N.B. I thought I had published this before Christmas….but evidently not. (Written 19th Dec 2011)
Today was my last day in the studio before Christmas. I’ve been trying various things out this term so I don’t yet have a new and cohesive body of work… which is probably how it should be at this stage, but it still makes me slightly nervous. On one hand I am aware of the final MA show and I want to make the best work I can, but simultaneously I want to experiment. The phrase ‘you can’t make an omelet without cracking an eggs’ springs to mind. I think that some MA courses are finishing schools, but Chelsea is more concerned with developing a sustainable way of making work; in terms of establishing a process that includes both making and re-evaluating.
I have made various bits and bobs this term and last week I took some of them to the photography studio. I find that photographing my work often provides a fresh perspective so it’s a helpful process as well as a functional one. In this case the pieces that I thought weren’t going anywhere, turned out to be the most interesting to me. see image
One of the things I’ve be working on recently are ceramic casts of world war two helmets. I envisage using ceramics a fair bit in the future – I hadn’t used the medium at all until I went to Chelsea last January. I like it’s implicit fragility, because it adds a suspense to the work that can be used to provoke some interesting reactions in the viewer.
Just before the end of term I co curated an MAFA group show with Katriona Beales and Lene Shepherd. There was no over-riding theme and no exclusive selection process, we just invited our peers to drop off work in progress. It’s great to be able to do impromptu exhibitions like that in project spaces as it’s good practice for organising shows outside. Showing work in progress is also helpful in testing out new ideas. And it’s also interesting to be on the curatorial side for a change. As an artist I really value working with curators who try to understand the artists perspective, so we tried to do the same. Still, trying to display works (that are randomly selected) so that they compliment one another is much harder than it sounds.
