This is how my documentation is looking at the moment. I have made this book using the website Blurb for my assesment couple of weeks ago. 82 pages of work from 2008 to 2012, with images of sculptures and drawings and videos of performances.
I’m really happy with the result, I feel I have done well with the layout, size of book, quality of paper, colours and covers. This is the book that the collector at the Birth Rites Collection will like to keep to exhibit in the collection.
I have had great feedback from tutors and friends as they all agree that the quality and the look of the book is impressive and very professional.
One of my tutor would like me to bring and show the book to the MA Fine Art students next week. I’m very excited about him wanting to show it as an example of documentation to a postgraduate course! It makes me feel proud of myself.
Again I feel like becoming part of the work, this is something that I have been doing a lot this year. The feeling of finding narrative and performing with me there. I feel like perhaps I should use the work and use it as props for performances? I think that could be quite funny. Some people has said that I am a bit of a comedian, maybe I should use that in my work too. ummmm food for thought.
Okay, so more playing around with the iron board legs and my beloved fucsia tights. Here, I experiment with only these two materials trying to work with composition, and testing the possibilities of the materials.
This looked pretty much (to me) like a sunbed? looking down. I think I’m giving this interpretation because I was pretty tired that morning. I perhaps wanted to represent the impossibility of relaxing and wanted to mock this in here. Relaxing upside down, vertically, hence me, kind of posing there. Also I think this experiment is a step further playing with the idea of opening, whether are legs or a mouth opening like the objects I did previously.
I like the way is suspended, the lines, and how the tights embrace the legs and they do pretty much all the work.
The tax man has taken pretty much all our money leaving me with not much money to spend on materials. This has been tough as I have always being able to buy anything I have needed for the last 4 years. Now I have to be really resourceful and make work with any found materials or the ones I already have and leave money for important bits.
Anyway enough of crying…
These photographs are a series of experiments with an iron board. I wanted to deconstruct it and get all the bit and pieces separately to see what other work I could from it. These photographs have also served me too for a series of drawings on graphite paper (I will post this soon) exploring line and perspective. Drawing from observation it is becoming important again in my practice. It gives me the chance to observe closely and to focus on the object’s details to another level, it also calms me down.
Iron boards are curious and quite conflictive objects to me. They represent domesticity, but what do I try to say with them? I’m not entirely sure about it and I think I would like to have some feedback from classmates to see what they think. Am I just playing here with material looking for new work possibilities or is it there an underlining purpose…?
The enquire continues…
Busy January with dissertation to hand in, interim assessment, arrival of Japanese student and exhibition at University of Salford in Manchester a few days ago.
Being shortlisted for the Birth Rites Collection Bi-annual competition was a real joy and the cause for many sleepless nights. The prize was a month residency in Switzerland this Summer, but unfortunately I wasn’t the lucky artist to win this. However I met a lot of female artists working in the same subjects like I and it was good to exchange contact details. You never know…
We were 15 artists selected from around 65 applicants. I submitted three drawings and one fabric sculpture as an installation exploring the psychological and physiological impact of childbirth in women. The Birth Rites Collection is a collection of contemporary art solely exploring childbirth on women.
It was a real sense of achievement to see my work display in the exhibition, specially these works, which at the time of making them I felt that the matter was undermined. I think motherhood still not seen as a valid subject matter in contemporary art and this collection acts as a way of bringing the subject to more people out there.
The collector has shown interest in my work and would like to keep my work for the collection. I’ve never been in a similar situation and feels like a good oportunity to get my work out there but not sure under what terms. Should I sale it? Should I make prints of my drawings and keep the originals? How much is my work worth? Should I make a book that compiles some of my drawings? I wish we had more seminars at uni dealing with the more comercial side of selling art as this would be (hopefully!) a big part of our practice too. If anyone has any ideas that might help me to decide I will be very grateful!
