UCS

Some sketches of some plans for my degree show set up.

These are some plans I drew out for my degree show space. I should have really done them in pen as they are a bit difficult to see but hopefully you get the idea.

I felt the best way to do this was literally to experiment with the arrangement of my various pieces. The included pieces I will be showing are:

My projection (either on the wall on dress, still to be decided)

My mannequin with the fully covered make-up wipes

My mannequin with the dress used in my film piece

The cabinet containing the uniformed rows of my contact lens cases

My hairy chair

My boards of daily collections

the shelf containing the 3 folders of collections

I chose these pieces as I feel they are the ones which represent me as a person through this auto-biographical collecting. I intend the space to portray myself through my collections, such as my hair and make-up wipes. The majority of my pieces are quite abject in a subtle way, so it may take the viewer a few minutes to register what my work is in fact made out of, which I really think could work well. The projection I hope portrays to the viewer how uncomfortable I am at the thought of them seeing me removing my mask. The contact lenses represent the repetitiveness of daily routine in a set order through what I follow. everything else represents daily routine, receptiveness, the abject and of course myself.

I drew out a birds eye view and experimented with the placement of each piece. I didn’t want to over crowd one area and leave another sparse, nor did I want to just shove everything together, not taking into consideration how the viewer moves around in my space. I thought it best not to place anything in the middle of the room in case something disgusts the viewer and have them jump back and knock into things.

From a few various arrangements I came to the conclusion that for my daily boards to be most effective they really needed to be on a wall by themselves to give the strongest effect. I am most in favour of plan 4 at the moment as I feel the arrangement works well with each wall. I am not sure if the chair and folder are too overcrowded in the corner though. But until I try this out with the actual pieces I will not know for sure. So that will be my next step.

I have now moved into my degree show space. The holes in the wall have been filled and the walls have been painted. I am exciting to start hanging and arranging!

Once the chair was in my new space I began the exciting task of sewing my hair into it. Not sure why I was so excited to do this as it’s quite weird but I really wanted it to work.

Because the chair was now white, I had to be careful how I would sew my hair through it. I didn’t want it to be too obvious. the most effective way would be to do it strand by strand I felt. So this is what I began to do. Surprisingly it was a lot less frustrating this time. I feel this is due to me really wanting this to work and the fact I wasn’t trying to make the strands strong or create intricate patterns. I was sewing the hair through one by one loosely. I didn’t tie the hair or pull it tight, it literally just looks like it has been deposited on there which I really like the look of.

Several people already have said to me it looks disgusting and they don’t always notice it straight away, which I’m glad about, as this was the effect I was going for. I didn’t want to make the hair too obvious, but obvious enough. I feel the balance I have at the moment works well, enough hair but not too much. The hair is not noticeable from a far, but once close it all becomes clear…

My plan for my degree show has always been to explore collecting. When I first began this year I was intending to focus on the display of collections and the difference between a collection a hoard, an obsession and a group. Whilst doing my dissertation it opened up this subject a lot wider for me allowing me to delve deeper into the subject. And while the dissertation did answer a lot of my queries, mainly the one being I was never going to really find the true meaning of a collection; until this day now, there is still a vast range of contrasting opinions on the actual definition. It was from this I wondered how I was going to explore this with my work. Even if I pushed the display of collecting within these areas would I gain anything about my art or learn anything from it? What was I really trying to say in my work?

I hit a stumbling block for quite a while once at this point. I was still collecting but I didn’t know why, nothing really connected anymore, I didn’t know what I wanted to show or say. I was arranging my collections vaguely but nowhere near as explored and varied as I know I could. I just lost motivation with it. I loved Damien Hirt’s way of displaying his objects. I wanted to be creative like this with mine, I just couldn’t. I was becoming so intrigued with finding all these key theorists ideas on collecting and comparing to artist’s that I wasn’t really making work that said anything really like they did.

I knew I wanted to look at Tracey Emin in my dissertation, as ever since visiting her exhibition at The Hayward Gallery, London, two years ago. I had been captivated by her grotesque collecting; representing herself through these personal collections. It was once carrying out a lot of research about her I decided to have a chapter in the theme of ‘Biography of Collections’. It was through this and researching artist’s who work in this area where new ideas started to spring from. I needed to make my collections this personal, even perhaps abject to really explore this area I was so interested in. They had to contain more of me, literally.

It did take me a while to realise this, but I feel my work came out stronger because of it. Although I did first feel my dissertation hindered my studio work; whatever I was doing I always felt like I should be doing the other. It did in fact bring out this realisation that to portray myself in the degree show, I needed to make my collections so much more personal. It was from the make-up wipes where my work then took off. Collecting items more and more abject and personal to myself.

Once developing my collecting through this personal but abject sense my ideas became a lot more focused on what I wanted to display in the degree show. Since my work changed direction I have wanted to make a space which represents me. However it soon developed through my work, to me then wanting to create a self portrait of me. Not the traditional way though. I wanted it to be through my waste material; through items which have had that personal contact with me; or hold traces of my remains. It had to be the traces of me through this auto-biographical collecting.

My work has become a lot about auto-biography. I wanted my degree show space to portray me, but to also show the repetitiveness of my daily routine; and this sense of similar items, pattern, repetition. It in a way is boring, but that is what most daily routines are in fact, boring. Putting make-up on isn’t exactly joyful or exciting, it is a very tedious and long process, but it is part my my routine; it portrays me. It does represent me and my fear of not having it on means I will succumb to this repetitiveness.

I have split my one hundred wipes into two folders of fifty now so they’re more balanced. I am leaning more towards the idea of having these 3 folders on my perspex shelf rather than my contact lenses and my eyelashes. I don’t want to make my piece appear boring with the same items just in different ways. I just need to be selective. Not sure where this shelf will go or what near, but this is something I hope to figure out in the week when in my space and draw some plans. I am looking forward to getting in there and getting started! I have realised I have quite a lot of junk in my space that needs sorting out when we all start moving…