So the final strokes of paint at uni. Five years of making work have as an undergraduate have ended with a swoop of neon red oil glaze.
One of the first projects I stumbled though in 2007 was to work with a narrative inspired by objects. I tried to recall some my earliest visual memories. Aged five, I was deeply impacted by a huge shimmering, glossy, saturated red monochrome surface. The gable end wall of a house covered in the red leaves of virginia creeper.
Other experiences around the same time, the feel and colour of certain fabric, colour, places, smells and music are early touchpoints that began a personal sensory palette or chord scale that I now play.
I spent the weekend reading through and tidying up my contextualisation file. This documentation along with a specific section of our presentation at the assessment is not only a very important part of the marking, but a critical area for me. Throughout the course and the research elements of essays and the dissertation, I have relished learning about artists both in history and those practicing now. As with any subject, its history and context is essential to the understanding of what is happening now; and for the reading of meaning.
I like to read monographs of artists to get some depth into their work, I also read a lot of interviews as I love to hear artists grapple with expressing their practice. I am currently reading Brice Marden, an exhibition catalogue from Daros Collection, 2004, edited by Eve Keller and Regula Malin. Also, Various Arrangements, Jamie Sovlin in conversation with Martin Holman, from Shovlin’s current show at Haunch of Venison. I also listened to a recent podcast of Robert Irwin interviewed by Tyler Green.
Somewhere in listening to the ‘voices’ of these artists, are the questions. The answers are relevant only to themselves, really. It is the questions that are inspiring and that provoke thinking. As I’m writing I am reminded that the questions that I have been asked in my previous assessments have been the most helpful spur to progressing the work.
I wonder what questions I shall be asked in my final assessment? Only a couple of weeks until I find out.
