Northumbria University

Planning Learning Contracts….

This is just a follow on from the last post about further methods to develop my visual language…

My tutor liked the idea of using the laser cutter as it allows technology to become incorporated. He also suggested trying water jet cutting at the glass museum…now I’m very excited about that!

Thinking about learning contracts…

As part of our professional practice module we have to do either a placement or a learning contract. As I’ve taken up a few placements in the past (and still no closer to knowing what I’ll do at the end of this) I think a learning contract will be best for me.

A friend of mine tutors in the Architecture Department at the University and has promised to show me their laser cutter. This will increase my range of physical mark making; I often work in pontilist effect either through burning, cutting or incising and I am interested to see what this machine can do!

It will mean having to use CAD (I’m not great with technology) but hopefully it will be fun. Hopefully my tutor will agree, otherwise I’ll have to get thinking of something else!

Printmaking Nomads

In our University, we printmakers are shipped about every year (sometimes more than once through the semester) due to changes happening in our department..I know it helps our practice, but this year my studio is currently a storage room! Some heavy lifting is needed today so that I can get the numerous lockers and plan chests out and get to work!

Yesterday I went to Durham to see “Inkubator 2” at the DLI Museum. An exhibition of artists’ books set in an unconventional setting of four areas: The Annexe, The Study, The Log Cabin and The Landscape. Each of these areas are places we might read, learn, think and reflect in, and in adding wallpaper and chairs, the gallery attempts to create a domestic area, moving away from institutional spaces. However, I expected there to be more books, or there to be larger bookshelves, and specific lighting to help us really immerse ourselves in the setting, it wasn’t possible to forget that I was in an institution.

It was impossible to note down each book, but two higlights for me were Miranda Schofield’s “Hearth” and Finlay Taylor “De-Composition” due to the content and form of the books. Each book was fascinating, being able to handle them meant hours could be spent there (I had limited time, so stuck to an hour and a half). It got me wondering what books mean to artists, and what they mean to me.

“Life doesn’t last; art doesn’t last”

I finally made it up to the Fruitmarket in Edinburgh to see Eva Hesse’s Studioworks. I’ve always been a fan of her work, and the diverse range of ephemeral materials and techniques in this show continue to inspire me.

Fold, pin, pierce, cut, layer, wrap….the physical act of making can create a contemplative space and a more sensory experience for creating work, which I often find myself in during production. Each piece was made intimately with her hands, and in showing these test pieces, the process between thinking and making is revealed. Elements from the cabinets downstairs begin to build up into larger, more active works upstairs. Lying dead in the cabinets, they come alive on the walls, showing the openended nature of her work.

The most fascinating aspect for me was the deterioration and temporal aspect of the work. It is not timeless, in fact, time is built in to the sculpture, and this life span is what makes the art precious.

The works, especially the papier mache pieces, remind me of ancient relics and how museums like Pitt Rivers choose to present their artefacts. It was unknown how Hesse’s test pieces were intended to be encountered, they become indeterminate, and it is up to the curators to make decisions on use and display in light of what is already known about her art.

So, the dissertation has begun! I have chosen a subject that I am very passionate about, fire.

Today I have been reading about the wily Prometheus and it got me thinking…

As artists, there is an undeniable force in our nature that pushes us to know and to create, despite the dangers or consequences that lie ahead. We act as providers of knowledge and truth; in doing so do we suffer from a “Prometheus Complex?”