13/04/2014 – Valiant Effort
This is the final day of our first collaboration weekend. We drove 7 miles east of Port Ellen to the Kildalton to visit the ancient Christian cross at the ruined church there. We followed the track down to Ardmore house but the weather turned really bad so we figured we’d turn back and have a research afternoon indoors.
Thoughts
Assuming that something has been placed in a location to perform a specific function.
Placing human terms onto an object to help us to understand it.
Researching Artists
Richard T Walker
Fishli & Weiss
Toba Khedoori
Mark Booth
Alan Kaprow – How to Make a Happening (1968) http://www.ubu.com/sound/kaprow.html
10 + 2=12 American Text-Sound Pieces (1974) http://www.ubu.com/sound/12.html
12/04/2014
Today’s route was by bike, foot and car. We cycled from Port Ellen to Kintra Farm on the Mull of Oa peninsula. From Kintra Farm we then walked half of a loop into the moor wilderness. In total it was 8 miles by bike and a 2 mile walk. Next we drove North about 1/3 up the island to The Big Strand, a 2 1/2 mile long beach which was completely deserted. Just us, sheep, sand dunes and ferocious winds.
Points of Interest
– A huge pile of empty, sun-bleached scallop shells stretching for around 14 meters. Currently, use or funciton of these shells eludes us entierly.
– A bucket with the instructions printed on the side stating ‘No Unauthorised Use‘ being used for something else.
– Lichen coating the two gable end walls of an abandoned cottage.
– Seeing the first standing stone we’ve encountered and wondering why and how is was there.
– Finding a skull wearing a wooly hat.
Close observation of a single subject, whether it is as tiny as pasteur’s microbes or as great as Einstein’s universe is the kind of work that happens less and less these days. Glued to computer screens, we have forgotten how to look at the natural world. The original instructor on how to be curious about detail. – Jennifer New (in 2008 Keri Smith)
[The residual purpose of art is] PURPOSELESS PLAY. This play, however is an affirmation of life – not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking uo to the very life we’re living, which is so excellent once one gets one’s mind and one’s desired out of the way and lets it act of its own accord. – John Cage (in 2008 Keri Smith)
Sarah and I had an initial meeting in Glasgow in December 2013 where we caught up and talked generally about what we hoped to make and achieve with the bursary funding.
The funding is covering two round trips for each of us to Islay and Glasgow respectively, a meals budget and materials budget for our research and work development.
A few key thoughts so far from our first meeting:
…banal descriptions, categorised…
…something big enough for a person to put their head inside.
In addition to these, here are a few excersises from the book How To Be an Explorer of the World by Keri Smith that have got me thinking.
Exploration 12: Fifty Things – Write down fifty things about one of the following…a walk in your neighbourhood.
Exploration 27: Accidential Art – Go for a walk. Identifiy and document existing ‘art’ that you find, such as things that are not created on purpose [or with th epurpose of being art].
Exploration 59: How To Wander Aimlessly – Start heading in any direction. Act only on instinct. If you start to think you are wasting your time then you are doing it correctly. Keep going. Pay attention to all the details.
For my New Collaboration Bursary I have invited artist Sarah Laing to collaborate with me to develop new works inspired by my recent move to Islay. Islay is one of the Inner Hebrides and is located off the West Coast of Scotland (http://www.islayinfo.com).
We both actively explore process-led making practices through our work. We will each respond to the same found object or natural form within the Islay landscape and can anticipate creating around 6 works throughout the collaboration.
Taking inspiration from games and play, I will create a series of spoken-word sound works that present humourous and abstract descriptions of natural forms and objects. I am interested in creating fictional identities for found objects, assigning these with abstract and other worldly features to make their original source and form hard to discern.
Isolating fragments from these natural forms and objects, Sarah will respond by creating 3-D forms and drawings using Denril, ink, pencil and found materials. These drawings will take their cue from my own sound works, while exploring mark making, ambiguous form and
discovery through repetition.
