In the interests of professionalism I have been doing some research into Superheroes; (and no, I don’t mean that i’ve just had a good excuse to read the Beano) and have found (not having been a comicbook afficianado) that there is an ENORMOUS amount of theory on said subject.
Who knew Superheroes were so intellectual?!
So I did feel somewhat smug when last week on the train home from the seeing the Turner Prize exhibition my copy of ‘Superheroes and Philosophy (Truth, Justice and the Socratic Way)’ edited by Tom & Matt Morris attracted quite a lot of attention. I am also reading: ‘Supergods: Our World in the Age of the Superhero’ by Grant Morrison
all fascinating stuff and having never even seen Superman, it is all news to me.
This is causing me to wonder if I am doing the right thing? By finding out about this stuff, am I likely to kill my mojo by knowing too much? It’s not exactly as if my Superhero series is actually based on or influenced by these actual characters but still……
By knowing too much do you kill the innocent exploration that creates original and personal ideas?
I have always sort of believed this. Long ago I worked in the TV industry and once went for an interview to get a coveted ‘Director’ traineeship. All was going well with my interview panel who were all nodding and making appropriately interested noises until the fateful question….. ‘so, what do you watch?’
Nothing – I watched nothing on TV.
But surely, this would mean that I would have ORIGINAL ideas (which I did, as I was doing a directorial job unofficially at the time) – sadly they did not see it this way. I did, however enjoy the sounds of their jaws all hitting the table in astonishment at my unashamed admission.
SO, chapter 2 or not chapter 2, that is the question…..
Writing blogs is fast becoming my ‘displacement activity’. I can see my letter to the taxman now -‘sorry, couldn’t file my tax return, too busy blogging about socks and noisy fruit….’
So, I wasn’t quite sure under which ‘blog hat’ to post this….Next week I will be doing a Multiple Participant Project (MPP) that follows on from Strained Fruit
www.a-n.co.uk/p/2092137
This will be ‘for one day only’ (get it whilst it’s hot) at MK Gallery Milton Keynes and is a drop-in participatory workshop where we will be making some ‘Falling Fruit’ fruitflowers.
Excitingly, I have some new noises and some more excitiing bits and pieces to create extra-charismatic Fruitflowers – so if you are near Milton Keynes next Friday 2nd November – please come along!
http://www.mkgallery.org/events/2012_11_02/half_te…
Last week I ‘attended’ a PechaKucha night in Wakefield where the subject of the evening was ‘Drawing Lines’ and included many interesting presentations including several which concerned drawing.
One of the speakers Gill Newton (see here at:
www.a-n.co.uk/p/1266395
included a particular reference in her talk that I had seen before but at this particular time seemed highly significant as it is similar in several ways to the Superhero Gadget (Trap 1 – birdcage) that i am currently constructing. It was this Eva Rothschild’s work.
All the next day, after the talk, whilst continuing with this piece I contemplated the combination of both extreme similarities and at the same time, differences and wondered if these things would be a great influence on the perception of the final work.
If her work had also been made from fluroescent pink nylon netting and girlie bows would it have the same ‘weightiness’ and if not – why not.
Is there an artistic hierarchy in materials?
My work has a conceptual starting point, does this add or subtract?
Is there more value in studying the purity of line than the history within old clothes?
And when I find these answers – what should I do with them?
Having had a big wardrobe sort out for winter I am now again in the happy position of being able to add to my ongoing work SPECTRUM. This piece is totally reliant upon an influx of clothing driven by growing or careless children. I can be the only mother on the planet to be delighted at the sight of ripped trouser knees.
This brings me to think about how my work is actually created. SPECTRUM is exactly as it says it is: a range of colours and I have some BIG gaps in the ‘red leg’ area. Red was allocated a largish space to fill as when I started on this work my children’s school wore a red uniform and so I had a plentiful supply of red labels, I am also in the habit of wearing red and green clothing together, purely out of badness, and so this colour was in abundance. Now that my children are at a blue uniformed school and with SPECTRUM not complete, I find that I am seriously lacking in red.
The upshot of this is that I need to PLAN. This means that I am now choosing clothing for my family, not based on fashion, or personal preference, but that will create (on it’s demise) a suitably coloured fabric label. I find myself enthusing to my boys, over rather unsuitable items of clothing, with a crafty eye on the bigger picture; ‘why of course smallest son, purple IS your favouite colour’!
Such forward thinking is becoming rather headache inducing, and seems a lot of effort to go to to get a singular label which will be one of a few thousand. In desperation for new materials I am nearly (but not quite) at the point where I have to sabotage my own stuff. Yet it is important to me that they are ‘authentic’ – no charity shop scavenging allowed, all labels must be from clothing worn or donated to my family to be eligable for inclusion.
Why oh why do I add these strict ‘rules’? Would anybody else know if I cheated? (if you are interested in challenging me I can tell you the provenance of every single one of those 1008 sewn on labels).
Sad to say that Life imitating Art, is now becoming Art dictating Life.
Red pants all round……
