LARA ALMARCEGUI
During my site visits, I was reminded of Lara Almarcegui’s work which occupied the Spanish Pavilion during last years Venice Biennale. In a way comparable to my own practice, Almarcegui examines processes of urban transformation that derive from a cycle of permanent destruction and (re-) construction of the city. Her Guides document empty lands and ruins within the contemporary city, bringing these forgotten areas to public conscience.
Interestingly, she also draws up surveys of all construction materials, including the respective quantities that went into buildings and presents her findings. Based on her research, the artist creates sculptural landscapes by presenting previously unused construction supplies or building piles of recycled materials. When experiencing her work in the 2013 Venice Biennale, I was met by overwhelming, towering mounds of different materials such as brick, concrete and glass: the same type and quantity of materials used by workers to construct the pavilion itself. This combination of Almarcegui’s explorations of the raw fabrics that make up a building in addition to her investigations of sites of change within the city is most fascinating.
I’ve realised recently that I approach my own work in a similar way, firstly by undertaking a deep investigation into the site before transporting my findings to the exhibition space. In the coming months it will be crucial for me to assess how I work outside in the city and my own dialogue with the site before beginning to approach the exhibition space with a critical eye.
SITE VISIT
In my search for materials, I have recently been given permission to access a building whose decrepit state attests to its liberation from utility. Awaiting demolition, in the coming months I will be investigating this transitional environment- a modern ruin. My practice stems from a heightened awareness of the city as I’m interested in the forgotten buildings and undefined spaces that reflect on the evolution of the Urbis itself and the elements that comprise it. Therefore, to access this empty home in my hometown of Warrington is a very exciting development within my work.
Upon entering the site, I found myself operating as a kind of archaeologist of the present. Conducting field research on site, I carefully documented my investigations through photography and video. I decided to spend the first two days attempting to understand the space thoroughly. On the third day I began to use my tools to excavate, to deconstruct the very fabric of this building in order to uncover, to reveal the bare materials in which this building is made. This slowly revealed the built space in its raw form, a product of an exhaustive separation/ extraction process. Through this physical labouring, I began to notice my own dialogue between practical activity, site and material and how I engage and operate in space with materiality.
During this process of investigating this site, I have realised that removing is my way of learning more about the place. Connecting the space to the building, to the materials, the past and the urban structure.
In a way comparable to the work of Gordon Matta-Clark and Robert Smithson, my own enquiries consist of an investigation-oriented practice that provides the possibility or opportunity for a place and its past to become manifest.
Site Documentation
LOGISTICS
One word comes to mind at the moment: Logistics. I feel that I’m spending a great deal of time lately planning, contacting and organizing.
For my intervention I’m eager to gather building materials such as plasterboard, timber, plywood and insulation- the basic fabrics that make up an interior wall. Previously, I have chosen plasterboard as my principal material so I feel that it is important to develop this range within my practice. I have begun sourcing materials with previous histories, walls and surfaces from other spaces and times. Words like ruination have been associated with my works for some time so I feel that it is important to work with found materiality.
In order to collect the materials I require I have been in contact with builders, visited building sites, house renovations and skip depots. Through this process of collecting, one thing I’ve realized recently is that I need to think more carefully about the difference between taking the fabric/wall from a place and the material just being old. What materials have authenticity to me?
On a different note- as promised in my last post I have also included an image here of my finished tools.
TOOLS- METAL CASTING PROCESS
During Advanced Media Pathway, a module I completed last year, I began to design and create my own tools made from lead-free pewter that were used in the creation of Impasse. At the time I realized that I had become dissatisfied with conventional tools (such as hammers) as through spatial experience it became obvious the method used to break down the wall. In order to generate more ambiguous marks these tools became an important development within my practice.
Through a research process, I’ve more recently been able to explore ways in which I could advance this area of my work. A hand tool is an implement for performing manual operations. With this in mind, I am not restricted by action and there are further possibilities of creating different tools for different uses and processes within my interventions.
When visiting the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford I began to investigate how tools have been made and used since the Stone Age. The unconventional forms of these implements are fascinating and their archaeological hand-made quality resonates with my own work. Likewise, Dead Ringers, a 1988 psychological drama film directed by David Cronenberg presents a story of twin gynaecologists. One of the characters seeks out metal artist Anders Wolleck and commissions a set of strange gynaecological instruments. Although the concerns within the film are irrelevant to my work, it is these bizarre ambiguous metal objects that present similarities to my tools.
Over the past two weeks I have been putting my research to use, immersing myself in the process of metal casting to create five tools that will be used in the making process of my degree show work. Anyone who has followed this process before will understand that it takes a long time to complete. However, from making the initial tool forms from clay to pouring the silicone mix, this process really gave me a moment to reflect. I began to think of the pewter material and how as a relatively soft metal it may mark and record its use over time.
The set of tools will be finished tomorrow, as all I have left to do is pour the metal into the moulds. An image of the final results will follow in my next post.
UNBUILDING ARCHITECTURE
And so it begins…
The start of my Major Project and final semester at university. It now seems an appropriate time to reflect on what I have achieved so far this year to enable me to push my enquiries even further.
Unbuilding Architecture, the title I chose for my dissertation, first looks backwards to the 1960’s and 1970’s drawing attention to architectural themes that emerged in art during this period. By choosing to locate my discussion within this broader trajectory, I was able to consider whether these concerns are still significant to contemporary artists who are reviewing similar processes when responding to architecture, structure and the notion of space. ‘Unbuilding’ defines the act of dismantling, of taking apart a built space and is a term that I applied to the artworks debated in this analysis, which included Gordon Matta-Clark’s Splitting and Doris Salcedo’s Shibboleth. Part of my investigations led me to Jane Rendell’s texts, in particular her discussions surrounding ‘Critical Spatial Practice’.
This research and writing process really focused my thoughts and allowed me to establish a theoretical position in relation to my own and other artists work.
At this point in my practice I had already been working with architecture, and one question I asked myself last semester was whether I wanted to work with architecture or against it. In Impasse, although the puncturing of plasterboard was anti-architectural, the straight perpendicularity of its surroundings made the participant feel as though it belonged. However, in Wall Intervention I found the single shard of plasterboard projecting outward from the wall most exhilarating. The way this fragment defied architectural logic has now prompted further enquiries into sculpture, space and the possibility of my interventions reconfiguring the architectural order of the gallery.
A weakness of my work has been that I tended to become so absorbed in the strenuous physical making of an intervention that I stopped working before applying fully my critical skills. To be more attentive to how the work reads, throughout R&D I decided to first create smaller experimental models. As a developmental strategy these three-dimensional sketches have been very successful in allowing me to be critical about space, dynamic compositions, depth, layering and material.
All of these elements and everything that I learnt during the writing and making processes will certainly be important over the coming months as I increase the scale of my work.
I have never kept a blog before but I’m really excited to use this as an extension of my studio space and thoughts.
