I have realised that my work since year 2 and even some elements of year 1 has been highly textiles based. In second year I used a sewing machine as a drawing tool and the presence of the stitched line became way more prominent in my practice. There is a strong sense of linear forms throughout my degree so far.
One interesting observation I can make of my current practice is the transposition of the soft textile into the more rigid form. I generally begin with a more maleable and delicate material, to manipulate it into a more solid form, through "suffocating" the original medium in a way i.e. dipping it in plaster or latex and adding a skeletal-like structure to give the form more anatomy and rigidity, like a spine or a set of vertebrae.
So in accordance with my learning agreement I intend to spend the next week researching and refamiliarising myself with my practice's goals and methods, through other' theories and outcomes, before I begin making work again.
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| 'Elephant' 2013, string and plaster. |
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| 'Mouse' 2013, string and plaster |
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| 'Snake' 2013, string and plaster |
I have begun some light material manipulation again in accordance with the research material I have to hand. "Ravelling, Unravelling", a Wellcome Trust funded project, involved a creative response to topological and geometric investigations currently being undertaken in the biomedical fields, specifically those relating to the packing and unpacking of material within the human body and used in the treatment of disease. Along with the project a publication was released that analyses the specific medical challenges in the contemporary world and utilises the metaphor for those conflicts, internal and external that we have wrestled with throughout the ages.
Steven Connor's wonderfully written analysis of the knot in folklore and mythology, the stories told of the knots potency, was particularly interesting to me. Connor writes about how the knot is an aesthetically pleasing object, as it provides the viewer with a confident sense of security: "First of all, and perhaps primarily, the knot is the embodiment of the constancy or coherence, of that which holds or binds together against the erosions and mutability of time."
As a lot of my work engages with a sense of unease or queasy anxiety and tension, I began to knot the string I had again.
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| Twisted string with twine mummifying it. |
Taking inspiration from DNA and coiled forms, I began to wind the string up as tight as it would go, I found it would make compactly oscillated detailed forms, which were intricate and reminded people of intestines. It also was an accurate representation and abreaction of my hair twirling habit. In this sense, I felt as though this process was successful, it had a deliberate process that represented the concept of internal and external anxieties that my practice addresses.
23/01/14
John Wallbank: On the sofa
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| "Untitled", 2011, acrylic, PVC, wood, chipboard, hardboard, plywood, MDF, vinyl, wire, polystyrene, steel prop, polyurethane, foam, paper |
Today we got to have an informal conversation in the Guntons
basement studio with contemporary artist John Wallbank. He highlighted the
importance of process and autonomy within his practice, and made us muse on
when to know when a piece is finished.
Materials to Wallbank are expendable, he is a
typical essentialist and uses materials that are “available” and we can see
this through the almost staple crafts materials used in his sculptures, such as
masking tape. I can relate to this with my practice, as I am a fond user of
string, which is a typically playful or crafty material.
Wallbank’s practice definitely displays an aversion to high concept or planning before he sets out to make a physical piece. He expressed a clear preference for process over final effect of his sculptures. He steers away from audience reaction and interpretation and is more introverted in his practice, following his own impulses. I can understand this approach, but within my own practice, I aim to have more of an emotional involvement with the audience, I want people to be able to relate.
We discovered that Wallbank works in a highly intuitive
manner, grabbing whatever is essential to just create a structured form and
then making autonomously, the work grinding to a conclusive halt in a natural
way. I began to apply this ethos to my own practice, I relaxed my terms on what
defined a piece as finished, and began to layer more components to already
existing pieces of mine (string and twine piece). This is giving more depth and
dimensions to my work I feel, and as my practice is meant to be “an extension”
of myself I feel as though this technique is successful in making my work more
multifaceted.
27/01/14
After a London galleries/museums trip over the weekend I have found myself analysing my use of colour in my work. When deliberately receiving feedback for my work I often find that people want me to apply artificial colouring to the materials seen in my practice. Commonly, peers ask me how my work would look if the plaster was painted a colour, especially black as its the opposite to white. Although my string pieces from last term are deliberately white, they are an allusion to the drug habits that were in my household as a child, I decided to apply colours to the string.
Colour choosing was a deliberated and considered process, and I thought of the colours that could reflect the inside/outside concerns that are evident in my current practice.
Visiting Alex Van Gelder's "Meat Portraits" exhibition at Hauser and Wirth in London was a pivotal moment in my observation of colour observed in viscera, the rich reds and purples seen are weirdly attractive hues, they reminded me of foods, jam in particular. At "Meat Portraits" there was a loud juxtaposition of the tangible and the repulsive, communicated through Van Gelder's observations of tactile colour shades. Infection yellow and haemoglobin red, the viewer is swung from disgusted to interested, and almost hungry.
Although the composition and observation seen in this exhibition by Van Gelder himself is interesting enough, my area of enquiry to take from this exhibition is in the colours seen in viscera.
04/02/14
I am beginning to see an emerging theme of the conflict between the internal and the external in my practice, particularly in the form of the body vs. the building. The architecturally designed building is made for the purpose of containing, for keeping things neat and ordered. Like how I explored previously with the way knots are utilised for order and neatness, I think buildings and their walls do that as well. I am interested in the chaos spilling out, a physical catharsis. I have looked at the linear viscera seen in organisms, but now I turn to the unexposed wires and plumbing in architectural space.
I have already explored this in second year when I investigated the derelict St. Andrews mental institution as a place of fear, and now I refer to some of my favourite images from this project.
Next week I plan to photograph the St. Georges building space, which is highly similiar in ways to that of St. Andrew's, both institutions and both built around the same time in Norfolk. And it is a useful exercise for me to consider degree show space and how I can respond to that space and translate my work onto such a platform.
10/02/14
Still responding and questioning the linear forms of the wires and vessels used to transport material, I have sourced some roving wool yarn, which is wool spun into long and narrow bundles of wool fibre. Although they are not hollow, so don't contain the space for flux of material, the roving still has the flexible and linear properties I am interested in for the aesthetic of my works. It mimics the conduits well, yet merely interprets the form.
I am also still regarding the nervous behaviour as material for my artistic practice, and after practising a certain self-awareness to detect nervous actions I exert, I discovered something new. After experimenting with roving wool yarn I observed myself, still in the fluxes of fiddling and twisting the string, rolling the wool into tiny balls. I carried on doing this for hours until I had a substantial pile of the material, to which I reflected and considered ways of displaying this work.
However the challenge remains on how I can represent the tension, anxiety and repetition of the gesture on a larger scale. After experimenting with sticking it down, to transmute it to a two dimensional format, I decided against presenting it in a pre-meditated way altogether. Because these balls are already a form in themselves collectively. My work seems to hone in on the concept of process as my practice develops further.
I observe the ritual compulsion of making these balls and I turn to my research again for reaffirmation of the procedure, and a particularly significant quote from "Homo Ludens" by Johan Huizinga jumps out at me.
' There is no formal difference between play and ritual.' (1949: 10)
A definition of the word "worry" is to "pull at or fiddle with repeatedly". Another definition of "worry" is more cerebral, meaning to figure something out with "persistent thought". Either way, both of these definitions express the physical language seen in the piece I have created above. A persistent, repetitive ritual, communicating a conscientious anxiety.
12/02/14
I have come to realise when I have consciously applied colour to my work it is in it's purest, natural state. When I attempted to add colour (see above) even in a pure, pigmented form like the red pigment I used, it came across as disjointing and irrational in relation to the work.
A lot can be said in my practice currently for my application of pure and natural forms, the way I pick apart the string so it becomes raw twine reverses the gesture which was applied to give it it's use in the first place. I regress the material into a simpler state, then wrap it back up again to make a new form.
An artist I am taking inspiration from who also follows this technique is Arte Povera artist Jannis Kounellis. I saw his "Untitled" (1968) in the Tate Modern and it's combined restraint and sensuality interested me, it had a dual meaning. The sensuality of the pure wool in it' rawest state, and the austere wood ladder it rests on echo some of the structures seen in my work also, which is controlled yet wild in it's composition. This is an element I want to continue to portray through my work, which I feel as though is an accurate personal metaphor, represented through form.
15/02/14
I have Expanded on my starting point for BA8 of the membrane and secular, layered forms, and the tension of the hair growing up through the epithelium. I have got my hands on an electronic USB microscope to examine the structure of the natural fibres, a form that informs the comparison and anatomy of my sculptures. My intention for this exercise is to analyse the texture and fibres that make up a larger, collective form. These were the highly interesting results.
The latticed grid of the skin patterns fascinated me and gave me lots of ideas for future sculptural works. People who have viewed these images were slightly disgusted and that reaction interested me, although it is not the intended reaction I aspired for.
Wool locks magnified. I noticed the tiny, tightly wound curls in the fleece sporadically and zoomed into them. Curls in curly hair are synthesised from disulphide bonds in the hair structure causing the hair follicle molecules to attract to each other more, resulting in spiral, looping formation. A spiral form has already been noted by me as an area of interest in my practice.
Jute twine magnified was as I expected, brittle, grass-like (due to the fact jute is extracted from Corchorus capsularis). However I appreciated how it came up so stark in the images, this is because of the jute twine's thick, dry cuticle.
I also magnified the jute in it's entwined, string formation.
Human hair magnified. What I noticed about the human hair was that it was so light in colour (as it is my own blonde hair), it was practically transluscent, and reflected the light giving the aesthetic of the hair a fibre optic, vitreous quality.
I have ideas of how to respond to these findings physically by making studio and workshop work, and intend to execute them.
17/02/14
I have naturally reached the conclusion of my decision of what to exhibit for my degree show out of my body of studio work, and I have decided to make a new work. Out of the materials I have used above (plaster, string and twine), I intend to make a stream of hair-like material cascading down over the wall, a Rapunzel-esque commentary on domestic and psychological entrapment expressed through the compulsive twisting and wrapping of twine.
My intentions for the work's emotional impact is to provoke an uncomfortable, yet tangible impression on the viewer. After reading "Hold It Against Me" by Jennifer Doyle, who coined the term "difficult" as being an adjective that is more applicable to the artist's experience of producing something that is an emotional process to them. I want to convey this sense of emotional outpour to the audience through the form. I aspire for this work to induce a sense of unease as well, which I think is achievable as onlookers have already described my work as "creepy." I also intend for the audience to feel wary of the work, yet also want to touch it. I aim for the work to own an element of empathy as well. Communication of an emotion that can be collective was always my aim for this work, and for my practice in general, I have held this ambition for this work since the beginning of my degree. Although some of the aims for the concept and perception of this piece seem conflicting, I feel confident I can pull it off, especially with thorough research into exhibiting techniques and consideration of audience. One of my personally most important aims for this exhibited work is that I would also like this work to portray an inner reality, and extract an area of anxiety in me, outwards. I would like this work to purge my inner excess and display that process.
Pragmatically, I chose this because I can make it in the studio and then bring it up to the exhibition space in a straightforward process, as I know from experience the more a piece is complicated, the higher the risk of failure during exhibition. The work will be large and dramatic, I want it to be beautiful yet slightly unnerving, so I am hoping I can be placed in a lowly-lit exhibit space.
This is the statement I wrote for my degree show proposal:
"My practice is the representation of the conflict between external and internal, like the blood vessels that pump oxygen around our body, and the wires that send electrons around a building to power it; there is always an ulterior source of power. My work portrays the tension of the unity of body and mind. Taking inspiration from abreaction theories by Melanie Klein and Sigmund Freud, I make sculptures to draw my rich inner reality out, like how a child does when playing with toys.
21/02/14
Exploring the St. Georges building on NUA campus reinforced the area of enquiry on conduits and connecting points for me, I noted the conduits which snaked in unreachable spaces in the building.
28/02/14
I have approached my studio and workshop work with attitudes towards process I learnt from the talk with John Wallbank, and have found myself layering onto works that already existed and expanding their intentions and outcomes.
After looking through a microscope and observing the dually strong yet translucent and brittle hair follicles, I have decided to mimic this aesthetic through utilising glass wax. Dipping and soaking the works in the wax leaves the works encased in this clear coating, like how I have used Plaster of Paris in the past to solidify a material and give it more weight, I have utilised this method again, except more for suffocating the material.
The natural coloured pieces remind me too much of noodles, even when out of the domestic-style cooking pot, yet I am interested by the coloured works which look highly visceral and seem to draw direct inspiration from the Val Gelder exhibition. I plan to develop these works further and maybe onto a bigger scale.
After looking at the wires and conduits that inspired the aesthetic of my work, I realised their structure of outer casing and inner contents could be mimicked too, another reason why I chose to use the glass wax.
As well as it's ethereal, dainty perspicacity that allows us to see the contents, I noticed glass wax as a great material for making linear forms in it's own right. The little thread hairs left behind from the making interested me the most, and reminded me a lot of the hair follicles I had magnified earlier.
There was definitely a certain alchemy involved in making these pieces, and the chemistry had to be known. With help from 3D Workshop staff I was able to learn what the boiling points were for certain materials such as the glass wax, and attempt to suck some of the air out of the Jute twine with a vacuum, in order to stop the glass wax from clouding up. Some of the materials reacted acutely in the glass wax, and disintegrated, the nylon in the wool yarn I had melted then turned an oozy yellow colour.
13/03/14
My unravelling and Rumpelstiltskin
Because the twine I use for my sculptures is usually a gold/mousey brown/blonde shade, I began to think of the fairytale Rumpelstiltskin, when the millers daughter, is locked in the tower and has to make gold thread out of straw.
This is a direct metaphor of the process involved in me gathering the materials needed for my practice. It also alludes to the sense of entrapment I get when making my work, I tend to work and live in one room at the moment which is in fact, the top floor of a rather tall, three story house. There is a sense of me crafting something significant and valuable through hard labour in the form of an art piece, out of common material (jute twine). I can see the parallels between Rumpelstiltskin and my own practice. Although this comparison may seem tentative and the comparison obvious, I would think this now as fairy tales are at the forefront of my consciousness as I am writing about them for my research report. For me, the interest and enquiry lies in how children relate to these narratives and can apply the messages in them to their development and every day life.
The miller's daughter in Rumpelstiltskin has the imp, Rumpelstiltskin to help her spin the straw into gold in return for the jewels on her, and in the end, her first born child.
Rumpelstiltskin was one of my favourite fairy tales as a child, partly due to the fact it was in one of my favourite books, and for a few moral reasons I could identify with the help of Bruno Bettelheim's "The Uses of Enchantment".
Applying the psychoanalytical technique in "The Uses of Enchantment" I could highlight a few aspects that made me connect with Rumpelstiltskin on an interpersonal level, therefore enjoy reading it at the age of 5/6.
My father had bought it for me from work he was doing abroad, and maybe I identified with the reunion of the family at the end of the book, it's possible I felt slightly abandoned by my dad, who was always working abroad at this stage, and the family to me, may have felt disjointed. As I remember enjoying the end of the book in particular, when the Queen outsmarts the wicked Rumpelstiltskin and reclaims her child who was briefly taken from her by Rumpelstiltskin.
It's also worth noting that my brother was an infant at this point in time as well, although I was jealous of him and the attention he was receiving, I still knew he was a permanent fixture, so that could be part of my relating to Rumpelstiltskin too.
However, as the separation the child from the family was brief, I draw my attention to my life at my new school, which was a brief separation from my parents every day, especially as they were both in employment at this time, and I was looked after by an au pair. Maybe I related to the brief separation anxiety seen at the end of Rumpelstiltskin.
It is hard to achieve an accurate psychoanalytical reading of my relation to the story of Rumpelstiltskin at this stage of my childhood as a) I was so young, I can barely remember the context to my family and personal life at that point in time and b) psychoanalysis usually occurs externally with a third party overlooking another person. I don't have the skillset required to achieve clarity on my emotional development at this stage.
A sizeable ball of jute twine I unravelled today. To me, it is a work in itself and doesn't require to be manipulated into a form, the process itself is the work, and the outcome is simply the conclusion of the procedure. And I am going to explore this further by recording the process of unravelling more, inspired by the story of Rumpelstiltskin slightly.
17/03/14
Degree show curation meeting and consideration of presentation
Today I managed to see the space I will be exhibiting my work (SG64) in at the degree show, and I feel as though it may be a successful space for a piece like the one I am exhibiting.
One issue I am facing however is the low light, the plug sockets in the space will all be in use, as two other students are using the mains to power their video pieces. My concern is that the detail of the methodology of the unravelling then re-ravelling onto the structure will be overlooked by the audience due to the low light levels. Low visibility may prevent the viewer from noticing the detail in my work, which is important as the process and gesture are the essence of the work. Not only that, Lian (a co-exhibitor in the space) requires a certain degree of darkness for his exhibit, and I am concerned that that will encroach onto my space.
However, after discussing this with Sarah (our curation tutor) I discovered that it will be difficult to obtain spot lights or clip-on lights for my space, and if I did I would have to get them PAT-tested, but this idea became obsolete anyway when I documented the space later on in the day (early evening) and noticed the substantial amount of light that can access the room.
And I figured the slight darkness could enhance the eeriness of my piece, encouraging the viewer to peer closer at the details of the piece. One of my main aims for the work is for the viewer to feel free to explore the piece, even touch it if necessary.
My corner space beneath the window. The shelves on the left of the space are covered with a partition, but could be used. This is something I have been considering lately, the presentation of my smaller works with maybe shelves or vitrines. I tested out the shelving.
Although I enjoyed having shelving to simply store my work in the studio space, and almost as a mood board for reflection on work that inspired me previously, I don't see myself exhibiting like this for degree show. My plan for the degree show was always to create a work that invaded the space and had an unnerving, intruding quality to be perceived by the viewer. I aimed to take the work away from the diminutive mock up quality of my material experimentations that occurred in BA7 and the beginning of this term. My degree show piece is going to be larger in scale. The scale for these small prototypes was considered and planned, as it was relevant to the concept of the anthropomorphic, but now my practice's scale has entered a new area of an architectural domineering of space, to reflect the concerns of the work itself.
The rest of SG64, our exhibition space, which is currently the studio space of first Fine Art students.
26/03/14
After looking at Rumplestiltskin and other fairy tales I noted the shade of the jute I am using as a pointer that reveals a key concept in my current practice. Hair is key part of identity in human beings, and my work is highly autobiographical, students and lecturers have recently pointed out how "Caitlin" my work is. I feel as though this type of identifying a work as being related to a certain artist proves that artist does have a unique style, so I am satsified to see at this stage in my artistic development that my work can be recognised as my own.
I decided to experiment more with different shades of blonde, to see if there are other potential materials I can utilize in a new vein of my work that can branch off the twine-wrapped-around-plaster-string branch I am already focusing on.
I have decided to look for different alternatives to jute twine as it is nearly impossible for me to obtain raw jute on it's own, although I have attempted to contact wholesalers (see below) and unravelling the jute twine, although the process is integral to the concept of my practice and degree show piece, it's highly time consuming. At this point I need to make the decision on whether or not to commit to the unravelling fully and just immerse myself in unravelling twine for the next month, or whether to cut a corner slightly. As lengthy and exhausting the process is of unravelling twine, I find it compulsive and strangely cathartic.
This experimentation will aid me on making my material decision.
03/04/14
As the deadline for my dissertation approaches I have reached some significant and important conclusions from my research that connect to my artistic practice also. I have learnt a lot through writing my research report and it has been an enjoyable procedure for me. My dissertation, which links psychoanalysis with artistic practice, and investigates the correlation between catharsis and play, and creative practice and psychodevelopment, has enlightened some areas of my artistic practice that reflect some psychoanalytical play techniques.
One for example is the Fort Da vignette. Through a prolonged case study of his grandson Ernst, Freud made claim to some progressive observational conclusions on the motives of play. “Fort” and “Da” literally translate to “Gone” and “There”, and were the utterances of Sigmund Freud’s eighteen-‐month-‐old grandson Ernst when playing with toys. It is the game’s therapeutic motive that interested Freud, who at the time was studying the compulsion to repeat during traumatic neurosis. He observed how the child put himself in control of his own traumatic situation, much like how an adult holds complete responsibility and independence in their life. Ernst took control over the past traumatic event by flinging a thread spool over his cot then reeling it back in towards him, a gesture of losing and finding, this reinforced by Ernst’s verbal declarations of “Fort” when the spool disappeared from sight, and “Da” when it reappeared. Freud noted how this reflects the general wish of children to be “grown up”, as well as a desire to overcome the emotional turmoil trauma leaves behind. So it is suggested by Freud that Ernst was taking the situation of his mother’s departure into his own hands and re-‐mastering it as a more positive scenario in game-‐form, with a joyful conclusion of the return of the spool.
Although I have previously discovered the cathartic and tactile qualities of my own creative process (or "play") and how my own artistic procedure is often a purgation of my rich inner reality, this research unveiled to me perhaps some more obvious similarities between my research report and my studio practice.
For one, I could not ignore how physically similar the process of me unravelling my twine for my work is to the Fort Da case study. I am always in possession and concise control of the ball of twine, and relinquish it from myself just to retrieve it again. This see-saw of holding on and letting go, the tension of the string and spool eventually ebbing into nothing, although at first just appearing a banal and boring activity to create the material required for my work, was subconsciously integral to the underlying meaning to my work, which is childhood, play, and creativity coinciding to mould us into the future person we are meant to be.
Of course the unravelling process and how I do it was always intentionally an activity of tension and unwinding, it was inspired by my own nervous behaviour of fiddling with my hair. It was always a considered action, not just a requirement to get the material I needed. When I tell people about this process they always expect it to be a random action, but it was not, it was calculated and I knew about it's cathartic and psychoanalytical connotations.
So at this point I have come to the decision to stick with the unravelling of the jute and not purchase it in bulk. The process is to relevant to the principles of my practice, and I intend to commit to it fully and integrate the ritualistic and somewhat gruelling process of the making an evidential element of the outcome. Which is my degree show piece.
09/04/14
Today I commenced building the structure of my degree show piece, it may not be the final version but I have began exploring the limitations and potential of this structure, pushing it to see how far it can go. So far it is successful and the string dipped in plaster is proving a durable, although not too flexible, "skeleton" for the form. I appreciate how there is a skeletal-like structure underneath the wrapping of the jute twine, and I think it reflects the psychoanalytical and personal motives of this piece. The white skeleton is still a representation of my childhood and hostile home life which involved drugs and violence like how it was in BA7, and the jute is like a physical representation of the conscious, contemporary mind concealing trauma.
I appreciate the texture of the string dipped in plaster still, which although bone-like, is highly brittle, and seems to shakily and stubborn stand together, regardless of it's fragility.
The technique I applied here, was to hammer some nails to my studio space wall, then dip 6ft long (the height of my degree show space wall) lengths of string in plaster of paris, then sling and hang these wet strands to the nails on the wall.
This process is meticulous yet messy, and I feel as though this reflects the interior and exterior contradictory essence of this work, which is not only highly personal and emotional, but a commentary on the conduits and membranes that contain energy essentially to our survival such as oxygen in veins, or water in a building. It is not only the shape and format of the conduits which is linear and complex which inspires the materialistic concerns of my work, but the function of them, which can be shattered in an instant. And it is this panic and sense of emergency that is connected to my anxiety, and that usually of everyone else. My work is bound tightly with the potential of fear.
I eventually took the piece down off the wall to observe the ways in which I could bind the jute twine to the structure. The base interested me aesthetically, the way the string pools onto the floor is a key part of the piece, it will reflect the weight of the work and communicate an ending to the narrative of this piece.
17/04/14
As well as working on my degree show piece I find it helpful to be consolidating this work by developing the concerns of this piece with other sculptural forms. I have revised the notion of escape and the physical act of climbing to add an interactive dimension to my practice. Not only that, the weaving and unravelling I have been practising in preparation for my large scale sculpture has been reminding me of childhood games such as playing with or making "Scooby Doos" and board games which require strategical mobility, such as snakes and ladders. It is important to my practice that it remains in dialogue with childhood play, as my work's starting point was in experimental, playful activity.
I began this investigation by creating a rope ladder by simply formatting a long grid and tying knots and cutting the material. Returning back to the lattice form, an area of austere, organised comfort for me, artistically and emotionally.
I admire the photographs of this form more than I do with the actual form. Yet the actual form is deliberately flimsy and unsafe, this is me manifesting the concerns of domestic and mental insecurity and fear in general.
With the second ladder I created, I chose a set of materials marginally more secure and safe, with the arrangement of a pre-made children's rope ladder.
I found it challenging and unusual to be working with a sculpture that was not made by myself, and simply placed into the context of my practice through placement. I enabled this children's ladder to be an art piece by simply placing it in my studio space.
However, the placement of the piece created a narrative of immobility and claustrophobia, as this ladder leads to nowhere. Yet the ladder still has potential to be used as an escape method, as there is length to the ladder left, trailing on the floor. This beginning step was successful to me in the sense it acknowledged the sense of claustrophobia, however I do want to push that concept even more, and hinder the ladder of it's original function further.
20/04/14
I have revised my interest in purely natural materials and the raw state they come in and have began to experiment with the wool fleece I have had for a while. This interest in material in it's rawest, and potentially most vulnerable state was inspired by the research I am currently making on the Arte Povera movement. The Arte Povera artists even considered ecology in the premises of their activity and they constantly explored how our experiences of everyday life can be interpreted and extended through art. A key idea informing many of their works was an emphasis on investigating the links between the natural organic world and humanity.
Fleece is, like hair, made of fibrous cells and amino acids that make up the proteins that contribute to the layers and layers of cellular structure that gives hair its durability.
With a process that used entirely natural and simple every day materials, I dyed the wool to give it a blonde hue. I am still exploring the idea of making my work more indentifiable as my own by having all of the textiles involved a blonde colour, to match the colour of my own hair. However I am now disputing this slightly as it seems slightly too blantant.
Continuing with the themes of Rapunzel and claustrophobia in my head, I applied this material to the ladder. It is the fluidity of this material's temperament I appreciate, it's sensual and gravity influences it to hang down morosely.
It's the juxtaposition of the austerity of the ladder and the sensuality of the wool that creates a conflict in this form. I am not happy with the bright green rope on the ladder with the rest of the composition and colour, but that cannot be helped as the ladder was purchased that way and I would like it to remain uninfluenced. What interested me also was how the wool from a distance looks less comforting than how it does close up, it looks more like a liquid, and then when you see it closer, you realise it's wool, and there is a comforting quality to that. Which is odd as I aimed for this piece to be claustrophobic and give the onlooker the sense of perceived entrapment, this work has actually become more inviting. This piece however is tangible, and there is a sense of somewhat attractive tactility to it.
I aim to exhibit this piece at an exhibition to test the perception of it by an audience. I am holding with a group at the Fabric Warehouse in Norwich. I chose this gallery space as it is above the Fabric Warehouse store, and all of us exhibiting are working with manipulating fabric to achieve form.
27/04/14
This week has been spent extensively working on my degree show piece, aware of the time frame I have left, I have scheduled myself a deadline to finish all practical work by 5th May, according to my learning agreement. I have stuck to this deadline well so far, and despite the slow progress of making the work, it is happening slowly although surely. The process of unravelling the twine then ravelling it up again onto the "skeleton" is becoming enjoyable to me and I am completely immersed in it's cathartic qualities. It is highly ritualistic and strangely calming. This was also an aim for my degree show piece, to purge my inner excess and display that process. Like a child at play, my current practice is a manifestation of my internal reality and imagination.
The above photo is me observing how the piece would look like piled together, which completely changes the shape of the work. Which is now coiled and tense instead of dangling freely. I admire the way the work looks lying on the floor however, which is snake-like and dominates the room, preventing anyone from walking along. This is an aspect of the display I may consider, this work may be more restricting and claustrophobic to the viewer if it is on the floor, restricting steps.
The way I intend for the degree show piece to hang is liberated, although not as it is still going to be committed to the wall it will be "emerging" over. However this work will contain an element of freedom, as the concept of escape is one of it's main premises. Growth is also an idea observed in this work. . And the way the piece will creep down the wall will be reminiscent of forestry and vines, a growing being. This piece can definitely contain an element of the anthropomorphic, I see a disturbing beast emerging from this work.
4/05/14
As I am applying the jute twine to the structure for my degree show piece, I analyse the process and steps involved to produce my desired outcome. The gathering and unravelling of the twine, as noted before, has become integral to the work and has become a cathartic, comforting "transitional object" to me, and has even proved calming. Which is something I approve of as I want there to be an emotional input into this piece.
I see the unravelling as an ongoing project, it is completely perpetual. It also reminds me of psychoanalysis in general, and in a way it could be a metaphor to it, in the sense that in analysis you unravel yourself and reach into your subconscious and draw it out, like how I do with the ball of twine. You unhinge your memories and expose them to the light of the present.
And after examining the formal definitions of the word "unravel" I did come across the investigative definition of the word, which means to solve something. And that definition is cohesive as to unravel also suggests straightening a material out, and untangling it, relieving it of complication and dilemma.
In a way, this piece is about the chaos and disturbance that can be triggered by regressive psychoanalysis, and then piecing it back together with the knowledge and self-awareness obtained in analysis.
As I have arranged for an exhibition to be held at The Fabric Warehouse, I plan to exhibit work and also lead a performance piece. My work subtly addresses fears and anxiety, and the prospect of performing to people terrifies me, I think this performance could represent the nerves and anxiety associated with my own fear attached to performing. It would be interesting to step out of my comfort zone. It would be a way of conveying the bodily influence involved in the ritual, my work has developed over BA8, and now it is more about the procedure of making as opposed to the end outcome. This reverence for process and the continuity of work is a concept shared by the Arte Povera artists, who revered the notion of change and fluxes in life and history, and acknowledged the fact even an exhibited piece would be affected by the passing of time.
-Germano Celant, in "Knot Art". An extract about "The Knot: Arte Povera" the 1985 exhibition. Taken from "Arte Povera: Storia e storie" by Germano Celant.
06/05/14
I have decided to wire up the sculpture's "branches" for extra support, it will help them cling to the wall. So I have began to insert the narrow, flexible wiring into the twine "branches", and then I cover the exposed silver wire with extra twine.
As for the progress being made on the presentation and arrangement of my degree show piece through practicing it's hanging off the wall in my studio space, it is too wide at the bottom. It is resembling hair too much. As this work is meant to represent escape and entrapment, it should resemble a conventional ladder more, which is more straight up and straight down as a structure.
I am amending this small issue by removing some of the bound twine and exposing the white tips, which suggest the process and structure of the sculpture.
Also it has been said by viewers who have viewed the work at this stage that the formation of th wrapped twine makes it look too much like dreadlocks, the mass is too weighted in the centre.
I intend to expose the wrapping gesture in the work by experimenting with a new layout and arranging the work so the wrapped, curled tendrils drape down.
Like the fairytales I analysed for my research report, I am trying to approach the work like it is a story, as it does contain a beginning, middle and end, and it contains a fluid structure.
So I have changed the foot of the piece, from a continuation of the bound twine around the "skeleton", to a simple exposure of the process I had adopted when making the piece. Now the base of the work will reveal the gesture of the making, with the leftover strands of twine curling off the sculpture.
To me, it is the representation of composition degenerating into an orderless and organic origin, it sums up the methodology behind psychoanalysis, which is all about "unravelling" the past, to reveal future and present neuroses.
09/05/14
'All play moves and has it's being within a play-ground marked off beforehand either materially or ideally, deliberately as a matter of course. Just as there is no formal difference between play and ritual, so the "consecrated spot" cannot be formally distinguished from the playground.' - Johan Huizinga, "Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture".
My work's concerns switch dynamically between intensive process and intricately interesting aesthetic.
My work begins with the thought (the neurosis), manifesting through the process, then ending with the aesthetic. Although this realisation is generalised and can be applied to almost any practicing artist. Except I look at the negative thoughts, the distress, which then results in creative ritual. I do consider the aesthetic, and I appreciate the tangiability of my finished works, which are inspired by industrial and precautionary materials such as safety nets, ladders and conduits. And also inspired by the natural and visceral, such as hair, membranes and cells. I have enjoyed creating a dialogue between the austere and the bodily.
I give aesthetic consideration as it is my very own theory that the audience can relate to a work more if it is visually stimulating or attractive to them, and my main aim of my practice is for the audience is to relate emotionally to my work. If a person just "likes" the look of my work, then I can be satisfied, as in that appreciation a harmonious, reciprocated reaction is achieved.
10/05/14
This week I have played with the presentation of my degree show piece, and considered new options and alternatives to it's placement. As I too intend to exhibit this work at the Fabric Warehouse show I am co-curating, along with the ladder piece I have been working on. As there are two parralel columns in the gallery space, I decided to utilise them and create an interactive dialogue between the two pieces on the two different columns.
Instead of placing the works facing the same way on these columns, I have decided on having the pieces placed on opposite sides of the columns. Because if they were next to each other the element of abortion and escape is too conspicuous. This unity of the works through their interactive placement, encouraging the viewer to walk around the work, makes their concept more penetrable.
After considering the idea of suspending the pieces off the ceiling, the idea was rejected when it was confirmed that I couldn't use the ceiling due to health and safety precautions.
I also realised that hanging the work freely from the ceiling in fact, eludes the principles of the work by not committing to the concept of the conduit, and evades the connection with the architectural space, as the work would be suspending in mid air. Revising the conceptual intentions for the piece, I intend for there to be more of a reliability on the wall and ceiling for the work to crawl out of.
12/05/14
'The formalist critic would ignore an artist's emotional and psychological biography. The traditionalist might discredit a madwoman's art as naive, unschooled and ultimately isolated from art-historical discourse... I believe that Kusama's condition as she explains in interviews and writings relates fundamentally to the imagery and method of her art.'
-Alexandra Munroe, curator of Yayoi Kusama's 1989 retrospective exhibition at the centre for International Arts in New York.
I wonder if I am supplying enough context to my exhibited works. Could I possibly add a description next to the works? I know we are having a statement present at the degree show to support the work. But I want the work to carry it's own message through form and evidenced gesture.
In order to consolidate this principle I need to refer back to my degree show publication statement, to see how informative it is. It is intentionally revealing of how and why I make my work.
When I look at the work psychoanalytically, I see myself covering my family and personal history with myself and my looks (i.e. my long, curly blonde hair). I see a burial of a dead time, unravelling after being closed off to everyone for so long. The jute twine wrapping around and round the bare, bleached bones of my childhood becoming unravelled... My own psychoanalytical therapy, is my artistic practice.
And reading this quote by Munroe on critical perceptions of Fine Art, considering background and emotional and psychological contexts, has really revealed to me the emotional story being told through the aesthetic and process of my degree show piece.
18/05/14
The exhibition, "Means of Escape", named so to depict the transient themes observed in mine and my fellow artist's works, whether represented physically or less obviously through subtler physical manifestations of habits, all of us successfully addressed the theme of escape and "phantasy".
Taking part in this exhibition for me was mainly to obtain uninformed perspectives on my pieces, unbiased opinions that were open to interpret the work with no idea of context.
First I playfully experimented with ways of exhibiting the work, wary of the totally unintentional 'dreadlock' connotations the forms were already communicating to the audience.
This refiguration of the form, although interesting to explore, proved to not come to anything, as this work to me, was too short to exhibit it like this. Adding a twisting motion to the work which hints at the convoluted, wrapping process of making it which is integral to it's concept, and also adding a new level of exploration the viewer would have to endure to experience the work. It also suggests the notion of growth, through coiling round the pillar like a vine, and growth is one of the conceptual concerns cocooned in my works, as growth involves time and development, needed to regress back into to explore the self.
The exhibition was also a good place to try out some performance work, and on a timed rota, I unravelled twine to a small audience. In half hour slots, balancing the ball of jute twine on a windowsill, I stretched the yarn out and paced forwards and back, bringing the yarn out and then being pulled back in in a rhythmic looping of physical action.
The most rewarding aspect of this show however was gaining some insight on unbiased opinions of the works. A comments book we left out for visitors provided information on how the audience reacted to the work.
Although my work is referred to as "the dreadlock ladders" much to my chagrin, I was satisfied to see that my work had a tangible quality to it, that the tactile process of making it had rung through to the end result. The sensory aspect of touch is highly present in my practice, which supports the basis of skin and membranes that ignited these sculptures. It also proved to me that placing the works adjacently implemented an informative comparison between the two objects, resulting in an interactive and tactile effect on the audience.
22/05/14
This week was the setting up of the degree show, after spending the previous week removing tables, chairs and work and painting, cutting in and sanding down walls, the final step happened and my final degree show piece was installed.
I used simple storage hooks which are attached to the wall through drilling screws in, to then hang the branches over the edge of the wall, to give the illusion of the "being" emerging over the wall. Annoyingly, the screws wouldn't drill into the wall fully, so the hooks were left only partially secured to the wall. However this worked to an advantage as it meant there was more room for movement in the work.
After working my way downwards from the top of the wall to the end of the work, I found it complete after making that final and crucial adjustment. I got on a ladder to install the work, and I applied the pieces in a downward direction, climbing down the real ladder, a backwards take on the "wanting to get out" premise of this sculpture.
I deliberated for ages for a title for the work, then managed to think of a semi-title at the last minute, "conscientious". Conscientiousness is a personality trait commonly associated with anxiety sufferers, and can describe a person who is a perfectionist and undergoes laborious processes to achieve what they see in their minds eye. Conscientiousness can be manifested in characterised behavioural patterns such as neatness and obsessiveness, this obsessiveness and austere control contrasted with a visceral flow has been present through the making of this piece. Although bodily, this work is highly systematic, like the blood vessels in the human anatomy, the long tendrils carry a certain energy and meticulous planning. Conscientiousness is one of the big five personality traits, along with neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness and openness, and this classing of people's personality is a similar compartmentalising seen in my practice, the control of an unruly element, such as a human being's personality. And in a way, psychoanalysis is like that too, a clinical and regimented approach to understanding a person.
After a London galleries/museums trip over the weekend I have found myself analysing my use of colour in my work. When deliberately receiving feedback for my work I often find that people want me to apply artificial colouring to the materials seen in my practice. Commonly, peers ask me how my work would look if the plaster was painted a colour, especially black as its the opposite to white. Although my string pieces from last term are deliberately white, they are an allusion to the drug habits that were in my household as a child, I decided to apply colours to the string.
Colour choosing was a deliberated and considered process, and I thought of the colours that could reflect the inside/outside concerns that are evident in my current practice.
Visiting Alex Van Gelder's "Meat Portraits" exhibition at Hauser and Wirth in London was a pivotal moment in my observation of colour observed in viscera, the rich reds and purples seen are weirdly attractive hues, they reminded me of foods, jam in particular. At "Meat Portraits" there was a loud juxtaposition of the tangible and the repulsive, communicated through Van Gelder's observations of tactile colour shades. Infection yellow and haemoglobin red, the viewer is swung from disgusted to interested, and almost hungry.
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| "Painted Paint 007" 2012, colour photograph, Val Gelder |
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| "Meat Portraits #10" 2012, colour photograph, Van Gelder |
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| "Meat Portraits #16", 2012, colour photograph, Val Gelder |
Although the composition and observation seen in this exhibition by Van Gelder himself is interesting enough, my area of enquiry to take from this exhibition is in the colours seen in viscera.
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| A painting from the exhibition at Hauser and Wirth and some colour ideas |
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| Me applying the rich red tone seen in Viscera to a twisted string piece |
04/02/14
I am beginning to see an emerging theme of the conflict between the internal and the external in my practice, particularly in the form of the body vs. the building. The architecturally designed building is made for the purpose of containing, for keeping things neat and ordered. Like how I explored previously with the way knots are utilised for order and neatness, I think buildings and their walls do that as well. I am interested in the chaos spilling out, a physical catharsis. I have looked at the linear viscera seen in organisms, but now I turn to the unexposed wires and plumbing in architectural space.
I have already explored this in second year when I investigated the derelict St. Andrews mental institution as a place of fear, and now I refer to some of my favourite images from this project.
Next week I plan to photograph the St. Georges building space, which is highly similiar in ways to that of St. Andrew's, both institutions and both built around the same time in Norfolk. And it is a useful exercise for me to consider degree show space and how I can respond to that space and translate my work onto such a platform.
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| Me responding to the tangles and vines of the electric cables seen at St. Andrew's with my twine "hair" material. |
10/02/14
Still responding and questioning the linear forms of the wires and vessels used to transport material, I have sourced some roving wool yarn, which is wool spun into long and narrow bundles of wool fibre. Although they are not hollow, so don't contain the space for flux of material, the roving still has the flexible and linear properties I am interested in for the aesthetic of my works. It mimics the conduits well, yet merely interprets the form.
I am also still regarding the nervous behaviour as material for my artistic practice, and after practising a certain self-awareness to detect nervous actions I exert, I discovered something new. After experimenting with roving wool yarn I observed myself, still in the fluxes of fiddling and twisting the string, rolling the wool into tiny balls. I carried on doing this for hours until I had a substantial pile of the material, to which I reflected and considered ways of displaying this work.
I observe the ritual compulsion of making these balls and I turn to my research again for reaffirmation of the procedure, and a particularly significant quote from "Homo Ludens" by Johan Huizinga jumps out at me.
' There is no formal difference between play and ritual.' (1949: 10)
A definition of the word "worry" is to "pull at or fiddle with repeatedly". Another definition of "worry" is more cerebral, meaning to figure something out with "persistent thought". Either way, both of these definitions express the physical language seen in the piece I have created above. A persistent, repetitive ritual, communicating a conscientious anxiety.
I have come to realise when I have consciously applied colour to my work it is in it's purest, natural state. When I attempted to add colour (see above) even in a pure, pigmented form like the red pigment I used, it came across as disjointing and irrational in relation to the work.
A lot can be said in my practice currently for my application of pure and natural forms, the way I pick apart the string so it becomes raw twine reverses the gesture which was applied to give it it's use in the first place. I regress the material into a simpler state, then wrap it back up again to make a new form.
An artist I am taking inspiration from who also follows this technique is Arte Povera artist Jannis Kounellis. I saw his "Untitled" (1968) in the Tate Modern and it's combined restraint and sensuality interested me, it had a dual meaning. The sensuality of the pure wool in it' rawest state, and the austere wood ladder it rests on echo some of the structures seen in my work also, which is controlled yet wild in it's composition. This is an element I want to continue to portray through my work, which I feel as though is an accurate personal metaphor, represented through form.
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| 'Untitled', 1968, Jannis Kounnellis. Wood and Wool. displayed: 2500 x 2810 x 450 mm |
15/02/14
I have Expanded on my starting point for BA8 of the membrane and secular, layered forms, and the tension of the hair growing up through the epithelium. I have got my hands on an electronic USB microscope to examine the structure of the natural fibres, a form that informs the comparison and anatomy of my sculptures. My intention for this exercise is to analyse the texture and fibres that make up a larger, collective form. These were the highly interesting results.
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| My knuckle |
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| arm with hairs sprouting through |
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| the gridded formation of the epithelial cells on the palm of the hand. |
The latticed grid of the skin patterns fascinated me and gave me lots of ideas for future sculptural works. People who have viewed these images were slightly disgusted and that reaction interested me, although it is not the intended reaction I aspired for.
Wool locks magnified. I noticed the tiny, tightly wound curls in the fleece sporadically and zoomed into them. Curls in curly hair are synthesised from disulphide bonds in the hair structure causing the hair follicle molecules to attract to each other more, resulting in spiral, looping formation. A spiral form has already been noted by me as an area of interest in my practice.
Jute twine magnified was as I expected, brittle, grass-like (due to the fact jute is extracted from Corchorus capsularis). However I appreciated how it came up so stark in the images, this is because of the jute twine's thick, dry cuticle.
I also magnified the jute in it's entwined, string formation.
Human hair magnified. What I noticed about the human hair was that it was so light in colour (as it is my own blonde hair), it was practically transluscent, and reflected the light giving the aesthetic of the hair a fibre optic, vitreous quality.
I have ideas of how to respond to these findings physically by making studio and workshop work, and intend to execute them.
17/02/14
I have naturally reached the conclusion of my decision of what to exhibit for my degree show out of my body of studio work, and I have decided to make a new work. Out of the materials I have used above (plaster, string and twine), I intend to make a stream of hair-like material cascading down over the wall, a Rapunzel-esque commentary on domestic and psychological entrapment expressed through the compulsive twisting and wrapping of twine.
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| A sketch of the intention of placement and materials for degree show work. |
My intentions for the work's emotional impact is to provoke an uncomfortable, yet tangible impression on the viewer. After reading "Hold It Against Me" by Jennifer Doyle, who coined the term "difficult" as being an adjective that is more applicable to the artist's experience of producing something that is an emotional process to them. I want to convey this sense of emotional outpour to the audience through the form. I aspire for this work to induce a sense of unease as well, which I think is achievable as onlookers have already described my work as "creepy." I also intend for the audience to feel wary of the work, yet also want to touch it. I aim for the work to own an element of empathy as well. Communication of an emotion that can be collective was always my aim for this work, and for my practice in general, I have held this ambition for this work since the beginning of my degree. Although some of the aims for the concept and perception of this piece seem conflicting, I feel confident I can pull it off, especially with thorough research into exhibiting techniques and consideration of audience. One of my personally most important aims for this exhibited work is that I would also like this work to portray an inner reality, and extract an area of anxiety in me, outwards. I would like this work to purge my inner excess and display that process.
Pragmatically, I chose this because I can make it in the studio and then bring it up to the exhibition space in a straightforward process, as I know from experience the more a piece is complicated, the higher the risk of failure during exhibition. The work will be large and dramatic, I want it to be beautiful yet slightly unnerving, so I am hoping I can be placed in a lowly-lit exhibit space.
This is the statement I wrote for my degree show proposal:
"My practice is the representation of the conflict between external and internal, like the blood vessels that pump oxygen around our body, and the wires that send electrons around a building to power it; there is always an ulterior source of power. My work portrays the tension of the unity of body and mind. Taking inspiration from abreaction theories by Melanie Klein and Sigmund Freud, I make sculptures to draw my rich inner reality out, like how a child does when playing with toys.
These sculptures are an
extension of myself. They are tendrils and tendons from my body figuratively,
but they are brain cells and thoughts literally from my head. I am trying to
think through making."
As for the placement of the piece, I chose to have the work fall down from a height so the viewer really has to explore the work and look around the usual eye level. I want this work to challenge the viewer, I intend for them to question it's motives and methodology, why it looks the way it does.
As for the placement of the piece, I chose to have the work fall down from a height so the viewer really has to explore the work and look around the usual eye level. I want this work to challenge the viewer, I intend for them to question it's motives and methodology, why it looks the way it does.
21/02/14
Exploring the St. Georges building on NUA campus reinforced the area of enquiry on conduits and connecting points for me, I noted the conduits which snaked in unreachable spaces in the building.
28/02/14
I have approached my studio and workshop work with attitudes towards process I learnt from the talk with John Wallbank, and have found myself layering onto works that already existed and expanding their intentions and outcomes.
After looking through a microscope and observing the dually strong yet translucent and brittle hair follicles, I have decided to mimic this aesthetic through utilising glass wax. Dipping and soaking the works in the wax leaves the works encased in this clear coating, like how I have used Plaster of Paris in the past to solidify a material and give it more weight, I have utilised this method again, except more for suffocating the material.
The natural coloured pieces remind me too much of noodles, even when out of the domestic-style cooking pot, yet I am interested by the coloured works which look highly visceral and seem to draw direct inspiration from the Val Gelder exhibition. I plan to develop these works further and maybe onto a bigger scale.
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| Twine and glass wax |
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| Unravelled twine and glass wax |
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| String and glass wax |
As well as it's ethereal, dainty perspicacity that allows us to see the contents, I noticed glass wax as a great material for making linear forms in it's own right. The little thread hairs left behind from the making interested me the most, and reminded me a lot of the hair follicles I had magnified earlier.
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| the jute twine dipped in glass wax after having all of its air removed. |
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| The disintegrated remains of the wool yarn |
There was definitely a certain alchemy involved in making these pieces, and the chemistry had to be known. With help from 3D Workshop staff I was able to learn what the boiling points were for certain materials such as the glass wax, and attempt to suck some of the air out of the Jute twine with a vacuum, in order to stop the glass wax from clouding up. Some of the materials reacted acutely in the glass wax, and disintegrated, the nylon in the wool yarn I had melted then turned an oozy yellow colour.
03/03/14
At this point I am considering my audience again, and the aims of my exhibited works. Although my practice expresses the concerns of my research report, which is psychodevelopment influencing the future artist.
I engaged in a short writing exercise on my typewriter I have owned since childhood, and one of my favourite playthings as I would write stories on it. So in this sense, this is an activity in abreaction. Through this exercise I addressed my childhood neuroses and linked them with creative activity, the correlation of these two factors are a key question in my research.
Here I am questioning whether I created to escape the chaos in my external life, or whether I just created for pure fun. The first theory was advocated by Melanie Klein and DW Winnicott and the latter was penned by Johan Huizinga.
I can see the conflicting psychoanalytical views on play again, Freud seeing play as an outlet for inner emotional turmoil and Winnicott observing the phenomenon of play as just a means of irrational fun.
The top piece is me regressing on the origins of my worrying, and the lower piece is more about how I externalised the narratives of my imagination.
The irregularities in the type works for me as it shows the flow of the process, the shaky and hazy film of an old memory, and the repeated letters add a stuttered effect, which can suggest anxiety. Particularly in the first exerpt, I feel as though these are successful visually.
10/03/14
After revising the fundamental ethics and tenets to what psychoanalysis is I see a significant growth in the area of the theory surrounding my practice. This can be noted in my summer sketchbook, "Psychoanalysis of the self", a scrapbook containing material experimentations and musings on my early childhood and artistic development seen therein.
The fact is, although it is aesthetically pleasing, this sketchbook was far too obvious. Yes it was about psychoanalysis because there were photographs of me as a child in it.
Now I want my practice to be researched, analysed and considered. To have that intellectual depth of enquiry revealed in achieve a more coherent point of knowledge about myself and my practice. As an artist, the two are intertwined.
It also occurred to me today how the fairy tale of Rapunzel ties into my current practice, as the utilisation of hair is represented as a means of escape. This realisation came about due to reading Bettelheim's "The Uses of Enchantment". Rapunzel was trapped in her tower by an evil enchantress, and left the tower by letting down her long hair down the side of the building and going out to explore the world beyond her domestic confinement. In the original tale Rapunzel actually wove silk into her hair to make it longer and more durable for the King's son to climb up, but I am trying to avoid and not psychoanalyse the original Rapunzel as it may influence my work and make the visual language seen more gimmicky. However I did research Rapunzel in the section of "The Uses of Enchantment" about the tale of Rapunzel, but I have decided to recall Rapunzel from memory and interpret it from there.
I engaged in a short writing exercise on my typewriter I have owned since childhood, and one of my favourite playthings as I would write stories on it. So in this sense, this is an activity in abreaction. Through this exercise I addressed my childhood neuroses and linked them with creative activity, the correlation of these two factors are a key question in my research.
Here I am questioning whether I created to escape the chaos in my external life, or whether I just created for pure fun. The first theory was advocated by Melanie Klein and DW Winnicott and the latter was penned by Johan Huizinga.
I can see the conflicting psychoanalytical views on play again, Freud seeing play as an outlet for inner emotional turmoil and Winnicott observing the phenomenon of play as just a means of irrational fun.
The top piece is me regressing on the origins of my worrying, and the lower piece is more about how I externalised the narratives of my imagination.
The irregularities in the type works for me as it shows the flow of the process, the shaky and hazy film of an old memory, and the repeated letters add a stuttered effect, which can suggest anxiety. Particularly in the first exerpt, I feel as though these are successful visually.
10/03/14
After revising the fundamental ethics and tenets to what psychoanalysis is I see a significant growth in the area of the theory surrounding my practice. This can be noted in my summer sketchbook, "Psychoanalysis of the self", a scrapbook containing material experimentations and musings on my early childhood and artistic development seen therein.
The fact is, although it is aesthetically pleasing, this sketchbook was far too obvious. Yes it was about psychoanalysis because there were photographs of me as a child in it.
Now I want my practice to be researched, analysed and considered. To have that intellectual depth of enquiry revealed in achieve a more coherent point of knowledge about myself and my practice. As an artist, the two are intertwined.
It also occurred to me today how the fairy tale of Rapunzel ties into my current practice, as the utilisation of hair is represented as a means of escape. This realisation came about due to reading Bettelheim's "The Uses of Enchantment". Rapunzel was trapped in her tower by an evil enchantress, and left the tower by letting down her long hair down the side of the building and going out to explore the world beyond her domestic confinement. In the original tale Rapunzel actually wove silk into her hair to make it longer and more durable for the King's son to climb up, but I am trying to avoid and not psychoanalyse the original Rapunzel as it may influence my work and make the visual language seen more gimmicky. However I did research Rapunzel in the section of "The Uses of Enchantment" about the tale of Rapunzel, but I have decided to recall Rapunzel from memory and interpret it from there.
13/03/14
My unravelling and Rumpelstiltskin
Because the twine I use for my sculptures is usually a gold/mousey brown/blonde shade, I began to think of the fairytale Rumpelstiltskin, when the millers daughter, is locked in the tower and has to make gold thread out of straw.
This is a direct metaphor of the process involved in me gathering the materials needed for my practice. It also alludes to the sense of entrapment I get when making my work, I tend to work and live in one room at the moment which is in fact, the top floor of a rather tall, three story house. There is a sense of me crafting something significant and valuable through hard labour in the form of an art piece, out of common material (jute twine). I can see the parallels between Rumpelstiltskin and my own practice. Although this comparison may seem tentative and the comparison obvious, I would think this now as fairy tales are at the forefront of my consciousness as I am writing about them for my research report. For me, the interest and enquiry lies in how children relate to these narratives and can apply the messages in them to their development and every day life.
The miller's daughter in Rumpelstiltskin has the imp, Rumpelstiltskin to help her spin the straw into gold in return for the jewels on her, and in the end, her first born child.
Rumpelstiltskin was one of my favourite fairy tales as a child, partly due to the fact it was in one of my favourite books, and for a few moral reasons I could identify with the help of Bruno Bettelheim's "The Uses of Enchantment".
Applying the psychoanalytical technique in "The Uses of Enchantment" I could highlight a few aspects that made me connect with Rumpelstiltskin on an interpersonal level, therefore enjoy reading it at the age of 5/6.
My father had bought it for me from work he was doing abroad, and maybe I identified with the reunion of the family at the end of the book, it's possible I felt slightly abandoned by my dad, who was always working abroad at this stage, and the family to me, may have felt disjointed. As I remember enjoying the end of the book in particular, when the Queen outsmarts the wicked Rumpelstiltskin and reclaims her child who was briefly taken from her by Rumpelstiltskin.
It's also worth noting that my brother was an infant at this point in time as well, although I was jealous of him and the attention he was receiving, I still knew he was a permanent fixture, so that could be part of my relating to Rumpelstiltskin too.
However, as the separation the child from the family was brief, I draw my attention to my life at my new school, which was a brief separation from my parents every day, especially as they were both in employment at this time, and I was looked after by an au pair. Maybe I related to the brief separation anxiety seen at the end of Rumpelstiltskin.
It is hard to achieve an accurate psychoanalytical reading of my relation to the story of Rumpelstiltskin at this stage of my childhood as a) I was so young, I can barely remember the context to my family and personal life at that point in time and b) psychoanalysis usually occurs externally with a third party overlooking another person. I don't have the skillset required to achieve clarity on my emotional development at this stage.
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| Shelley Duvall as the Miller's Daughter in "Faerie Tale Theatre" (1982). |
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17/03/14
Degree show curation meeting and consideration of presentation
Today I managed to see the space I will be exhibiting my work (SG64) in at the degree show, and I feel as though it may be a successful space for a piece like the one I am exhibiting.
One issue I am facing however is the low light, the plug sockets in the space will all be in use, as two other students are using the mains to power their video pieces. My concern is that the detail of the methodology of the unravelling then re-ravelling onto the structure will be overlooked by the audience due to the low light levels. Low visibility may prevent the viewer from noticing the detail in my work, which is important as the process and gesture are the essence of the work. Not only that, Lian (a co-exhibitor in the space) requires a certain degree of darkness for his exhibit, and I am concerned that that will encroach onto my space.
However, after discussing this with Sarah (our curation tutor) I discovered that it will be difficult to obtain spot lights or clip-on lights for my space, and if I did I would have to get them PAT-tested, but this idea became obsolete anyway when I documented the space later on in the day (early evening) and noticed the substantial amount of light that can access the room.
And I figured the slight darkness could enhance the eeriness of my piece, encouraging the viewer to peer closer at the details of the piece. One of my main aims for the work is for the viewer to feel free to explore the piece, even touch it if necessary.
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Although I enjoyed having shelving to simply store my work in the studio space, and almost as a mood board for reflection on work that inspired me previously, I don't see myself exhibiting like this for degree show. My plan for the degree show was always to create a work that invaded the space and had an unnerving, intruding quality to be perceived by the viewer. I aimed to take the work away from the diminutive mock up quality of my material experimentations that occurred in BA7 and the beginning of this term. My degree show piece is going to be larger in scale. The scale for these small prototypes was considered and planned, as it was relevant to the concept of the anthropomorphic, but now my practice's scale has entered a new area of an architectural domineering of space, to reflect the concerns of the work itself.
This is the top of the wall, the space I will be hooking my piece over. I measured the length and width of this wall, to ascertain that my work would be built accurately to fit the scale of this wall successfully.
The rest of SG64, our exhibition space, which is currently the studio space of first Fine Art students.
26/03/14
After looking at Rumplestiltskin and other fairy tales I noted the shade of the jute I am using as a pointer that reveals a key concept in my current practice. Hair is key part of identity in human beings, and my work is highly autobiographical, students and lecturers have recently pointed out how "Caitlin" my work is. I feel as though this type of identifying a work as being related to a certain artist proves that artist does have a unique style, so I am satsified to see at this stage in my artistic development that my work can be recognised as my own.
I decided to experiment more with different shades of blonde, to see if there are other potential materials I can utilize in a new vein of my work that can branch off the twine-wrapped-around-plaster-string branch I am already focusing on.
I have decided to look for different alternatives to jute twine as it is nearly impossible for me to obtain raw jute on it's own, although I have attempted to contact wholesalers (see below) and unravelling the jute twine, although the process is integral to the concept of my practice and degree show piece, it's highly time consuming. At this point I need to make the decision on whether or not to commit to the unravelling fully and just immerse myself in unravelling twine for the next month, or whether to cut a corner slightly. As lengthy and exhausting the process is of unravelling twine, I find it compulsive and strangely cathartic.
This experimentation will aid me on making my material decision.
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| After trying simple, undyed wadding I decided against it as a material, it was too untextured and lacked the depth of the other substances I used. It did not cling to the plaster with enough tactility either. |
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| Some beige coloured wool roving proved to work well on the structure, it fitted in well with the rest of the large hair piece, and actually added a bit of tonal depth to the structure. |
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| A part of the degree show piece I am currently working on, with the wool branch in the bottom right of the image. |
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| A bright yellow jute twine I found in a packet of three (below). The texture is entirely different to the undyed, raw twine. It's slightly dryer and less tactile and fluffy. However to me it was the most successful out of all of the experimentations I have done today, and I intend to expand on it. The yellow comes accross as a vibrant shade, and reminds me of tumeric. |
03/04/14
As the deadline for my dissertation approaches I have reached some significant and important conclusions from my research that connect to my artistic practice also. I have learnt a lot through writing my research report and it has been an enjoyable procedure for me. My dissertation, which links psychoanalysis with artistic practice, and investigates the correlation between catharsis and play, and creative practice and psychodevelopment, has enlightened some areas of my artistic practice that reflect some psychoanalytical play techniques.
One for example is the Fort Da vignette. Through a prolonged case study of his grandson Ernst, Freud made claim to some progressive observational conclusions on the motives of play. “Fort” and “Da” literally translate to “Gone” and “There”, and were the utterances of Sigmund Freud’s eighteen-‐month-‐old grandson Ernst when playing with toys. It is the game’s therapeutic motive that interested Freud, who at the time was studying the compulsion to repeat during traumatic neurosis. He observed how the child put himself in control of his own traumatic situation, much like how an adult holds complete responsibility and independence in their life. Ernst took control over the past traumatic event by flinging a thread spool over his cot then reeling it back in towards him, a gesture of losing and finding, this reinforced by Ernst’s verbal declarations of “Fort” when the spool disappeared from sight, and “Da” when it reappeared. Freud noted how this reflects the general wish of children to be “grown up”, as well as a desire to overcome the emotional turmoil trauma leaves behind. So it is suggested by Freud that Ernst was taking the situation of his mother’s departure into his own hands and re-‐mastering it as a more positive scenario in game-‐form, with a joyful conclusion of the return of the spool.
Although I have previously discovered the cathartic and tactile qualities of my own creative process (or "play") and how my own artistic procedure is often a purgation of my rich inner reality, this research unveiled to me perhaps some more obvious similarities between my research report and my studio practice.
For one, I could not ignore how physically similar the process of me unravelling my twine for my work is to the Fort Da case study. I am always in possession and concise control of the ball of twine, and relinquish it from myself just to retrieve it again. This see-saw of holding on and letting go, the tension of the string and spool eventually ebbing into nothing, although at first just appearing a banal and boring activity to create the material required for my work, was subconsciously integral to the underlying meaning to my work, which is childhood, play, and creativity coinciding to mould us into the future person we are meant to be.
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| A still of a video documentation exercise I executed to observe how I look from a third person perspective, when unravelling the jute twine. |
So at this point I have come to the decision to stick with the unravelling of the jute and not purchase it in bulk. The process is to relevant to the principles of my practice, and I intend to commit to it fully and integrate the ritualistic and somewhat gruelling process of the making an evidential element of the outcome. Which is my degree show piece.
09/04/14
Today I commenced building the structure of my degree show piece, it may not be the final version but I have began exploring the limitations and potential of this structure, pushing it to see how far it can go. So far it is successful and the string dipped in plaster is proving a durable, although not too flexible, "skeleton" for the form. I appreciate how there is a skeletal-like structure underneath the wrapping of the jute twine, and I think it reflects the psychoanalytical and personal motives of this piece. The white skeleton is still a representation of my childhood and hostile home life which involved drugs and violence like how it was in BA7, and the jute is like a physical representation of the conscious, contemporary mind concealing trauma.
I appreciate the texture of the string dipped in plaster still, which although bone-like, is highly brittle, and seems to shakily and stubborn stand together, regardless of it's fragility.
The technique I applied here, was to hammer some nails to my studio space wall, then dip 6ft long (the height of my degree show space wall) lengths of string in plaster of paris, then sling and hang these wet strands to the nails on the wall.
This process is meticulous yet messy, and I feel as though this reflects the interior and exterior contradictory essence of this work, which is not only highly personal and emotional, but a commentary on the conduits and membranes that contain energy essentially to our survival such as oxygen in veins, or water in a building. It is not only the shape and format of the conduits which is linear and complex which inspires the materialistic concerns of my work, but the function of them, which can be shattered in an instant. And it is this panic and sense of emergency that is connected to my anxiety, and that usually of everyone else. My work is bound tightly with the potential of fear.
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| Image of the "skeleton" for the large scale work in the process of being made and mounted onto the wall. |
I eventually took the piece down off the wall to observe the ways in which I could bind the jute twine to the structure. The base interested me aesthetically, the way the string pools onto the floor is a key part of the piece, it will reflect the weight of the work and communicate an ending to the narrative of this piece.
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| The "base" of the piece can be seen attached to the wall at the end of the structure in this image. Below I experimented with a black background, the contrast bringing out the stark detailing. |
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| These loop shapes created by the folding of the string, weighted down by the heavy plaster, iterates the concept of the circular repetition seen in this area of my practice. |
17/04/14
As well as working on my degree show piece I find it helpful to be consolidating this work by developing the concerns of this piece with other sculptural forms. I have revised the notion of escape and the physical act of climbing to add an interactive dimension to my practice. Not only that, the weaving and unravelling I have been practising in preparation for my large scale sculpture has been reminding me of childhood games such as playing with or making "Scooby Doos" and board games which require strategical mobility, such as snakes and ladders. It is important to my practice that it remains in dialogue with childhood play, as my work's starting point was in experimental, playful activity.
I began this investigation by creating a rope ladder by simply formatting a long grid and tying knots and cutting the material. Returning back to the lattice form, an area of austere, organised comfort for me, artistically and emotionally.
I admire the photographs of this form more than I do with the actual form. Yet the actual form is deliberately flimsy and unsafe, this is me manifesting the concerns of domestic and mental insecurity and fear in general.
With the second ladder I created, I chose a set of materials marginally more secure and safe, with the arrangement of a pre-made children's rope ladder.
However, the placement of the piece created a narrative of immobility and claustrophobia, as this ladder leads to nowhere. Yet the ladder still has potential to be used as an escape method, as there is length to the ladder left, trailing on the floor. This beginning step was successful to me in the sense it acknowledged the sense of claustrophobia, however I do want to push that concept even more, and hinder the ladder of it's original function further.
20/04/14
I have revised my interest in purely natural materials and the raw state they come in and have began to experiment with the wool fleece I have had for a while. This interest in material in it's rawest, and potentially most vulnerable state was inspired by the research I am currently making on the Arte Povera movement. The Arte Povera artists even considered ecology in the premises of their activity and they constantly explored how our experiences of everyday life can be interpreted and extended through art. A key idea informing many of their works was an emphasis on investigating the links between the natural organic world and humanity.
Fleece is, like hair, made of fibrous cells and amino acids that make up the proteins that contribute to the layers and layers of cellular structure that gives hair its durability.
With a process that used entirely natural and simple every day materials, I dyed the wool to give it a blonde hue. I am still exploring the idea of making my work more indentifiable as my own by having all of the textiles involved a blonde colour, to match the colour of my own hair. However I am now disputing this slightly as it seems slightly too blantant.
Continuing with the themes of Rapunzel and claustrophobia in my head, I applied this material to the ladder. It is the fluidity of this material's temperament I appreciate, it's sensual and gravity influences it to hang down morosely.
It's the juxtaposition of the austerity of the ladder and the sensuality of the wool that creates a conflict in this form. I am not happy with the bright green rope on the ladder with the rest of the composition and colour, but that cannot be helped as the ladder was purchased that way and I would like it to remain uninfluenced. What interested me also was how the wool from a distance looks less comforting than how it does close up, it looks more like a liquid, and then when you see it closer, you realise it's wool, and there is a comforting quality to that. Which is odd as I aimed for this piece to be claustrophobic and give the onlooker the sense of perceived entrapment, this work has actually become more inviting. This piece however is tangible, and there is a sense of somewhat attractive tactility to it.
I aim to exhibit this piece at an exhibition to test the perception of it by an audience. I am holding with a group at the Fabric Warehouse in Norwich. I chose this gallery space as it is above the Fabric Warehouse store, and all of us exhibiting are working with manipulating fabric to achieve form.
27/04/14
This week has been spent extensively working on my degree show piece, aware of the time frame I have left, I have scheduled myself a deadline to finish all practical work by 5th May, according to my learning agreement. I have stuck to this deadline well so far, and despite the slow progress of making the work, it is happening slowly although surely. The process of unravelling the twine then ravelling it up again onto the "skeleton" is becoming enjoyable to me and I am completely immersed in it's cathartic qualities. It is highly ritualistic and strangely calming. This was also an aim for my degree show piece, to purge my inner excess and display that process. Like a child at play, my current practice is a manifestation of my internal reality and imagination.
The above photo is me observing how the piece would look like piled together, which completely changes the shape of the work. Which is now coiled and tense instead of dangling freely. I admire the way the work looks lying on the floor however, which is snake-like and dominates the room, preventing anyone from walking along. This is an aspect of the display I may consider, this work may be more restricting and claustrophobic to the viewer if it is on the floor, restricting steps.
The way I intend for the degree show piece to hang is liberated, although not as it is still going to be committed to the wall it will be "emerging" over. However this work will contain an element of freedom, as the concept of escape is one of it's main premises. Growth is also an idea observed in this work. . And the way the piece will creep down the wall will be reminiscent of forestry and vines, a growing being. This piece can definitely contain an element of the anthropomorphic, I see a disturbing beast emerging from this work.
4/05/14
unravel
ʌnˈrav(ə)l/
verb
gerund or present participle: unravelling
- 2.investigate and solve or explain (something complicated or puzzling)."they were attempting to unravel the cause of death"
As I am applying the jute twine to the structure for my degree show piece, I analyse the process and steps involved to produce my desired outcome. The gathering and unravelling of the twine, as noted before, has become integral to the work and has become a cathartic, comforting "transitional object" to me, and has even proved calming. Which is something I approve of as I want there to be an emotional input into this piece.
I see the unravelling as an ongoing project, it is completely perpetual. It also reminds me of psychoanalysis in general, and in a way it could be a metaphor to it, in the sense that in analysis you unravel yourself and reach into your subconscious and draw it out, like how I do with the ball of twine. You unhinge your memories and expose them to the light of the present.
And after examining the formal definitions of the word "unravel" I did come across the investigative definition of the word, which means to solve something. And that definition is cohesive as to unravel also suggests straightening a material out, and untangling it, relieving it of complication and dilemma.
In a way, this piece is about the chaos and disturbance that can be triggered by regressive psychoanalysis, and then piecing it back together with the knowledge and self-awareness obtained in analysis.
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| This show shutter images were taken by me to portray the passing of time as a significant contributor to the collection of material. The passing of time influences the accumulation of jute twine substantially. |
As I have arranged for an exhibition to be held at The Fabric Warehouse, I plan to exhibit work and also lead a performance piece. My work subtly addresses fears and anxiety, and the prospect of performing to people terrifies me, I think this performance could represent the nerves and anxiety associated with my own fear attached to performing. It would be interesting to step out of my comfort zone. It would be a way of conveying the bodily influence involved in the ritual, my work has developed over BA8, and now it is more about the procedure of making as opposed to the end outcome. This reverence for process and the continuity of work is a concept shared by the Arte Povera artists, who revered the notion of change and fluxes in life and history, and acknowledged the fact even an exhibited piece would be affected by the passing of time.
'How can we make art in such a way that the visual flux is neither homogenous or recognizable, but instead, leaves room for interruptions and deviations that elicit dialectical exchanges with the development of existence and history, whose "discontinuity" writes Maurice Blanchot, "permits the continuity of understanding"?'
06/05/14
I have decided to wire up the sculpture's "branches" for extra support, it will help them cling to the wall. So I have began to insert the narrow, flexible wiring into the twine "branches", and then I cover the exposed silver wire with extra twine.
As for the progress being made on the presentation and arrangement of my degree show piece through practicing it's hanging off the wall in my studio space, it is too wide at the bottom. It is resembling hair too much. As this work is meant to represent escape and entrapment, it should resemble a conventional ladder more, which is more straight up and straight down as a structure.
I am amending this small issue by removing some of the bound twine and exposing the white tips, which suggest the process and structure of the sculpture.
Also it has been said by viewers who have viewed the work at this stage that the formation of th wrapped twine makes it look too much like dreadlocks, the mass is too weighted in the centre.
I intend to expose the wrapping gesture in the work by experimenting with a new layout and arranging the work so the wrapped, curled tendrils drape down.
Like the fairytales I analysed for my research report, I am trying to approach the work like it is a story, as it does contain a beginning, middle and end, and it contains a fluid structure.
So I have changed the foot of the piece, from a continuation of the bound twine around the "skeleton", to a simple exposure of the process I had adopted when making the piece. Now the base of the work will reveal the gesture of the making, with the leftover strands of twine curling off the sculpture.
09/05/14
'All play moves and has it's being within a play-ground marked off beforehand either materially or ideally, deliberately as a matter of course. Just as there is no formal difference between play and ritual, so the "consecrated spot" cannot be formally distinguished from the playground.' - Johan Huizinga, "Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture".
My work's concerns switch dynamically between intensive process and intricately interesting aesthetic.
My work begins with the thought (the neurosis), manifesting through the process, then ending with the aesthetic. Although this realisation is generalised and can be applied to almost any practicing artist. Except I look at the negative thoughts, the distress, which then results in creative ritual. I do consider the aesthetic, and I appreciate the tangiability of my finished works, which are inspired by industrial and precautionary materials such as safety nets, ladders and conduits. And also inspired by the natural and visceral, such as hair, membranes and cells. I have enjoyed creating a dialogue between the austere and the bodily.
I give aesthetic consideration as it is my very own theory that the audience can relate to a work more if it is visually stimulating or attractive to them, and my main aim of my practice is for the audience is to relate emotionally to my work. If a person just "likes" the look of my work, then I can be satisfied, as in that appreciation a harmonious, reciprocated reaction is achieved.
10/05/14
This week I have played with the presentation of my degree show piece, and considered new options and alternatives to it's placement. As I too intend to exhibit this work at the Fabric Warehouse show I am co-curating, along with the ladder piece I have been working on. As there are two parralel columns in the gallery space, I decided to utilise them and create an interactive dialogue between the two pieces on the two different columns.
Instead of placing the works facing the same way on these columns, I have decided on having the pieces placed on opposite sides of the columns. Because if they were next to each other the element of abortion and escape is too conspicuous. This unity of the works through their interactive placement, encouraging the viewer to walk around the work, makes their concept more penetrable.
After considering the idea of suspending the pieces off the ceiling, the idea was rejected when it was confirmed that I couldn't use the ceiling due to health and safety precautions.
I also realised that hanging the work freely from the ceiling in fact, eludes the principles of the work by not committing to the concept of the conduit, and evades the connection with the architectural space, as the work would be suspending in mid air. Revising the conceptual intentions for the piece, I intend for there to be more of a reliability on the wall and ceiling for the work to crawl out of.
12/05/14
'The formalist critic would ignore an artist's emotional and psychological biography. The traditionalist might discredit a madwoman's art as naive, unschooled and ultimately isolated from art-historical discourse... I believe that Kusama's condition as she explains in interviews and writings relates fundamentally to the imagery and method of her art.'
-Alexandra Munroe, curator of Yayoi Kusama's 1989 retrospective exhibition at the centre for International Arts in New York.
I wonder if I am supplying enough context to my exhibited works. Could I possibly add a description next to the works? I know we are having a statement present at the degree show to support the work. But I want the work to carry it's own message through form and evidenced gesture.
In order to consolidate this principle I need to refer back to my degree show publication statement, to see how informative it is. It is intentionally revealing of how and why I make my work.
When I look at the work psychoanalytically, I see myself covering my family and personal history with myself and my looks (i.e. my long, curly blonde hair). I see a burial of a dead time, unravelling after being closed off to everyone for so long. The jute twine wrapping around and round the bare, bleached bones of my childhood becoming unravelled... My own psychoanalytical therapy, is my artistic practice.
And reading this quote by Munroe on critical perceptions of Fine Art, considering background and emotional and psychological contexts, has really revealed to me the emotional story being told through the aesthetic and process of my degree show piece.
18/05/14
The exhibition, "Means of Escape", named so to depict the transient themes observed in mine and my fellow artist's works, whether represented physically or less obviously through subtler physical manifestations of habits, all of us successfully addressed the theme of escape and "phantasy".
Taking part in this exhibition for me was mainly to obtain uninformed perspectives on my pieces, unbiased opinions that were open to interpret the work with no idea of context.
First I playfully experimented with ways of exhibiting the work, wary of the totally unintentional 'dreadlock' connotations the forms were already communicating to the audience.
The exhibition was also a good place to try out some performance work, and on a timed rota, I unravelled twine to a small audience. In half hour slots, balancing the ball of jute twine on a windowsill, I stretched the yarn out and paced forwards and back, bringing the yarn out and then being pulled back in in a rhythmic looping of physical action.
Although my work is referred to as "the dreadlock ladders" much to my chagrin, I was satisfied to see that my work had a tangible quality to it, that the tactile process of making it had rung through to the end result. The sensory aspect of touch is highly present in my practice, which supports the basis of skin and membranes that ignited these sculptures. It also proved to me that placing the works adjacently implemented an informative comparison between the two objects, resulting in an interactive and tactile effect on the audience.
22/05/14
This week was the setting up of the degree show, after spending the previous week removing tables, chairs and work and painting, cutting in and sanding down walls, the final step happened and my final degree show piece was installed.
I used simple storage hooks which are attached to the wall through drilling screws in, to then hang the branches over the edge of the wall, to give the illusion of the "being" emerging over the wall. Annoyingly, the screws wouldn't drill into the wall fully, so the hooks were left only partially secured to the wall. However this worked to an advantage as it meant there was more room for movement in the work.
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| The first main branches are slung over the storage hooks. Their flexibility enabled by the thin wire structuring underneath the twine. |
The toughest part of assembling the work was making the final decisions that could have great impact on the way the work is seen and perceived. I found I overanalysed the arrangement of the work, and spent a good two days re-arranging it and putting certain components of the work here and there.
After this first arrangement (above) I added the necessary unravelled twine as a base to the work, as I felt as though the sculpture looked too painterly in the way it was highly restricted to the wall. Yes, the work was always designed to encroach off the wall, but I wanted there to be more fluidity and movement to the work. I also aimed to deviate from the "dreadlock"-ish aesthetic which became apparent and slightly more problematic at the Fabric Warehouse exhibition.
After talking to my tutor and seeing a step ladder in my exhibition space I made the decision to apply more of a ladder aesthetic to the shape of the work. The austerity of the gridded ladder is aesthetically relevant to my practice, a theme that has been sustained in my work for months as it is a signifier of claustrophobia, and the lattice shape came from my studies of skin structure. So I made "rungs" by arranging branches of the work to interject across, breaking up the mass of dreadlock-like "hair".
After working my way downwards from the top of the wall to the end of the work, I found it complete after making that final and crucial adjustment. I got on a ladder to install the work, and I applied the pieces in a downward direction, climbing down the real ladder, a backwards take on the "wanting to get out" premise of this sculpture.
I deliberated for ages for a title for the work, then managed to think of a semi-title at the last minute, "conscientious". Conscientiousness is a personality trait commonly associated with anxiety sufferers, and can describe a person who is a perfectionist and undergoes laborious processes to achieve what they see in their minds eye. Conscientiousness can be manifested in characterised behavioural patterns such as neatness and obsessiveness, this obsessiveness and austere control contrasted with a visceral flow has been present through the making of this piece. Although bodily, this work is highly systematic, like the blood vessels in the human anatomy, the long tendrils carry a certain energy and meticulous planning. Conscientiousness is one of the big five personality traits, along with neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness and openness, and this classing of people's personality is a similar compartmentalising seen in my practice, the control of an unruly element, such as a human being's personality. And in a way, psychoanalysis is like that too, a clinical and regimented approach to understanding a person.
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