Don’t usually say much about my print elective here, I keep this blog about my core work and it’s developments, but…
I went to the Manchester Artist Book Fair last weekend where our print Tutor had organised a table for those that wanted to exhibit. Staff and Students together. I managed to show some wax work I am developing as artists books and I was able to work out some further developments with my collision- based phyllotaxis Finger print patterns. (See pics.) I did have 5 other books on display but have not yet photographed them properly.
I have been working on my ideas around the presentation of my work and the inferences and associations I can use to layer the display. The artists I have been looking at include Mark Quinn, Gaby Taplick, and Damien Hurst. But I have been particularly struck by Mark Dions installation work. I find the way he uses the principles of taxonomy and Museum systems of classification, and then subverts them very relevant to my work. I am seeking to blur boundaries in the classification of my forms and to raise questions in the viewer, and Marks work consistently blurs the boundaries between natural history, art and science. I find the way he questions the classification systems place on objects by professionals and Institutions very relevant.
I have visited Manchester Natural History Museum though I had found they did not have a particular botany section on display at the moment. However, I was excited to go as they have 2 areas of great interest to me: One was the Darwin exhibition on at the moment and the other was the Mark Dion Installation ‘Bureau of the Centre for the Study of Surrealism and its Legacy’ 2005. This grand sounding name represents the culmination of Dion’s working through the Manchester Museum’s own collections, especially the more neglected pieces. This Installation has been incorporated into the Darwin exhibition and I believe is to become a permanent fixture in the museum. In the installation Dion attempts to classify the unclassifiable while working with and exploring the museums own systems of working. He plays with the ambiguity of nature by assembling a whole array of boundary crossing, hybrid objects. This was great as I will be completing my essay about Dion and how his work relates to mine soon.
Leafing through some of the books I borrowed from the library I was interested to see some mushrooms that look quite waxy. One looks almost identical to one of my wax sculptures! I am sure I have not seen the image before!
My immediate feelings are that there seems a lot of useable material, but I can’t always be sure of my first impressions. I need time for the information and images to filter through my brain a few times; for the new information to combine and make connections, for things to link up in my own unique way. I find that even when I am not sure if there is something directly usable, as long as I found the information/image interesting in some way it all seems to go into storage in my head, where it is adapted, combined, linked in with other stored bits and something new and mine comes out at some later point.
I seem to only get a short way in actually creating art work before I am off researching again. Though the initial point for the research may seem straight forward to satisfied, it always seems to lead on to many more areas of interest or raise more questions requiring even more research!! It does keep the inspiration levels high, but my rate of production just does not keep pace with my ideas!
This was another research day.
A.M.
Visited larger library checking out loan books, reference books and what they call ‘the stack’ (which are books that have been taken out of use). Not at all ‘sexy’ research I suppose. I have however found numerous interesting images and lots of useful info. The 2 most exciting aspects were:
1) A large reference book on mushrooms, with species I have not found previously in other books.2) A smaller book still in the reference section which attempts to explain the meanings behind words used in the naming of plants e.g. Facetus means elegant etc.
I did find lots of other interesting images and snippets of information in many other books available and brought the usual stack home to plough through!
P.M.
Visited the local Museum to look through their Botany section, checking out specimens, but mainly just re looking at their styles of display/image recording and naming protocols. This was o.k. In some of the display cabinets they used a second smaller box to contain the specimen. These specialist boxes looked very much like the boxes I used in an artist book last year, (boxes used in taxonomy of various insects). So I think I will be re ordering some more, after checking out sizes first! This visit was of good use, but I may visit a museum with a larger Botanical section, I’ll check out Manchester or Liverpool. As I have interest in representing my objects so they allude to the whole scientific, taxonomic, Museum system of display. During the visit discussed the possibility of opening up the cabinets with a member of staff from the museum. As I expected I would need to speak with the curator (who was not available). I will wait before following this up as I need to be very clear about what it is I want as I have other ideas as to my display.
