UCS

I began to think of other ways I could create collections – still being personal to me, which perhaps would not involve objects directly like my work seems to be doing, but something that would portray me somehow.

My first initial idea was to take a photograph of something relating to me on each day, such as my breakfast every morning or my view at every hour. I thought about the idea of using photography initially, but then thought why don’t I draw instead as I enjoy drawing and it would give my own personal touch this way of how I record those images with mark makings. I decided I would do a drawing of my view point of every hour of the day I was awake (except weekends due to work commitments).

Therefore I began with these small A5 drawings at every hour of the day I was awake no matter where I was I would take a sketch of what I saw. Depending on the time limit I had, of what I was doing at the time of drawing, would therefore reflect the mark makings made and the expressive marks shown.

I had been doing this for about a week when I had a tutorial with Sam. We talked about my series of drawings I was creating. We spoke about how my drawings changed from the first day I did started, up until the most recent. We found they were beginning to lose the energy they had when I first started. The mark makings became less and less, the objects were beginning to become just shapes, and the view points weren’t as interesting as I had previously captured. Why I hadn’t I noticed this before? I feel it is due to me becoming so involved in a piece of work and carrying it out to the fullest that I do in fact forget to stop and take time just to look and reflect at what is going on with my work.

As much as I like the idea of having this collection of drawings that show my view point of every hour of every day, the reality is, it soon becomes tedious. I knew it had as I wasn’t enjoying the drawing as much as I was. I should have took this as an indication. I mentioned about how I now want my work to mirror me as much as possible and how I want to portray myself through my work. Did I actually need this strict routine that I had set myself like previously when collecting those shoes?

Although I was drawing my view at every hour, none of my drawings show people – obviously I would see people throughout my days. I just avoided drawing them as I do not enjoy drawing them. Therefore this meant that my view at every hour theory was not actually as accurate as it should have been, indicating that my work relates more to the everyday. Perhaps just more tailored to what suits me at times, like for example, the excluding of people.

The everyday and ready-mades are more what my work is about through my collections, rather than this strict routine I had put upon myself. With taking away this strict routine it will hopefully allow me to go back to enjoy the mark makings I am creating and explore the ready-made and everyday more. I plan to do this from the still lives I see on a day to day basis, without it needing to be such a chore. Scale would therefore be something I could explore with my expressive mark makings, still exploring my view but not as controlled and exploring the medium as well.

I now have realised my collections need to have a personal meaning to me for me to really understand them, such as the train tickets and receipts, so I have began collecting frog ornaments…

Ever since I was a child I have always collected frog items, whether it be toys or ornaments. As I felt my collections involving objects I had collected through rules weren’t really working for me, I hoped this closer collection would bring in a more personal link and help me explore display more.

I hoped my work would really begin to take shape and interest me. However I had these frog items which I played around with arranging them and putting them in different places, however something still wasn’t clicking like it should be. I felt I had hit a wall. I knew I wanted my collections to explore display and knew I now wanted them to be personal to me. I just wasn’t getting anywhere. what am I really trying to say within my work?

I began thinking about what artist’s interest me, and I was thinking about Damien Hirst’s work and how no-one appears to understand why he has arranged objects like he has or even used those objects. It is only once you begin to learn about his work and the deeper meaning behind the work that they really begin to make sense. Even without knowing what his collections of objects are meant to show, just by looking at his work you begin to get your own judgements about what you see and think. I also like the shock and abjection factor a lot of work has such as Hirst’s, Roth’s, Emin’s and Franco B’s. This is when I realised my collections had to be personal to me but also maybe involve me in them more. So I needed to be creating work such as ones involving make-up wipes which contains remains of me on them. It has to be a self portrait of me. It has to portray myself through my collecting perhaps investigating abjection through it as well as the display. This is what I will now explore.

A friend gave me a large collection of bottle tops she had collected herself from working in a pub. I separated them to begin with as this was what I instinctively thought to do, to distinguish colours and shapes. Using the Newcastle Brown tops, I made a star representing the star on the top of the bottle top. This was my original thought of what to do with the bottle tops and it did give quite an eye pleasing image on my studio wall.

However I began to lose interest with these bottle tops and did not really know what I wanted to do with them, or what I was trying to show with them. I believe it was down to them not having a personal link to me, similar to what the spoon and now I think about it, the shoes lacked too. These collections just appear to be sitting in my space not really doing a lot…

Whilst in one of the charity shops I set my eyes upon baskets full of decorated teaspoons from various towns and countries. There was something quite unique about them which intrigued me so I decided I would buy several. This then gave me my own collection of spoons. I am now beginning to feel like a true collector, seeing as the day after I purchased my first lot of spoons, I went back the next day to increase my collection! I had a sudden urge that I needed them all!

At first I was excited to start using them in my work and was thinking about various ways to use them. However, as much as I liked the idea of them I didn’t feel like I connected with them in through my work. They were literally just spoons I had bought and called a collection. They had no personal meaning to me. Which is when I realised I was interested in the collection having a meaning to me. I think it needs to have a connection with me, for me to really work with them the best I can.

OCD is an element within collecting which I have been interested in through researching in my dissertation and keen to explore further. Often with avid collectors they are very specific with how their belongings are ordered and displayed. These end up being religious traits they follow everyday of their lives. For example a family friend Hazel who focused in my work last year. She would have her collections all specifically organised by animal and object. For example all of the pandas together, all of the clocks together and so on. she did this to distinguish between them all. i believe this is due to a natural reaction to order and the more she collected, the harder it got for her to separate them. She gained emotional attachment to them due to living in the house with them 24/7.

I wanted to look at this OCD element within my work to see how I could explore it. Therefore I took a trip into town and in every charity shop I entered I would buy a pair of silver shoes. I then ended up with a collection of silver shoes which had been bought through this rule. Does this therefore make it a collection? As i obeyed the rule I set and this was my intended outcome? Or is this too small to be classed as a collection and there needs to be more meaning behind the collection rather than just an accumulation of silver shoes?

I decided to hang these from my space as it is not the normal way to display shoes in your house or in shops. Display is an element which really fascinates me within collecting. Will the viewer take more notice as the shoes are suspended somewhere abnormal for them to be rather than on the floor like you would perhaps expect?