Practice as research

Week 53: 16th – 22nd September
While I was down in London I had the chance to visit The Museum of Contemporary African Art. However, despite its grandiose title, The Museum of Contemporary African Art is not a museum by traditional standards at all, but is in fact a 12 room installation by a single artist, Benin-born Meschac Gaba. Now installed at its current home at the Tate Modern, Gaba’s work represents the largest single artwork purchased by the Tate.

The Museum of Contemporary African Art
The idea of the museum first developed when Gaba visited the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam for a residency in 1996. Through exploring European art museums he realised that not only were contemporary African artists not represented within the artistic canon, but contemporary artworks that had been brought from Africa were being sold and marketed as traditional crafts. It was this experience that inspired him to create a museum as a space to exhibit his own work.

‘Gaba has claimed that the Museum of Contemporary African Art is ‘not a model… it’s only a question.’ It is temporary and mutable, a conceptual space more than a physical one, a provocation to the Western art establishment not only to attend to contemporary African art, but to question why the boundaries existed in the first place.’ Kerryn Greenberg, Curator (International Art), Tate

The structure and function of the museum
The museum is separated into themed rooms which suggest both both typical curatorial concerns, as well as alluding to the architecture of the museum. The rooms, which include a museum shop, restaurant and library, explore the familiar subsidiary elements of Western art museums as art spaces in their own right, where participants are invited to consider the boundaries of institutional participation.

In other spaces such as the marriage room, Gaba showcases his own marriage to Alexandra van Dongen that took place on 6th October 2000 at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Presents, wedding attire, a guest book and marriage certificate from the ceremony, come together to make up the museum display, and to break down the barriers of art and life. In the game room and the architecture room, visitors are actively encouraged to physically engage with the objects on display to create new objects through the use of wooden puzzles and building blocks.

Through subverting the function of the museum to a space of ‘sociability, study and play in which the boundaries between everyday life and art, observation and participation are blurred’, Gaba also questions historical narratives of collecting by institutions. This makes the acquisition and inclusion of The Museum of Contemporary African Art as part of Tate’s programme to develop their Contemporary African Art collection even more interesting.

Museums by artists
This exhibition however, also raises questions about the role of the artist-curator and how art practice has extended into the critique of the museum, as well as the ways in which artists have become curators of their own collections. Another example of this is Claes Oldenburg’s ‘Mouse Museum’, a building created in the shape of the mickey mouse logo, housing a series of found objects from his practice. Now housed at MOMA, ‘Claes Oldenburg’s ‘Mouse Museum’ appropriates methods of museum display, and with wry humor typical of his work, comments on the obsessiveness of collecting and the pervasiveness of consumer culture.’

Given my interests in art as artefact and interpretation, I’m drawn to artists using methods of museum display in their own work, as well as incorporating it into my installations. Therefore, I’ve decided to contact and interview artists who create museums as part of my research and present these on my blog. I’m hoping that this will give me more insight into why artists are drawn to the museum format and how this can be used to better understand existing museum and gallery collections.

Further information:
http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/meschac-gaba-museum-contemporary-african-art
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2013/jul/01/meschac-gaba-museum-african-art
http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/blog/13624/
http://www.tate.org.uk/about/press-office/press-releases/tate-and-africa

Week 52: 9th – 15th September
This week I headed down to London to see the London Art Book Fair at the Whitechapel Gallery. I’d visited previously a couple of years before when I exhibited there with AMBruno and found it to be a vibrant example of the art publishing world.

The London Book Fair 2013
‘The London Art Book Fair is an annual event which celebrates the best of international contemporary art publishing. Hosted by the Whitechapel Gallery in association with Marcus Campbell Art Books, it showcases a diverse range of work ranging from individual artist publishers to galleries, magazines, colleges, arts publishing houses, rare book dealers and distributors.’

Unlike the other artist book fairs which focus mainly on the work of artists who create and work with books, the London Art Book Fair also incorporates other types of art publishing, including monographs, journals and gallery catalogues. While this attracts big names such as the Hayward Gallery and MIT Press to the fair, I feel that it can also detract away from the artist book as a medium and make audiences more confused about how books can be art.

Nevertheless, it was a busy and fruitful visit and, as with other artists book fairs around the country, there was a packed itinerary of events available to visitors. One of these of events was a risograph printing workshop, organised by Ditto Press, where participants were able to learn more about the risograph printing process and then make a print to take away with them.

Risograph Printing
I’ve been wanting to learn about risograph printing for a while, as an alternative to screen printing, so it was great to have an opportunity to participate in the workshop. Risograph uses a duplication process by creating a master stencil from wax paper inside the risograph machine. The paper is then passed through the machine and soy-based single colour ink is pushed through the stencil onto the paper, one layer at a time. Additional layers of colour are created by producing a master stencil from another image and passing the paper through the machine again.

This process is predicated on first separating your artwork into layers, as with screen printing. obviously, there wasn’t the scope or the technology available within the 2 hour workshop to produce complicated artwork separations, so we made simple images using drawing and collage techniques that could then be scanned with the risograph printer to produce our finished prints. This simplified technique was very useful as it gave me a good idea of how I might go about creating images in future, but I decided to do a bit more research into how to prepare artwork to create different effects.

Colour interactions
I found this guide to using different techniques to prepare artwork for riso printing particularly useful. Produced by Paperpusher in Canada, it covers everything from using opacity in colour interactions through to the register of the print. Colour interactions are created by using the combination of two overlaid colours to make a third (as shown on the image) However, although the final image is in colour, the artwork is prepared in black and white, with the darker tones producing stronger colours, and the less opaque tones creating more pastel effects.

Other effects using two colour printing include duotones. Creating an image using contrasting colour halftones helps to draw out the midtones and highlights. Halftones are the dots that make up an image (as in newspaper printing) and can be increased or decreased in size on the risograph machine depending on the preferred outcome.

Print register
As riso printing is produced in layers, it isn’t always possible to align each layer perfectly with the one before. Equally, large solid areas of ink may not have as perfect a consistency as a digital print. However these discrepancies are usually minimal and create a more ‘handmade’ effect in the finished product. Although I wasn’t expecting to be introduced to risograph printing at the London Art Book Fair, it was a welcome addition to their programme, and I’ve already made contact with Footprint, my local riso printers in Leeds to determine how I might use the process in my work.

Week 51: 2nd – 8th September
After the previous week thinking about tasseography and drawing in tea leaves, I finally felt that I was on the way to developing a body of work. As I’d spent most of the first year of my PhD reading and writing, this felt like a welcome change. I decided to leave the print work to one side for a little while and focus on thinking about the tea drawings.

I’ve often been interested in these kinds of ephemeral drawings, running workshops using diverse materials such as sugar and cotton, but never really incorporated it into my practice. The message in the workshops was always related to concepts of drawing as sculpture, and later when it came to photographing the work, documentation as art.

Fixed objects
However, the same question was always asked: ‘How do we fix the work?’ Despite explaining the nature of the work and materials to groups, it seemed clear that there was an expectation of longevity. Even if the work would then be taken away and discarded, the anxiety of ‘destroying’ the finished piece was palpable. Thankfully, the projected images from photographs of the work showed them the benefits of their labour, but conceptually I was more interested in this feeling of unease.

Running workshops, it is difficult to appreciate this emotion, so when drawing my own work using tea leaves, it was surprising to experience this same anxiety upon realising that I would have to destroy the thing that I’d spent time making. Documenting the work relieved this feeling somewhat, but I started to think about if and how I could present the ‘object’.

Sand painting
These ideas were of particular interest to one of my supervisors and he directed me to look more at practices of sand painting. Such practices are widespread throughout indigenous populations, including the Navajo of the South Western United States, Tibetan Buddhist Monks and the Australian Aboriginals. Whilst each culture has its own unique customs and rituals, in every case the process of creating the art is the main goal of the work, being as each is destroyed upon completion. The art is often undertaken as part of a larger ritual which may last up to 9 days. Furthermore, each ritual drawing is created for the community with a healing or spiritual purpose in mind.

For example, the Navajo ritual is based around restoring balance through prevention of disease, healing or exorcism of a particular person. One of three ceremonies is chosen by a Shaman to be performed by a Chanter. The Chanter will then select and perform the songs, dances and paintings believed to best heal the patient. When the painting is finished, the affected person stands in the middle of it and the chanter rubs their skin with the sand. Having absorbed the illness, the painting is then destroyed and the sand returned back to the earth.

Aboriginal Dreamtime
Other examples of sand painting include certain Aboriginal art practices which depict and share traditional cultural knowledge from a creation myth known as ‘Dreamtime’. Dreamtime is comprised of rituals which reinvent and maintain indigenous practices, which include stories, dance, songs, and sand painting, all of which explain how and why their traditions were created. However, although these rituals are part of traditions spanning hundreds of years, they are also practiced contemporaneously, and have no doubt developed in accordance with their changing infrastructures and environments.

In ‘A Material and Symbolic Interpretation of Dreamtime Stories and Ritual Performance in Aboriginal Australia’’, Jennifer McNiven addresses the kinds of rituals that connect the Aboriginal people with their environment, and how these are changing in line with globalisation: ‘Today Aboriginal art and performances are sold to white tourists as a way of profiting and supporting themselves in the modern world; it is how they negotiate the encroachment of Europeans on their land and traditions.’

Whilst reflecting on the differing conceptions of art and its functions, these practices also suggest the possibility of introducing a more performative element to my work. Although, this still raises questions around appropriation, it does begin to contextualise these working practices within a global art context.

Contemporary live sand painting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt89tGaAj5o

Week 50: 26th August – 1st September
I’ve been invited to propose a new print work for an art fair at Christie’s in London. The fair is called Multiplied and the stall is being curated by members of the London based group AM Bruno around the theme, “I’m telling you stories. Trust me”.

After considering the possibility of using divination as a storytelling technique, I started to think of the work I’d been making and reading about previously. My first thought was to produce an image that was representative of a tarot style card so that I could continue to explore ideas of allegory in art and history. Unfortunately, inspiration for developing work around this idea wasn’t forthcoming, so I went back to the drawing board to reconsider how I would approach the brief.

Tasseography
This particular drawing board was in fact covered with tea leaves, where I’d split open a tea bag and started to draw into the leaves to make an image. I’d started working with tea to create images relating to tea leaf reading (or tasseography) in order to make tea bag books. However, through playing with the material I realised that I could also produce these kinds of images in reference to divination and symbolism for the AMBruno exhibition.

My previous understanding of tasseography was that the leaves were read according to the symbolic shapes that they created. However after further research, I also found that from around the beginning of the 20th Century fortune telling cups had been produced, displaying grids containing different symbols. The readings were then determined by which symbols the tea leaves congregated around in the cup. I found this interesting and decided to use a similar method in depicting my own symbols.

Symbol meanings
Before deciding which symbols to use, I drew a circular grid with a pentagram in the middle creating 26 sections. This brought to mind the idea of an alphabet so I decided to create images for each of the 26 letters. I looked up the most common symbol meanings to determine a list of images and began to draw them.

Although each of the images could refer to a particular meaning according to their provenance in tasseography, I hoped that any audience viewing the work wouldn’t be tempted to try to determine the ‘correct’ meaning, as for me that wasn’t the intention of the work. However, I still found it interesting to think about the selected images and their given meanings, and how they might relate to one another. For example, why would a cow symbolise money, or an apple tree foretell a journey abroad?

Print work
After digitally drawing the images, I had to determine how best to produce them for exhibition. The specified dimensions for the print were 36x46cm, slightly larger than A3, so although I’d decided to make a digital print, it made me reconsider how I might print this. I settled on printing onto brown paper which I would then adhere to a good quality backing paper using a process similar to chine collé. This created an almost object-like image on the paper and gave tactility to the print.

First responses to the work were good and showed a level of engagement with the image beyond the skill that it took to create it or the meaning within it, as if people instinctively felt that they could respond to it without any prior knowledge or haptic involvement.These positive reactions have made me think about how I might develop this print into a larger body of work. I’m now considering using different images or even alchemical symbols. The aesthetic of the work also suggests a game board or moving pieces. Additionally I am also considering printing back onto ceramic as with the original inspiration for the work.

More info:
http://www.tasseography.com
http://www.crystalinks.com/tealeaves.html
http://www.mojomoon.net/tleaves.html

Week 49: 19th – 25th August
Learning more about the history of paper and its predecessors has led me to consider more about the ritualistic uses of these materials, in particular the uses and production of Amatl, a form of paper which has been manufactured in Mexico since pre-Hispanic times.

Amatl
The word Amatl derives from the Aztec language of Nahuatl, but is now more commonly known by the Spanish, Amate. This form of paper, made from the pulp of fig and mulberry bark was, and continues to be, manufactured by the Otomi Indians of San Pablito, Mexico. Despite Spanish colonisation and the introduction of the Christian religion, the Otomi continued to produce amatl paper for ritual purposes.

Due to their reliance on agriculture, many of the Otomi’s religious beliefs and practices centre around spirits of the earth, rain and sun. Although these spirits had a literal relation to the growth of crops, they also functioned as metaphors to mediate ideas around kinship, culture, nature and fertility.

Otomi spirits
Images of these spirits are created by folding amatl paper in half and cutting out an intricate design which, when opened, creates a symmetrical figure. These figures are used by shamans within rituals in order to maintain the values and health of the community. Positive spirits, such as ‘Dios de Mazorca’ (The Spirit of Maize) is part of the series of fertility figures which ensure good crops, whereas intermediary figures, such as ‘Pajarito de Dos Cabezas’ (Little Bird with Two Heads), act as spirit messengers who watch over the Otomi and keep them safe.

However, as well as the positive spirits, the Otomi also believe in a number of negative spirits, who serve to act as a warning to members of the community who go against established societal values. For example, figures such as ‘Trompa de Toro que no Respeta’ (Bull Snout that does not respect) represents the figure of a man who died for not respecting his parents, and the violence that this can cause within the kinship system, while ‘El Presidente del Infierno’ (The President of Hell) is one of a number of anti-culture figures, which are spirits that go against the values and beliefs of the Otomi.

Papel Picado
Although paper cutting has strong religious and ritual connections in Mexican tradition, it has also developed into a decorative and celebratory past time, through the introduction of Papel picado. Translated as ‘perforated paper’, papel picado is a form of cut paper decoration which is produced by stacking layers of tissue paper and chiseling a design using a transparent template which is laid on top of the paper stack.

After the Spanish invasion of the Americas, they introduced their culture, language, religion, tools, and designs. Trade routes between Spanish colonies and China therefore introduced new goods into the Mexican economy, many of which were wrapped in ‘papel de China (tissue paper). The paper was often decorated with stencilled designs for ceramics or embroideries which became integrated into the papel picado designs. designs was used for various types of crafts including papel picado banners. The process of creating papel picado banners continues today and is used to make decorations for festivals such as Day of the Dead, Our Lady of Guadalupe and Christmas.

Although papel picado banners are now available in more sturdier plastic, the traditional process of making paper banners begins by drawing a design, which is then placed over multiple layers of tissue paper. The artist then uses a mallet and chisels to remove sections of the paper stack, so that the image still hangs together after cutting. By removing the negative spaces of the image, the design is revealed, and when finished, the paper is separated to reveal individual identical sheets. This process can take around 30 hours.

Further Reading:
The Paper Art of Mexico: http://lal.tulane.edu/programs/exhibits/paperart
Otomi Cutout Figurines: http://anthromuseum.missouri.edu/minigalleries/otomi/intro.shtml
The Endurance of Mexican Amate Paper: http://www.itc.nl/library/papers_2003/phd_theses/lopez_binnquist.pdf
Mexico’s traditional papel picado: Classic art for a Mexican fiesta: http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/1567-mexico-s-traditional-papel-picado-classic-art-for-a-mexican-fiesta