Great Economy...

They started because I wanted to give something away.

I enjoy nothing more than going to an exhibition, event or a performance and there is something there to take away. I am not talking about an exhibition leaflet or an events programme here but something that is ‘from’ the work or an ‘addition’ to the work. Something that can be taken away and that provokes feeling. Memory. What was felt upon actual viewing.

So I decided to make small collages on post card size paper/card. Combining of imagery. Photographs of photographs, photographs of drawings, of collages. Graphite line, ink line, line line. Old imagery of older works, now new works, latest works because are only works. Relevant. Now.

When visiting any type of exhibition, even contemporary events I feel that the concept of ‘giving something away’ is still quite rare. I can not remember the last exhibition I went to were I got to take something away, which I would keep. Archive.

Now. They became new images. I was selective. I chose imagery that was relevant to what I would be doing at Space 109. Imagery that was about exploring space, process, placement, line. To remind them, to treat as something that’s more than disposable, an artwork. They became artworks in their own right. Another part of the exhibition and another form of the work.

Something that borders on having been able to take away an original piece of art and dare I say… not for a single penny! I feel that in the current state of things, Art should be more giving. Events and exhibitions should be giving ‘art’ away, so it transports itself, becomes detached from the ‘exhibition’ and be autonomous. It circulates and becomes easily transportable.

I had no materials, well… not much. A6 paper was within my budget, printing black and white and the odd colour wasn’t much and the materials that I already had. The leftovers, surplus, old works, destroyed.

Great Economy.

DIY Presents... Saturday 26th September 2009- A reflection.

Featuring; Lisa Gorton
Jade Blood
Jonathan...

An afternoon of experimentation, playing, process, responding, mixing and on the spot thinking.

Materials: Electrical tape, elements of sound, found objects, walls of Space 109, typewriter, biro, graph paper, old film tape, tin containers, tulip lights, fairy lights, plastic piping, wires, laptop, speakers, glass jars, rugs, banner, bodies, Happycat, ginger-bread men and green tea [with a hint of jasmine].

Outcomes: Installation, new sound/music, collages, working process on view, new drawings/sculptures, a new path for constructing - re constructing - deconstructing line, material and form.

I enjoyed the spontaneity of it all. The not really knowing before hand, not prepared, only small formal experiments in my own studio before hand. Responding to the interior of Space 109 but also to other bodies and works. The placement of my materials was not only dependant on the architecture of the space but on the position of other bodies and their placement of materials. Their work dictating mine and vice versa.

Space-Materials-Bodies-Placement.

Watering the Plants and art...

Ahh watering the plants...
white cabbages, red cabbages, tomatoes, runners beans, peas and figs.
And many more I don't know the name of.
But I don't need to know.
I come back to them every week,
And see the difference.
They look different from my previous stare
But I keep working with them
Nurture them,
Accidentally stand on them
Interference.Positive/negative I don't know.
And the outcome..
sweet juicy tomatoes or watery cabbage soup
I don't know.
Ah but how I enjoy watering those plants.....

New Work Drawing/ Collage

Thinking Space. Sarah Sze, Baltic Centre of Contempoary Art, Newcastle.

Date Visited 01.07.09

Colour and form hit you when you walk into the exhibition space on the fourth floor of the Baltic, Newcastle and then the mass of objects. 'Ecosystems', cleverly constructed around the space, made up of everyday objects such as plants, floor lamps, tape measures, paper, wool plastic, burnt paper, pins...the small everyday objects we all take for granted. One can only say that the path that is taken around this installation is integral to each individuals experience. Playful manipulation of the space, lines of blue and red wool, pull taught from wall to wall, inhibiting viewing, the neon orange of an electric cable zips underneath, drawing the viewers eye to a spiral of colour in some far away point. The careful tracks one has to take in order not to stand on some miscellaneous object and then be stopped instantly as you are about to walk into something in front of you. Measurement tape on the floor. On first viewing this and the positioning of many other objects seems random, accidental but looking again means thinking again, seeing again. Nothing in this exhibition is random. Is it? Positioning is far too controlled but at the same time be planned out to the nth degree? Impossible. The exhibition space has been played with, experimented with. Like a studio it seems that Sze has used the space to experiment with her objects, play with her material, highlight the idiosyncrasies of this space, playing, placing, re-placing. A site of discovery, which can only come from knowing a space, thinking space.
Tension. In movement of the viewer and in objects. A craft knife positioned in front of a fine line of elastic. On tenterhooks.
Part object, part sculpture? Sculptural/structural? Not dream like but made real by those objects that are apart of all our lives. The material asks no questions. And that's fine. There is always that want to know. Why the artist has chosen that material, how and why does the material perform. But it doesn't have to. Because once we know theres a tendency to have cracked it! We understand now! It is all clear and makes more sense! The haze has cleared!
But not this time. I don't want to know, I want the constant fuzz, I am happy to walk away from this exhibition and just marvel in the beauty of our every day objects.

Photographic experimentation 29/06/09

The above experimentation's are a result of having too many photographs of my degree show, so i decided to play with them. Experiment with perspective, illusion, form and line and also with the re-representation. Representation? What is it that I am representing. Can a photograph only ever just represent or can it be seen as a material that we handle/manipulate with our hands and eyes. i don't mean the camera, I mean the given out-put, the photograph. But then I suppose the camera can not be separated from the produced image, it is part of it's materiality. Can a photograph have a materiality? What i also like in these images is the line that travels through, the extension. The line that plays around with what is real and what isn't in the images. The line that draws and disturbs, but represent?

Drawing/sculpture/Installation as research

The works above are a selection of images from my final degree show. The works explore notions of space, perception, representation, re-representation, drawing, sculpture and installation. I plan to use this work whilst it is currently still installed as a starting point to generate new works. I intend to go in every day for the next week and draw from the exhibition, using various materials. This then keeps this idea of drawing and sculpture on the same level; construction, deconstruction, reconstruction.