At the moment I am reading Drawing by Philip Rawson. I would thoroughly recommend this to anyone interested in drawing – he is great on blots, and lines and the way how something is drawn impacts on its meaning. He also makes interesting comparisons between East and West – for example, black in the western tradition standing for a shadow, or a hole, while in the east it indicates presence.
I have been making forays into drawing with ink and trying to ‘liberate the hand’ (cf. Rawson).
“I didn’t know we stocked that” the Pumpkin man said to me as I handed over some coins for September’s Prospect magazine and some extra for a black coffee as well.
I was on my way to Brighton by train for the Dada South Check in – Check out event, where I had a great time catching up with everyone – Dada Exchange artists and advisors. Trains are good for getting some reading done. I don’t often take a book though, as even a small book gets heavy after a while.
So, settling down to read my magazine (a title I’ve not often bought) I alighted on The nature of beauty by Nicholas Humphrey who writes that our appreciation of beauty has evolved in the context of sexual selection:
Artistry is sexy: “it’s a way of showing off what you’re worth”.
Also interesting is his argument that we believe beauty is something that is made by someone – there is a creator behind it. This leads to an explanation for a belief in or love of God as the maker of beauty in nature.
The maker of beauty is the object of love. He concludes “…our experience of natural beauty will lead to an erotic infatuation with whoever we suppose created it. Religious ecstasy, aesthetic ecstasy and sexual ecstacy will have become part of the same package.”
I think there is definitely alot here to think about, in terms of art in general, not just beauty.
Wow, I’ve had some really interesting questions as a result of this blog.
When it comes to titling, if I title, I tend to do it after the work is finished, trying to find in the title something that relates to the outside world or that takes the work beyond my-self. Sometimes I’ve thought of finding a title that relates to some everyday incident but more often than not this would reduce the work to biography, so I agree with Tamarin’s caution regarding closing the work down and like her idea of asking different people to think of a title. Rob’s idea of giving each work two titles is also interesting – perhaps a work could have multiple titles. Or, as Tamarin suggests, maybe having no titles would leave the viewer freer to constitute their own subjectivity through their experience of an artwork; on the other hand, untitled work might also leave the viewer with no way in.
I remember a newspaper article I read about Gillian Ayres, which refers to her practice of asking her friends to do the titling. I think this is definitely a path worth following.
Sometimes when I am really supposed to be doing something else I end up reading newspaper articles that catch my eye. Today I read “A healthy dose of sick lit” on the Guardian Unlimited Books blog (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/sep…). Like the author of the blog, I also generally avoid books about “bodily decay and death”, but I also find myself being drawn to the topic through having been ill myself and being currently in that “everything crossed” state. I find that now I do often read other accounts of the journey through cancer treatment though for the same reason as the author gives – distance – not as yet a whole book.
Kalder does “succumb” to reading a book about the experience of having a brain tumour though, and says this of it:
“When Karinthy articulates what is happening to him, he reaches for Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, Thomas Mann, and sundry Hungarians you’ve never heard of. He sees and explains himself via literature, instead of the modern babble of confessional self-analysis“
That’s the nub of it: Literature, theory, other writing is that place of mediation through which one can reflect upon one’s own experience and make others’ stories one’s own, as well as recognise one’s own story as not singular but a part of collective human experience.
Anyone else grappling with titles? to title or not to title and if titles then how to find them?
i have found myself turning to and reading Seamus Heaney’s poems and dipping into translations of Chinese poetry – Poems of the Late Tang.
Clare Smith's mixed English/Chinese heritage informs her perspective on issues of identity and categorisation. Her nomadic childhood and early adulthood have meant a somewhat ambivalent relationship to place, reinforced by the sense of ambiguity that comes from her mixed identity. Smith works with drawing, print media, collage and moving image to investigate this ambivalence, with references to craft, the importance of labour and the handmade. Through her choice of materials and approaches, she creates work which attempts to create a sense of unity, an interpretation of Homi Bhabha's "Third Space" - seen as a space in which different parts can come together to challenge dominant ideas of wholeness. Collaboration is part of Smith’s practice and she is also co-founder of Dover Arts Development (DAD) together with painter, Joanna Jones. This involves working with many different artists, curation, organisation, event management, creating networks across East Kent and influencing the public realm in Dover. Clare works from a studio in Dover. She has an MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins and has exhibited nationally and internationally.
