Week 9
I think was probably the best week so far. After a few weeks of feeling annoyed with my work and feeling that I wasn’t progressing at all and generally feeling frustrated with myself, I turned a page. After spending Monday in the woodwork workshop, I had a productive Tuesday screenprinting. I was really just printing a selection of photos of architectural models and urban spaces onto tissue paper, I was happy with how they looked just layered together even though my plan was to hack them up and collage them into some paintings.
I was given 6 large sheets of steel last week, so I’ve been playing with them too, it’s a nice industrial surface to work on, along with the cement, there is an interesting contrast of materials.
On Wednesday, I visited a space in Tooting that we are planning to use to show some work and have a play around with in January. It should be an interesting experience, there is lots to do on that front next week. There were also lots of cakes being sold this week in an effort to raise some money for our interim show in February/March. I won’t mention the 90 minute chaotic meeting that was had about it on Friday. Other things of note for this week include a showcase at the HMV Curzon (a cinema) in Wimbledon. Some students had submitted work for the playlist, so it was good for them and everyone else to see their work on a cinema screen. The main films that were shown were by Ben Rivers, I enjoyed the films, quite post-apocalyptic. Again, it got me thinking about the end of the world and my work. I also ended up watching Apocalypse Now this week. I detect a theme here!
I had my second tutorial on Thursday, I was pretty unsure what to expect and wasn’t feeling too confident about my work. I felt really good afterwards though. I’ve been trying to really force my work onwards since October (obviously one of the reasons why I wanted to do an MA), but I’d been unsatisfied with myself, but it was pointed out to me that actually, there has been lots of change in my studio space. I guess I just don’t seem to notice these things as I confront my work on a daily basis. Anyway, the tutorial went well and I got lots out of it. The main points of conversation were about my use of materials, and how scale helps me (and my choice of materials). In terms of my subject matter, am I trying to describe a space or allude to a space? I think I’m trying to allude to a space, as that seems far more interesting, but probably more difficult to achieve. We spoke briefly about painting, in terms of my research interest, and agreed that I should probably focus on imaginary spaces/enviroments and anxieties that go with the urban environment than get caught up with geometric abstraction.
