Bollard work

Many thanks to the brilliant staff of The Fruitmarket Gallery for participating in the bollard work this morning. 12 members staff standing on the 12 newly installed bollards on Market street, Edinburgh, for 12 minutes. Search twitter for more documentation! Merry Xmas

Assessment day.

Some images of my studio as it is, ready for the end of semester assessment. 

Case Study

Link to PDF copy of my Case Study


Having trouble with ePortal so have uploaded the case study to moodle and present a copy here too for backup...

More images from project space...

Many thanks to Yaya for the images she took of the before, during and after of our project space. Some of which are here for your delectation... 

Karin Sanders again...

Karin Sander: What must a work of mine fulfil? I must be able to work using resources that actually exist, that are already present within the system, and that can turn the system against itself. I must be able to read things from a location, the situation, of a museum or gallery. And the work must both reveal something and also remain mysterious. It must transcend itself and gesture towards something that was not previously visible. In other words, it must render something visible that is already present but that has hitherto escaped perception, that exists in a latent state. If the work provokes amazement and perhaps amusement as well, then it is successful.

Karin Sanders...

Thanks to Dean for pointing this work out...

People on Stone Plinths, 1986. Wasserschloss Glatt/Sulz. 20 concrete blocks


All 20 participants in this sculptors’ symposium are standing on brick-sized concrete plinths. Some of these plinths are formed of two or three blocks placed on top of each other and so are proportionally higher than others. Compared to the classical proportions between plinth and statute, the figures appear far too big for the plinths they stand on. They choose their poses freely while endeavouring at the same time to keep their balance. Despite being relatively close together, they do not communicate with each other but form independent sculptures.
K. S.



I love/hate moment's like these... bang goes any idea of a work like this for the degree show.

Another gif...

A taped trio.... (and mild winge)

Given that it's nearly 1:00 am and my brain is now actual mush from prolonged essay agonizing, it's probably not the best time to critique these tape things... but, I'm not sure whether they're too literal a progression from the standing works... I do feel that, as Andrew suggested in my last tutorial, it would be good to have one of those 'where did that come from' moments of excitement... That may not make real sense but I can't see words anymore, they're just a jumble of meaningless shapes... I long for the day when an artists ability to theoretically contextualize and analyze his practice isn't bound up in his ability to write an essay like a theorist, historian or curator... sadly, I don't think that time is going to come before this essay deadline...

look, pictures!

Latest .gif

Essay cramming...

Useful notes on the politics of aesthetics...

note to self

Look in to the work of Sophia Lacouris...

Stewart Lee on Frankie Boyle

Stewart Lee on Top Gear

If at first you don't succeed, try and Triad again...

Wasn't there something about using puns in the criteria for the 'Turnip' prize?... Moving on...


First of all I have to apologise again to the other members of my triad group this week. The group info went out a few days ago and I read the start time as 12:30, which was actually the end time. The start time was 11:00. Why we needed to know the end time as well is a mystery given that we'd all be there when it ended but rather than blame the paper work I'll just fess up to having the wrong time down, so instead to turning up to college an hour in advance and ample time to prepare for the crit, I turned up 30 minutes late and missed Fintan's triad altogether. I was very apologetic and everyone was extremely accommodating but it is still frustrating and embarrassing to make such a school boy error. However, it is probably indicative of my general state of mind at the minute. Essay writing is becoming all encompassing and is turning my normally useful brain into cottage cheese. I phoned Simone when I arrived home because I was convinced I'd left my keys in the studio only to then find them in a hither to unused pocket in my bag. I think I did this exact same thing this time last year, S and I are thinking of making it an annual tradition...


Eilidth's triad was very good, I observed and Fintan listened. Eilidth spoke enthusiastically about the work she was making and Fintan reassured her concerns about not having a clear idea of where her work should go. I like Eilidth's intuitive approach to art making, the materials she chooses, the things she produces and the ways which she flits from one thing to another and back again make me think about Karla Black, except less wishy washy and soap based... She brought up Franz West and I think that he's a great person for her to look at...


My crit went ok, despite my lack of preparation, I managed to talk for 10 minutes with out any real stumbles. I tried to give a sense of what I'd been making over that last few weeks but it was noted that I talked most articulately about the documents and artifacts that are littering my studio. I pointed out that, rather than the performances being an excuse for this issue of documentaion to be foregrounded as was suggested, it was because this issue is at the front of my mind, as presenting work where it is impossible to present performance is constantly an issue on an assessed course. In fact it will always be an issue when making performative work...


...enough. I need to get on with this damn essay...

Playing card design for 1st year shop....

Another gif test...

clear tape

Clear tape...

a Sellotape option... the brown parcel tape screams Hirschhorn at me, clear tape is the way to go I think... though the artifacts/remnants aren't as pleasing. They have a used condom quality that is a bit on the grim side. I hope to have solved this as I've just ordered 12 rolls of clear parcel tape which should hold it's shape better than this thin stuff... 

Awesomeness!/work in progress..

Many thanks to Lewis Den Hertog for his help with this...

Changing the world and other things I need to think about

A couple of things that cropped up today... 


Can art change the world? More specifically can art aimed at raising awareness around issues of climate change have any real effect? This was the question raised by one of the sociology papers in todays seminar... My problem is immediately one of politics, an misunderstanding the point of art. If art is a political activity, if art is concerned with questioning our understanding of the world, with questioning known truths... then it is concerned with changing the world. This is how art changes the world, it is not a useful tool for effecting immediate policy change. Anyone seeking to do this would do better to either become a politician, a protester or  work in the appropriate field, (in this case environmental science perhaps?) An artist is concerned with making art and joins in artistic discourses, these are not separate from the world and therefore effect it, but in ways that are relevant to art practice. All subjects are fair game for artists but the context within which they are presented and examined should always be considered and understood. Does having a 'real effect' make the artwork any more or less interesting?...


I don't know whether that made sense....


Another brain teaser I was considering today... Politics requires form to exist, i.e. aesthetics of politics. Language, written or spoken, has form. Does a political thought have to have an aesthetic in order to exist? before it is communicated does it have an aesthetic form? is an internal monologue an aesthetic form even though it is imagined. Are imagined aesthetics still aesthetics if they are not communicated?... help...


n.b.
(perhaps, according to Ranciere it's not political as the thing that makes us political is our ability to communicate... Susie suggested reading more Kant & Derrida as well... I suggested some things are better left alone...)

That's enough... (leaning/supporting)

Thank you to Ainsley who filmed this... this is the only record I have of the work made for the Embassy's film and performance event, staged as part of their professional development programme... (one could question the professionalism in not documenting an event/exhibition you'd organized but lets let it slide.... it was good of them to include the work and it suits me that a student filmed it...) 


I believe that the whole thing lasted for 6 minutes, though I have no idea how the work was introduced or who saw it, just the odd cough and a pair of cowboy boots to suggest an audience. The only clue that it lasted 6 minutes is the sound-byte at the end... "that's enough... that's 6-" just before the film was stopped. 


The film itself came in two sections, I've inserted a 1 second black screen in between them to allude to the missing footage... I'm not really sure what to think about it yet.... 

more tape

More evidence of studio shenanigans...

more tape and messing about...

It will not be going unnoticed that Lewis and Steph are featuring heavily in my working recently... They do have a good way of testing the limits of my ideas, they rarely do what I imagine they should, which is extremely helpful. Though the work consists of a set of conditions for a situation, which is subject to the participants behaviour and therefore will be different every time, working with S&L gives me a pretty good idea of the problems I might have... here are some more...