Some good news today and something to smile about. Following on from my thinking around the idea of humour in art, I purchased Simon Critchley's book "On Humour" (part of the Thinking in Action series by Routledge). I was a bit nervous about venturing into this kind of academic writing on the subject, after all, there couldn't be anything less humerous than a deep philosphical discussion. Or could there? The Austrian philosopher Wittgenstein once said he could imagine a book of philosophy made entirely of jokes! And to prove his point I am really enjoying finding the plethora of views on what exactly makes humour 'work'. This may yet prove to be a good area of research for the MA.
The real good news is that I have won a prize! I am currently showing work at the Surface Gallery as part of their open show 'Turbulence' and have been selected (as one of two artists) to show more work in the new year. It will be a great chance to exhibit work made in the first few months of the MA.
I feel like I need to laugh, I am worrying too much. I have noticed in this period of evaluation that humour, in its many guises, seems to rise up consistently within my work. It is surprising in a way, as I do not consciously intend to create a joke for comic effect. Pink lawnmowers, re-circulatory vacuum cleaners, wax ironing boards … all these works have serious intentions as comments on commodity and their labelled functions’ (both in physical and cultural relationships) but are also clearly pieces of comedy.
I feel wary of the content and importance of humour in my work. The feeling of making a joke that nobody laughs at, of dying on stage, could keep me awake at night ! But at the opposite end of the spectrum it can be powerful.
“Humour and art share much in common in enabling access to a world of freedom and intuition.”
(Felicity Lunn & Heike Munder, When Humour Becomes Painful, exhibition catalogue for Migros Museum, Zurich)
So why not take the risk ? For the viewer, smiling at work can still feel sacrilegious. The context often prescribes this seriousness, namely the gallery, with is formality and tradition which seems to frown upon you. Yet what is there to do except smile when presented with a urinal as art ? It is a playful artist asking you to join in, to return to childhood where one can be more susceptible to the serious notions that often run parallel. Attitudes are changing within the gallery context and towards avant-garde art. This was perfectly summed up by the final part of Tino Sehgal's trilogy of shows at the ICA earlier in the year. Being put into a space with children playing and being encouraged to join in their games feels awkward at first but overcome this and the interaction was truly fulfilling and refreshing. What is so wrong with being a child once in a while ?
One part of the waiting is over. I received my letter from the AHRC this morning and was sent the small, thin envelope instead of the large one! Unfortunately, despite being graded as "high priority for an award" (grade 4) this is essentially nowhere near good enough to guarantee funding. Of the 5,500 entries only 25% are awarded funding and so it is well known that statistically my chances were always low. This doesn't particuarly help with the feeling of dissappointment.
It does of course bring up the question of what next ? I still have a scholarship application outstanding and this represents my last hope. I am deteremind to still go through with the MA one way or another, it just seems it is going to be a real financial struggle (i.e. increasing my debts further) as well as an artistic one.
I have started to reflect back on my work of the past 12 months, in part as I would normally through self-critique but also with the aim of reassessing work that could be taken further, possibly into the MA. Due to finding it hard to create ‘new’ works it seems that this could be a solution to the problem of maintaining momentum.
A work made recently, Grandfather Clock, consists of my own interpretation of the clock, its function and the relationship I have with ‘time‘ as a frustrating social system. It consists of a performance, a recording of me counting the number of days (upwards) from the date of installation and an automated saw mechanism that slowly cuts through the speaker cable (mirroring the motion of a grandfather clock’s pendulum). It seemed initially as a humorous (albeit dark) way of estimating life expectancy, as the works’ demise could be given an arbitrary number and day. The recent passing of my own grandfather makes the work now have an altogether more serious and stronger resonance. In this respect the work takes on the form of memorial. In re-addressing the work I have decided that it should now be encased within the body of an original grandfather clock (with internals already removed!). This embodiment and memorialization re-personalises the work, its content re-enforced. The metamorphosis to effigy creates for me (perhaps only me) a heightened feeling of mysticism around the work.
Watching a recent recording of Prof. Richard Dawkins “The Enemies of Reason“ (Channel 4 television), I felt slightly uncomfortable with his encouragement of a world where the decisions of humanity are made on the sole basis of rational thought. Where does this leave the artist ? As Sol LeWitt said,
“Conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach …. Illogical judgements lead to new experiences” (Sentences on Conceptual Art,1969).
I am not advocating the proliferation of capitalist ’mystics’ (mediums, mind readers etc), who make profit from false claims, but clearly their appearance in society describes part of the human psyche. Is art a positive outcome of irrationality ? Certainly for me, a critique on the notion of progress through science and its über-lieutenant technology make for an interesting place to develop my work.
Since applying, and being accepted on an MA Fine Art course, commencing at the end of September, there has been a feeling of being "on hold". The desire to create new work has become an increasingly tentative process to the point at which now, my practice has come to a perfect standstill (in terms of physically creating anything). I wasn't expecting this!
The prevailing feeling is one of wanting to store and shelve ideas and developments in my practice for when the course eventually starts. The MA reflects a new period of my practice and as with any new period of life, I want it to start positively. The fear of arriving without ideas, or perhaps the fear of running out of them, means that any desire for progress now is postponed. Whether I can overcome this fear will certainly be a challenge.
Research seems an ideal way of continuing the underlying themes of my work whilst not having to physically create, and certainly the notion of soaking up information to be used later has great appeal. I am reading Jean Baudrillard's The System of Objects, and his observations on function, object desire and social relationships with objects (particularly in the domestic environment) reflect neatly with my own work (where I obscure the inherent or intended function of everyday objects). Though I fear that at the end of the last page, the void of waiting will return. The next research idea needs to be lying in wait!
This open-ended waiting prevails in the context of the AHRC. Like many postgraduate students the stress of applying for funding peaks around now as we sit and wait for that letter through the door which tells us how we are to survive the next 12 months. Every morning the heart quickens as the postman arrives and then slows as I realise all I have is a series of flyers questioning whether I desire to buy chinese or pizza tonight! Other forms of funding are scarce. CDLs (career development loans) are perhaps not suitable for art students. They require the beginning of repayment within two months of finishing the course and with the lifestyle of most artists, income is never guaranteed so soon after completion. I have sent applications for scholarships and bursaries, met with small successes and many failures. So, it seems for the moment I will have to sit and wait to see what the post brings tomorrow.
