Brief Reflection of Blog so far.
After looking through my entire blog i felt i could understand what i have done and what i am doing more now than when i started my project. I had noticed while reading that i ahd left many open ended questions in my blog in several posts. I now feel that i can answer some of these questions to an extent.
Do i need my work to feel uncomfortable for it to be seen as art and not craft?
No, i dont think so, because in my eyes it is both. I am using craft and aesthetic beauty to represent something precious that is abused. For my work i am not entirely sure the context changes things too much. The craft object is still just that in my eyes. However i do see it as Fine Art aswell. (That may be a contradiction.) My work does not need to make myself or my audience feel a sense of unease; it just needs to situated in a white cuube envirinment to be seen as art and not craft for my degree.
Does my work have a border territory?
Yes of course it does. I am putting craft and art together in a confrontational environment of questionability and different values in stead of a country market stall.
Can you represent something serious using craft?
I would say you can. I am least trying to do so in my work. Marianne Jorgensen did this with her Tank piece; covering a threatening object of war with a homely knitted blanket. On another note Rosemarie Trockel’s Balaclavas are symbols of war, sex and terror to name but a few. These contexts however, do not hide the fact that a balaclava is and has been a traditional item of clothing knitted by mothers and grandmothers to keep their loved ones warm.
I guess Fine Art works that involve a craft in the making of it can not completely escape the fact that its roots are craft. Serious things can be potrayed by craft materials but i feel the craft can soften and disarm the object or the context behind the artwork. This therefore makes the artwork less threatening and invasive. Now i am wondering whether my craft materials will make my work too soft and fluffy or whether people will see it for the context it holds. I hope that i can still portray what i need to without my work just being seen as a lot of crochet granny squares that should be used for a blanket. I guess it will just depend on my audience and their class, tatse, values and social upbringing. I see my art for the context; craft is just my chosen method of making the art.
Lightbulb Moment While Talking to a Friend.
After a brief peer discussion about my work in progress i have came to a developed idea about my degree project. The developement is with reagards to my crochet cube cages. I have said in a previous post about having a number beneath each cube instead of colour, age and sex of the beagles to represent their lose of identity. However now, i feel this is not strong enough to represent the solitude and cruel life in a testing facility. I intend now to put numbers within each cube to represent more physically the beagles of which whom are trapped in each individual cage. The colours will still represent the beagles identity that is removed and left outside the testing facility. Their identity that is stripped from them by humans. This i feel, very strongly, will represent the wrong and the hurt involved in the testing of innocent and helpless beagles in facilities across the world.
LESS IS MORE FOR THIS PROJECT I THINK. It should speak for itself i hope.
Marianne Jorgensen and the Cast Off Knitters.
This is a project i wanted to discuss briefly called Pink Tank. It is a World War II-era combat tank that was covered in thousands of knitted squares. This piece was a clooaboration between Jorgensen and the Cast Off Knitters group and many other knitters from around the world. This piece was a petition or demoncratic work.
I find this very interesting. Firstly the vast pink patches caught my eye and i wanted to read more. Secondly the strong message about war that it is trying to protray interests me. Lastly the fact that a craft has been used in such a political statement to capture the hearts and minds of others i found powerful and i want to use this same idea to an exent in my work.
‘The deployment of such a large blanket on such a threatening object in a public space may seem like a disarmingly absurd gesture, but the dramtic use of crafted object to call attention to what is underneath creates a rupture in the ways in which the public interacts with the tank as a public war monument. The blanket gives the tank a physical presence, rather than a purely symbolic one. While addressing the pink tank cover, Jorgensen relies on the contrast between the symbols of tank ans blanket: ”For me, the tank is a symbol of stepping over other people’s borders. When it is covered in pink, it becomes completely unarmed and it loses its authority.” It links rememberance of war with our collective ability to reinterpret and affect it through public action, dissent, and dialogue.’
(Black, A, Burisch, N. (2011). Craft Hard Die Free. In: Buszek, ME Extra/Ordinary Craft and Contemporary Art. Durham and London: Duke University Press. p207-209.)
My project i feel has developed naturely into the idea of identity and authority, just like how Pink Tank becomes a harmless and armless piece through craft materials. My ideas relate to how the tank becomes completely unarmed and loses its authority through me giving up my authority and power to portray animal testing in a different light. I want to give George my beagle the authority over me through my craft and a video. Moreover i want to feel the pain and fear of losing ones authority so that i can understand more deeply how it would feel to be a situation unarmed.
Michael Landy Lecture
Yesterday the 1st of April the university had a visiting artist called Micheal Landy who is known for such works as, Breakdown, Scraphead Services and Closing Down Sale. Now he is not an artist that particularly links with my work or ideas as far as i am aware but i found him interesting. Some things he said made sense to me and so i feel that in a way i can use what he said to chalenge my practise just a little more. Before further a do, i will just post some points here of some things that sparked my attention in the talk.
1. Be aware of the space you are in.
as a viewer and as an artist? I maybe need to pay more attention to my surroundings
2. Take apart and put back together the materials
How will this change my work if i did it? chunky knitted piece could be interesting being unravled.
3. Value- What things are invisible? What things are precious? Possession, ownership.
Linking back to Grayson Perry, the idea of craft being precious. Maybe art has a loss of human potential. Does my work do so or does the craft keep that potential?
4. Gallery spaces can be useful but can also be restraining.
I have felt like my studio space is suffocating my mind abit and so i am definetly trying out the white installation space for video work. Hopefully the slight change in environment will create beautiful things.
5. A weed is a plant out of place, deemed to have a lesser value and is seen as a nuisance. Weeds have their attributes. Acts of kindness are among us but not concentrated on. Like a weed that is overlooked and forgotten.
I feel i can link this to all kinds of testing on animals and also cruel acts set upon humans. It can be overlooked and forgotten becuase of the consumerist world we live in. However one act of kindness, of humanity can make a big difference to societies and the world.
In respect of contextualisation i have many influences which some i have already posted and now i have some more recent realisations. These were forgotten to an extent deep in my mind. Such creators as Marina Abramovic, Yoko Ono and Lada Gaga. All these women have in their work put themselves in a situation or moment if you like, of vulnerability. I want to reflect this idea of vulnerability on my next video through putting myself in a less dominant role. The main difference compared to the artists works is that i am doing only a video piece and not a performance. In doing this i am not directly putting myself in a environment where the audience can wholely participate. The making, recording stages of this piece will be behind closed doors and so the audience participation will only be at the forefront of my work when it is exhibited. There is a line i will not cross for my work as i do not want to be put in situation of complete vulnerability. Public performance art is off the cards for my degree project, no questions asked!
Lady Gaga video to show an influence of mine.
