Thursday, 22 April 2010
Noticed
How the dramatic change of course happened... I decided to walk a slightly different way back and very near to my home, I came across a tiny residential square with a small green bit in the middle. I walked around it and peeked inside peoples windows and I got a real sense of activity and lives being lived in a particular place, at particular point in time. In an odd way, it almost felt like I could see time plodding on and I was slightly removed from it.
Walking on a bit further, I came across the demolition site that was the inspiration for the project. It was like a square of buildings had been lifted away in one move. The impact of suddenly there being nothing, when there was clearly something before it, was immense. It was something about the immediacy and the scale of the absent square that I liked. Walking around the site, I started to notice that people had left things behind– there was a typewriter, clothes, cassette tapes and it made me think about who and what was there before the buildings were removed. Before, it was just an empty hole, now I had been given clues about the people who lived there and I began to think about the concept of time and the extended field. I could see what was here before and I could think about what might be here in the future. That vs. the incredible sense of nothing right now …I was standing in the bit of time between before and after – like time had been paused in front of me.
I began to think that in order to create the impact/feeling that I wanted, I needed to remove or obscure rather then add or create something from scratch. This is when I began to look at artists like Rachel Whiteread who didn’t mould the stairs, but the space around them. Uta Barth and the way she focuses on the space that sits around, hinting at the existence of people or things close by, but wanting you to notice the space around.
Basically, I'd like to show people what's already there and what I think is worth taking notice of. And also, just show people that it's worth taking time to notice.
Saturday, 17 April 2010
Day 2
Day 1
Proposal.
1. Progress and achievement By being constructively critical about my sketchbook and developmental work, I have become more confident about the value of my ideas. This has helped me take my work further then I have before. The course has exposed me to themes and mediums that have had a significant impact on my art also.
2. Context Artists I have been recently influenced by such as Eadweard Muybridge and Jeff Wall have used photography by way of visually representing movement in their art. I’m hoping to explore the notion of motion further by exploring the theme in 3D. Drawing is free from the restrictions of material, size and method and so will allow me to explore the theme freely. Drawing is the first action after an idea that has been triggered externally. This notion combined with that of movement, a reaction to external triggers, seems an ideal pairing.
3. Proposal Aims and Realisations Throughout my work there has been the common theme of space, time and movement. I am interested in absence and presence and I’m interested in the extended field and temporal space. By means of extending this theme, I’d like to explore how movement relates to these ideas.
My primary research will include sketchbook and photographic studies of people, sound, animals, air, earth and I’ll do this in different places. In busy areas that are fast and loud, quiet areas that are slow and peaceful, by the sea, in the centre of the city, the suburbs, fields, underwater, high up, low down, wet, dry, hot and cold places. I will consider gravity, air, weight, size and form and their influence on movement. I plan to construct the final piece in an empty room. I will keep in mind the space I have chosen and how working in this space may evolve my work once I take the research there.
As part of my secondary research I will visit exhibitions such as the ‘on the move’ at the Estorick collection, exploring artists and scientists such as Eadweard Muybridge, Etienne Jules Marey and Harold Edgerton and their explorations of motion. I will study further the movement of futurism and look at installation artists such as Lindsay Seers. Beyond this, I will look at methods by which to illustrate movement, using photocopying, layering and printing.
Having worked only in 2D previously, I’m keen to advance into using 3D and 4D solutions. I plan to produce a sculpture that is large in scale in order to involve the viewer made from a lightweight material like paper. My aim is not to cause anxiety, but a sense of calm. I will experiment with materials such as metal, wood and wire.
4. Evaluation I will keep an ongoing reflective diary, a working sketchbook and I’ll photograph my work at regular intervals in order to document the evolution of the piece. I will seek regular feedback by inviting peers, tutors and strangers into the space I am working at different stages of the process.
