Monday 28 November 2011
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...
Friday 25 November 2011
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...)
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...)
Thursday 24 November 2011
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....
Wednesday 23 November 2011
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...
Monday 21 November 2011
GD crit... last week
I realise that i haven't blogged about my meeting with Emma, the graphic design student, last week... Emma was the one person out of the whole MA and 3rd & 4th year undergrad graphic design who actually got back to me regarding the crit I proposed. I mention this, not to suggest that more people should have got back to me, though that would have been nice, but to highlight the fact that Emma did. It is a busy time of year and it is asking a lot of people to give over time and effort to someone they don't know... this is what Emma did do and I am thankful to her for this...
Obviously, due to the small number of participants, (2), this meeting could no longer be the group crit I had originally proposed/envisaged. Instead we met in my studio for a more informal conversational tutorial.
One thing that struck me as interesting was Emma's clear idea of what a document should do. It was her opinion that while my posters did a good job of 'promoting' the work, the line drawings did not 'document' the work. For Emma a document should capture as much of the essence of the thing being documented as possible and she felt the line drawings killed that essence.
when I suggested that the posters were not 'of' the performance and therefore, the drawings were perhaps more truthful than photographs, as neither really presents the work, Emma suggested that in order to point out that they weren't the work, the posters would be better presenting as much information of the performance as possible, so the spectator knows what the work is from the document and can see that the document itself is separate... (not my finest sentence ever but I think it makes some sense...)
I did enjoy this chat/tutorial and I hope to repeat it somewhere down the line. If nothing else it highlighted some differences in the approach of a design student compared to an artist... but this chat was useful and I have lots of ideas... the lines drawings are here to stay though... for now...
Obviously, due to the small number of participants, (2), this meeting could no longer be the group crit I had originally proposed/envisaged. Instead we met in my studio for a more informal conversational tutorial.
One thing that struck me as interesting was Emma's clear idea of what a document should do. It was her opinion that while my posters did a good job of 'promoting' the work, the line drawings did not 'document' the work. For Emma a document should capture as much of the essence of the thing being documented as possible and she felt the line drawings killed that essence.
when I suggested that the posters were not 'of' the performance and therefore, the drawings were perhaps more truthful than photographs, as neither really presents the work, Emma suggested that in order to point out that they weren't the work, the posters would be better presenting as much information of the performance as possible, so the spectator knows what the work is from the document and can see that the document itself is separate... (not my finest sentence ever but I think it makes some sense...)
I did enjoy this chat/tutorial and I hope to repeat it somewhere down the line. If nothing else it highlighted some differences in the approach of a design student compared to an artist... but this chat was useful and I have lots of ideas... the lines drawings are here to stay though... for now...
Sunday 20 November 2011
Saturday 19 November 2011
Andre ad
This is the back cover of last months Flash Art... always liked these but now they just look like balancing bricks...
Taping people...
 |
| artifact: remains of the taped to a chair work |
 |
| Two people with their hands taped together |
 |
| artifact: remains of the work pictured above |
 |
| Two people/legs taped together |
 |
| Two people/legs taped together |
the objects left at the end of these experiments are potential sculptures / documents of the work. There's obviously a lot of precedent for this...
I used brown parcel tape because the connotations associated with gaffa are pretty strong... kidnap/sexy times... but now I'm writing about Hirschhorn, his use of brown tape is obviously at the front of my mind... I think I'll have to get clear 2" sellotape or re-investigate the rope / straps...
These restraints didn't impede Steph or Lewis for too long, I'm thinking whole limb taping is a must...
No Steph's were injured in the making of this film...
... Not badly anyway...
A couple of trials for a new idea... didn't count on the zealousness of my participants... in hindsight I should have done... then again, that's what a trial's for,isn't it...
A couple of trials for a new idea... didn't count on the zealousness of my participants... in hindsight I should have done... then again, that's what a trial's for,isn't it...
Thursday 17 November 2011
Quick note...
... just to say that the work I proposed for the Embassy's event, at ECA last Wednesday, was included. As I think I said earlier, I was otherwise engaged that evening and therefore I was unable to be present for the performance. So, I am very eager to see what was understood by "the work should be documented". I think there was a 2nd intermedia student who filmed the work, that's all I know so far... I'll post any images or videos I get back... woot!
Monday 14 November 2011
Work proposed for Embassy show at ECA
The following is an email proposal sent to the Embassy. (Along with one of the images posted earlier in this blog under the heading leaning/supporting)...
sorry for the last minute email... If I've made the deadline, the work I propose is this...
Two members of the Embassy committee, (ideally), attempt to recreate the positions of Lewis and Stephanie in the image attached. That is, they will adopt this A-frame supporting position and do their best to sustain it for the allocated time... 6 minutes I believe. If they fail at any point then they would just repeat the work until the time is up. The two participants would ideally be of a similar height... This work should be documented.
Hope this is ok and explains it's self.
Best wishes
I will be working at the time of this exhibition and therefore, unable to attend. I can't help but be interested in how this work will survive this translation... I'm hopeful that it will be included and performed, and I'm excited to see the results...
Lewis, taped to a chair...
...for about 45 minutes. Many thanks to him for agreeing to be a guinea pig... I was quite impressed by the people who felt the need to feed and water him as they passed. What a generous lot we are at eca...
Wednesday 9 November 2011
Monday 7 November 2011
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