week two begins and i’m a little at a loss. i took the weekend off and got out and did some lovely things.
i seem to have spent all day talking. talking about the hockney imagine programme, the chap with his video camera strapped to his head, someone else about plans for the autumn, arts derbyshire as a site to promote oneself and the benefits of a community website, if that website is updated by members of the community and not just the agency set up to promote the person who set it up.
i did get a little making today. i took the image from friday and worked it a little more. i’d shown it to several people and i think the most interesting response was to do with how with part of the full image missing, it left a much more ambiguous picture. ambiguity is good, i’m a big fan of ambiguity. i’d say hockney with his yorkshire painting was into interpretation. there was an interesting section of the film where the narrator pointed out what he was looking at and then what hockney was looking at. i really liked his landscapes that were colourful, used perspective and had recognisable fields in them. his comments about memory were good too, even though now i’ve mentioned them i can’t be more specific what he’d said.
hockney also had a commentary about photographs. i find myself with this new device having fun taking pictures again. i was out at the weekend and came across beetle and chip. having the ability to create a recognisable cast of the scene, very quickly, and take it away is special. hockney’s point seemed to be that he found scenes where perhaps others would not. his skill made them special through the realisation of his cast of the scene.
i think i’m getting the sense of a source either being historical or of the moment. hockney definitely was the latter. art education promotes the first. if the artist becomes the bastion of history, presenting aesthetically pleasing renditions of past events, are we going to be presented with items from which we can learn and grow? if the artist becomes the bastion of the moment, presenting aesthetically pleasing casts of moments in the future, are we looking at the world through rose coloured spectacles, not admitting where we have become to?
around me on the residency are items that have a history. if i use any of them, what is my position about their historical context? can i find it out and use some of it, or do i simply use the item in the moment? in the moment suggests a sort of pleasure seeking thing, i would hope for something a little more meaningful.
clearly something for me to consider. clearly i need to do more, stop talking. as hockney quoted someone ‘…never believe what an artist tells you, just believe what they do.’
