Month: April 2020

Text(ure) – Millet, Allegory and Readings

Alexis

 

Walk in a Time of Virus , 4 April 2020

 

I have only just returned from our evening walk. We were passing by Chris Kitchen’s farm when he ran out and offered us a glass of wine. We got to talking about things, the virus and art while we kept our distance, physical but not social.

In turn, Janet and I described our current work and as I explained in as few words as I could muster what I am doing, Chris said, ‘is it like an allegory?’. That was like a blast from the past: a word I have not used for some time which, if truth be told, says what my work is. It is a metaphor that encompasses the sacred and the profane, the religious and the secular. The text I wrote for Logos is infused with creation myth and scientific theory, Genesis and Evolution, in which the idea becomes physical, the text becomes texture, fact becomes myth and myth takes on the fact of physical reality, or should I say allegory? It is an allegory of origins, in which the animal self is embraced as part of the natural state of things, as a necessary, no, inescapable truth about our existence. No more can we reject the human-animal than can we are humanity. The two are entwined, coeval, parts of a whole.

This is why the lack of physicality in an online presence falls short of what I had intended. Yet, the virus, as much part of nature as anything, has made me think in terms of translating this into a screen based experience in some way, and why the balance of sensuality shifts towards sound.

I do not pretend that I could convey anything like the presence of the actual work in such a way, but I may be able to unfold some of its inner workings and thereby weave another form of narrative… or at least begin to do so.

 

Building the ‘Egg’ Framework for ‘What’s the Difference?’

Alexis

 

This is the completed frame for What’s the Difference? It is intended to support the modelled forms and will disappear beneath the work itself. Its egg shape seems apt for the beginning of the work: the beginning of life and the imperative of reproduction and development from simplicity towards complexity. Like the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that is affecting society so profoundly at the moment, the drive against entropy propels all life through time, is made possible by the mechanisms of survival and reproduction.

I have made a short gif animation of the stages of the frame’s construction. But it is so blindingly annoying, that I have hidden it on its own page which can be viewed here.

As I go to the page where the GIF resides, I find its relentless animation, repeating its limited repertoire, gives me a strong sense of being driven by a powerful vital force condemning it to a most awful perpetuity. It is somewhat unsettling.

Lettering Logos

Alexis

 

Video showing a detail of the lettering impressed on the various components of Logos. It is taking some time, but once done I shall be able to continue with finishing the connecting, and terminal parts of the sculpture.

In the meantime, I shall finish some other works and fire smaller pieces in addition to making models of the large works, developing sounds, writing the script for Symposium 2 and planning online presentations… amongst other things.

 

An Icon of Change: The Kiln

Alexis

 

The kiln, a symbol of transformation, from the flesh of clay to a ceramic fossil of its former plastic life, is now a symbol of change of direction in my practice caused by COVID-19. This change is taking the shape of a translation from a larger physical, touchable scale to a smaller one imprisoned behind the smooth, cool surface of the screen, exchanging a sensual presence for the vicarious sensation of virtual dimensions and prosthetic ears. This theatre will have no living wings, nonetheless, I hope that it might transport the imagination to a point where an altered perspective offers a different view. One that enriches what might have been remaining hidden behind my mind’s eye.

 

 

The electrician can no longer come to connect the 11 kilowatt beast to its source of energy in the wall. I now have to revert to the lesser capacity of its antecedent smugly ensconced, like a vizir set behind a boy Sultan, whispering considered suggestions.

I am evolving tactics that one by one are beginning to coalesce into a strategy. The aim is not to produce a final outcome for a show, but rather to present a process that responds to the exigencies and contingencies of the present, but most importantly offers broadened possibilities for the future.

The final works will eventually come about. So as I finish them as far as I am able to, the idea is to weave a world around them that reaches out and catalysis responses and notions in the gaps that would otherwise be left unseen in a physical show.

Creating models, projections of the ideal exhibition; focusing on elements that would not appear in the show, lingering over details, augmenting them, are some of the ways that I see myself working at the moment. I do not know whether I can do all I have in mind in the time given, but completion is not the paramount thing now. I am thinking of how to represent concepts that inform the process and developing my practice instead of using the process to bring about the expression of ideas. This confirms the end of the MA as a point of completion, not stasis.

For now, I need to continue the time-consuming work of inscribing the component parts of Logos. In the meantime, I am building ideas and planning their implementation.

A New Font

Alexis

 

Inscribing, pressing, carving the words on the porcelain surface has led me to develop a particular technique and this, in turn, put me to thinking about creating a font. The main tool I am using is an angled, moderately sharp-edged box wood tool. I chose this tool because it is not the perfect tool to use. The difficulty of handling this tool ensures that the text does not become too even and crisp, more in keeping with the largely informal making of the porcelain forms.

 

 

The font has very many similarities with cuneiform writing, runes and classical stone lettering found in Ancient Greece and Rome (not forgetting ancient graffiti). The first made with a wooden, wedge-shaped stylus, the second a knife and a chisel for the latter. The respective tools and materials dictate to a large extent how the font evolves. The above font is a first draft distillation of the lettering I am using on the porcelain. It forms a very decipherable cypher, which is easy to read and based on the principle of two strokes per letter. I shall rethink about this in view of some of the letters being made up of three strokes. This is a relatively straightforward development. It is just that I wanted to document this now while the idea has some momentum. Subsequently, I may also include minuscules, numbers and symbols.

 

 

I intend to convert this into a font that I can use as type on the computer. I have opted to use Font Forge software which, although not the simplest, seems to offer a wide range of features. There is also a large number of tutorials online to help with learning. I can then use it to type documents and on sculptures. As for a name? I am currently thinking of Porcelana although this may change.