Sketch Book 1 (It'll All End in Tears)

7/28/2019 Sketch Book 1 (It'll All End in Tears)

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Statement of Intent

I aim to investigate two pieces of work that I have been unable to realise, I hope that investigating alternativescale and materials offered by attending this course I can examine what they mean to me and what I would

like to communicate to the public by researching and expanding further the original concepts throughcollaboration, tutorials and process.

I hope that this course will inform further planned works I intend to produce for the future and to enhance my

idea of process and research that I feel I lack in my present practice.


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Initial sketches for Itll All End In Tears


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Exploratory sketches for internal lighting to the bag,hanging of tissues and weighting of tissues


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Itll All End In Tears

Casting

Readymades?

If the bag is an impression of one of my mothers bags, an echo that still resonates now, then perhaps only herbags throughout her life would be sufficient to use. And as those very same bags do not exist anymore outside of

my memory then perhaps an impression/representation of them would be more suitable than choosing areadymade no matter how near it might be to a visual memory of them.

I will also be able to imbue something of myself in less of an oblique manner into the piece if I were to cast a bag.The bag may take a new ownership through the process of making it that wouldnt necessarily be there if I wereo cast from a readymade or through the use of a readymade.

The readymade, also, if bought from a charity shop, is someone else's bag and even further removed from thentimacy and personal biographical nature of the concept of this piece than would me using an actual bag my

mother owned or owns. This readymade has its own secrets, its own stories that were discovered or hiddennside, those vignettes belong to someone else's life. And even though those stories and emotional contents that

reside in the bag might be of a universal nature that many people experience and resonate just as much with I,hey are still, not mine...not my own.

Readymades are a one size fits all answer that, paradoxically, even though I am after the accessibility anduniversal appeal of such a title, will not satisfy me with the answers I am looking to visually communicate to theviewer.

Porcelain

My understanding of the this material and its contemporary use has always given it a delicate or fragileexistence. A brittle form locked away in a faux medieval dresser with diamond leaded windows, never evenused. You turn the plate over and see a stamp or the glazed word porcelain offering you an imagined majesty,regal or aspirational but fragile scene.

Historically only owned by the few who could afford it, but now found on the back pages of the Sunday MirrorMagazine in equestrian guises or long gone afternoon Victorian walks; all poses and inflection through minorand delicate wrists or exquisite livery that shines.

It plays with my perceived idea from an a early age of refinement and elegance, what I am fed as a notion ofetiquette and taste.

This material is the exact opposite of what is needed for the practicalities of owning and using a receptacle ofhis nature, but, the interior of such an object as a bag may well be delicate, brittle and fragile. It may well be as

good as a cloaking Victorian, to hide away something of a delicate nature. Something that given over to apublic viewing very well might collapse and smash and disintegrate someone's world.

There is an ephemeral and abstract nature that is represented, or perhaps afforded the items that might be insidea bag, be those items physical or non physical. They come and go . . . and the resonance attached to them comesand goes, too. There is an ebb and flow to the contents, something that is needed at times and at others discardedwith not a second thought.

The physical (more grounded? That in being able to touch, recognise and therefore understand) bag, has aweight, A composite of research, manufacturing and assembly by peoples that the material itself is privy to andsoaks up. The exterior nature is a non closeted item, it may well be coveted, but it is unhidden and nonrepresentational in its utilitarian nature. Unabashed at its solidity of form and posture.


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Maquette and initial testing of scrunched tissueshung from nylon string.

Individual tissues were scrunched by hand andunfurled. They were then, one by one, twisted intoforms, sometimes looped or folded back and intoeach other.

They were then tacked at strategic points with asmall amount of PVA glue and left to dry.

The glue help their form perfectly as, I think, didthe srunching of them, creating ridges thatsupported each tissues form.

Worried if there would be enough weight withinthe tissue to pull the nylon string down taught Iplayed with the idea of lead fishing weights to behung below each tissue. As the lead weights aremostly in the shape of a teardrop that wasdismissed as too twee and cringe inducing.

Small clear acrylic beads could be hung or attachedto the interior of the tissue also but deemed toodifficult due to the nature of each individual tissuesometimes not having an interior and thusrevealing the beads, which I did not want.

Luckily, when testing the hanging of the tissueswith the string by using a glue gun to attach thetissues to the string I found the weight of the PVAand glue gun glue was enough to pull taught thenylon string.

A 5lb weight of nylon string was used, the lightestthey had in a nearby hardware shop.


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Text was explored that might be included on the surface of the tissues but discounted as not only interfering with the form of thendividual tissues and there sculptural qualities but how might en-masse, text interfere with the overall form.

The text would have been applied with letterpress and using a transparent ink that when dries adds a deeper shade of the substrate.

thought also of burning all the tissue when it met the floor and slowly fading through monochrome using spraypaint until reachinghe original white tissue at the opening of the bag, it was thought of in conjunction with lighting and if lighting might of been able to

achieve a similar effect to this idea. I still might try to achieve this or something along these lines in the future with th is piece.

Letterpress tissues test Burnt tissue test

Different techniques / materials forhe bag

Other materials and techniques areexplored for the bag itself.

Paper clay - This has a body notdissimilar to terracotta but with amore gritty texture due to theaddition of paper to the clay.

Great for building with and solidbut, colour wise (with or without a

glaze), not what I am looking for.


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ag made from tissue

bag made from tissues or covered in tissues was explored also.lthough in theory this idea appealed to me I thought after testing on a readymade bought from an art suppliers that it the aesthetic

uality didnt sit right.ot only did I worry about the overall use of tissue if this were to be employed as the tissues sit on their own as individua l vignettes butsomewhat, had an effect of wings/flight and the bag is more grounded than that, even if it is suspended high up.


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Mod Roc Bag

Mod Roc being one of my favouritematerials was also explored.

A paper form was built by making smallpaper balls from newspaper and held inplace by masking tape. The mod roc washen applied to the surface of this

former.

f refined and finished well, mod roc Ihought, could be a suitable replacement

for porcelain and would have sat wellaesthetically.

The mod roc was kept as a standby if theporcelain decided to collapse completelyn the kiln or explode or break in the

firing process.

Although this was a sketch I think thematerial lends itself to the idea of the bagand is able to create folds and contours in

a similar fashion to clay.

t is also light enough to combat whatmight be hanging difficulties involvedwith clay and is able to be used itself as aformer for other materials to perhapscover it for a different finish if required.


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Rubber or plaster mould

Plaster is cheap and a rubber mould would enable further investigation into casting with materials such as resins and additives.

The difficulties involved include the interior of the bag (empty space). A piece of card could be added to the opening and removed afterhe casting and pouring stages and cleaned up though. The tutors told me of the clay not setting within a rubber mould so, that

discounts being able to play with porcelain here.

Handles - Attaching to the bag after - how? (an animated feel is wanted for the handles as opposed to just hanging down, somewhat flatand lifeless)

Cast/make 3 versions of the bag.

Porcelain

The clay was rolled out and left to dry overnight, a first attempt at constructing the bag ended in a collapse due to no supports being inplace for certain areas of the bag such as the folds. I re-constituted the clay and after building strategic supports from rollednewspaper covered in plastic and held together by masking tape, attempted a second build of the bag.

This attempt was successful and after the initial form was made I added handles, these were extremely fragile and worried me a lot.True to form the handles that were applied to the back of the bag broke and were discounted as visually didnt impact on what the bagooked like overall.

After talking over what kind of firing was needed with tutors it was fired to a biscuit temperature enabling both a strengt h and it not

being exposed to the danger of collapse or breakages if taken to a full temperature firing. The broken handles were also fire d if decidedo re-apply them after the firing process.

Construction and rear view of the bag


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Front and rear view (with handles prior to breakage) with internal supports


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The flux of porcelain, from what I understand sometimes happens inside the kiln whilst being fired interests men relation to this piece also. A collapse and re-invention of itself can be a parallel that can run alongside one ofhe concepts involved with this piece, that being a dissipation of grief, burning, an emotional collapse and

mourning.

It is offered up as a ceremony that can be found throughout civilisations history. A burning offering that isassociated with renewal, rebirth and death.

I also like the idea of the porcelain being able to transmit light from within the bag, as if there is a furnace thatwill burn and produce energy for the dissipation of the tissues that spew out. An inner core that will not die,perhaps dim from time to time but is unable to extinguish itself.

The interior is often closed off, but to communicate this interior sometimes helps a process of healing andunderstanding, even if through this process pain is served as a starter in the hope that the main and thereafter thedessert might result in satisfaction.

Catalogue statement for Interim Exhibition

A physical representation of both the residues of grief and its enactment.

Its keeper, a bag, not able to contain this emotion anymore floods the space with temporary vignettes in the form of tissues that are wept into.

When enough distance, healing and time has elapsed the tissues touch the ground, burn and dissipate.

The tissues aesthetic and form are evoked by my memory of a swarm of butterflies that I watched approach,Envelope and pass over me before they continued downstream whilst I was walking up a rocky, tree and shrubcovered stream one afternoon on an island in Asia.


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Exhibitions/Artists and influences for Itll All End In Tears

Rain - Random International - The Curve, Barbican, London

What interested me in relation to my piece was the way people interacted with an artist or artists work. Thispiece was intentionally interactive and as such as far down that line as could possibly go. You were literallyeffected and had an effect physically by this piece.

There is a single light source at the end of the gallery which you approach in a lose group through darkness,

shadows cast on the wall as you approach it, already a sense of anticipation and togetherness is set up throughthis lighting and communal passage.

It was interesting to watch peoples behaviour toward their interaction and base idea of how to navigate thework. Most people walked on a straight, direct path, paused in the centre, to experience the effect their bodieshad on the work and then proceeded to take pictures.

No one snaked around or deviated from this and not one person took a chance on getting soaked by increasingtheir speed so as to not give the sensors in the floor a chance to register their position.

This, as well as a persons trajectory, struck me as odd and inferred to me a sense that, apart from the obvioustemperature outside influencing these decisions, a fear of a natural source such as water could have andwhether or not the group psyche influenced that or not.

Or, maybe they just didnt want to get wet.

My piece has no direct interaction as such apart from being able to circumnavigate it, but how someonenavigates a piece of art influenced my decision to see this piece in relation to mine.


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Lure - Kate MccGwire - All Visual Arts, London

Kate uses an object/material that is often found in isolation, a birds feather, they inform the individual worksand also the themes for her shows.

Although the materials for nearly all her pieces recently remain the same (the feather) the species of birdfeather end in her researching connections between the bird and societys view of it throughout recent and

sometimes ancient history.

How these myths/ideas about the bird and its role within her work are played out well both cognitively andin form.

The natural flow to the work is explored subtly, with wit and thoughtfully created, always keeping the conceptfaithfully in tow to the sculptural form.

I wanted to see how a material can be used over and over again within a piece of work. Even though theindividual pieces of the material are slightly different from each other I wanted to see an overall aesthetic

that can be achieved.

I also enjoy the way Kate takes from the materials and imbues them with an interesting research and narrativerole also.


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roup visit to Tate

roup visit to ICA Galleries - Bjarne Melgaard: A House to Die In

rawing workshop and mark making workshop

crim and graphite powder Charcoal and graphite powder.

An Oak Tree - Micheal Craig-Martin

Living with the present daylimitations of a small income -Stephen Willats

he Crossing Place of Road and River. A Walkthe Same Length as the River - Richard Long

High Wire - Katherine Yass


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Katie Paterson - I came across work a few years ago, her research especially with her Moonlight bulbparticularly resonates with me. Her marriage of the scientific within fine art is astoundingly well researchedand takes the use of light to an aesthetic level that is on par with someone like James Turrell and some of hiswork with light.

Conrad Shawcross - I like the mechanical nature of Conrads work and its basis in again, equations andscience. I enjoy the obvious male aesthetic and difference between someone like Conrads work and Katies.

You can see that one is a male artist and one is female, but that is not to say that it is detrimental, it iscomplimentary and is just an aesthetic investigation that offers me anyway, an obvious gender slant whenboth are dealing in similar concepts for some of their works.

Christian Marclay - Christian deals in video, and in my opinion, makes some of the best of it, accessible,thoughtful and again, researched brilliantly, almost painstakingly in this case.

Wilhelm Sasnal - A painter essentially who distils some of his images down to quiet interpretations of otherswork and of his own, I enjoy the fact that when asked why he painted this or that he replies Because it lookedright not in a pretentious or belligerent manner by way of an explanation, but because it just did.

Kate MccGwire - As mentioned earlier (feather lady)

The Garden - Wood, wire, letterpress banana leaves and strobe lights

On the 11th December I participated in an exhibition The End Of The World at The Mile End Art Pavilion. Iconstructed this piece whilst attending the course.

The Garden is a shaft of light imbued with specific text from Hindu, Islamic, Christian, Taoist and Bhuddistprayer given to a person or persons at the point of crossing over from this world to the perceived and believed

next.

The text is blind embossed without ink onto the banana leaves and lit from within the structure by flickeringstrobe light evoking that spiritual journey so described often as an end point into another realm.

From an Atheist standpoint you can only stand and walk around the outside looking toward this notion ofjourney and faith but not help to wonder at the solace offered to a person of faith.

The banana leaves, through their organic breakdown and deterioration, were used as a symbol alluding todeath as so often found represented by rotting and decaying matter in other artworks throughout history andup to the present day.


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The Revolution Will Not Be TelevisedJulieta Hernandez Adame and I were invited to make a piece for Latina: Dialogues at The Institute of Education in Oct 2012

Wire, banana leaves and strobe light.

Considering both a European and Latin American perspective was persuasive when thinking of positing a piece of work madeby and representing both of our continents. Whilst we played with stereotypical composites that are generallyinherent when conversations ensue in a playful investigative approach to what one might say in a hypothetical dialogue that is

presented as a might be definitive end result. We tried not to employ this when we considered an approach to representingWhat is Latin America?

Universals instead, were.

Although temporary and shifting, universals are still a central structure as to what holds a conversation together and in placefor most people. This affords a dissemblance and organic free flow that is not always called upon when viewing each otherscontinents through the eyes of social media landscapes and platforms or especially, more traditional forms of one way commu-nication given to each others viewers and listeners i.e. television and radio.

The recent elections that we witnessed in Mexico are an example of having to pick through and sieve what might be and whatmight not be a dialogue pertinent to that viewers or listeners position.

Images viewed (that of a mass demonstration in Mexico City) via social media platforms were not seen by, probably, 90% ofthe population of Mexico. We factored in the control of the media in Mexico, the lack of coverage in usually relied upon mediainstitutions outside of Mexico and a lack of access via the internet by the people in Mexico itself.

One photograph relating to this probability in particular stood above the parapet of the ensuing mle that, one would hope,was bound to occur. Residents with access to the internet in rural or deprived areas were asked, via the use of social media plat-forms, to inform those without access to these (as is thought of in Europe) almost commonplacestandards.

The delivery of this information was, by printed matter either pinned or pasted on to walls or any accessible vantage point.

This brought us back, full circle, to oral histories and the invention of the printed press. Although most of the population ofEurope could not read when the Gutenberg press was invented, the few that could, would have imparted said informationorally, that in turn, would become a dialogue that we now know to be essential to the democratisation of a

continent.

This television set is chosen as one of those universals that with each new generation may one day shift and become as obsoleteas the Gutenberg press. The Banana leaves represent one of the many visual stereotypes that have helped us learn about an-other on this planet.

Musician and lyricist Gil Scott Heron, kindly provides the words printed across this television screen.


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A Certain Romance

An investigation into class, taste, difference and aspiration through a sculptural form

When I was a child I climbed out of mybedroom window, on to the roof and up to the top.

It was about six in the morning. I sat astride therooftop, exhilarated and frightened.

Coming down was harder as the tiles kept slipping,making me lose my foothold.

High Wire is a dream of walking in the air, out intonothing.

But it has an urban background and thehigh-rise buildings provide the frame and support.

The dream of reaching the sky is also amodernist dream of cities in the air, inspired by a

utopian belief in progress.

Every time I see Didier turning back I rememberhearing him shout, from where I was standing onanother rooftop, Cest pas possible!

But something was possible, he returned safely.

And something emerged from the actuality of thewalk, which was a moment when reality became moreof a dream than the dream itself.

Catherine Yass on High Wire

Maquette for A Certain Romance


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Sketches relating to A Certain Romace


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A Certain RomanceLace/net curtains, wood, wire, electronic componentsDimensions variable

Home, curtains, changed and washed, inhabitants, individual stories, social housing, me movingconstantly from place to place, not having a home, waltzing, the uprooting of the static buildings,

a want for perceived beauty via the act of waltzing, why would the buildings dance? What makesthe buildings want to dance? Do the inhabitants want to dance? Would dancing be a connectionor a release, is it a need that individuals would see as being important?

Are not the buildings needs one in the same universally, would not the mock Tudor semi want toor need to dance as the high rise? Would their dance be selective, individual, communal, as is thedancehall?

Is the act of dance a suitable metaphor?

Is beauty found more readily now in a high rise as opposed to 50 years ago, does a more multi

cultural make-up offer up a route to more beauty or a dissemination that might result in adifferent form of beauty whether dancing or not.

Why a waltz? Why not a frenetic more contemporary form of dance? Is the waltz more anostalgic metaphor from my upbringing?

Or an honest appraisal of that time? And the not getting away from a more white Britain.

I attended an exhibition/street event with a Chinese friend of mine, the exhibition was aboutBritain's role after the war in putting on the Olympic Games (political opportunism? Of course)but the country needed a moral boost according to the then government and this was thought aperfect way to deliver that boost.

Lisa and I talked about the images and feel, that being of 50s street party, and how white it felt.We both agreed that that is sometimes shied away from and if it was underlined as to howwhite the celebratory feel would have been visually, it might of not happened, and that that wasa shame as there was an obvious whiteness of the time.

Is part of that beauty that I search for within those buildings because of an assumed lack ofbeauty in society at the time?

Not having been exposed much to high end culture whilst growing up is it then that thebuildings waltz is a yearning for the buildings and the inhabitants to pull their fucking socks upand push themselves.

As there is beauty to be found in what they are, what they do and the results of them being thathas every right to be construed as high end culture. Or a valid culture to that end.

Did I, do I, view myself as different to everyone else in those flats?

Was the original idea of one building being tethered to the wall an egocentric idea of myself?

Am I then at odds with the other buildings? Is a division apparent to myself?

Sketch Book 1 (It'll All End in Tears)

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