The past ten days have passed in a blur! Adjusting to my new routine of 120 mile a day commute, getting to know my new environment at CSAD and trying to find my feet with my practise has meant that whilst I have been scribbling away in my journal frantically- I haven’t managed to keep my blog up to date. Maybe this is a reflection of the internal uncertainty I am feeling in my practise? But, I am feeling much more stable in my routine and so I hope that the connection between my practise, journal and blog will have a more correlated connection.
I had been struggling to move forward and I was feeling a pressure to produce. Being in a new environment I felt that I needed to make my mark in a visual way. I decided to have a chat with James Green– one of our tutors. James has a string interest in cultural objects / artefacts such as masks and power objects. In the office I had been admiring a small part of his collection of power objects- I felt instantly drawn to them I have always been interested in other cultures and belief systems, particularly where objects are used as expression or practise of these beliefs- so to see James’ collection was wonderful.
It was interesting to me that when looking at my hand stitched work James had drawn a parallel between the action of me stitching my hand and the Nsiki power object I had been looking at in the office. Thinking about the act of intentionally pushing a needle through my skin and the act of pushing a needle / pin through a power object such as an Nsiki sparked an interest in me. I had never considered looking at the work from this angle before.
‘The Kongo nkissi were objects for white positive magic or black negative magic. For this reason, they were feared by all, and the nganga who possessed them was someone whom members of the community would have avoided upsetting when appealing for his power during a consultation.’ (Text and image taken from http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/sculptures-statues-figures/statuette-kongo-nkisi-kongo-power-figure-nkisi-5686630-details.aspx)
We then went on to discuss acts of self preservation and the power behind fingernails or hair when giving consideration to these types of practises. James told me how Picasso was incredibly paranoid about these practises and that he always had strict instructions for his hair dresser on how to destroy his hair after he had his hair cut. He was fearful that someone would collect it and use it to cause him harm. To me this brought my previous body of work, ‘Tracing the Liminal’ to the forefront of my mind. I could see the connection. As artists, that’s what we do. We look for new connections to explore…maybe this would be my way of moving forward. James and I discussed how when you move to a new space it is easy to fall into the feeling of the need to make your mark, yet he said it was okay to start off small and work from there. To give myself time to explore and research. Strangely I felt like I really did need permission to do this. I have always felt self conscious in communal spaces when working, about my lack of physical making. I tend to do lots of looking, reading, thinking and writing before I actually begin making- or doing.
I feel excited about going on an anthropological exploration with my research, but I wonder how relevant it is….? Does it really matter? How relevant it is? It is tricky to allow myself to be free and explorative, whilst always keeping in the back of my mind that this course is only a year long.
