Today I went into the black space in the studio and projected my video onto the wall to see how it looks in a dark closed environment. The experiment went really well however the only problem I did have was the connection between the laptop and the projector, which was really slow. I sat down on the chair and I made sure there were no distractions around me so I made sure I was in complete darkness. I had my headphones in and I was listening to the track that I wanted to be played with the video, which was the Einaudi Ambient piano piece called ‘Nuvole Bianche’. I felt almost exactly how I wanted to feel, but the only thing that did not make me comfortable in my surroundings was the chair, so I should really find a much more comfortable chair or maybe a bed?….just so all my focus is on the video and the music playing, also feeling welcomed and contented.
Looking back at my dissertation I talked about how Nauman’s room installations worked and were so effective to the subject going into the space. I looked back at the Raw Materials exhibition at the Tate Modern and the piece ‘Anthro/socio’ shows how I would like my work displayed into a dark environment but in my intimate space rather than being largely open. For the degree show, I know it’s open for the public, ideally for me one person in the room at a time would be what I would prefer but I know it won’t work that way just because I don’t want my work to be shut away from everyone else, so I may have to think about these things more. Also in terms of space I know I want a small-boxed room, but like I mentioned previously I don’t want to hiding away from everyone else. So at the moment I know what I want to paint but I need to think of my other options if I don’t get the space.
During the experiment I photograph stills of the video, I could not see any of the space around which was really effective. One thing that I was not sure about was how clear the paint looked on the wall. the video was played in HD but I think in terms of the scale of the projection it was too big. I did like the idea of the whole envionment and intimacy in the room but I am now considering whether to go with the video or let the painting and the sound speak for itself rather than a sequence of close-up stills combined all in a time framed video. Like John Cages 4’33” that was a time-based performance and I do think it’s a great way of letting the audience focus. If there was just the paintings and the sound present, the sound then becomes the time frame instead of having the video, it would then still become a time based performance.
Also in my previous posts I talked about my painting ‘Falling Into the Abyss’ at the Marylebone Parish Church in London and I talked about how I felt that I wished I painted it a lot bigger as the emotion is not that strong. I projected the painting onto the wall and on a bigger scale it does to me create more of an impact. Also I experimented this with the painting ‘Invidia’ (the green painting of my friend Laurel) and even though I was happy with the size of the painting as it was, projected on a bigger scale does look even more effective. So now I know in terms of scale I need work large, like Chuck Close’s portraits.
One final thing I have noticed the colour of the paint does not seem to matter that much now. The texture of the paint and the sound seem to be the dominant force at the moment. Colour is still really important to the pieces, but I am not going to make it obvious what the emotion is just painting blocked colour…the sound may then not be needed.
