Currently in my final year of the BA Fine Art Course. The course encourages the exploration and combination of different media. This is the last year that this course as it is now will exist, as CSM will take it over completely and move to a new site next year. The best thing about Byam Shaw has been the tight community and closeness to technicians, tutors and peers.
These images show video stills from a 6 split-screen version (see the video below) of the final films that are shown on 6 different TV Monitors in the final installation of ‘Routine’ (2011). Duration of the video is 6 min 40s on a loop.
Routine (2011), split-screen version
These images show the final stages of building and putting together my final piece for the degree show, Routine (2011).
It is a 6 channel video installation, using 6 TV Monitors and 6 DVD Players on an MDF Shelf (180x180x60 cm). The videos on the TVs show different generic domestic objects, with small actions happening between them. The duration of the videos is 6 min 40s, on a loop.
The busy months of hard work are over – our show is up and looking very good! At the moment both internal and external examinors are looking at our pieces and supporting work, then the Professional Private View is Wednesday (15th June) and the show is then open to the public 16th – 23rd June. Definitely looking forward to it!
The last weeks have been so much work and many worries, for me not so much with my own piece, which I had planned and organised well and which mostly all went smoothly (except some worries about synchronising the films properly which I think – hope – I have managed to figure out!). More worrying for me was the organisation of everything else – curating the show, promoting it (we managed to get an ad in art monthly, yay!), making the catalogue, making the name tags (still working on that),…
The website is up, it’s: www.csmbafineart.com and looking pretty good, I think. My page on it:
Am really enjoying building my shelf (or the wooden construction to hold my six tv screens which I refer to as ‘my shelf’). I first thought I would just buy one from Ikea as that would fit with the domestic and mass produced objects I am working with but decided against it in the end. I am happy I did, as this way I was able to make it exactly the size and look I want and have learned a lot in the mean time – for example that it is less hard than expected to build a 180×180 big shelf!
Have been busy filling and sanding it in the last days, plus putting on undercoat and primer … the next thing is painting it – but what colour? I want it to be a fairly normal furniture colour, just not white – as the room I’m showing in will be quite white as it is. I’m tending towards off-white or egg shell/magnolia type colour… Had a bit of a go on Photoshop to try things out (see images) and will go to a paint shop after the weekend to look at samples!
Still being productive, feels good! Still a lot to do till the show though..
Have built a shelf for my tv screens. I’m quite happy with it, though it still needs a bit of fixing and sanding and then I want to paint it – not sure about the colour yet. Maybe off-white/ivory? I think the piece will look much better when the shelf is all polished and painted. I want it to be as perfect as possible, as a contrast to the mix matched tvs and cables (which i will deliberately let hang lose)
The shelf is supposed to be freestanding in the space and the viewers will see the back of the tvs and the cables first, then be able to walk around the piece to see the screens and films. The idea is that that way the tvs turn into objects or even sculptures and not just screens that we are so used to stare at.
Another problem I’m trying to work out at the moment is to get the timing of the films right – all six films should start at the same time, otherwise the narrative doesn’t work..
