Toblerone series
– (existential photos with suspended Toblerone)
I got a big Toblerone last summer. I ate the chocolate up but simply looked at the package and wondered what if this Toblerone was the only thing that existed in the universe?
Logically it wouldn’t have been eaten, but this is not the point and you can’t tell from the photos. I had imagined the Toblerone floating in nothingness. I wanted to make this happen; I taped invisble thread to the package and to the end of a broom stick and got my man to hold it up high while I took some photos.
The pics you see here are preliminaries. They are also photos of photos, technically speaking I have had ‘issues’. I will be taking further Toblerone photos to complete this series; against a clear starry night sky, a cloudy black night sky and more against a bright blue sky.
Hope you all have a fab New Year’s Eve, I’m raising my glass of voddy to you all now, cheers!
Thank you David Riley, (A D V E R T I S I N G) your comments have inspired me to crack on.
I will be writing out my ideas onto the surface of this box, then painting it over, then repeating the process. Each idea will be encased in paint, building up layers.
I found this jewellery box at the dump today, I was on the look out for something unwanted, small and evocative with enough surface area to write on. To think that it belonged to someone. They kept their jewellery in it, they wore their jewellery out and about. It’s easy to attach preconcieved notions to this little object and that’s what fascinates me most about used and second hand things.
Turns out this is a cathartic process; I never got round to starting the idea on the box. Once it’s painted over it’s gone. My intention was to collect all the print outs from the a_n jobs and opps online page that I had been interested in over the space of a year. This was in realisation that I hadn’t done anything creative for a year. It felt like a year wasted.
But with each new idea comes a set of self imposed rules. Where these rules surface from, I don’t know but at one point I thought should I actually finish each idea written on the box before another layer of paint? A crazy suggestion since I work on everything at once.
Hope everyone has had a good christmas?
Right I’m giving hand made gifts next year. We’ve all got too much stuff already. I’m going to have to get on with it now though not the week before. Decision made.
It’s been great to have a proper break and recharge batteries. I got back into the swing of things this arvo, (admittedly I haven’t done much today).
The table from the meeting has made a few outings in this blog already – today I wrote out the transcript onto the wood, onto the top and legs. It’s a kind of monument to the words of wisdom uttered that day. I figured that when we have another meeting I can give the table a sheer coat of white paint then write the next installment on top.
Blind self portrait life drawing
Elena suggested I should try the blind drawing technique to draw my body. I had to warm my hands up first.
First off, it’s difficult and I have to concede the technique requires some practice. So this here is a first attempt.
Spatially there are are issues; hands explore the surface, but in 3D. This alters the mark making process to the extent that whatever is drawn is logical but only to a certain point. Normally an arm is drawn to look 3D but feeling it and then translating this experience radically distorts the original form.
In theory it could produce Cubist images since every surface is felt and translated.
At some point the brain needs to work out a personal system of marks to describe what is felt. This drawing here reflects contours only, so I think I would work on this aspect next time.
How to tackle the issue of losing place? Once the pencil loses contact with the paper all that remains is guesswork to reconnect. The answer must be to draw a continuous line – no good for gestural texture I might add – or employ a logical and systematic approach whereby the object is explored in the round.
I’ve been thinking about how to use drawing in my practice again. Personally speaking, mark making for its own sake isn’t enough. There has to be some real intention/ point to it.
Looking back over the ideas and projects I have on the go, I’ve decide to incorporate drawing somehow. It doesn’t matter though if the drawing doesn’t figure in the end result, it’s another way to discover and develop an idea.
The Stephen Fry image is a good place to start (see post 7). Originally, my intention was to photograph a re-enactment with a bear head. I’m still going to do this. But it might be more interesting to re-enact this image with a blind drawing, and feel what’s in front on me.
The black crow cuts a beautiful figure, this here is a half drawing. The best thing about it is that it’s not finished.
