My project last year involved using string and rope, and rope was the predominant material for a piece of work that I exhibited in the SNIP exhibition at Snape maltings alongside the SNAP art show at the Aldeburgh festival. That was the first time that rope played a large part in my work, and I found it to be a wonderful material to work with.
Rope is a very pliable material to use, especially in contrast to the other materials involved like wood and concrete, and is something that I would like to incorporate into my work now.
Robert Morris and his ‘anti-form’ work uses a lot of rope, and he also uses rope in combination with other materials to create interesting pieces such as his 1963 Untitled (Knots) piece. Morris’s anti-form is a notion towards process art and a focus on producing work, similar to my own intentions. Morris also strayed away from form in his work, often using geometric or symmetrical shapes (like a lot of minimalist artists) in order to remove any notion of form. Especially in his rope pieces, in my opinion, this gives focus directly to the materials used.
I definitely think that my own work in part relates to Morris’s work. At least visually the material combinations and the organising of the parts in such a way feel as though Morris and I enjoy the same aspects of making the work. His notion of anti-form is also something that I have always agreed with. Never have I made a piece of work based around the figure, and I guess that on some level I have always known this to be my preference but it is only in the last three years that I have begun to focus on deliberately avoiding it. Like Morris, I intend to make work based on material, building a piece of work that has a focus on its parts.
Looking closer at the idea that an object/sculpture needs only to be interesting, and that it can hold enough visual interest to sustain itself as a piece of art work, I have been drawing up several ideas of how to present this visually. I have been trying to find an interesting form or shape to combine materials in a simple and minimal way, while still trying to create something visually satisfying. One thing that I want to avoid is using any form that is relatable to us or anything that could detract from the raw material and its qualities.
One of the main reasons that I enjoy a reductive and minimalistic style is that it reduces the work down to all it needs to be. This removal of anything unnecessary, removal of the figure and/or relatable parts helps me and subsequently the viewer to focus on a small, specific and defined area, that area being in this case the combination of materials.
Here are a couple of the drawings that I have done. These drawings are simply and exploration of material combination and their combination into a shape, and an attempt to construct a visual object.
Carl Andre’s use of material, specifically materials that are almost raw, in that they have been manipulated by man into manageable shapes, is something that I intend to focus on within my own use of material. I love using materials halfway between resource and material, an object that has just enough refinement and human interaction to warrant it a material, while still being as close to a ‘raw’ material as possible.
Andre’s arrangement of materials or the shaping of a material in this way is something that I find really interesting. An example of this material manipulation can be seen in his ‘Last Ladder’, carving out organic shapes from a length of salvaged wood. The carved out sections were intended to show the raw qualities of the wood, and the carving also fulfils my personal desire to combine raw material with human interaction.
For my degree project I am going to continue to use the materials that I used for my project last year, wood and rope primarily and perhaps concrete and metal. I intend to simplify my practice to simply exploring material, and also find a suitable format to present my work that is simply interesting enough to engage with.
Finding a format to present these materials, and finding a suitable sculpture or shape will be the beginning of my work. I will be exploring different shapes, patterns and material combinations trying to find something engaging, something that is interesting to look at and perhaps even to touch. An artist that deals with this well is Carl Andre.
Carl Andre’s arrangement of object into interesting patterns provides visual engagement and pleasure for the viewer and this is exactly what I hope to do…
Andre’s work uses similar materials to my own work, arranging raw materials into sculptural patterns. A lot of his work is intended to be engaged with, like walking over a floor of copper squares for example. For me this is a good way to get the viewer to interact with a material, and to explore a material as the artist did when making the work. This is what my practice is about. At the moment I do not know if I want to create something specifically with the intention of viewer interaction.
Over the past two years at University I have been trying to understand my own work, and why it is I make the artworks that I do. I’m beginning to understand in reflection that I enjoy exploring process and material. The act of making something out of wood, stone or rope (my preferred materials) for me is equally as important as the final piece.
Last year my work involved process and material, and the work I made at that time was the beginning of my realisation that I make these things because I like making them. Although this may suggest that my work has no real goal, I don’t believe it necessary to have a purpose other than simple exploration and appreciation of material.
Donald Judd, a key Artist in the development of my own work, stated in his writings that ‘A work needs only to be interesting’… Although his statement is rather broad and perhaps a little vague, I do agree with him. Exploring a material in depth and to a lengthy extent provides enough satisfaction for me personally to view my own work as art. A process of making and consideration of material can be more important than any deep meaning.
