Northumbria University

Intention – Context – Symbols – Language – Understanding -Interaction – Reduction of Uncertainty – Process- Transmission – Linking – Memory – Storage – Interpretation – Response

What is sent and what is received? [The works individually and together]

Deciding on an image for the degree show catalogue…I was going to take a still from my projection, but I think maybe I should use a different image to show a different side to my work, a more “material side” rather than than immaterial projection. I’ve chosen a laser cut (my photographic skills are terrible and so I’ll get a photographer friend to take it for me!)

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.