Buckinghamshire New University

After three weeks I can finally reflect on my show. I just needed some space after all the effort.

It took me most of a week to set up my space with a lot of worrying about how to place my work in it. Given that grades could be lost or achieved depending on the final outcome was a sobering thought. I researched possibilities, took advice where it was offered, asked for help, photographed stuff so that I could reflect overnight, and generally spent a lot of time in the space just looking. In the end I got it right.

The private view produced opportunities and contacts. I think that from now on I need to concentrate more on contacts. Life after university is not going to be easy. I suspect that isolation could result in less productive work.

What is really strange is that my work already seems dated. I need to strip down my practice to concentrate on a more process-led approach for a while. For the last few months I have been making work with an end product in mind. This is a risky strategy. Now I want to try some things that I have never done before and approach the business of making in a new way. I want to try new materials and think about ways of making which are not so reliant on crafting in workshops.

My next post will be my last, just after the degree results are published.

As well as thinking about the final exhibition I have been making work up to the last minute. I have also been thinking about how this most recent work will lead into what I might do when the course is finished.

Following on from the casting process which has involved concrete, plaster and aluminium, I have been casting thin objects in paper using the pressure of a graphite pencil. These are presented as drawings. I like the concept of ‘casting in paper’. I learnt that casting a ready-made, such as a pair of scissors, is sometimes not enough. The object has to be what Duchamp termed ‘assisted’ or ‘rectified’ in order to draw the viewer in.

I finally used a plastic fish to make a cast. Using an object which is immediately recognisable and whose origins are organic is a new departure for me. I don’t know how I feel about this yet. Several questions arose from the process:

– Why not use the original plastic fish? What does casting it in aluminium do for the work?
– Does the piece seem like ornament and, if so, when do ornaments become art?
– Aluminium and leather are ‘rich’ materials. Are they too alluring?

My work after the course will have to develop without the use of the invaluable metal workshop. This will involve a whole new set of investigations with more readily available materials. Sometimes I don’t have to look too far for the simplest solutions as I found when making a cropped brush with two handles. It will be interesting to try more recognisable objects in different situations. Maybe this will push them too far and they will cease to be art.

A local gallery has asked me to consider work for London Art Fair. Another, in Suffolk, asked for my work to be in a show. This is exciting and gives me encouragement for the future.

This is the bit where everyone gets stressed out, including me! Just when I want to concentrate on thinking about how to exhibit my work other annoying things like the catalogue, the invites and organising the bar for the preview have to be dealt with. Not to mention also trying to send off proposals for galleries and residencies. No real work is getting done.

Everyone has been working so hard that the catalogue has been pretty much forgotten. So now we have a last minute panic on our hands together with the prospect of a botched job. Personally I think the invites are more important. One good thing is that I have been offered the chance to mail my own invitations to a wide audience through a local gallery that has occasionally exhibited my work. The gallery owner has also kindly offered to give some advice on how to exhibit my work once my space has been finalised.

I have up to twenty smallish sculptures that I would like to show as a collection. The collection would make a sort of museum effect which reflects the basis for my work. Some will go on the floor but others need to be seen at waist or shoulder height. The problem is how to best show them. I have thought of all sorts of options from building plinths from chipboard, to scaffolding and boards, to shelving brackets, using building blocks to support surfaces and to painting the floor to designate the area in which to place the work.

As for the drawings, I think I can negotiate a separate space for them, away from the sculptures. This would mean that neither would over shadow the other and the viewers would not make obvious comparisons.

A couple of discussions this week have made me re-assess my work and have suggested ways of moving it forward. I need to question the materials which I am using and I need to think about the validity of casting ready-mades. I am also planning my life in art after graduation.

After my preliminary presentation this week I was asked whether I would consider using materials to which I was not naturally drawn. Up till now I have used materials such as concrete, steel and cloth which I find attractive because of their luxury feel. A couple of months ago I made a work from a plastic bag which was a material that had been chosen for me to work with within the context of a workshop. Now I think I am ready to try this material again and perhaps to use it in conjunction with something which is more familiar to me.

I went to a very good talk by an artist at the China Shop in Oxford. He was using found materials and objects. Some interesting methods of printing were employed, such as driving trucks over plastic and using plaster to cast texture from found material. This very thoughtfully delivered talk questioned the value of casting. Why should a ready-made be cast when the original object could just as easily be used? This is a question I have to ask myself when deciding to cast either in concrete or aluminium.

Life after college is so close now. I am putting in proposals for the Milton Keynes Showcase and for a couple of residencies elsewhere. I have read numerous statements from artists who have successfully secured residencies. I am astonished at the density of the jargon in many of these. This results in a lack of clarity and in some cases suggests that the artist has no rational basis in terms of understanding their practice.

This week I have focused on two things. There have been some interesting comments on my work and I have been enjoying making some development drawings inspired by dog toys.

During a recent group discussion one person revealed that they found my work disturbing. I think this is caused by something similar to an invasion of personal space. People are used to being surrounded by familiar objects which they take for granted. Mine are reformed to suggest other associations and I think this is what causes the discomfort.

Other comments from a different source were more difficult to deal with. It was suggested that by altering objects in the way that I do that I was somehow “spoiling” them. It was also suggested that art, itself, was a selfish pursuit.

To counteract all this I went to a pet shop to look at dog toys with a view to making some aluminium castings. I just want to squeeze an extra bit of fun out of the metal workshop before I have to seriously think about the degree show. There was an Aladdin’s cave of pet toys and chews, all symmetrical and perfect for the sand-casting process.

The best part of this week is that I have at last been able to combine material processes that I have developed with the drawing of an observed object. Now the drawings need to be further considered and I feel more confident that I may be able to include a couple in my degree show.