Well we are now onto our last week before the degree show preparation starts. I’ve noticed that quite a few of the bloggers on here have already started their preparation and it’s interesting to see how they have progressed.
Unfortunately at my end I keep getting banished rather sporadically from my studios while the tutors assess the lower years. Admittedly my studio practice is in a sort of limbo while I wait to be able to construct the bases for my installation. This has enabled me to have a period of time to look back at my research and assess which areas of my practice have been successful in this last hectic month.
Since my last post I have rescued the rotted canvasses, well the compost at least. The new canvas piece is growing well and I have started trying out some new techniques to stop any bowing or distortion under the weight of the compost. I’m currently looking into the idea of mounting a board onto the underside and then re-canvassing over as to keep the appearance of an adapted canvas.
By getting underneath the work I have suddenly become very aware that I don’t have a definite method of display. In the studio and past exhibitions I have been able to wheel the work around on plastic supermarket wheels and lay the work on brick or polystyrene. I feel that this will be either be brash or look ill-considered in the degree show. I now have a bit of a conundrum to decipher. Whether I wish to eminate mounting techniques that have painterly relevance, thus emphasising the use of canvas, or look at constructing a hidden plinth underneath the work. As writing this I’ve finally managed to get back into the studio so some practical experimentation will ensue!
Well I’ve had to adapt rather swiftly this week. As I left the canvas in my two recent pieces raw, (hoping that the grass roots might just grow into the material) I found that the canvas had completely rotted through onto the bases underneath. Nightmare!
What I have been left with is two overly present holes in my canvas, interesting to look at maybe, but frustrating nonetheless. I just have to be thankful that this happened now and not in a month’s time. I’ve constructed a new stretcher and treated the canvas with everything under the sun to waterproof it. Today I relaid my recycled compost and started the cultivation cycle again.
I managed to get one extra tutorial with Tom O’sullivan which was really fantastic. I brought up the ideas of using humour to almost satirise my own practice and it produced an interesting discussion. It would definitely be something that would have to be very refined to function in a way that I felt successful. In some ways the work that I am creating deals with humour already, admittedly quite subtly. Growing grass in a canvas – constructing a giant slope in my studio, both seem a little absurd. Perhaps this light-hearted approach was already functioning, it just needed some coaxing out.
Finally another important development has been my construction of some foamboard maquettes. Measuring my studio was pretty entertaining as I had to navigate around the 1st years who are setting up for their assessment. I decided on a 1/15th scale model and have constructed a basic example which I can now play around with.
The final stages are edging closer and closer now. Our course involves the first years in the degree show by assigning each student to a third year. Their role can be as involved as that third year wishes, from painting walls to fabricating actual work. I was assigned my first year at the end of last week but I am yet to properly meet her. All I know is she uses soil in her practice, works for me.
I also had my last tutorial. It was a really useful one and has added a whole new dimension to my set up strategies, although at this stage that could possibly a good thing and a bad thing. I think that as I am happy with a more formal sculpture being located in Gallery North I should try to play around a little with the installation in my studio space. One element that was brought up was the conflict that I have always had within my practice. Dealing with the environment has always made my practice quite earnest and very serious. Sometimes I can feel a bit constricted by those concerns. I think that maybe this two-part/two-space exhibition could give the chance to open up my work and let in areas that can bring a light-hearted, playful attitude to the space.
After a recent exhibition at the opening of the new Offquay studio space I feel more comfortable around the idea of introducing text to my work. Though I used this exhibition purely as an experiment to gauge reaction, it enabled me to look at text in a new light. While text can give me the chance to directly communicate, I can also play with the power of words and sentence structure. This could be a way of introducing humour and the ‘artist’s joke’ into my rather serious work.
I have another exhibition opportunity coming up on Monday. It is set up by the Offquay collective – a group consisting mostly of recent Northumbria graduates – and is in celebration of their newly opening studio and project space (www.offquayarthouse.co.uk). I submitted a piece for this absolutely ages ago so it is interesting to revisit an old piece of work, even if at the time I didn’t actually think it was that successful.
At the time of creating the work I was struggling with the fact that my work wasn’t conveying the conceptual elements of my practice. By confronting this I created some experimental work that dealt with the direct transfer of information, in this case in the form of a paper hand-out full of environmental facts and figures.
I recently went to the Ed Ruscha exhibition at the Hatton Gallery in Newcastle University and it made me rethink the power of text in artworks. While before I had tried to directly convey information, unsuccesfully, I think that I now have the opportunity to create a work that could abstract text. This could therefore use the power of conveyance that text can bring and utilse this to put forward my concerns. I have a couple of days to work out exactly what I will submit (and actually make the work) so we shall see what happens come Monday!
Who knew it got sunny in Newcastle? I’ve been administering some much needed water aid to my work after leaving it over the weekend, some bits are looking a bit parched… This is something I really like in creating these sort of works. While the fabrication of the sculptures only takes a few days in the workshops and a trip or two down to buy compost, it is the constant maintenance that becomes my role in the final construction of the artwork.
I’ve recently started thinking about that role, how much of a gardener am I? Is this a problem if I am in my eyes, creating art? I started to look into the history of community gardening as well as the more grand scale landscaping I have been looking into. While researching I’ve come across a philosopher called Isis Brook who explores an interesting term entitled ‘nearby nature’. The term looks at the positive benefits that nature brings to human well being. Interestingly enough this is activated by the subtle introduction of small manifestations of nature, plants and views in a person’s immediate environment.
This nearby nature concept flows well with my work, by providing manifestations of the natural environment in institutions like urban art galleries I am looking at supplying both a relief from the urban grey and a comment on the social benefit green space can bring.
