Finally back in studio to actually make stuff, rather than rushing in to print off a couple of things, grab some books and get back home to continue writing. The MA dissertation is finally finished, and although it’s nearly killed me to get it in, I’m actually pretty proud of myself. I have posted previously about what I was aiming to do with the text, but I thought it might make a little more sense if I quote from the writing directly:
“The critical essay positioned on the left side of the page, draws upon anthropological, geographical and aesthetical sources to place the ideas of trace and absence in a domestic environment into a visual arts context. The accompanying text and images on the right side of the page are a series of reflective writings and photographs related to my personal experience of the issues raised in the main essay. The symbiotic relationship between the two sections contextualises the main essay, whilst creating a piece of work which can be understood as a manifestation of my artistic practice. The sections of each chapter have been ordered to create a sense of overarching narrative, while the language used has been chosen to imbue a sense of these works and ideas in the reader’s mind.”
I’m seeing this writing as a piece of work itself – the design, paper stock, typesetting etc were all carefully considered, and were in fact integral to the understanding of the piece. I’m intending to put a low-res version of it up on my website for download, just as soon as I’ve had chance to make it web-ready.
I’ve also been buzzing with ideas about new work today – I want to incorporate the more conceptual ideas I’ve had as a result of the writing into the sculptures / installations I make. Firstly, this is going to involve thinking of the traces left in our house in terms of layers of semi-factitious narrative. There are various indents in the carpet from both our furniture and the previous occupier’s furniture – whilst I know the narrative, the stories associated with our own furniture, I only have vague memories of the previous furniture. These memories are intangible, fragile things, subject to erosion by time. So, any traces I associate memories to in relation to this pre-existing furniture, while based on fact, gradually loose this ‘factual’ content, become embroiled with imagined ideas, and hence the coined word ‘factitious’.
Buildings don’t exist is a set time periods of ‘then’ and ‘now’ (see http://www.glimmersinlimbo.co.uk/) – there is a fluidity in how they would have existed at different points. So the other area I want to incorporate in this new work is a way of suggesting the gradual build-up and erasure of these traces over a period of time.
What I’m intending to start with is a cast of the carpet in our living room – the carpet is cut to the walls, so the size and shape of the room, plus an idea of the type of building is implicit in the work. The cast will include indents from various items of furniture – ours, theirs, other furniture which isn’t theirs, but is similar to what I remember it being like.
So it looks like I’ll be making something pretty big. Yeay!
