“One is more aware than before that he himself is establishing relationships as he apprehends the object from various positions and under varying conditions of light and spatial context.” (Morris, cited in Situation Whitechapel, p25)
My first visit to spurn was dull and drizzly meaning I had to accept the environmental conditions in order to discover the art I could create. I needed to work with Spurn in order for it to work with me. The low light meant the synthetic plastics were easier to locate and colourful, yet toxic, sculptures were made as the clouds released the natural substance back into the sea. Looking back, it almost seems irrelevant to work with man-made objects when a more sublime cycle is happening as the water is being re-used and revitalising the space. On the other hand maybe my inserts of recycled objects and unnatural colours revitalised it visually, as harmful as it may be.
Space was so important as I tried to keep the sculptures close to their object place of origin on the beach. There needed to be a sense of, ‘how did this get here? it doesn’t belong here, where did it come from?’ I tried to use the plastic colours as alien objects within a foreign space, a bright green crate has no use being in that environment. The harsh difference between sublime seascapes and mass-produced objects played a huge part in this project. In a gallery, my sculptures would just be litter on a plinth. On the shore they become symbols of the consumerist, plastic dependent culture we are a part of and through use of colour and shape change the way we view what materials are worth keeping and what is worth ruining the ecosystems for.
Doherty, C. (2009) Situation, Documents of Contemporary Art, Whitechapel Gallery
Site Specific Spurn Art
This blog will document the live art I create at Spurn and my experience of the environment. Focusing on the 'psycho-geography' of the place I aim to explore all aspects of my surroundings, natural and synthetic.
(Invalid camera dates due to fault)
0
Comments
