I made this video for the purpose of showing my creative process and the actions I perform when working with these materials. Richard Serra’s list of process words has highlighted the significance of my working process. In order for me to create work I become very involved in the material, and working with its physical properties I begin working in a very repetitive motion. This is a continuous use and is reflective of Serra’s list of actions. ‘To Twist, To Curl, To bend’ are a few actions that I incessantly go through the motion of doing, and this physical handling of the material (in particular to the rope) brings me closer to fulfilling my intention to experience a material.
This process is not apparent to the viewer and the act of experiencing a material is only visual. I do believe that visual interaction is as important as physical interaction, but in order to do this with the viewer I would have to create a largely interactive piece. I have had reservations about doing this as it invites the temptation to create work purely for interactive purposes, and I did not want to detract from the focus of the work. By keeping it simple and reductive I intended to give all focus to material, and an interactive piece gives a large amount of focus to interaction itself.
An example of this would be Robert Morris’s ‘Bodyspacemotionthings’ exhibited at the Tate modern in 2009 (a re-exhibition from 1971)[1], featuring a number of different pieces all intended to be climbed, pulled, balanced and pushed, inherently giving the viewer the ability to experience the processes of ‘to push, to pull, to lift’, giving focus to the actions. However I feel that the fun and excitement of being able to ‘play’ with the work detracts from the physicality of the work itself. In comment on his own work Newman stated;
‘It’s an opportunity for people to involve themselves with the work, become aware of their own bodies, gravity, effort, fatigue, their bodies under different conditions. I want to provide a situation where people can become more aware of themselves and their own experience rather than more aware of some version of my experience.’[2]
Importantly, Newman’s piece was intended to give focus to process and thus the piece works well in achieving this, but personally for my own work I want to give focus to material over process. Although the process of creating is important to me in understanding material, if I attempt to convey this to the viewer I risk making a piece purely about process rather than physical material.
Although the final visual piece appears simple in appearance, the actual process of making and setting up the piece is time consuming and also involves a lot of making and re-making, ravelling and un-ravelling. I believe that like a lot of minimalistic or reductive work such as the work of the Minimalists or the Ready-mades, there is often more to be seen in a piece of work that just a simplicity. Donald Judd stated;
‘It isn’t necessary for a work to have a lot of things to look at, to compare, to analyse one by one, to contemplate. The thing as awhile, its quality as a whole, is what is interesting. The main things are alone and are more intense, clear and powerful …. In the new work the shape, image, colour and surface are single and not partial and scattered.’ [3]
Donald Judd is stating here that a piece of work doesn’t require many parts, to over complicate and dilute a piece. Having too many parts detracts from what is already there, and to have less parts and less aspects to evaluate gives the viewer the ability to focus on singular aspects of the work. This gives the work a specific emphasis on its wholeness and physical materiality in the case of my own piece. Often the simplest visual piece has a considerable amount of time given to its creation, and I believe that the creation of something made of few parts requires much more focus and depth of inquiry into its parts.
[1] Robert Morris: Bodyspacemotionthings Tate Modern: Exhibition: 22 May – 14 June 2009 http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibi…
[2] This Is Tomorrow website: http://www.thisistomorrow.info/viewArticle.aspx?artId=56&Title=Robert%20Morris,%20Bodyspacemotionthings
[3] Donald Judd, Specific Objects, (1965) p.5
