Well I’ve had to adapt rather swiftly this week. As I left the canvas in my two recent pieces raw, (hoping that the grass roots might just grow into the material) I found that the canvas had completely rotted through onto the bases underneath. Nightmare!
What I have been left with is two overly present holes in my canvas, interesting to look at maybe, but frustrating nonetheless. I just have to be thankful that this happened now and not in a month’s time. I’ve constructed a new stretcher and treated the canvas with everything under the sun to waterproof it. Today I relaid my recycled compost and started the cultivation cycle again.
I managed to get one extra tutorial with Tom O’sullivan which was really fantastic. I brought up the ideas of using humour to almost satirise my own practice and it produced an interesting discussion. It would definitely be something that would have to be very refined to function in a way that I felt successful. In some ways the work that I am creating deals with humour already, admittedly quite subtly. Growing grass in a canvas – constructing a giant slope in my studio, both seem a little absurd. Perhaps this light-hearted approach was already functioning, it just needed some coaxing out.
Finally another important development has been my construction of some foamboard maquettes. Measuring my studio was pretty entertaining as I had to navigate around the 1st years who are setting up for their assessment. I decided on a 1/15th scale model and have constructed a basic example which I can now play around with.
