My Final Year – Degree Practice Digital Sketchbook

I had a very useful critique with my peers and tutors, as they always are. I really do enjoy crits! Due to covid it was a digital critique which was just as useful if not more, as I was able to pinpoint exactly what it was I wanted to show. First the work, a large unfinished abstract painting on the floor (2020) was shown, and this is what I took from it: The white background is a successful way for me to show the saturation and colour of my painting. The varied mark and movement seen within the lines are successful. The colours are complimentary and fade into each other well.  The more you look at the image (It draws you in) the more you can see figures and movement. This reminded the viewers of Jackson Pollock’s work, in that it was very visual, you could imagine movement or the artist making the work. This has always been a consistent thread for me within my work that seems to be observed by all. It was described as having a ‘serious playfulness’ which was something I really liked hearing!

Elgin Thwaites work in progress (2020)

It also reminded the viewer of the work of Julie Mehretu and Helen Frankenthaler. Also when the work was flipped upside down it was considered to be just as successful so this was very reassuring.

Elgin Thwaites work in progress (2020)

Image of work in situ on the floor of my studio.

I look forward to working on it more and playing around with the placement of the work, on the floor and may on the wall. I would like to have a go at trying it on the floor over 3D objects. This would remind me of DC Semiraris (2019) by Tai Shani I saw in October 2019 at the Turner Contemporary. I really loved that work.

Tai Shani DC Semiraris (2019)

Image from Artnet [https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/tai-shani-on-performance-art-1676260] (2019)

The second work that was in the crit was Suspense in yellow (2020)

Elgin Thwaites Suspense in yellow (2020)

Images of work face on and in the shadows.

The feedback was as follows: the close up images are effective in showing texture and detail, and the use of shadows in some of the images were effective. Interesting that I repurposed polystyrene as a surface, lots of negative connotations with using polystyrene but as this was repurposed that is a good thing. The inorganic material gives of an impression of being an organic one, and some of the texture reminded a peer of being a lichen. The carving into the polystyrene is linked to a relief print.

There is a clear connection between the works They seem to not be purposefully made, but created through passion, freedom and movement amongst the layers. This reflects on my previous works which explored the notion of chance and also my automatic drawings.

I will also be having a read into Rosalind Krauss’ Medium specificity, as the polystyrene piece refuses to sit in either box of painting or sculpture and instead is a balancing act between the two.

I visited Firstsite mainly to see Corneila Parker’s work Neither from nor towards (1992) within the exhibition “Tell me the story of all these things”.

Cornelia Parker Neither from nor towards (1992)

Image by Elgin Thwaites 25/10/2020

I really liked this piece, the individual stones which were collected from houses that fell off the cliffs of Dover seem to each have a story to tell. From the bottom, larger stones sit heavy on the ground and grows smaller aw we move to the top, smaller and more spaced out the stones become. Only when I took a step back did I realise that they were in the shape of a house. I like to look at an artwork before reading the sign about it, so I can experience it for myself first I guess, before understanding it in context.

The smaller stones reminded me of previous work I have done with balancing small found stones on driftwood all collected in Wales, specifically St David’s. All these works have been dismantled but the images remain.

I visited Firstsite during a break in the lockdowns back in October this year. I had seen that Phyllida Barlow was exhibiting here and I really like her sculptural work. I liked that the work was being shown in the foyer where there is lots of natural light allowing for shadows to be cast. I really like shadows. I think that the arrangement of the objects shown below could have been better, I think they have been placed up against the wall as a bit of an afterthought. However, when the shadows are cast from these objects they look like an extension of the ‘nerve’ work on the blue wall.

Phyllida Barlow Sculpture at Firstsite

Image taken by Elgin Thwaites 25/10/20

A quote from the Firstsite website about Barlow’s work, “For more than 50 years, Phyllida has taken inspiration from her surroundings to create imposing installations that can be at once menacing and playful. She creates anti-monumental sculptures from inexpensive, low-grade materials such as cardboard, fabric, plywood, polystyrene, scrim and cement; from the industrial to the domestic, and mixes them together. She takes the ordinary and transforms it into the extraordinary, composing what she describes as ‘a kind of still life’”.

The main reason I like Barlow’s work is because it is accessible to all. The materials used are inexpensive, rather than being made of bronze or something that sculptures are classically made from. They reflect the same materials I use in my work, that is that they are readily available, free or inexpensive.

Foe example, my recent work Suspense in yellow was created with polystyrene which is similar in the way that the material used was free and easily obtainable.

Elgin Thwaites ‘Suspense in Yellow’ (2020)

Acrylic, household materials, enamel, oil paint. Dimensions 1200x700mm. These images are of the work in its finished state. The painting is designed to be viewed hanging at an angle away from the wall as shown above to allow the light to flow through the other side.

Phyllida Barlow Sculpture at Firstsite

Image by Elgin Thwaites 25/10/2020

Here is a close up of the same work which shows that the sculpture’s skeleton is made from chicken wire, expanding foam, wood and polystrene. Which are all inexpensive, obtainable and ‘everyday’ materials.