Longing……For……For……For……

Experimenting on a new printing theme?

Ok so earlier in the week I have been doing a side experiment which does not involve my main body or printing work, this is just simply to see what it could look like printed onto plywood. I chosen plywood as it has a kind of smoothness edge to it and should no doubt be more clearer when it come to printing onto it with inks.

why did I do it and how did I do it?

I wanted to basically see what kind of effect I would get once I print onto the wood because sometimes the wood can give off a nice grain effect after covering it with inks or paints. I thought that this would be a good side experiment to see what the outcome could be once I print onto wood.

To do this… I had to try finding some scraps of plywood from somewhere and I manage to see a nice long narrow plank of it hiding behind the wood workshop door. I was very pleased indeed to find this piece and was just about the right narrow size to fit the printed vase on it. I began to mark out the sizes for each printed vase on the wood and got Glen the technician to cut the plank into 5 pieces which = 5 prints.

Next.. I begin to spend an hours worth of sanding down the edges of 5 small planks of wood making sure that when I got to screen print on the wood the edges of the wood won’t tear or rip the silkscreen. Once that is completed I am ready to print them and the way I do this is to use some clear film plastic to use as a marker so that I can align the wood in the right proportion to print on.

Next I do the first print onto the plastic film to use as an aligner for the plank of plywood and then place the wood underneath the aligner and then take away the plastic film to print it properly. Now the plywood plank is in the right spot I can now print onto it and properly and the result that I got is shown above.

Any signs of continuation with this printing theme?

well… I wouldn’t say no to stop doing this idea completely but I don’t think it will be my strongest area within my printing career. I think I will in no doubt still keep developing ideas from this and do some more and maybe also onto a type of fabric or other materials. For me any idea is well worth trying out because its not until you discover these new ideas or someone telling you that you begin to realise how far my artwork can go. will keep you updated on new ideas to come.

What has changed since the last Vase Process?

The last vase prints that i made was just about the initial outlay of how to print through both stencils to creating a nice vase print and never even thought about using better paper at that time. So this week I have decided to use better quality papers using paper card and mount board which I had in mind. Using these types of papers are easy to use and at the minute they seemed to be a new good asset within my printing. In the end, I decided to pick the Paper card as its cheaper and is just as good printing quality as the mount board.

Why does paper card work better than the paper I used before?

So… I have come up with a better idea of using the paper card because it does not crease at all and also the colours appear bolder and more stable than the normal cartridge paper that I used. I do not get any splodges or tiny drips because the paper card is thicker and can hold the colour inks very well. This is my best definement of my vase prints so far and maybe the paper card will be the best paper that I could ever use to make my printing more stable for the colours and quality.

What is the next plan of action?

Today was a good day with a lot of positive outcomes with printing on the paper card and now I will gather a lot of thought together to plan for my next set of vase stencils to print. Now that I have got the formula right, I can now prepare for more vase stencils and see the nice bright and bold colours in them on the nice paper card.

Also with Dale Devereux Barker ideas in patterns I may try some patterns out on some vases to see the effect I get and then that will be three layers of printing which could look nicer and more colourful. I will also look forward to Dale’s upcoming thursday class 27/03/15 where he will teach me how to blend my colours on my vases to look like the light is shining on the main colour of the vases. It will be an interesting session with him and will keep you updated.

Why look into Gordon Matta-Clark’s filming process for his art works?

Well.. I thought it was interesting to see exactly how Matta-Clark documents every detail of his processes of making his monstrous building sculptures. His use of photography and filming his processes does seems quite a big deal to Matta-Clark. He almost treats his process like some action movie like something out of a godzilla and seeing rubble fall from the crumbling old buildings inside and outside.

Every detail of filming that Matta-Clark creates is like seeing a story in a book where you are there seeing everything happen and you know how much work had been involved in making his work. I guess it was a great way to document the conversion of the buildings because I think it was his way of saving his art work on film when he knows that its gonna be destroyed a few months later.

Anchoring memory trace within his work?

This method of filming your process can also give you a clear outlook of anchoring the memories of sound, movement and images of your work. The elements of sound and movement in filming play a key role in Matta-Clark’s Conical Intersect and Splitting. Every movement within the hammering and sawing in Matta-Clark’s arm is a result in the indexical movement that acts as a memory trace of him making his work. saving his work on filming was also his way of anchoring the memories of his art work that could no longer be viewed by the public.

Theorist Rosalind Epstein Krauss explains movement taking on the role of the index.

“Movement ceases to function symbolically and takes on the character of an index. By index I mean that type of sign which arises as the physical manifestation of a cause of which traces, imprints and clues are examples.” (Krauss. 1977. P59).

How does Gordon Matta-Clark relate to making my Process in my art work?

I wanted to look into Gordon Matta-clark’s ideas of how he uses filming as part of the making of his art works. The reason why I did this is because I am very interested in capturing my art ideas and process of my own art work. Even though I know that I can keep my art work and is not gonna be destroyed like Matta-Clarks work, I still like to capture that event of my success in printing or making anything else.

Anchoring a memory trace within my process of making art work?

I would say I pretty much love capturing the memories of my discoveries that I have made within the process of my work, that mistake that turned my art around and that fine detail of how I make things. I feel that writing does not always tell the full story of my process because all you see is black and white. I like to also capture the other colours by filming and taking photos of my process that tells the full story like something out of a book or a  movie coming to life.

All these things I like to capture anchor a memory trace of my actions in working and also the discoveries that I have made within my work. To me, this is a good way of seeing how I make thing and give me something to think about when it comes to progress and improving myself to be better than the guy I use to be.

Is the signs of memory trace found within Cornelia Parker’s objects?

Cornelia Parker talks about memories that are found in objects that hold crucial memorable evidence of what life the object has lived through. Parker has acquired a lot of different and forgotten objects from antique stores and from her friends which are cups, pots, pans and even musical instruments.

most of these objects that she acquired were made from silver and other metals because she had a desire to flatten them by using a steam roller or by throwing them off the white cliffs of dover. She done this because whatever memory trace that were held inside of these objects, Parker wanted to resurrect them into a new meaning to create an artwork out of them. It was important for Parker to come by objects that held a memory trace within the tarnished surfaces that would make her work more understandable and meaningful.

Lisa Tickner Interviews Cornelia Parker about ‘Thirty Pieces of Silver’ and she explains about the tarnish traces on the objects;

“Tarnish is one of those things that do not have a value, that people don’t want and find ugly to look at, and so as a material I find it fascinating. It’s somehow like the Turin Shroud: you’ve got this trace, or you’ve taken away this surface, this thing you don’t want, and then you present the tarnish as almost the soul of the object”. (Tickner. 2003. P375)

How Does Cornelia Parker relate to my Vase Readymade objects?

I feel that Cornelia Parker relates very much to my vase Readymades because the vases that I use, hold a record of memories from its previous owners. My Readymade sculpture of vases hold the memory traces of the old couple who originally lived inside the apartment, telling the story of the old couples lives. What was left behind was nothing at all but two vases resembling the old couple that once occupied the apartment and these vases stand in as the remains of the old couple.

Is memory trace found within the surfaces of Rachel Whiteread’s objects?

Rachel Whiteread is a sculpture who uses objects and surfaces that contain an historical past to them. Whiteread used plaster, rubber and resin materials to make her casts from everyday domesticated objects. These objects were bought most of the time just like Cornelia Parker and some of her famously known objects that she casted were her bed mattresses. One of Whiteread’s examples of Mattresses were Shallow Breath (1988) which show early examples of Whiteread’s fascination with indexical traces.

Shallow Breath signifies a momentum in Whiteread’s past where the idea of the death bed was from the documentary that she watched as a child and is combined with her father’s heart condition that makes Shallow Breath the work it is today. These experiences in Whiteread’s past life capture memory traces that she tries to interpret into her own bed works.

How does Rachel Whiteread relate to my vase Readymade objects?

Well.. Rachel Whiteread does relate to my work in a sense that the objects that Whiteread used had been found from all sorts of rundown places and converted these objects into an artwork. The vase objects that I found in this apartment were forgotten and left behind with a memorable record attached to them of the old couple that once occupied the place.

Whiteread’s objects very much tell a similar story to my work where her bed mattresses give the direct traces of the people that have slept on them. The example of her mattress play a similar role with my vase Readymades and give the signs of memory traces that resemble the people that once lived around these objects. The surfaces and the dust trapped inside the vases have been built up over the years which would hold crucial memorable evidence of someone’s pre-existence. These are memory traces.

Why did I look into Marcel Duchamp’s Readymades?

I looked into artist Marcel Duchamp for my readymade vases because he is widely known for his use of readymade sculptures like the bicycle wheels and the wine rack. Some of these objects that he had acquired were bought from shops or found as spare parts and used them into his readymade sculpture works. I thought that seeing the way he finds objects and using them into his art has made me compare his work with my own.

How does Marcel Duchamp relate to my Readymade vase work?

Duchamp’s work relates very much to my readymade work of vases because they are objects that have not been distorted in any kind of fashion and just stand in as an Readymade object. Marcel Duchamp carries the very same concept within my work where his work are Readymades and may also carry the signs of memory traces from the surfaces of the objects that he uses.