I have a final assessment for this academic year on Wednesday and am sorting through all my work wondering what to include and what to leave out – there is too much to show it all as we only have 30 minutes and I want to include the ‘slide show’ (see my post on the Home to Home exhibition) which I consider to be the most important work this year (that could take up all the time so I will need to compile a shorter version). Then I need to move on from the (almost) obsession I have with these images – difficult!
As for other work the 2 images shown here are the ones I have selected to show, chosen from a larger body of photographs taken during the year – still not sure where this work is taking me though – I took them after discovering the work of Uta Barth!
It has been a fragmented year and I have felt largely disconnected due to personal circumstances. This has been reflected in the work I have developed through the overall theme of failure in my praxis project, and linking it to my main practice of working with chance, uncertainty and instability, both of materials and process, and also taking into account my own errors, self-evaluation and limitations. A part of this has included reviewing the unpredictable results of past work that I’ve considered ‘failures’. As time goes by they seem to feel more relevant and right, just not resolved. So I’ve followed the journey of these ‘failed’ images, using bits of mistakes to create new pieces of work. I have often been guilty of rushing on too fast to the next new, exciting idea, without really interrogating the last one. I seem to have spent a lot of time walking and thinking through ideas too!
I have experimented with other ways of presenting the material, some more successful than others. Printmaking has resulted in images, which exist in their own right but lose something of the quality in the slides. The film I attempted to make from scanned images of the collagraphs has been very disappointing and I have abandoned it for the time being. I have not felt as excited by these diversions and keep returning to the slides and projector. I still consider this as the most successful work produced this year!
The essay for the book is finished and has been approved by my tutor. So I am now concentrating on getting the artist book made. Thank goodness I made the book cover a few weeks ago before the University closed for the Easter vacation! It reopened on Tuesday and I’ve now had a couple of traumatic days of small failures! It’s strange how the things you expect to be difficult turn out to be easier than you anticipated and the things you haven’t considered turn out to be the challenges and often the ‘failures’! I have to say I was nervous at making such a large book (A3 ) as the saying goes – size matters!
The first stage – the glueing and pressing and waiting ! There’s lots of waiting while glue drys! I’m making 2 books – it’s always good to have a back up copy in case things go wrong!
Then on to the stitching – this book is thick and needed hand drilled holes for the stitching – something I’ve not done before as my books never needed more than an awl to make the holes – the drill got stuck in the paper and was impossible to remove – but then I learnt a trick – to crease the drill bit with beeswax and it worked a treat!
I’d hoped to finish the 2 books today but it was not to be – I was tired and not concentrating and placed the book back to front in the cover of my ‘best ‘ one! So I had to take it apart and won’t be able to finish it until Tuesday when the University reopens! Sigh – sometimes these bank holidays are not useful!
I’m becoming an expert at FAILURE……………….
Hopefully the next post will be the END!!
Oh and yes I have included the tissue paper header in the book – thank you to all of you that encouraged me to do this.
The deadline for my dissertation project is looming near (4 May) and I am getting anxious!! I will try to post more frequently now and show you the progress of the Failure project.
The book/catalogue cover is finished and awaiting its pages. the size is A3 landscape. I tried to get clearer images to show you but the light has been terrible and the photographs look grey rather than black. I have used blind embossing for the words. I am thinking of including the acid free tissue sheet which was sandwiched between the stencil and the board (the blog header) this would be at the front of the book maybe after the title page – what do you think?
The first complete draft of the catalogue essay is completed and will go to my tutor on Monday. I am still working on the catalogue introduction which is about the work I’ve received and how the project was set up – I’m not happy with it yet – it sounds pretty boring but maybe that’s because I’ve re read it so many times and I’m my own worst judge!! A failure to say what I really want to say – sometimes the words just don’t come! Gosh I’ve written enough about failure to know it inside out now! Today I am going to transcribe the interview I had with Lisa Le Feuvre – again I’m not sure whether to include the actual transcribe (exhibition catalogues do this frequently) or to refer to it in the introduction! So many editorial decisions – I had no idea!!
I’m spending my time at the moment on the dissertation part of my degree course as the deadline of 4 May suddenly feels not far away given that the University’s resources are closed for a month during the Easter holidays – we have 3 choices in this module, a thesis, a critical commentary or a praxis project – I have elected to do the Praxis Project – this is less words than the thesis (3000-5000) but must include a practical piece of work that is separate but linked to your main practice -I am doing an Artist’s book about artistic failure called ‘ A catalogue of Failures’ – and have approached it as a mail art project and invited 30 artists to submit one piece of work on the topic of FAILURE all work will be included in the catalogue – there will be no selection as I feel that is part of the failure process – there will be no exhibition as that is one aspect of the failure (I have failed to get a venue for the exhibition) -so the catalogue will exist in it’s own right. I now have 23 artists taking part and feel honoured that they have trusted me with their images and words. I feel the weight of responsibility and don’t want to FAIL!! Today I have been experimenting with the cover of the book and YES there have been FAILURES but I now know what I want the cover to be like -I have been trying the blind embossing technique on black card – soaking the card did not work and so I have used a dry emboss – here are some images of today and the beautiful old press that I’m using at the University
I feel very fortunate that Lisa Le Feuvre, curator of the British Art Show 2011 and writer of several articles on the topic of FAiLURE agree to give me an interview for the catalogue. Thank you Lisa.
I feel excited about the project and will post more about the work to be included in the book – I’d love to hear about your own views of artistic failure too!
One of the drawbacks of studying part time is that we are not entitled to a studio space in the university – I don’t make large work thank goodness but it would be useful to have a large white space to try out my projections – my intention is to project slide transparencies on to a hanging moveable screen placed so that you can move around it – my studio space at home is small at the moment and has no way of hanging anything – so the assessment process we are going through next Wednesday will be a valuable experience – I hope it works but as it is not a marked assessment then I am not too worried – and as I am also dealing with FAILURE in the other project then I am going to learn lots one way or another!
last week we had a group crit – this is even more crucial when you have not got a space where other students will see your work and is the only chance to receive any feedback about what I’m up to at home! One of the aspects of my practice over the last few months has been printmaking – experimenting with etching and aquatint which has been challenging. I haven’t felt at ease with the process. Now I have discovered collagraphs and I love the process!
I am using one of my family slide transparencies as a starting point
I created a collagraph plate using mounting card as the base to create the image
I printed first in relief and then intaglio
I then experimented printing onto acid free tissue, tracing paper and onion skin paper – I really loved the onion skin as it has a slight sheen and is semi transparent giving it an aged look – but impossible to photograph or scan!
The prints on somerset paper will be framed and entered for an exhibition at the Limekiln Gallery in Calstock next February.
Back to the group crit – I took 20 slide transparencies and showed them on an old slide projector along with the collagraphs – the feedback was positive – everyone particularly enjoyed the clicking of the projector which evokes certain past memories depending on your age of course! Those endless hours of watching friend and family holiday slides!
My practice is concerned with the fragility of memory and the passing of time so my images are sometimes blurred, sometimes out of focus, sometimes with an unreal clarity – they are memories that have a uncertain relationship with reality. The materials I use are also fragile or translucent – decay, disintegration and discoloration also play an important part as does failure!
