Work in Progress

Last week was the final week of term, and also Events Week. There were some worshops and we had some alumni working in the project space on a short project about being visitors. One of the highlights was a meeting that a few of us had with some Chelsea MA students about setting up galleries and studios. We’ve decided that we’re going to do something fun and a bit different as well as slightly scary (for me) in June around London. I’ll write more about that nearer to the time. It is a little crazy.

The main plan for the week was to use the foyer space and the Centre for Drawing to display work for a crit on Thursday. I jumped in and got myself a wall in the drawing centre to make something new for the crit. I wanted to have a bit of fun as it was the end of term so I decided to just play around with the space and not worry about what the outcome would be.

I’m still thinking about the history of different kinds of buildings and structures, and what they stand for, and that is forming a fair bit of my research at the moment. I’m still quite unsure where all this is going, but hopefully I’ll be way clearer after an intense couple of weeks of reading, writing and researching over the Easter period. For this piece of work, I kept things simple and opted for a Nazi watchtower, as I kept coming across lots of Nazi related topics over the last week or so in films, books and on the internet. A sign perhaps?

I still believe that there is mileage in the perspective paintings that I was working on a few weeks back, so I wanted to build on that, and work with it on a larger scale. I also wanted the photocopies to remain present due to their aesthetic value and edgyness. I decided quite randomly to work with string, and make a large perspective drawing on the wall based upon the watchtower image that I had. I wanted all the perspective/working out lines to be part of the work and create its own space and shapes. Interestingly, the perspective lines look like search lights from the ground that illuminate the tower. I quite like that coincidence. I used a complicated method to work out how the shadow should look, and at one point had string coming from the wall out onto the floor to work out how a shadow may look, which I made from photocopies of black paper. I wanted the shadow to stand out and be quite physical compared to the string, you notice the shadow on the floor before seeing what is making the shadow. It wasn’t the best thing that I’d done, but I had fun doing it and made the most of having a different space to play with.

The crit was good fun, and there was a good atmosphere. This was probably due to the fact that we had loads of beer. Somebody mentioned that my work is too physical, maybe the string should be replaced by lasers. Some people though it was strange that I was talking about my work as if it were a drawing. I think it is a drawing though.

I really feel as if I should be getting my head around everything that I’m doing and working towards now that we’re heading towards the assessment. I’m compiling all my bits of research and writing together for my research folio, and I’m hoping that in doing this, along with all the other reading and essay writing that I have going on, that things will become clearer for me.

Last week ended with me installing a large piece of work made from photocopies in my space. I was still interested in the horizontal brushstrokes that has been present in my work over the last few months. I was also thinking about readymade panels/prefabrication and repetition. There is a funny/bad perspective element to these pieces too. I’m not sure how I feel about them yet. There is still this towerblock feeling about it.

This week a number of MA students from Wimbledon, myself included, had a little exhibition in Battersea. I wanted to do something experimental and build upon what I’d done last week in the project space and on my studio wall. I took a corner space and installed some photocopied brushstroke panels into a funny perspective based upon my piece of work in my last post. I struggled with the floor, and tried a few things including paper and more photocopies, but in the end, I opted for a taped outline based upon last weeks projection lightbeam. As I was installing this piece of work, I noticed the stairs, and how there was a divide due to the walkway from above. I decided to make a load more photocopies and install a similar thing in this space. The reason I tackled the stairs was because the space went knowhere, kind of back on itself, at the top of the stairs, there was no exit. I found this quite interesting. In retrospect, I should maybe not have followed the contours of the steps and should’ve gone straight and flat, altering the space slightly.

I had a tutorial today and it was very useful. I was worried as usual about not knowing enough about what I was doing. My studiobased photocopy work seemed to go down well came across as being more edgy than using cement. There is also more milage in the persective paintings. I will now go about combing the two and trying to tighten a few things up. Although my experimentation has been good, I need to be specific about what building types I am using, and why I am focusing on them. Should I focus on a building with a history to it, for instance something like Auschwitz? What do different types of buildings mean and do different buildings cause different anxieties? Lots to think about and get to the bottom of before Easter. Our next assessment on the 28th of May is the diploma stage of the course and is hugely important, so I want to be completely on top of my work and ideas by then.