Art etc. no. 7

With the Aspects of Interdisciplinarityconference coming up at the University of Wolverhampton (October 8th), I have been thinking about how artists use ideas. It is not simply a borrowing, it is more a deep excavation – in all directions.  Generally, it is about the interweaving of concepts from different disciplines rather than a wholesale use of one idea from one discipline and, in the end result, it is probably hard to pull things apart and put back in their own place. My thoughts, which I will present in a performative paper called Glorious Corruption, are that this amalgamation creates new ideas that could feed back to their origins and a new way of looking. Artists such as Katie Patterson are so adept at pulling out ideas and presenting them in such a beguiling way that make you question and think long after the exhibition has finished.

I class myself as a practicing artist which means I have interests in ideas around the actual production such as the way artists work, methods of display, materials and processes and finding a way to reconcile practice and research – in a way of presenting material that is rooted in research, or research that is rooted in practice especially when the two are so closely intertwined. I find this incredibly difficult without almost presenting an essay to accompany the work.

Went to photograph a dead thrush, almost perfect. My original idea was to dress them in baby clothes highlighting their vulnerability but I don’t always have them accessible. Today, I went with intuition and used petals and herbs. Not quite sure what this means in relation to the other images and I definitely don’t want to create a shrine. Perhaps when all the images are put together, I will be able to evaluate the series and maybe decide they have no value whatsoever as a photographic series.

After three years of trying, I have eventually managed to fill in and submit  an Arts Council funding application, the DYCP, not the big one! Although I know my chances of success are minimal, getting to the end of the form makes it seem a huge achievement. But, having done one….. Rest of the time has been spent at Manchester Museum and The Museum of Science and Industry. There is such a sense of scale in both, looking at skeletons and taxidermied creatures and realising our human size. Repeated in Science and Industry with aircraft, some are so small. The Kamikaze plane with pilots volunteering to fly it and end their lives, what was their mindset? War is such an emotional and terrible thing. How all this relates to my art, I don’t know but it is always good to try and experience the emotions and sensibilities of others even when you cannot understand them. Stood in the remains of the Roman fort with an eight year old and saying, you are leaning on a wall that a Roman has leant on. It all becomes connected, your place and time inserted into the spatiotemporal universe.

Small amount of play time in the studio. This image is of a gifted acrylic sheet which had been lying in the dust. Loved the abstract images  created with the surreality of my reflection.