a seamless, this part of the art process gives me anxiety so happy when it works well.
Children climbing the dune.
From the bottom of the projection
The angle of the dune was fairly steep
My initial video choice was the one designed for the project, making and made, however, I only played this for about an hour as it was slow in comparison to the music and didn't fit well with the environment. I had a couple of interactions with it, a few asked questions but it was largely ignored. I proceeded to rotate between Wrote, Fractured Forms and Collage, each playing at x2 original speed. These all garnered interest, plenty of interaction and fabulous feedback. My ego was well and truly boosted.
Fractured form stop go x2 speed
Drop collage stop go x2 speed
On the visual side, the organisers were extremely happy with my activation, they commented on the refreshing nature of my analogue visuals as opposed to the 'usual digital art stuff' and that it complemented their aesthetic. They would be interested in working with me in future.
The participants loved it, they utilised the projector to immerse their forms into the artwork, dancing in front of it to create shadow forms, creating their own performance pieces. This changed my canvas to their bodies as they moved in front of the work and gave a living dimension to it. The work was constantly repeating but their movements were erratic and unpredictable.
The sand dune made a surprising good projection surface. A wonderfully surprising outcome occurred when projecting the piece 'Wrote', at the large scale and increased speed it was extremely readable and had a element of projection mapping. As the surface was the same as the video it gave the illusion of the words being etched in to the large sand dune with was on.
In total the works were displayed for 6-7 hours until the laptop battery died (my husband had left the adapter at work, best laid plans and all that!), They had tried to source another computer but everyone had Mac's and the projector would only work with PC.
What have I taken from this?
Wow, what a buzz! Seeing the work at such a arge scale was incredible, it was mesmerising to me and I created it! I found the entire experience inspiring I had not considered that outlet for work. It actually suited the pieces really well and they came accros as considered and fit for purpose. Upon reflectionI also relasied that a lot of my 'go-to' inspiration artsts are those that work with light art or projection, Dan Flavin, James Turrell (mt absoloute love), Jenny Holzer, Olafur Elliasson. The works from these artists have made an impact on me but I have not been able to comment on what it was, preiviously noting aspects like colour, atmospherics of the piece, scaleas reasons. After staging a projection or light piece myself it is about the claiming of teritory, a violence about projecting on to something preexisiting, the object, space or building already has a label, an owner or disgnation and the projections, frame or light piece then claims it without damage, framing it and confining it with the artwork, laying a stamp or signiture that is removed without trace.
My work possessed a part of that desert, that festival, the music and the audience. It then claimed them further when they moved in to it. It felt like an extension to the way the work, the patterns, claim me, they way it overtakes my thoughts and my time. The work claims me through the making, then claims the space through the projection.
https://vimeo.com/340555329
https://vimeo.com/340555233
So at the moment I have work looking at constancy, and work looking at possession/occupation, both works involve the aspect of collision, of either materiality or site.
Some off-the-cuff notes I made while writing the above piece and talking to a friend:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_art
An epiphany moment?! It lists James Turrell and Dan Flavin.... my favs
Is this a thing? Is this what I’ve been working towards?!
Projection mapping? If you think about all the things I’ve been mesmerised by....
I’ve even called my daughter Dawn for Christ sake!
Holy shit
I feel like I’m going to vomit with excitement and nerves.
This feels like a turning point but my brain has kicked in and is listing all the stuff I need to learn!
I made some books up before the making day, I used the time on the day to work on the feedback from Catherine Baker (the tutorial was the day before) and work with some simple lines, collisions of materials and explore some mark-making and printing.
small leporello
graphite frottage line
mixed paper book
charcoal continuous line
charcoal was not lifted
these pages stuck together
i filled the line but it felt untrue
I erased all of the line to deny the lie
book making from found materials
book of found papers
drawing a line on lino with a brush
printing the line
outcome of drawn line on lino
I cut a block instead and used it as a stamp to get a more consistent line
inked up perspex for mono printing line
the texture of the ink
preparing to print
prints drying
prints drying
Notes from the table (literally):
Use the frottage technique to draw a line in an existing book - encounters with surface
Draw a line through the book with charcoal - that line is a lie (it was broken by pages sticking together) - erase the lie, process of erasing is evident as it alters the book again, abrasive to the surface, leaving a trace of the original line on the surface and altering the marks that were there before the line.
Not a book - an object that acts like a book, but how is it read? How is it viewed? The line is like a horizon but if it is hung it becomes a seam? Does a seam have to bring two things together? What does that mean for the seams of the book pages?
Truth - erasing - trace -
Constancy of print block line, it is fractured but the fractures are on the seams of the book, is it still a line if it comes in multiple parts?
Truth of line - frottage - felt forced - looking for interesting surfaces - how can one create a gathered line that speaks of truth? What is the truth it is speaking? Is it fo time? What time? Does it matter?
For testing boundaries, I was beginning to get lost in the multidisciplinary soup I was concocting and opted back to drawing and video to simplify the practice:
Simultaneously Laporellos were constructed in various sizes, these began to be filled.
Each book equates to a measure of time,
24hr, 72hr, 36hr books
72 hour book. Over 13ft long (4meters)
To be filled
24hr book, large size.
These are not fully chronological, there is overlap between projects.
Issues are my own expectations of how long work takes to be created, the timing of work will hopefully help to correct this. The comparison with course-mates (yes I know I'm a grown woman but it still happens), practices are different as are time constraints etc so its all relevant.
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.
T
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’.
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.
