2nd Year Art Student

I have started Etching, using aluminium plates.

1) I take the plate and remove all the rough edges.

2) Clean the oil of the plate using chalk dust and vinegar.

3) Varnish the plate

4) Etch the image into the plate I used this image (bellow) (original Image taken by Emma Starkey. www.emmastarkey.com)

5) The etching process leaves parts of the varnish off and some of the metal exposed I bath the metal in a acid bath making sure the back of the plate is protected with parcel tape, this permanently leaves the markings etched into the metal like seen below.

6) The above image i had also used soft ground wich is a differnt sort of varnishing technique this allowed me to applie a doily to it wich gave the skin effect you see bellow. I then apply ink.

7) The original print has ended up being the front cover of my book.

8) As I posted about the book previously I will just explain how i printed the pages, I used news paper. this a reflection of my paper mache head I made the research and images are the same as before.

I have been recently reviewing a photo taken in London by Emma Starkey, www.emmastarkey.com, of a homeless person sat bellow a coffee shop. The image is absurd due to the fact that it is almost like he isn’t there.

I decided to take the image and photo copy it 24 times this distorted the image.

this allowed me to then make the image seen bellow by a process similar to Richard Prince, I took a part of the image that was distorted and added it to the image that wasn’t then Scanned the image in to give the ‘jean’ effect. I wanted to make the image look as though the Homeless person was fading away into the wall.

I started to think about what the Homeless person was thinking and what he may think of those walking past him. I have started making a performance based on this where I talk to a bag of flour, like Hamlet talks to the skull of Yorick. I have taken the a passage of Act 5 Scene 8 which goes:

“Let me see. (takes the skull) Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times, and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. —Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now to mock your own grinning? Quite chapfallen? Now get you to my lady’s chamber and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come. Make her laugh at that.—Prithee, Horatio, tell me one thing.” 

and I have changed it to:

“Let me see. (takes the flour) 
(splits flour bag) Oh, poor flour!
I used to use you to my will, to make bread and cake!
you carried my daily diet a thousand times (try to eat flour), and now—how terrible— (sit down) I sit here.
It makes my stomach turn. Fading away into the wall on putrid piss filled streets. I don’t know how many times I kissed the soul of boots. Right here (point to mouth). 
That is no joke now! 
(point to audience) Your food? 
Your baths? (Re-enact washing with the flour)
Your warm bed to go home to?
Your looks of disgust and distaste?
Snotty noses!
You don’t make me smile now. Are you sad about that?
(ask audience over and over)
(shouts) No
Look at that lady, look how much makeup she slathers on (use flour to re-enact), she’ll end up just like me some day. 
That’ll make her laugh.
You laugh at me. Inside.
(silence)
Do you have a match?
(walk out)”

Bellow is some images that I took from the practice run I did today.

I felt that maybe a plinth or table for the flour would work and also that i need to practice the script, It just does not work with me reading the script straight from the paper!

Conjunction

This door symbolises much more than its simple appearance, which is blue, chipped rusty warn weathered and heavy. I think when I saw the door it symbolised a passage way or cellar entrance the size and shape reminded me of stables. What happened to the other half? Ultimately a door is an entranceway to something…

By doing absurd (Absurdist) things, it is often classes as illogical but in fact it may be logical in the terms of enlightenment and moving forward and development.

 “above all, it should not waste time trying to effect some sort of synthesis or reconciliation between the manifest and scientific images […] Enlightenment consists in expediting science’s demolition of the manifest image by kicking away whatever pseudo-transcendental props are being used to shore it up or otherwise inhibit corrosive potency of science’s metaphysical subtractions.” (Brassier, 2007)

Rock, Paper, Scissors

I give the bottle and umbrella, there is always the potential of the ‘Scissors’ been open and closed.

I looked at the potential that the abnormal or absurd, by posing the questions and enabling the audience to partake, I can also encourage that whim upon them, by demonstrating an absurd act or acts it allows the audience to feel secure in their response to the work.

 ‘of course, having conceded that the notion of a non-manifest apperance is not entierly oxymoronic.’  (Brassier, 2007)

On the 07/01/2015 I performed Rock, paper, Scissors for Breeze Creatives in Newcastle, for an exhibition called Act without Expectation curated by Jade Currie. (http://breezecreatives.com/abject-gallery/act-without-expectation).

Figures 1-4 display the opening moments to the performance much like The Garage (Fig 5), I gave the props out to the audience as an exchange.

The problem with the Garage version was that I didn’t give people the invitation to join in clearly, I performed a repetitive task, and I didn’t add changes nor play with the objects.

The Video for the Breeze Creatives performance can be found (here http://www.robinlkwoodward.com/#!rock-paper/kdif9) I gave some people water some umbrellas, some both; I also gave some more than one object. In one instance, actually making a sculpture, surrounding one couple in umbrellas.

When I finally finished like the Garage PiLOT performance I donned my head and sat down, but this time people became involved. (Fig 6, 7, 8, 9) the audience built sculptures, poured water on my head and on the floor; some helped me by giving me the means to protect myself.

What did I learn from PiLOT?

1) Experiment with the objects, use them as a material.

2) Interact, subtly.

3) Allow the performance to take its course.

What did I do differently?

I experimented allot more with the objects, I almost played with them, I used the materiality of the water, I used it as a fluid almost demonstrating the use of the prop. By doing this it subtly allowed the audience to interact with me the performer. This intern with allowing the performance to take its course helped towards the final outcome.

What did I learn from Breeze Creatives?

Surrealism

I learned by using the right costume or clothing makes a massive difference, it was more clear the links between surrealism (Magritte)and the performance, a modern contemporary twist on the business man seen within Magritte’s painting.

Nature via Nurture

 ‘Genes are designed to take their cues from nurture.’ (Ridley 2004)

By prompting the audience, showing them what to do with the material like a mother would with a baby, I was able to subtlety cohere the audience to perform acts for me.