10pm

Doing the recycling is not part of the idea of ‘the other’ according to Hennesey Youngman and his You Tube channel which aims to support and advise emerging artists.

You can listen to his wise words here: http://www.youtube.com/user/HennesyYoungman

Despite that, although I identify with ‘the other’ I do recycle and have chosen to disclose this activity in the presentation of phase 1 of my MA. I have been accumulating glass jars since I moved to Poole and coincidentally I have as many jars as i do chewed paper boluses.

After spending many hours cleaning the glue from the jars i packed them up and headed for the studio. Seeing the empty room filled me with dread. So I went shopping for rollers and repainted the room and plinths. This calmed me to a point when I could start experimenting with the available technology which includes an over head projector which has been acquired from a school. It took five or six attempts before it shot into action and once the light came on I spent hours experimenting until it got dark.

I think I have a plan. Interestingly it will be something like a vision I had for my work some months ago. Image and object. I’m not sure how it will go down with the studio holders or indeed my supervisor but I want it to be an experience more that just a collection of visual material.

I don’t want to give too much away as I’m hoping to make a video of the exhibition from the viewers point of view. maybe this will involve taping the Flip to my head again.

Compiling my personal bibliography this evening after a long day volunteering at text+work gallery.

I’ve spent most of my time in front of a laptop or tidying. Next week I’m looking forward to being in the studio all day everyday.

Gina Pane

edited by Caroline Collier and Stephen Foster

‘…the wound is the memory of the body; it memorizes its fragility, its pain, thus its ‘real’ existence. It is a defence against the object and the mental prosthesis’ Gina Pane[1]

Anne Tronche

S’il y a quelqu’uj ici, il est la (if someone is here, then they are present)

“…the function of the photographic image that memorises the existence constructed, paradoxically, by a given number of artists, gradually becomes, with all the implied nuances of the medium, an art of representation….the photographic art is transformed can be observed, altering from a simple gesture of documentation to an exercise in translation…

…for Gina Pane the photographic act is not an aide-memoir but rather is presented as an integral part of the projects.”

Pane worked with one photographer throughout her career. Although she is most well known for her performances and use of the body she was also a painter and sculptor and to some extent this must have influenced the way she saw and chose to present her work. The photographs of the live art carried as much weight as the act itself. Indeed it would seem that the acts were carried out to create the photographic images.

I was interested to find that pane had made work on eating, ingesting, spitting. ‘During one hour she ingested 600 grams of raw, minced meat…In this act, the human being is presented as a carnivore for whom the life of the animal takes the role of a provider of energy, obeying strong nutritional forces to unconsciously resist death.” Pane felt strongly about the role of the artist to be a catalyst for change[3]. For her the artist had a moral responsibility to society. In this act which must have been nauseating and repulsive to witness she uses her position to comment on consumption[4].

She often used the wound in phases of her performances. The blood created from the wound then effects the phase following as in Self Portraits 1973 where she made incisions with a razor blade around her mouth and fingertips before gargling and spitting out milk mixed with her blood into a bowl. “To spit out milk mixed with blood is not to spit with distaste, but to nourish in a maternal way a world that is cold, divided. It is obvious that this approach, linked to ethics, makes the strength of its aesthetic transfiguration dependent on the duty of understanding and saving.” Behind her the viewers watched images of women painting their nails. Tronche suggests that this act of spitting was a way of adding warmth and that it alluded to maternal nourishment. Having eaten the flesh of an animal she now uses its milk. For me she is reinforcing the ideas of consuming. We eat and drink of the flesh of other animals to keep ourselves nourished and healthy, we paint our nails to attract a partner to reproduce and perpetuate the human race[5]. We consume to fulfil our drive to procreate regardless of the consequences.

[1] Ezio Quaranteli and Gina Pane, “Travels with St. Francis” Contemporanea, Nov/Dec 1998, as cited in Kathy O’Dell op cit p.27

[3] “If the artist has a social conscience he (sic.) feels his responsibility in society in which he lives. I believe he can become a catalyst of social and moral change because he has complete liberty of expression. He can, of course, delve in autobiographical narcissism or shut himself in his tower, but he does have the choice of being responsible on a social level” Gina Pane

[4] “He who eats the flesh of another animal is his equal” George Bataille in La Mort (Death)

[5] Lancan “Signifying of the Phallus” asking “What’s a desire originating from a lack? A pretty meagre desire”





I’m 29 for the next two hours.

Today my copy of a-n came through the post and in the Degrees 2011 section my article was published! According to one artist friend this makes me an establishing artist. I doubt if it does but it’s certainly a step in the right direction. I remember reading the degrees 2003 and there was a piece by Dorothy Cross, an Irish artist I had researched for my foundation studies.

Now that I think about it, I’d researched Women in Irish Art for my foundation written project. Somehow this 10 year old knowledge has crept make into my consciousness. I’d also looked at Alice Maher especially her Familiar series where she used hand formed or processed objects next to large paintings. Whilst day dreaming my way through some films at uni a few months ago these images came to mind.

I had a meeting yesterday with lisa about my plans for presenting my work for this stage. I’m planning to put together a show at Artworks. It will be useful for me to edit and present the work in this context. The work I’ve made so far doesn’t feel like art as it has not been presented in public. It’s not likely that I will have much of an audience but at least if some of the artists at the studio and my supervisor see it then that’s a start.

Artists don’t make work they create conversations.

On Thursday last week I took part in an Aim Higher project Meet the Creator/Scientist where university students present their work to secondary school pupils at their school.

I’ve worked in secondary schools, but I had no idea what to expect from this event. I’d brought sketch books and my laptop but when the pupils poured in to the hall they were quickly attracted to the gadgets being presented by the scientists and engineers. So as not to look too disappointed I took some sheets of paper and started to fold as much out of nerves as to appear to be contributing in some way to the event. It wasn’t long before some student gathered and now came the real challenge – how do I explain my practice to a group of teenagers?

As soon as they arrived in the hall their first task was to fill in some paperwork. I used this to open up the discussion about using paper as a material. We discussed how paper could be used to oppress and how it can be used to liberate and how a blank sheet of paper represents possibility and therefore inspires creative action, illustrated by the fact that whilst we were chatting I was making an origami jumping frog.

From there it spiralled to conversations about the choices we make, the value of our time, communication and why people tell us things. Groups of students came and went and most made something with the paper whilst we talked. We swapped creations and shared our experiences with paper and communication and then it was all over.

On the way home I remembered why I loved working in schools and the community. Talking to ordinary people about what I’m doing makes it a real thing in the world. Having an audience present to witness the work and contribute to the conversation.