I currently have my latest creation in The Freudian Sheep gallery in Ipswich that is owned and run by a fellow course member. [1] The gallery is a collection of work from an artist collective called ‘DIG’ that I am a member of, consisting of local and emerging artists in the Suffolk area.
The work that I have exhibiting in the gallery consists of two large planks of wood and a total of fifty meters of rope. This piece is slightly different from my last pieces as the wood used in it remains in its original form. Found and reused wood that I have left in its original condition. In my previous pieces I have always created the wooden objects, carving simplistic shapes out of pieces of wood and manipulating the wood as I manipulate the rope. The long wooden planks have a series of wholes down the centre and I have used them to thread the rope through, and I believed that the wood was interesting enough without me having to do anything to them.
Although leaving the wood as I found it removes any process of creating, and removes my ability to interact with the material I felt that in this case that if I had interacted with the material, and changed its appearance it would have detracted from the visual aesthetic of the object. Also because of their visual appeal to me I strongly believe that their visual appearance is sufficient enough in its visual interaction. After all, visual communication for me is equally as important as physical communication.
The balance between leaving the wood in its natural form, and repetitive and continues manipulation of the rope are equal, they balance each other out very well. It appears as if the wood had been stationary and motionless and the rope had formed around it. This equilibrium between material, visual and physical interaction create a visual depth to the work, giving much more of a link between the parts and attention to the joining of parts.
[1] The Freudian Sheep gallery: https://www.facebook.com/freudiansheep
