After our group tutorial where I felt I had hit a wall creatively and was struggling with my current line of investigation a comment about losing the joy meant a change of direction. I felt everything was becoming too prescribed and I was being restricting my creatively by following a Learning Agreement that I felt was becoming too much of a straightjacket. I decided to almost abandon my exploration into the development of some of my previous creations made by the 3D printer. One of two of these have carried on in the background but the majority of my energy have gone into new thinking and bring that joy back to my creations.
I decided to go back to my revised Manifesto from the beginning of this year. This is what is at the core of my approach to creating work. I had some ideas spinning in my head, so decided to commit them to paper in order to see if there was anything that would merit actual development, rather than completing the idea in my head.
In the above page from my sketchbook I started to look at how the chair could be developed. I wanted it to be a simple, clean development. I also considered whether I should show it in the context of an office with a screen and a desk. On reflection I felt it just needed to be a stand alone piece, by not situating it in an environment the reading is clearer, the access to the concept cleaner and to avoid any confusion on what it may mean.
The idea is about my relationship with my office area in my studio and how I need to focus more on my art than my office area.
On discussion with Marina the artist Mona Hatoum (https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/mona-hatoum-2365/who-is-mona-hatoum) was suggested as a piece of contextual comparison. I am familiar with some of her work but on investigation I found a piece of work that had similar visual attributes.
Mona Hatoum - Part of Turbulence Exhibition, 2014, photo credits Artreoriented.com (https://www.widewalls.ch/artists/mona-hatoum)
Visually there is a similarity but the thinking behind and the artist's approach to her work is quite different. As an artist from Beirut with Palestinian heritage her work has a much more political angle, and quite rightly so. My idea is purely from a personal point of view and my internal struggles with creating and getting the balance right for work and my art practice.
Previously I have played with various methods of language, communication and coded messaging, this is an area that I have found allows me to deliver messages in a way that I can control the level of information and play with how much I want to reveal and how much I want to keep guarded. In the past I have used Braille, Morse Code and other spoken languages. I have looked at Semaphore, Sign Language and other signal messages and for this unit I wanted to see if I could use one of these to get over one of my Manifesto points. When I found that there is a unique flag for each letter I thought it would be a perfect way of signalling something without explaining what it says. I just needed to make the actual flags now and decide how best to display them.
The other idea shown on the above extract from my sketchbook is the development of the T-Shirts. This idea has been one that has been received well and I feel needs developing further so I have been progressing a selection with a view to having four to show for our Exhibition in January. The sketch shows a few considerations for the curation. Do I hang them, place them on a mannequin, wear them or fold them and place on a shelf as if in a retail situation. I am favouring the latter, the other ideas have connotations that I really don't feel suit the message and my playful approach.
The final element I am looking to develop is something that had been happening every day and is a significant part of how I develop ideas and therefor my practice. I have always walked, it is part of my daily routine and even in Covid I would walk, it gives me time and space to breathe with little distraction. I don't listen to any music or podcasts, I like to be aware of my environment. While I am walking I think, I develop ideas, think of processes and how a concept can flower into something worthy of further exploration. While I am walking each route is recorded digitally, I like to know where I have been and how far I have walked, on average I walk about six or seven miles a day. Each walk tends to have a name attached to it, something to signify which walk I am taking. Names like, 'Brandy' after a horse that used to be in a field, a horse that hasn't been there for fifteen years or more. 'Goose' signifies a walk that used to take us past a pond that had some aggressive geese that would honk and case you. There hasn't been a geese there for at least ten years but the name remains. Each walk has a shape on a map, a digital trace. I want to explore ways to depict these thinking loops.
To contextualise this idea and potential work, two artists immediately spring to mind. The first is Dr Véronique Chance, who gave a talk at the MA Symposium last year. I documented and discussed this here: https://carldurban.wixsite.com/website/post/symposium-time The other artist is Sir Richard Long and in particular 'A Line Made by Walking' where by walking backwards and forwards in a straight line in a field, his presence was recorded by the flattened grass. (https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/long-a-line-made-by-walking-p07149).
This significant piece of work shows the mark left on the land by the artist, his absent presence is clearly defined, Obviously this was pre-digital and on fact recorded the year after I was born. What I am looking to do is record my trace, my daily mark on the earth in a digital format. My intention is to build up several of my walks and create representations of them daily and potentially monthly, as this is how I am tracked using the software on my watch and phone.
The Chair - 'Take A Seat'
To make the idea a reality took a little trial and error. In simple terms, take an old office chair, a section of nails and look to see how they can be inserted. I cut the front of the stitching of the chair and peeled back the seat but I wanted a element of uniformity and to visually replicate a bed of nails so I measured 40mm spaces and drilled holes to poke the nails from underneath.
Issues I had were that the nails wouldn't sit up straight as they had a rounded head. I changed to flat headed nails which I could stick to a sheet of card inserted, this improved the uniformity to a certain degree but not completely, it had to also deal with the shape and contours of the chair.
I wanted the chair to be inviting, tempting but with obvious jeopardy. The message is clear and simple. On discussion in my tutorial it was clear that this piece needed no explanation. It can be read in any language, no obscuring or blurring is required. I gave it the title of 'Take A Seat' using the double meaning intentionally. Nobody has sat on it yet, although many have commented that they really feel compelled to do so.
Flags - 'Play More'
I'm not sure what to call this piece yet. I need to think about how I can blur the message or even not give a hint. The idea of using Semaphore flags will clearly indicate there is a message but the readability will be limited to only those with knowledge and as this will be displayed in a non nautical environment the chances of anyone understanding what it might be saying is very slim. Something that I am happy with. It poses a question, the reader needs to solve it.
By using my past career skills it meant recreating the flags in a graphic manner and then discussing with the Textiles department how to output them. I researched the size that Maritime Signal Flags are, so I could make them as genuine as possible. I also needed to consider how to display them. I will allow a way to insert a rope so I can potentially curate them as if they are being shown from a ship's rigging.
On discussion with Textiles it was felt that sublimation printing using a heat press, was the best way to output the flags. This gives a sharp accurate representation and by using a material that replicates a flag or at least has enough 'flagness' it would be just a case of constructing them.
I am still searching to identify my methodology. I have focussed on 'bringing back the joy' this brings it in line with Jeremy Deller's 'Joy In People' (https://www.jeremydeller.org/JoyInPeople/JoyInPeople.php) There is joy in the work I am currently creating, there is also playfulness and experimenting with the nuances of language.
Walks - 'Thinking Loops'
Taking the idea and record of the walks has resulted in various materialistic experiments. Several of the walks are repeated and I wanted to think of way to create multiple versions, I also wanted to take them from digital records to a 3D representation. Initially I looked to make casts of one with a view to making a master negative to be able to produce a set of outcomes.
This produced an outcome but I felt it was too frail to be able to make multiples of and to give me the option of stacking, so I started to play with wire to see how that may work scaled up. I could make them to the shape I wanted, I would just need to make multiples and then the experimentation in how to display them. I want them to be on the floor as that is the plane they are representing, they all have a start and a finish, indicated by the join.
My third and preferred method is to use strips of steel that I can bend and shape to the walk and then spot weld to join. This gives me strength and the ability to stack. Again, I want these to be placed on the floor and to represent the circuit of the walk. They do create a shape and a contained space which could be cast but this is the inside, I don't go inside the walk, I go around the edge, it's a perimeter, the line of the walk is represented by the shape of the object. I intend to create a full month of walks that I will stack, as that is how they are segmented with the software on my phone, I can go back several years to identify every walk, route, distance and time of each walk. For the up and coming January exhibition I intend to create a stack for the walks undertaken in November 2023. This may form a maquette of a larger set of stacks representing several months. By using steel I will also allow the material to oxidate in the atmosphere, changing the appearance and finish.
