This is not directly relevant to my work but it is (well i think it is) a powerful quote from Bruce Lee in one of his movies. I feel the words speak truths throughout everything you can do including making art.
bruce lee water
In my project i am trying to take something beautiful and delicate (handmade craft), and remove it from it’s familiar craft home. In doing this i will put the work into a a thought provoking and questionable environment. Just like a lab that tests on animals, removes the beagles identity; my work is removing the traditional, soft craft identity from the materials. In doing that it becomes something else, something no longer functional. This i will explore further and in order to do this i will reflect upon my dissertation. For example i will relate my work to that of Grayson Perry and Rosemarie Trockel in order to explore the idea of taking something, once a functional craft item, and making it fine art through means of a context that relates to me or something i feel strongly about.
With regards to relating my work to something or someone. I have spoken about relating my work to the audience, making them want to discuss it, like it , hate it and give opinions on it. I have forgotten that i am the first and most important critic of my work. How can other people really understand the roots of why i do what i do when to be honest i am not completely sure of my own understanding yet? In furture posts i hope to dicuss my work more critically, well after a bit more critical research first.
Furthermore i wish to discuss a couple of things that are important to me within this project, as well as many others and important to my everyday life. Colour and texture are very important to me. I love how a colour and the accessories we choose can represent an emotion, your personality and to me it also represent life and wonder (curiosity and learnign also). Texture plays a big part in my life, and i am sure it does in every other living beings life too. New life uses colour and texture to determine what they do or do not like. I t allows for wonder and new experineces to arise and develope. I find it very familiar and comforting no matter the texture of colour, it all has an effect on the senses and thoughts. I like all textures whether soft, hard, solid, tactile, bumpy, rough, smooth, fluffy etc. The list could go on.
I very much appreciate the fact that i can use my hands to touch and feel the materials that i use. The materials become part of my life, my individual culture. Moreover i could not imagine not using colour or texture within my work as i feel that our sight and touch is so incredible. I love how it can influence our thoughts and feelings surrounding the world, nature, human beings, words, life! I enjoy looking at colour and feeling different textures as the vibrancy of these things interests me. I feel as a young human being that colour and texture within life (also within my craft based work) is a means to a life full of experiences, hope and dreams.
To kind of sum up i am attracted to colour and texture in all forms and tones based around both art and craft. Thus the reason for it being a big part of my work through the degree.
In this post i want to show some images of my work that has and is developing as my research is deepened. I have found many things about animal testing that i did not know before and this has already had an impact on my work. For example some beagles are forced to have pills put down their throats so they injest it quickly. This causes them to dribble more than normal, then foam at the mouth and some beagles just collaspe as their body is too weak to cope. Some are given out of date sedatives and then have their teeth pulled out. The drug is out of date so severly that the dog feels the pain. Also sme beagles have their brains tested on so they end up with massive scares down their whole skull and well as terrible skin conditions through having repetitive tests done of their skin. Apart from all this i have also found that they are put into a harness and have tubespushed into their throat directly into their stomach. This allows for chemicals to be put staright into their stomach, the test stopswhen the dogs are dead. The ones that survive the test are usually disposed of anyway. Sorry this is a bit intense but people need to know the brutality and i need to keep reminding myself of why i am proud to have a beagle. Also i could not think of anything more powerful to connect my work together.
Over the last couple of weeks my work has developed and allowed me to see how it is fine art. I think of my practice as a tree; the roots of my work is craft skills and materials. The Trunk of my art tree is the growth of realisation of the differences between craft and fine art and the branches and my many created pieces, ideas and concepts. I feel my work is moving away from the single term ‘craft’ because of the imperfect nature of each piece i have made so far. My work although skill based, is not my idea of a perfect craft as it is not linear, neat or functional. My practise so far is definetly reflecting from my dissertation. I have noticed this due to how i questioned myself.
Can craft simply be fine art? I feel not always. I feel its more about the craft and the craft skills becoming more than tradition foretells but about becoming an integral part of visual and intellectial confict within fine art.
So it has been just a few days and i have done some online reading with regards to the testing that happens on beagles throughout the UK and abit throught the USA. I want to concentrate on the UK as it is home. I found however that while researching that this mutaney against beagles is alot closer to home that what i have previously anticpated.To be quite accurate i found an ariticle through my online university catalogued library that stated about a massive fine that had been given upon a firm that where trying to ship beagle puppies from Harwich. (they bred the puppies specifically for testing purposes abroad). There was 100 of them and unfortunately due the carelessness of these vile human beings, 79 of these innocent beagles died!!!!!
I didn’t anticipate how deep this could go and i thought i could handle the information i find but it turns out that it is quite upsetting and makes me feel some anger inside. How could we be so cruel to mans best friend who has stuck with us for centuries. How can we be so cruel to animals in general. We need them in some many ways emotionally and for companionship………….
I think i have lost my train of thought there. I am most passionate about this subject and it has given me ideas of how to perform and record for a or many videos to show my representaion and passion for how this is wrong to hurt and betray the trust of such a loving hound.
On a different note i have created a few different pieces of textile based works that are purely experimental so i can see what i can do with the materials i have at hand. I am planning however to do some more focused pieces such as a beagle sculpture that will be not of the norm. I will load pictures soon of some pieces completed and in progress.
I am a third year Fine Art student with a keen interest within the fields of craft making. The homemade and handmade are my ideal art. So lets see how this half a year of making will go.
