Just finished the ‘artist and viewer’ and now working on ‘the body’, almost all my chapters in draft form. And now reading ‘The Meaning of the Body: Aesthetics of Human Understanding’ by Mark Johnson and its amazingly insightful.
It does make me question how we ever came to see the mind and body as separate entities…and will endeavour from now on to think of myself as a mind-body
Also as a break from the theory of my practice I bought a beautiful slither of British Elm, no clear idea what to make of it though it looks rather nice leaning against the wall and I feel that I ‘need’ to get some more, perhaps I should build a tower?
Well I still need to do ruthless editing though feel that I am making some progress. I’ve written about beauty and objects and am intending to start on the artist and viewer today. Once that is drafted I’ll have three of my five chapters-wow only the body and space to go…
An interesting thing I’ve noticed, although the written/theory side does prevent me from the practical making of work, it really does help make some sense of the tangled web of thoughts in my head. Also it is helping me to get a better feel for where my practice may be located amongst the myriad of contemporary practices
So here’s to a deep breath and back into ‘Unmonumental: The Object in the 21st Century’ New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York- great photographs and essays on contemporary practice
All seems to fall away as I attempt to find the words to answer my research question, though of course there is no answer…
I am constantly in a state of discomfort with small moments of delight as I try to make sense of my thoughts
Yet I know that the thought is changed as soon as I utter the word, again as I scribe it and tease it with others into a sentence to form a paragraph and then a chapter and finally a paper
And a paper that requires ruthless editing to ensure it makes sense and has something to say even if it’s not as profound as I hope…
So off I go with the hope that John Robert can help me work things out through his ‘The Intangibillities of Form: Skill and Deskilling in Art After the Readymade’. Though he’s already thrown me off kilter with his comment on page 6 of his preface ‘art’s digital temporality and post -visual transformation into social technique’ A whole new box of frogs to contend with oh dear…
Yet again time has passed by in the blink of an eye, maybe I should consider time in my research question? Which is where I’m at, trying to formulate an ever evolving question-thought I had it licked, plan, mind maps, towers of books with slips in them- until I began the difficult task of finding the words to express what I really can’t say about my emerging sculptural practice…
So back to the mind maps to reflect and review
What is it about time? I can’t believe it’s four weeks since I last uploaded images and wrote a very short note. I must confess since my teaching finished I have been a bit under the weather, often happens when you stop a period of extreme activity
I’ve been in the Project Space at College, it’s great to have so much space just to think though I had weighed myself down with the preparation of etching plates. I found the etched images a bit disappointing so may not even print them. I was able to leave my work in place and I’m back in there next Monday, so really looking forward to re discovering what I was up to and see how the research I’ve been doing for my final paper fits
In a studio tutorial it was recommended that I ‘park’ aesthetics. This has left me a little off kilter as what I want to do with my work is show the beauty that’s all around us, that we often miss when we’re so weary from constantly ‘doing’ instead of being…
However though it’s challenging to have to re consider and justify my approach I guess that’s why I’m studying to reinvigorate and inform my practice. To make sense of what I do or am and why
I’m reading mainly about objects and beauty and I’ve found a great small book- Merleau Ponty: The World of Perception, about a series of lectures he gave and it’s much more manageable than The Phenomonology of Perception. And also finding Patricia Cain’s Drawing: The Enactive Evolution of the the Practitioner, particularly insightful as I relate it to my research on drawing and making
I feel I should get off line and continue my reading as I’m teaching the rest of the week so these are my last moments to make any headway on my research paper
