25/05/2009

My 4th degree year is finished! Here is the slide projection I presented!

I had my tutorial for my final project last week and I did pretty well - I was really pleased with the feedback which was positive as to the strength of the work.

My practice this year has been concerned with time, place, memory and meaning. The focus has been on the materiality of the objects; the appropriateness of the material being central to its meaning. In preparation for Year 4 I applied for a place on the DIY project in London ‘Keep your luggage with you at all times’, led by the artist Geraldine Pilgrim. It was the catalyst for the processes I then followed. Having explored the use of suitcases and journeys, particularly holidays, my attention turned to an old suitcase inherited from my father containing a family archive of slide transparencies, mostly of holidays taken in the 70’s, towards which I felt both ambiguity and ambivalence. I was interested in exploring these tensions in my practice, and it has formed the basis for the final presentation of my work. Many of the slide transparencies showed the ravages of time and poor storage, radically altering the reading of the images. Others were of poor quality, out of focus and with little regard for composition or distance. In fact they were so bad they were wonderful material for an artist! I selected 20 to work with, all of lone figures which seemed to predominate in the archive and continued to fragment them even more. I felt that the materiality of these objects connected with the fragmented memories I held of my parents, both dead for several years now. I wanted to delve deeper and somehow extract their essence. At the same time to explore the tensions between the abstract and the concrete. I began by playing with mirrors and projection, using an old suitcase as a focal point, placing the projector within the suitcase and projecting the slides on to fragments of mirror which reflected back a fragment of the image. How to present this turned out to be a major problem and I felt so frustrated by the process that I shelved the idea. The next step I took was to digitalise the slides. These I then printed out on to acetate in various scales. I preceded to inflict minor violence to them in order to extract their secrets, cutting them up, replicating details, continuing to fragment the image, working with the materiality of each slide to render them empty of and separate from their histories. At the same time I have tried to link them to my own personal memories of a coat, a colour, a particular way of standing or sitting, my mother’s handbag…. Memories that show them as something of myself and as something that could be anybody’s, anywhere; that connects with a universal memory. As Susan Hiller so aptly said of her work ‘ which seemed to carry an aura of memory and to hint at the meaning of something’ (Hiller 2000, Afterword) By putting them through a series of processes that threatened to further damage or alter them physically I felt that I was trying to force their secret out of them, only to find that the memory stayed where it was and that I had constructed a new set of objects (in this case new slide transparencies) which in turn contain a fragment or memory of the originals that I supposed to hold memories of the past. I made the decision to present these slides as they would have originally been seen, on slide projectors rather than digital. The slides were spaced in order to emphasis the gap, between the object and me, the work and the viewer; spaces where meaning can be found.

The slides were shown in pairs - it was difficult to photograph the final projection but the images above are a few of my favorite pairs of images - I apologise for the fact they are a bit skew wiff! And of course they were much larger - each image about 3 ft width and very grainy!

16/05/2009

Drawings and flaking paint

This is a photograph of that flaky paint I see from my bed - It's very different from the photographs I took very near the wall - I had the zoom on the camera as it is quite tiny from where I sit - no more than 3" As I stared at the wall while drinking my cup of tea I had the urge to draw what seemed like a figure emerging - luckily I keep a small sketchbook and pencils nearby for just these occasions

The figure at first seemed light and floating - a dancer maybe?
But then it became darker and more threatening - fleeing maybe - a phantom?

Then ghost like and shadowy - unsure of direction!

All this from a few flaking bits of paint!

14/05/2009

Taking photographs or redecorating?

I lie in bed in the morning with my cup of tea (not every morning but whenever I can) and stare at this ........
It hovers in the dim light cast from the window and seems to resemble a small cross carved into the wall - it fascinates me! I got my camera out this morning thinking I would explore the image further

Guess what - I started finding bits of paint flaking off in all sorts of corners
They kind of remind me of Lucio Fontana's work

This last one is my favorite - I feel it will become a drawing!

Perhaps I should STOP taking photographs and do a bit of REDECORATING!

06/05/2009

one more week to go

Only one week to go and my final 4th year project will be installed for assessment - I will then (if I pass) have a diploma in fine art with 2 more years (part time) to get my BA (hons) - 6 years is a long time I think you will agree but I just go from year to year and it is amazing how quickly they fly by. So 6 days to complete my project and so much to do - I find that sometimes the hardest thing to know is when the work is finished - STOP - when? Then I have a 500 word rational to write and my sketch book and research to bring up to day as I have all sorts of loose paper scattered about the studio in piles which my tutor assessors would make no sense of at all - so it needs to be organised and made sense of by me first!

And the project itself well let me try and explain. I have been working with a family archive of about 200 slide transparences (remember them?) passed on to me when my father died a few years ago - many are damaged and would suit Seth's disintegration project really well!! You can see what I mean in this slide below

At this point I must mention what a terrible photographer my father was, figures so far in the distance they are hard to make out or so close up only part of the person is in the picture, mostly out of focus too! They really are so bad they are quite wonderful!

Added to this is mold, fungal disintegration and bleeding of colours.

So I have taken this a step further playing with these elements. The originals have been digitalised and reprinted on acetate and made into slide transparences again - these are going to be projected in pairs! I hope it works - here is one of the original slides that I have been playing with

that has now become 2 slides which will be projected side by side on an automatic slide projector. Why my mother is sitting, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, in a suit staring out to sea i have no idea - it was taken about 35 years ago, I would love to ask her but she has been dead for many years now. So my project is about memories and how even when we are not part of the event in a photograph it sparks our own memories, maybe of the place or the people, we might remember just a fragment of something that is contained in that photograph! I would love to know your thoughts about this!

I hope to have around 15 pairs of images and when they are finished I will post some of them on the blog - meantime wish me luck!

03/05/2009

Gardening


I know that a few of my followers are really into gardening/art and journaling so I really recommend having a look at this blog here - I just love it!

02/05/2009

New header!

I thought this photo I took a few months ago when they were demolishing a large building in Leeds seemed to fit the general mood of DISINTEGRATION that several of us in blogland are obsessing about at the moment!! Happy revealing everyone

01/05/2009

Time to REVEAL all!

MAYday - It started with breakfast and the sun shining so I took it outside, coffee and toasted teacakes (I'd run out of bread for toast!) As you can see the table paint has also disintegrated and will need an uplift ready for summer outside meals!!
How the garden has grown since the winter pictures - my sheep skull peeping out from between the fennel! Let's see what it is protecting................
The residential insect life now needs to find a new residence!
The wrappings unwrapped - the slides and film are looking interesting!
Another little bug creeping about in yellowing pages!

This is the tea bag fabric hung out to dry - not as marked as I'd hoped - but I did join in this project rather late!

The brown envelope looks promising!

But I do feel bad about disturbing all this insect life!

Even this fat slug is hiding from me and hoping I won't find it amongest the holiday pages!
So there we all - all unwrapped and ready for the next step!

A day in London

On Wednesday I was in London for the day and what a perfect day it was - the sun was shining and everyone was out and about enjoying the early summer temperatures - travelling down on the train the 2 ladies opposite me were also ready to enjoy a day out and one of them said they might go to........ The Garden History Museum in Lambeth - well my ears pricked up as I was also on my way to Lambeth for a meeting - during my meeting later that morning The Garden Museum was mentioned - it was suggested that I might like to go there after the meeting as it was just around the corner

AND I DID! - WELL I HAD TOO didn't I!

And was I glad I DID - what a marvellous find - I didn't have my camera with me (always a mistake to decide to leave it at home - this image is from their website) - it is a gem of a place so if any of you find yourself visiting that part of the London (it is on the other side of the river almost opposite the Houses of Parliament) - there is a fantastic cafe inside the converted old church that houses the Museum. I didn't go inside the Museum but enjoyed a lovely cup of coffee and homemade cake sitting in the garden after a ramble around - the salads, in enormous bowls looked delicious too! And it must be the best value lunch in London! I will be back the next time I am in London - so if you want a quiet shady corner with mouth watering food after the busy London streets this is for you! You can even buy plants and they have a lovely gift shop. I will be back there next time I am in London which will be soon as I was not aware that there is a big exhibition at the Hayward Gallery until 25 May of Annette Messager, work - another of my favorite artists. Just need to find a cheap rail ticket!

From Lambeth I rambled along the river path - under the London Eye (another wish for my camera) past the Royal Festival Hall, the Hayward Gallery, South Bank and British Film Institute wishing I had more time, finally ending up at Tate Modern to see the Roni Horn exhibition. It was disappointing which was a surprise as I was looking forward to seeing it - I'm still trying to work out why I was disappointed. I just did not connect to the work - is that what it is about - connection? the work was beautifully presented and her process and subject matter is similiar to my own themes and processes. I should have been bowled over but I wasn't - I felt detached from it - as I said there was no connection. I would love to have your thoughts on this.

Later that day I ended up in South Kensington at the Conran Shop housed in the beautiful Michelin building (this photo doesn't really do it justice - again taken from the website - there is the most beautiful flower shop in the foyer which spills out on to the pavement - the smell is wonderful!) I coveted a huge beautiful aged table, the top looked like it was made from old polished railway sleepers sat on an industrial iron base - it looked perfect for displaying the contents of the disintegration project!
I ended the day with a glass of red wine on St Pancras International Station and caught the train home - exhausted and happy!

I will be posting the REVEAL of my disintegration project later today!!