Continuing Conversations

Yeah. So editing, right? It’s gotten to the stage that this is an increasing priority. After deliberately trying to stay open-ended about processes and ideas, my MA exhibition opens in just over two months and there is a limit to how many pieces will work together in the space I’ve got, and how many I can realistically make.

I’m showing in the Hatton Gallery, which as far as exposure is concerned is a bonus, as this tends to get the most foot-fall. However, the distinct drawback is having five days to install, and only 9-5 at that. Now bearing in mind it took over a month to install my interim show, and that was generally working 9-10 most days, you can see why that might be causing me a few anxieties. And that’s not to mention Schwitters. The Hatton Gallery has a permanent installation of Schwitter’s Merzbarn, which adjoins the space I’ll be using. This causes difficulties whatever exhibition is installed in this space, as Tyne and Wear Museums dictate that it cannot be covered in anyway, and that the large green information panels remain in place. So you’ve got the choice of ignoring it (pretty difficult) acknowledging it, or in my case, using it as an instrumental part of the installation I’ll be making.

The reason I’m going down this route is for several reasons – as a use of the space it suits the way I like to work, but more importantly, there are echoes of the Merz in work I’m making. I’ve taken a carpet from one environment (in this case a domestic one – the first Merz was created in a domestic space), and am re-locating it to another. Schwitters also made incorporated lots of pre-existing objects into his work, again, similarities here.

Continues…

(Cont.)

So the pieces I’m working on:

Carpet – might be on a wall, might not be, might have something done to it – possibly a projection of a shadow from where the bay window would have been. It would be a shadow from somewhere else, not related to the carpet itself, or where it’s from – basically a recording of another trace, layered on top of this one, so two different documents are intermingling, but as a viewer you’re not sure about the relationship between them.

Video – hour long recording on the light from a window moving over the floor. A sound track from the same space is recorded from at a different time, so as you watch the visuals, you’re aware of something else happening which you can’t see, but is taking place in the same room.

Photographs – very excited about my new medium format camera. It’s about 40yrs old, is solid as a brick, has interchangeable lenses and bellow. Yes. Bellows. I’ve been playing around with bulb exposures and slide film, photographing small details of domestic spaces, traces of light on walls, through curtains… If I can get hold of a 6×6 projector, then perhaps I just project one image. Or maybe just one print. I know that I don’t want any framed prints, as then it’s about an image, where as I would prefer to see any printed photographs as objects. So paper and printing processes need to be carefully considered here. I was thinking at one point, of having these as a looped DVD, where one still image melts into another, into another… but I think now this is going to be a proposal for something else.

Fireplace – I’ve got the plaster fire surround from our house, and the idea is to turn it the wrong way round so you can see the interior of it, then put it in a fake wall. So when you look at it, there’s this feeling of perhaps being in the wall.

Overall sound piece – I’ve been recording ambient sounds from the house, with the idea of making a soundscape which subtly suggests the domestic space within the gallery location. Again, time issues here.

So there we are. Also, just posted a review of the National Glass Centre’s current exhibition The Glass Delusion up on Interface. I’ve haven’t written many reviews before, despite having opinions about just about everything, so thought I should rectify this. Here’s the link: http://bit.ly/dkK7kK