Plymouth University

Haven’t had anything interesting to write here for the last few days, been working on my project report, didn’t want to keep telling you all about that.

It has been briefly interrupted as I prepare my poster presentation for the Weight Stigma conference at Birmingham University this Thursday. I mention it here as a particular aspect of my MA show includes the research work I have done for this conference and others. The stretch-mark work, you may have noticed images in previous posts, is an arts based research project which I investigate the materiality of the fat female skin through a series of machine embroidered textile pieces. I won Plymouth University’s equality and research grant to complete this work and to attend a conference back in March at York University.

So it’s all go and tomorrow we are having a studio shift. The BA students are taking over most the space now to put up their show. I have been very lucky to have a big studio space the last few months and like a goldfish I have grown to fit my bowl. So it’s gonna take a bit of downsizing and shifting unnecessary materials back home to squeeze into my new space. It might help to refine the work anyway as I have made soooo much work recently.

So it is degree show season and I came across this article
“Artspeak alert: what not to write or say
From ‘radical unreality’ to ‘leggy plasticity’, we collate the most baffling examples of art lingo going” from The Guardian. It’s like stories about diets coming at the start of every January and are we now going to have an artspeak bashing every May? I think there are some words included on the info graphic that justify some confusion and which I have only just noticed is in the shape of a skull!?! But really, are most of those words necessary in their inclusion? I struggle with it as I am now a few years into the system and supposedly brainwashed by artspeak and reluctant to drop the language that has been part of my art training, especially ‘materiality’. But, really, are ‘over’, ‘combine’ really words which leave our audience baffled and alienated? If so then whether they ‘get’ our work is really the least of their worries.

I agree that the text presented at exhibitions etc. should not leave the audience feeling the work is only for the art elite. This pushes them away, makes them feel stupid and if they do not understand a ‘description’ then they really don’t stand a chance with understanding the work. Can’t we have the work at the fore, shouldn’t the artwork itself be a means to understanding the art?

It’s not that I am text shy, far from it, I enjoy writing about my work/research etc but I am not very keen on the artist’s statement. I will write one, only because I might have to, or think I should have one on my website. It might be though that it’s in the affective nature of my work though, it has a form of autonomy and it exists for the audience without needing any further guidance or told why I did what I did and what it all means TO ME. Of course if this is of interest, then that’s fine, I am happy to supply this, but my problem is too much emphasis on the text. I don’t know if you have ever been to one, but the season is nearly upon us, the maize maze. When you go in there is an option to have map to find your way back out again, now really what is the fun in that!? That’s how I feel about art, I don’t want to go see some work and be given a map.

But it’s that time of year when we are put in the position that we provide our artist’s statements with our shows, there may be exceptions but I think it is generally the case. This sends many students into a panic which often breeds the crappy statements that are quickly put together. Often aping those they find online, extracting words that sound good. My studio space backs onto the iMac suite and I overheard a conversation between two students doing just that. One says to the other, what about ‘alchemy’? But said a word I have no recollection off, which sounded nothing like ‘alchemy’, a completely made up word, so how the other student knew what she was trying say I have no idea! Anyway he asked her what she thinks it means, to which she replied “I don’t know, I thought it sounded good”. This is most of the problem, artists are taking words that they don’t understand, so how on earth will the audience? It does need addressing, else following graduation students enter the art world just continuing this cycle.

I have been guilty of all this myself, and probably still do to some extent. So take some time out, don’t panic write, don’t quickly put something together that looks right. There is plenty of advice on the web for good approaches to writing the statement, get Google-ing. Also, get some help from your peers, help them in return, ask someone you know who has strength in this area for their advice on what you have written.

Anyway, I have spent most my afternoon, procrastinating on the internet which led me to coming here to write. I could waffle all day about this but I shall go now so I actually have some work to waffle about come July.

Good afternoon!

It’s another glorious day here in Cornwall, a continuation from a lovely bank holiday weekend. I managed to get up to the Spike Island open studio event in Bristol on Saturday, then yesterday a walk with the children at Tamar Valley Trails. Now they are back to school and it’s time for me to return to my work.

I haven’t really done much on my project report since I last posted. I think I have been in a sort limbo following the recent interim assessment. However, I received the feedback today and this has spurred me on. It was great to get such amazing comments on the progress and strengths of the work. I normally do take post assessment (whether this is summative or formative) as a breathing space before going head-on into the work again. Incubation is a really good form of learning and development. This is the main reason I chose this new MA as I wanted to not complete it in just a few months! To really get the most from the MA you have to have the time to allow the thoughts and processes develop. For me this has worked exceptionally well and I am feeling ready for the show coming in just a couple of months now.

It’s a gorgeous day in Cornwall but I am currently indoors working on the second draft on my MA project report.

The final unit for the MA is called the project and alongside the work in development for the show we are writing a 6,000-8,000 word report. Initially it felt like a huge undertaking but after doing a 3,500 word proposal for what I wanted to do then twice as much to write about what I did do is not that much. In fact I have reached 7,500 so far and haven’t quite scratched the surface yet! Lots of hard editing though and I will eventually get it right.

I am actually enjoying the process and am finding that it is delving deeper into the understanding of my work more so than I would ever have achieved otherwise. Also the the MA project is not just a case of making a body of work then just writing what you did, it is rather a research based project.

My initial aims were to create a series of object-based work through which I would explore representations of biomedical interventions and treatments of the obese body. A related aim was to investigate the vocabulary of domestic found objects used within my art practice and research how they function as mimetic, metaphoric, metonymic and anthropomorphic devices in referencing the human body. I feel I have achieved this but have done quite a bit that has expanding on this. For example in my exploration of the body I focused my attention on the internal but this led me to explore the relationship of how this impacts on the external so I have also looked at the materiality of the fat female skin.

The writing process is also helping me to refine and edit a great amount of works I have made over the previous months to create a conhesive show.

Right, back to my report writing!

Plymouth University’s fine art degree courses are based on two sites within Plymouth, the university campus and Royal William Yard. Our MA is on the main campus which makes it easier to access the rest of the university’s facilities but you should ‘google’ Royal William Yard and you’ll see what a stunning location this site is!

Anyway, within room 101, yes they had to put the art students into that room, we share a space with a few joint honours and final year BAs but the majority of the students there are first years. It has been a very noisy, active envirnoment this year and at times a little distracting when you are trying to focus on your work. They had their assessment and show last week so are off for the rest of the summer. However, now the second years move in from down the yard to put up their show, followed by the third years afterwards. Then at the beginning of July we take over the space again to put our show up. Lots of activity in the following few weeks! I have to move out of my space to make way for the upcoming shows and am moving in with fellow final year student Matt at the other end of the studios. The first year MAs have their assessments next week and finish for the year so they will vacate the studios soon. Some of the other final year MAs have their own studios at home so it shall be Matt and I busying away towards our final show amidst all the chaos of BA shows going up.

I am currently developing a website for our MA group show and taking as many tips from a-n about promoting and making the best out of our show!