This series of photo document inspiration and my work in the studio during the initial phases of the installation. I was unsure of my wider context at this time so the objects and arrangements are thoughts more than defined statements, the work is made up of recycled materials, found objects and domestic items.
Phyllida Barlow – expression
Phyllida Barlow is an interesting artist who came into fame later in her life (after 40 years of teaching at Slade), something I think is beneficial since you have life experience and perspectives, not just technical skill and ideas, she additionally spent 40 years as a member of staff at the Slade School of Art.
Her work is based on the urban environment, her surroundings and is often very large scale bordering on monolithic at times, this sense of ambitiousness is something I want to try to emulate however having that much space to work with is difficult. If the workshops were open/accessible then I would have wanted to experiment with metal and wood structures to act as braces or supports, these could then be taken to a location and assembled and used as anchors to build or paint on. This links to Barlow’s own desire to create a ‘ship in a bottle’ effect where the work expands within the space to fill it.
She also has a fearless mentality when it comes to her work, combining found materials with traditional and domestic ones in new and interesting ways, she seems to possess a great sense of discernment in the way she creates a piece or installation. This discernment likely comes from her massive experience as an educator, but also from confident experimentation with making and materials.
Conceptually we are similar in that neither of us would proclaim a focus or subject of our work outright, as she herself says the subject or meaning must be found through the making process, which can often be a struggle. But it is in this struggle that we as artists negotiate between material, concept and experience to create our unique perspective. From viewing this perspective a conversation can be opened between the viewer and the work that has been made.
I find Barlow to be both intimidating and inspiring, which links to the way she feels about her own process, stating that it is often on the edge of being out of control through its aggressive invasion of the space. This is something I have also struggled with in that I feel like the making is running away from me and I no longer have control of where it leads. This assertive use of chance and change is integral to Barlow, and many other artists I admire, and is by far the most important element of my work I need to focus on developing.
Barlow’s honing of her creative process over decades is inspiring and gives me comfort that I do not have to expect so much of myself so soon, as Ed says not everything you make will end up in the Tate. Remembering this lesson has been the hardest thing this year so I am pleased to have found Phyllida Barlow and her work to help guide me through.
RANDOM NOTES: repetition until you find the form you want then build on that. sculpture in a way rejects the single image in the way you walk around it, and despite its physicality sculpture constantly disappears; you walk past and its gone, then if you come back to it you have the chance to see it in a completely new way. sculpture feels more like a film and music its a moment and an experience. time is a material like gravity is a material, historical sculpture can be very grandiose and lacks intimacy. she is trying to make an approximation of something that is gone, its not about perfection I’m not a perfectionist, I might be obsessive but I’m not a perfectionist, I don’t have the patience. sculpture is about the relationship between yourself and your space and the object that is taking up your space as it were. The aggressive invasion of the space and a take over of it. The viewer only becomes relevant to her after the work is realised and ready to be displayed in a space.
interested in post minimalism arte povera, dislikes moral stance of judgementalism, dislikes pomposity or over seriousness, british proudness of its own historical position. last 10-15 year of monuments falling, twin towers saddam hussain buddhas in afganistan, BLM marches and Brighton. sculpture uses pretense, bronze that is hollow inside, constant parodoxes of sculpture. the bigger a thing is the more it must embrace its own fakery, intrigued by the notion that something can be massive but also could be made by one person, larger pieces made of smaller sections.
Ignores viewer while making work, it is a private relationship, when it comes to installation she tries to use the work and its relationship to the space to choreograph the viewer into a certain kind of looking. Views sculpture as a restless object, where everything is open to scrutiny not just where the object lands on the ground. floor empty forces viewer to examine the objects at different heights from different angles
”Think about Cave Paintings, its an age old desire to bring into dark spaces images or evidence of something that was seen or heard or experienced outside. Its about evidencing something seen or experienced, through a language that I believe is as old as the hills.”
PHYLLIDA film on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krbUNuUMVQs
Observing what is around
I walk the same way to uni everyday and I noticed a lot of new features to the walk since Covid has affected our lives so much, there was a lot of colourful information on the way in the forms of signage and notices for 2m social distancing.
I liked the way there was a lot of different tones even if they come with messages of limitations and restrictions, I also feel that the spontaneity of using those limits for work converts this negative to a neutral or positive form. The juxtaposition between these bright colours and the street browns, greys and reds is something that will be missed in the studio but that could be introduced through painting the walls or plastic divides I imagine.
After thinking about my work in relation to David Medalla and other artists I observed directly what was around me and used this visual data to inform my practice, in this case my colour scheme for an experiment.
I thought about restrictions again in two ways in relation to making, one thought involved a snakes skin, and how it has to shed it to grow beyond its current limits to survive (this is metaphorically similar to the human condition). The other was in relation to indoors and outdoors (an idea I have been exploring this term) which is also connected to Phyllida Barlow and some of her own concerns.
In keeping with my methodology I looked around at the collected and domestic materials I had and noticed some more left over bubblewrap, I decided to repeat an experiment of mine with a slightly different colour set and design. I was influenced by my walks to Charnwoods, Bradgate park, and Ayelstone meadows as well; this translated for me into a leaf design that resembled a similar theme on a bag my housemate owned last year.
The results were good and I feel the properties of the bubblewrap lend themselves ideally to the context and intent here, I wasn’t sure how the shape would turn out but overall I feel this went well. The lighting effect that came out a result was really nice and I imagined this much larger; I should experiment further with drawings over this photo or with scale models to make the sculptures seem huge.
25321 – Blue and Yellow
I started using blue and yellow in my practice subconsciously without realising that the colour scheme was all around me, in my room, garden, on the way to uni, in my work from last term. It took my crit to hep me notice that this could be from what is around me, it was also at my crit that David Medalla was mentioned to me; part of his practice is having his experience directly inform his practice.
I found this piece of bubble wrap laid over my yellow box sculpture with blue light reflecting from the outside and decided to experiment with it, adding blocks of blue and yellow to play the the translucent nature of the plastic.
It is an interesting experiment although a very simple one, it calls to mind artists like Olafur Eliasson who uses colour and light to evoke experiences in his audiences. The shapes allow for spaces in between and keep the colours separate as opposed to mixing the primaries to make green.
The plastic wrap and the shots from ‘inside’ it makes me feel enclosed, but the vibrant contrasting colours create a sense of wonder which is amplified by the coloured god rays shining through the plastic.
Improvements: A larger scale with a different palette, experiment with the elements again, what about coloured backgrounds? dye the plastic instead of using pens? cute it into shreds, layer it up, play with colours through each other? don’t get distracted or lose your way because of studio access changes.
Tom Davis – Artist Talk
Tom Davis is a contemporary artist who studied at DMU and is now working in Walsall Birmingham. He is a visual artist working in digital and traditional painting who is inspired by personal life, video games, digital culture and perception. When he spoke about his work he gave us a very detailed and reflective presentation of his work to date, his honesty about successes and failures of his process was inspiring and reassuring.
One point he spoke about that was realising the limitations of your process, this was something that actually became a focus of my methodology this term and for me the limits of what I can do directly govern what I do. I try to work with a limit but also right up against it, in the hope that this sparks new ideas or effects. This is similar to the way Tom used his experience during lockdown to integrate his interest in games and nature.
He also spoke about media and relevance to the context, for example a digital display of work is relevant to the context of Tom and therefore an oil painting would have a different and perhaps unwanted effect.
Tom likes to make work across different media (plaster, oil, acrylic, digital & comics) he also spoke about how he enjoys converting from analog to digital and making smaller versions of work that can then be scaled up. This is similar to my own digital drawing process where I work over real life locations I find on walks/trips. Tom also makes small collages as preliminary ideas instead of drawing/painting all the time, this is something I would like to experiment with further also.
He ends by speaking about his return to naturalistic subjects, how he struggled with digital/gaming focused process and couldn’t justify it to himself completely. He also talked about how he absorbs what’s around him and about enjoying slightly different ways of working, emulating this could help me balance my confused style and help me hone in on my unique process/processes.
Another insight I got from this talk (and my own process) was the need to go out to primary sources to learn more about a subject or idea. Davis says he felt like secondary research limited his outcome and I agree, with my own work if I am limited in the amount of outer world things I can absorb that affects the diversity of my inner world.
My other favourite thing about this talk was Tom’s challenge to us: ‘My challenge to you is to go out of your comfort zone, make work outside, leave with a view to coming back with a piece of art. How can you integrate outdoor adventures into studio work or practice?’
This inspired me, much like the Ed challenge, to just get out there and go for it which in the current circumstances of the Covid pandemic has been a lot more helpful than some other guidance.
RANDOM OTHER NOTES: heavy application of acrylic to get a different effect, different language for oils and acrylics. new interest in natural subjects, watercolours and painting from life. changing aspects of your practice gives you different results, different medium different location etc. TD now paints outdoors by candlelight, very traditional and interesting process. TD now interested in NFT, but concerned by ethics and energy cost. eventually things blend, try combinations and push limitations.
https://dmureplay.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=191c2357-f91d-406c-ad1f-acf000e0f5c8
Tom also mentioned some advice for after graduation: be a part of an artist community afterwards and get in with a community and a network. Go to private views and openings to build a network and encounter as many new/interesting people as you can. Try not to be too introverted.
Peter Fischli & David Weiss – playful
Fischli and Weiss are a pair of Swiss artists who collaborated on various projects and ideas, one of the most iconic is called ‘The Way Things Go’. The pair collaborated on many works over their careers and even had a retrospective at the Guggenheim in 2016, regrettably Weiss died of cancer in 2012, but their unique viewpoint and way of communicating meaning keeps on rolling like a tire.
This work is actually a 30 minute clip owned by Bates College Museum of Art, who describe the work as slapstick and thought provoking. Generally they were received by people well with an appreciation of their humour but also of the issue they were trying to poke fun at. However, other artist like Roberta Smith also spoke about the danger that viewers take Fischli & Weiss’ work (and work like it) at a superficial level without fully understanding the deeper complexities intended by the creators.
I love their playful elements but also their very frank way of communicating and also generating ideas; The Way Things Go was made from the leftovers of their studio whilst working on an entirely separate project. The same is true of How to Work Better, found on a bulletin board in Thailand, its a list of 10 things to do to work better that the pair use to ambiguously critique and/or praise notions of industrialism and potentially modern life or the ‘rat race’ as it is sometimes known.
I also like how Fischli talks about curation; trying to make sure his pieces stay in the ‘good neighbourhoods’ and don’t fall into the bad ones and try to convey too much meaning. I think Fischli is trying to stay away from meta or pretentious ideals and stay true to the satirical whimsy that made the duo’s work so interesting.
In terms of my practice I would like to emulate their sense of ambiguity, their playful use of materials as well as their understanding of everyday materials. I would also like to experiment further with interactive or kinetic elements of my work especially when considering exhibition or installation.
“We knew people enjoyed some of our work, and at the same time we suspected that they didn’t take us seriously,” Mr. Fischli said. “But we had a strong sense of what we were doing. And what was interesting for us was something that was loaded with ambiguity. Irony, after all, is interesting only if you don’t know if it’s meant ironically.”
David Medalla – observation
David Medalla described himself as a ‘poet who celebrates physics’ and was an artist with a long career that focused on a playful and individual approach to making work, his work was based around many themes (namely personal experience) and he was an important artist in the exploration of kinetic, installation and participatory art.
His works like Cloud Canyons and Stitch in Time are well known and he was also one of the founders of Signals, an influential 1960’s gallery in London that was open 24 hours a day. I think the main reason for this popularity is because of the purity of Medalla’s mind and ideas, from hearing interviews with him he was as interested in enjoying his life as he was in making art and art was his life.
Having grown up near Manila Bay which was decimated by war Medalla saw a mixture of contrasting imagery from the land and water to the war torn area and then afterwards the regrowth and rebuilding. I feel Medalla greatly understood life (since art is all about life he also understood art well) which allowed him to clearly and thoughtfully take advantage of chance and change to make impactful work, it is also undoubtedly linked to his Filipino heritage where legacy and community are important to the people.
My practice and his are similar in the sense that our lives and our art aren’t really separate, one informs the other and they both turn in a never ending cycle. I also strongly relate to his interest in participation (despite a certain coronavirus limiting this…) and in art as an experience to be shared or given. I also relate myself to Medalla in the sense that we are both concerned with connections between things, most prominently between humans, nature, and the machine.
Moving forward with his influence I would like to make more pieces that require participation to be completely effective and also lean into things that are kinetic or changing. I also want to try and work with other people and artist in making work, to experiment with not being the sole author or creator and to be part of a community or collective piece.
His use of fabric and textiles is also interesting and I want to explore this further in my work, perhaps stitching things together to make connections between objects or places, perhaps go on walks and collect materials and bring them to the studio like a migration of materials. I would also want to emulate his and many other artists’ methodology of capitalising on change and chance wherever possible and having a confident hand and open mind.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/jan/08/david-medalla-obituary
https://cnnphilippines.com/life/culture/arts/2019/02/20/david-medalla-interview.html
Juno Calypso – Artist Talk
One of the artist talks I attended was with Juno Calypso, a young British photographer whose work discusses many themes most prominently feminism, isolation, loneliness and self sufficiency. Her work has a retro/vintage feel to it and recalls 1950’s style in some ways, probably calling back to a very different age of feminism.
Juno explained a series called ‘What to do With A Million Years’ in some depth and described how she approached a venue she was interested in, a Las Vegas 70’s underground bunker now owned by a group of people attempting to achieve immortality. She explained the way she approached the owner and group and the sensitivity with which she had to approach.
She also explained and encouraged us to ‘just go and ask’ which is always useful advice for someone like me to hear; I struggle with confidence especially when asserting myself in the outside world. It was encouraging to hear from someone who had a relatable experience to tell, it gave us a different kind of insight than listening to an artist later in their career.
Juno then went on to explain how her process is very personal and therapeutic (even though it won’t feel that way at the time) I think the wisdom she was trying to tell us is to be true to yourself and do what works for you. She did this by explaining her own limited photographic process which usually involves just her, with little outside help or equipment. For this reason she does most of the work in post production where she edits and tailors images to get the desired effect.
Photography is something I am interested in and after this talk I would like to explore it further conceptually, although it isn’t relevant to my practice at this time and I feel like engaging heavily in this would distract from the current train of thought I am working through in my practice.
However I would like to incorporate and experiment with some of Juno’s stylistic qualities, figure, colour, drama and self/self sufficiency. With a view to try to create my own reply to a conversation we are now in (because she is a newer influence to me I always like to directly respond to my first encounter with them).
The most impressive thing about Juno was her honesty, with her intimate photos of her own body and with her honesty about her process, stating she feels success is attributed to luck as well as talent. It has been very inspiring this year to hear from multiple young artists who have had different experiences after graduation. THIS IS THE KIND OF HELP WE NEED AS STUDENTS. Something to bridge the gap between student education and adult engagement in society/workplace, these kinds of skills seem to be in short supply and it is an area of our education that isn’t practically focused on, only conceptually.
15321 – Critical Review Term 2 – Reflection
Our Term 2 review ended with us filling out an exhibitor form with a view to writing a statement about our work with our new understanding or ideas, presumably. I struggled to write mine but in the end managed to do a decent job I feel, however the crit showed me that I don’t always understand my work so outside perspective can sometimes be very helpful.
| My self-directed study explores play, space, and limitations with a sensitivity to materials and the curative process. Composition is a core element of my work as well as interaction, not just between the components of the work but also between the work and the individual. I focus on intrigue and intuition when starting and try to let autonomy guide me through combination and experiment with getting the right effect from a material or a motif. I like to also play with colour to highlight or create a relationship as I see it between things, connections have been a concept central to my work as well as modularity or unity; the sense of the whole being just as valuable as the sum of each of its parts. I have also tried to adopt a playful approach to experimentation and failure to stop fear from limiting my work, in addition to current situation and limits. There is a clear contrast in the forms of the objects I have made; the yellow and blue tones, the harsh squares and soft circles, vibrant colours and muted tones, domestic materials displayed (in theory in) natural environments. Most of the forms are also balanced or suspended as opposed to fixed or deliberately grounded, they’re held together with tenuous bonds in precarious ways. They are also unspecific in that there is no clear or concrete definition of what is going on with each thing or why. I think this contrast is intended to play with tensions and relationships between things, I also wanted to communicate a sense of naturalness, in the sense that they’ve been made authentically and you can understand how they have been put together. I have also had feedback that this is the case, and although the work is not specific, the thought process is visible and feels familiar. Perhaps the work speaks to the shared sense of ‘searching through confusion’ we’re all experiencing at this time. The work seems to reflect a conversation, with different individual parts communing with each other to convey a meaning, which for me can sometimes only be understood after they have been made. Corey Archangel has a similar practice in which he is sometimes the last one to know the connection or context of his work. I feel this level of unconscious or passive engagement is helpful to allow honest communication to flow, which can then be altered to suit a need for the artist, viewer or community etc. Daniel Buren’s Within and Beyond the Frame and Ugo Rondinone’s 52 windows were both suggested as contextual references for me. Rondinone’s use of vibrant colour and surface are similar to my work, perhaps I could emulate his large scale & installation style. Buren’s concept of taking art outside the studio is definitely something I want to continue to explore further, by taking materials to a site and making a specific piece or installation. I was also influenced by Eric Bainbridge and his process; he takes a curative approach in some ways and is more concerned with the overall relationships rather than specific details. I also want to carry forward David Medalla’s methodology of having work be directly informed by personal experiences, for me this could be using materials I find myself or taking silhouettes and themes from interactions or moments that happen to me. |
11321
I decided to use the garden again to try and make some more hanging work that could interact with the elements somehow. Unfortunately before I could make any significant progress it started to rain heavily.
This did prompt me to think about making work that makes sounds based on the rain, perhaps large metal mushroom heads or leaf type shapes. This could blend well with the sensitivity to materials topic, since using the natural elements and becoming in tune with them is being sensitive to the most natural material.
Concrete Voyage https://drive.google.com/file/d/19UjOknACfkAiHF3ZIUFwTId8fqFKDnZI/view?usp=sharing
Swing and you’re winning https://drive.google.com/file/d/19PP_9e31UQq2qf2LBKlc98YTPI-tG61v/view?usp=sharing
Cross Hot Rock https://drive.google.com/file/d/19A_aNaDvOEUe3znBm-eNA_z8Ea2l3uGB/view?usp=sharing
Swivel on these https://drive.google.com/file/d/19BUDb5BL5MTxI7MvRk6GX5vnSnhGQBIF/view?usp=sharing