Northumbria University

The process of the works creation is presented as it’s subject. It is viewed as a journey or a process rather than as a deliverable or end product.

The use of impermanent materials is important.

A process is set in motion and then repeatedly applied, allowing the work to evolve.

It is about the planning and practice of an event that might not ever, necessarily, resolve itself, but manifests in the critical discourse of the creative process.

It looks towards a future of analysis rather than a conclusion.

Is the intention to fail?

Toby Paterson “Consensus and Collapse”….

At Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh…..

This exhibition presents a large and diverse range of Toby Paterson’s work from 2000 to 2010. It includes painting, collage, photography and sculpture displayed within a specially designed installation on the ground floor. This matrix of suspended panels which has reconfigured the space must be navigated around. The wooden panels create frames around the work, and create a layered viewing experience; one can catch a sight of a work through the reflection or frame of another. It gives the feeling of walking through a city, glimpsing the varying shapes and structures that we are habitually familiar with.

It is immediately apparent that Paterson’s work is informed by the urban landscape, yet the pieces also contain references to constructivist paintings and the work of Mary Martin, Victor Pasmore and Ben Nicholson; each artist sharing a simultaneous approach of art that speaks of an aesthetically abstract, yet politically engaged visual language.

We are presented with a wall filled with photographs of modernist buildings as source material for his paintings. They become stylized and idealized in an attempt to capture them in their former glory, painting onto Perspex, paper, aluminium and directly onto the wall. In certain pieces the forms may be seen in a representational, gestural manner, while in others he may pare down base elements into abstract forms, reconfiguring them into new arrangements. The exploration of neglected spaces is interestingly juxtaposed with a gallery that is continuously cared for.

Paterson is occupied with the materiality of the buildings he paints; their form, line, texture and space; and how they are situated within a social, historical and political landscape. Upstairs, the artist has worked directly onto the walls to transform the interior architecture once again; yet here is a less impermeable structure. The outside is brought inside through the use of bulky, grey, stone-like walls; on them are a number of suspended panels extending out at different angles. They appear to be architectural but are technically not; we are able to see how they have been hung and constructed, and as each installation does not enclose the space, we are always aware that we are in an art gallery.

What is the difference between live projection and a recorded projection?

I will have the opportunity to edit and choose which recording to show, depending on the best lighting and shot, whereas the live recording would be left to chance. While this is the case, there is something fascinating about watching it live, you’re in the same time and surroundings, but held away from the actual installation.

This won’t work for the degree show as there won’t be enough or appropriate space to hold both the installation and projection. I was going to transform the paper sheets into books, but I’m now thinking about keeping them for a potential show in the future…

I have also been deciding whether to film for a short period and play it on a loop, or to film for a longer length of time. More changes of the day will occur if its filmed from, say, morning until afternoon, but we’ll be more subjected to the camera’s mechanical eye if we’re only seeing one short shot.

Jenny Holzer….

At Baltic….

“Oooh it’s making me feel sick.”

Despite a body of work spanning as far back as the 1970s; I first encountered Jenny Holzer in her first exhibition at Baltic in 2002. A series of text-based works, or Truisms, which borrow sentences from various sources, employing everything from marketing slogans to philosophical writing were projected over facades throughout Tyneside. I remember being stunned at such overt slogans in the streets calling out to be read and ingested, and in 2010, with her anticipated return, I wonder whether they will have the same impact when contained inside an institution.

The first thing I noticed as I walked towards the Baltic is that actually, all of her work is not indoors. We are confronted with the immense “The Beginning of the War Will Be Secret” hanging on the exterior wall, an announcement that Jenny Holzer is back in town.

As I always do, I headed straight up to the fifth floor to capture an ariel view: and a spectacular one it is. This is the first time in the tour of the show that her floor piece, For Chicago, has been read from above. It comprises of a continuous flow of LED text running along a conveyor belt structure, where once on the floor it seems to act as an enticement towards the magnificent “Monument” on the other side of the wall. A 20-foot-high sculpture, comprising of 22 semi-circular bands emblazoned with the artist’s Truisms and Inflammatory Essays, throws out ironic sayings that always seem to relate to your own personal experiences. Our eyes begin to hurt, and we literally can’t these ignore these messages as they continue to flash in front of us, even as we walk out of the room. The layering and bombardment of text echoes what our eyes and minds are subjected to on a daily basis, we’re merely seeing it all at once here.

On level three, the subject takes a more political tone with the display of her redaction paintings. The series, taken from original official documents, depicts handprints belonging to US soldiers accused of crimes in Iraq. They have been defaced with heavy marks to erase the prints that differentiate them. By refusing to separate the convicted from the wrongly accused, the artist demonstrates the failure of war to differentiate.

Holzer takes classified documents from the US Government, made public under the Freedom of Information Act, and creates LED sculptures displaying this information repeatedly in bright, flashing, almost blinding fashion. These tremendous pieces demand our attention, while simultaneously being difficult to stand and read. The reference to colour field painting is apparent here, as the pinks, blues, yellows and reds fill the room, bouncing off the gloss painted walls. The documents in question range from emails between US Military officials, emails discussing the interest in oil as the cause of the conflict, and documents regarding prisoner questioning methods. By touring the show and bringing it to the city, it makes me feel as though I’m not as far removed from these issues as I thought I was.

Today I spent time moving a projector around a room while I filmed and projected live from the installation. I found that when projected on to a wall with the projector on the floor; with room for people to walk in front of it; the pierced marks are projected onto them. They become “inside” the projection like they would have been inside the installation. This is an encouraged interaction, which in turn relates to the interaction they would have with the blog.

This also (although I must do more reading) brings ideas of Freud’s transparent nature of projection, and it acting as an “externalisation of an internal process.” A transfer of thoughts and ideas (literally here) onto another person.

I also practiced placing blockages on the lens of the projector in order to make the image more immersed on the wall, avoiding the harsh lines of the camera lens. I need to decide whether this is the right decision, because if it was viewed in reality, the hanging paper would take the same form, almost like a “page,” another communicative device. What other meanings does the camera eye and frame bring?