Beyond the Body. Thinking through Process

Finished my research paper last week and folio at 2.00am this morning, with teaching prep and teaching in between, wiped out. Heater on in studio, prepare lunch and sit, listen to ‘shed shuffle’ (mixed by a cute friend) and think, return to feeling and make some art…

What can I say, it’s certainly been more than three weeks this time! I have to confess that it is difficult keeping all the plates in the air

Since I last wrote I’ve been dipping into Modern British Sculpture, ed by Penelope Curtis and Keith Wilson and Perpetual Inventory, Rosalind Krauss all very useful to underpin my emerging sculptural practice

And I’ve been looking at amongst others Annette Messenger, Phyllida Barlow, Eva Rothschild and Gabriel Kuri to help find my ‘tribe’

I’ve just finished the second (three in total) critical practice paper for my MA, I wonder why I find the written word so difficult?

Although it has been very useful in helping me understand where I am in the development of my practice, it has taken me away from the actual making of work, or stalled my progress

So over the next couple of days I’m going to reflect on where I was before I wrote the paper and find a way back in or a new start….

I intend to keep artists talking ‘posted’

Again it’s been some time, slightly less than three weeks so that has to be a good thing…

I’m reading Conversations on Sculpture edited by Glenn Harper and Twylene Moyer and finding it really useful especially how artists think and feel about the material that they use.

And one of the conversations I’ve read that springs to mind is Susan Canning and Richard Tuttle in which he says ‘In my work, I consider that I have a line-there’s a notion that each of us has a uniqueness, you don’t know where it comes from or what it’s for. Art has something to do with that uniqueness:what is achieving art for one person is completely different than what is achieving art for another person. I live a life in which I am sometimes in touch with my art. And I like to be in touch with that; I try to find it, I search for it every moment of my life.’

For me very poetic, I feel that I have a line and that I am constantly searching too

And today I’m literally working with the written line for my critical practice and the scratched line to further my drypoint experiments, so until soon

I’m suprised to see that it’s almost three weeks since I last visited my blog. I’ve been immersed in teaching prep rather than art work so now reflecting on where I was so that I can pick up and get back in flow

The College term has started and last week there was an social exhibition trip, I joined my peers for Sunday Art Show, Tate Modern for Tacita Dean and White Cube at Bermondsey. Also briefing and lectures to attend, best be discerning though as studio time is very precious and musn’t be diminished by too much cerebral down time

As always food for thought though as I’ve already mentioned it really is time to take my own work seriously and make with conviction

I’ve been considering returning to print, drypoints, and looking at casting or welding for making the bodies though important to give substantial thought to the materials and how this will impact on the idea behind them

Also how I want the bodies to be received by the audience as this will help decide the materials too

I still feel I’m right to meander around, experimenting and allowing the work to emerge from the materials and that’s where I need to leave things today…

Well, what can I say, I’ve been very busy making hanging bodies, early days though I think I’m on to something…

I’ve just finished Guy Claxton’s ‘Hare brain Tortoise Mind’ book and have found it very useful to consider the importance of allowing yourself quiet time to mull things over, without conciously thinking about them. instead of constantly seeking a quick route from A to B, so on reflection all this meandering I’m doing is exactly where I need to be right now

I’ve also begun reading Sculpture and Psychoanalysis ed by Brandon Taylor, only the introduction though findng it fascinating

Also been to see Phyllida Barlow’s Rig at Hauser and Wirth, loved it especially Untitled:Blocks, the way they reach up and fill the space and are made of everyday materials, concrete, textiles wood etc

As ever constantly inspired just need to follow through and create my own work to reach up and fill the space

And last week went to the Travelling Lines Conference, first at the Drawing Room to see the exhibition ‘The Peripatetic School: Itinerant Drawings from Latin America’ and listen to the curators talk, interesting to hear a curators point of view and reasoning behind collecting and exhibiting work. This was followed by a day at Chelsea College of Art and Design with a brilliant lecture by Moacir dos Anjos, followed by various panel discussions, all useful in their own way. What has stuck in my mind is Moacir’s answer to a panel question, I’ve para phrased- the need to be concious of our own way of seeing, our bias when reading work and that we need to look, listen and be generous and trust what we are receiving from the artist