A.M. Hanson / UCA Canterbury / Fine Art BA 2010-2013.
Artist. Photo-related practitioner. Student.
The degree study period and course work is now completed. We finished on Wednesday in a flurry of excited, determined activity, fine tuning displays and arranging supporting material and matter in cleared studio spaces.
After we had a fine knees-up. And, the sun was shining. Finale Bonus!.
A short break now whilst examinations of the work takes place, then preparing for showing.
The PV is at UCA Canterbury Campus, Friday 31st May 5 – 8pm, with viewings the next day and following week. All Welcome.
We Are Here: http://www.ucreative.ac.uk/canterbury/map
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Then returning to my base in London, preparing evolutions of the work, new photo and related formations, for a new period of plans. Information following forthcoming situations, please see via;
www.alexcalledsimonprojects.com
During the next months I’ll also be looking at the practical possibilities of continuing research and study at MA level, and the specifics of where and when and how. Something I’m especially keen and driven to progress with.
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Nearer UCA show time, I’ll post here installation views and a show statement.
First, in sequence and tandem with previous posts, some details I’d like to share about the project that has led to the show installation, and helped forge new methods, materials and formats to communicate my ideas and form and present work.
(previously here);
– a brief survey of key research works.
– An Emerge (Office) photo series.
– The Globes photo project & installation.
o/f/f/i/c/e. p/l/a/n/t/s.
(photo / video project, photo brochure)
I looked into office spaces more and more. Again and again, I saw plants, their patterns and shadows, projected through the barrier windows that partly fed and shelter shielded them. Glass frontages of corporation lobbies, foyers and open plan work spaces, revealed ‘the within’, projecting a montage motion of myriad changing city flux. The plants appeared repeatedly, often a variety of palm. I recognised these living archivals. Ready made objects in ready made installations. In awareness of past and present experience and research, knowledge of their media, art, ad, commercial, escapist, eco, humanistic message flow.
In 2012 and 2013 in London, in developments from the post war, and recently and in current conditions, these interior dwelling floras are a staple, potent motif of corporate / leisure / home-based spaces the world over. Radiant also in conceptual unfurl.
To see their repeated-ness, was like seeing embellished miniature winter gardens through each turning corner in the metropolis. Eventually they seemingly began to return a gaze. Performative palms.
Lit and unlit by daylight, cross lit by artificial night and interior back lights, reflected on by passing points of moving, morphing forms of light – evergreens in eternal city light.
An Office Plant in Winter
(monitor video)
Displayed on (a) desktop monitor(s) and returned to the effect of a workplace situation (a post contemporary framework).
In movement of reflected light, seen from the point of view of the passer by or specimen explorer. Sound comes into active image play. Wind disturbance, traffic ticks, notes are used as energerizers and pacing tools in the narrative of the composite. The camera’s auto-focusing system is played on, as it adjusts to light, form, movement and layering (things within things beyond things).
Making the video segments and photos felt like a trigger against many false springs. Here the escapist nature of the image of the plants, their faux-realness, totems to everyday exotica; a reaction against seasonal and situational (socio-political-economic) dark.
This is also a love story. A plant looking for another plant. An organic pulse arriving and exploring town, trying to find a new habitat, new contact, new range. The film is a fragmented commercial for it’s own wanton liberty and lightness (fixed lite-ness). A constant, alone yet connected spirit in the sharp and stream of the city’s cut off / on and outside / inside culture. It’s verve.
A.M. Hanson. An Office Plant in Winter. (5min 50sec, Summer 2013 variant)
