MA Journal
This research discussion is centred upon person to object relationships in art with particular emphasis on the role of the artist in mediating that relationship.
These are video resources prepared for the research discussion on 11 February 2020.
The introduction video was emailed to all students and Video 1 played at the start of the discussion. Because of time constraints, videos 2 and 3 were not shown but made available here for subsequent viewing.
I have always been drawn to the archaeological departments of museums. Shaped, inscribed stone fascinate me. I am not sure why. Perhaps it is a communion with past peoples, perhaps the immortality of words written in stone, or maybe it is that I imagine myself engaged in some similar activity. I feel an urge to make, to fashion, carve mould, shape. It is a fundamental need, to change the physical world, to alter it in some way, to make art. Carving is a direct link to nature. Working with natural material and limited means is something that is within reach of anyone. It is a human thing to do. It is both earthly and divine, the extension of a transient thought, moment, place.
I see words encircling Logos. I see them appearing and disappearing, emerging as an accumulation of reading of repeated passages of text.
After setting up the work bench I tried something out that came to me as I was travelling down to the Residency in February. I am currently working on the text and will soon apply it to the sculpture components. I made the first marks with what will no doubt be the stylus I use for the script.
I have always had difficulty with my calligraphy, but somehow this form of writing suited me. I enjoyed inscribing the soft material with the wooden tool, lightly dragging it through the flesh to be made stone. It seems so appropriate to the text which ties up the two main pieces of the installation.
Thinking about the textual link between the two pieces, the third work has suddenly, as I write, become resolved. I was in two minds as to which of a number of works I would use. The answer is clear: the silent ‘What is the Difference? (I can also add the video if there is time; brings in another dimension to the overall idea).
The material as flesh; the words becoming flesh: An allusion to the process as well as biblical references. This is part of the composition of the verse Logos. Layering meaning into the large sculpture of the same name.
Finished prepping the studio for continuing work on the various pieces. Clearing surfaces and reorganising work is always refreshing and a necessary part of embarking on new ideas. Not exactly that this is a new idea, the work continues, but I need the space as the work will become quite physical. Not strenuous, rather a question of doing, experimenting and redoing. I used the term tabula rasa for a post at the beginning of the MA. Now that things are nearing the end, the new tabula is set for this and future work. What is more, I did it one day before schedule. This in itself is not important but it does confirm my estimated deadlines as realistic.
There are only about four months left before the final show. I have a great deal to do and therefore need to organise myself so that I can fully concentrate on making and preparations. Now that the blog site is sorted after its difficulties, I am clearing the decks to complete the work.
Yesterday and today I began reorganising the studio and clearing surfaces for working. It is a long and painstaking process as many months of work has to be stored elsewhere with great care.
Piece 1. Piece 2 can be worked on simultaneously on another table and I can begin piece 3 concurrently.
Below is a list of things to do. It is by no means exhaustive but it gives me a framework around which to plan activities. As for a timetable, I feel that the best timetable is to work as hard and do as much as possible well in advance. I hope to have pieces 1 and 2 completed by mid-April. Piece three completed by mid-May and any collateral works at the same time. I am aware not to disperse my focus on too many things.
I have titles for 1 and 2 but not three as yet
Workflow Timetable: Deadlines (approximate)
During the Residency at Camberwell, the very morning of the group tutorial on the second day, my blog disappeared. It did not disappear entirely, it just looked as though I had never done anything on it: No posts, pages, images, nothing. It was as though I had never done anything other than choose the theme and put my name on it, in short installed WordPress and nothing more.
I did not panic because I had the latest export file with all the content and the images and other uploads in various files on the computer with backups. So I winged the tutorial by talking and describing alone, which seemed to work quite well. I had been momentarily transformed into a storyteller of sorts.
The residency is a busy time and I did not want to waste time trying to sort out the site, it would have to wait. I did manage to see that the site files were all in place. The assumption I made was that something had happened to the database. When I returned home, I contacted the host company and went through a series of checks and requests. The news was not good. In order to restore the database I had needed an SQL file of it. This I did not have and subsequently I have researched backing the database using MySQL software. I have only just started to look at this. It seems that in order to use it I need two more pieces of software. This will have to wait.
It seems what had happened was a vulnerable piece of code on a plugin called Theme Grill Demo Uploader. This plugin is associated with the theme I use but it really does nothing useful. What it does do is renders sites with it on vulnerable to attack from who knows where, two hundred thousand of them. The issue has since been resolved but too late for me.
I the meantime, I reinstalled WordPress on my host’s server. I experimented with some themes for a new look and purpose. I had previously spent a great deal of time researching and trying out different layouts and designs and had come to what I thought suited me best. No matter what I did, I kept on returning to the original theme, Radiate by Theme Grill.
I took a look at the export file which was apparently of no use to restore the site and decided to see how I could work with the coded content. I knew it contained all the posts, links, tags, categories, etc. I could input the information anew and restore all the work I have put into it. Here things started to look up. Not only were they coded and displayed in such a way that all I had to do was copy and paste into the code editor of WP, I have also started to refresh and learn about HTML. I am beginning to be able to read the code in HTML and know what each part does.
Finally, in a short time, I have regained all of my Unit 2 Assessment posts and pages with their metadata and begun Unit 1. It is actually very easy and I can tweak the design to improve the visuals. The theme is very similar to how it was but I have made some small changes, such as the background, which give me a sense of new beginnings and greater readability.
Now, I feel ready to recommence my delivery of the project proposal and all that entails including, as a priority, reorganising the studio so I have space enough to function in it.
Recently I have been thinking about how the works can be displayed. I set myself a number of criteria which have informed my searches for solutions. These are as follows:
The logistics of moving a whole show down to London, preferably in one trip has led me to some creative solutions. The nature of the work is such, that I have to plan the transport and installation in great detail and still allow for contingencies. This is why I have had the above criteria in mind all along. The feet are even adjustable to account for the uneven flooring in exhibition spaces.
The above image is a trial assemblage for a single piece. The articulated angles give me a sense of dynamism and transparency. The sculpture is able to ‘float’ and still be anchored against mishaps. The tubes can carry wires invisibly and the whole dismantles into a small bundle. I must, however, label and mark each point of attachment because the assembling process was a consuming battle with getting the whole perfectly verticle.
The galvanised finish is light although I could try treating the surface to darken it and give it a patina. I shall try some things out, but the scale of the works, and the spaces, I think that the grey metal is possibly the way to go: less obtrusive.
I have also been thinking of another solution. This is somewhat more laborious but it is perhaps more aesthetic, at least in a gallery setting. That is, to weld square section iron rods, perhaps even with angles joints made of square iron tubing.
The idea is particularly suitable in that the structures I build are strong, flexible in use, recyclable and, if used together, form a coherent aesthetic contrast with the sculptures. They can be combined with other materials such as wood, plastics, textiles and metal. The process is one of playful construction which leads me to think of other things: I have just made a table structure for the computer desk, so much better than trestles.
“Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe the more often and the more steadily they are reflected upon: the starry heaven above me, and the moral law within me. The first, begins at the place which I occupy in the external world of sense. The second, begins at my invisible self, my personality and depicts me in a world which has true infinity. The first view of a countless multitude of worlds annihilates, as it were, my importance as that of an ‘animal creature’ which must give back to the planet (a mere speck in the universe) the matter of which it was formed after it has been provided for a short time, we know not how, with vital power. The second, on the other hand, infinitely raises my worth as that of an ‘intelligence’ by my personality in which the moral law assigns a destination to my existence, a destination which is not restricted to the conditions and limits of this life, but reaches into the infinite.”
Taken from A History of the Infinite by Adrian Moore produced for radio in episodes by Juniper for the BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in September 2016.
Above image by NASA. Below image: anonymous portrait circa 1790, in anonymous collection.
The following is a fuller version of Kant’s words.
“Two things fill the mind with every new and increasing wonder and awe, the oftener and the more steadily I reflect upon them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me. I do not merely conjecture them and seek them as if they were obscured in darkness or in the transcendent region beyond my horizon: I see them before me, and I connect them directly with the consciousness of my own existence. The starry heavens begin at the place I occupy in the external world of sense, and they broaden the connection in which I stand into an unbounded magnitude of worlds beyond worlds and systems of systems and into the limitless times of their periodic motion, their beginning and duration. The latter begins at my invisible self, my personality, and exhibits me in a world which has true infinity but which only the understanding can trace – a world in which I recognise myself as existing in a universal and necessary ( and not, as in the first case, only contingent) connection, and thereby also in connection with all those visible worlds. The former view of a countless multitude of worlds annihilates, as it were, my importance as an ‘animal creature’ which must give back to the planet (a mere speck in the universe) the matter from which it came, matter which is for a little time endowed with vital force, we know not how. The latter, on the contrary, infinitely raises my worth as that of an ‘intelligence’ by my being a person in whom the moral law reveals to me a life independent of all animality and even of the whole world of sense, at least so far as it may be inferred from the final destination assigned to my existence by this law, a destination which is not restricted to the conditions and boundaries of this life but reaches into the infinite.”
I have been recording the sounds that the sculptural components collect from their surroundings and reprocess within their space. This leads me to think about how sounds might behave when coming from within.
The final work will be a complex of interconnected internal spaces. How might these behave? How will this behaviour be affected by how components are connected? Is this relevant to the overall thesis; might this be an effective layering of meaning; confusing the issue; better used in some other context?
I continue to experiment and think about future works as the process of making evolves.
The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is as old as time itself. Long before the story was enshrined by Virgil and Ovid, it existed in Greek mythology and long before that, in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the myth of Dumuzi and Inanna. The desire to reverse death by descending into the underworld to raise a departed loved one must have been a theme in human culture long before writing. Even further back, what must it have been like for the first creature on this planet to come to the realisation of the finality of life? To attempt escaping what all others before them had struggled to avoid by instinct alone feeling only dread and fear?
The myth tells us that the head of Orpheus continues to sing as it floats down the river after having been torn from its body by the wild women of Dionysus. This somewhat macabre scene symbolises the triumph of art over death. But this subversion of the powerful brings with it a heavy price. The loss of Eurydice, trapped in hades for all eternity; the penalty for Orpheus’ curiosity.
In the light of the myth, the artist has to enter the underworld to create, but the result of his curiosity is to create a ghost. We only see a shadow of the vision and for this the artist is left torn between joy and regret. The artist exchanges life to give the semblance of life. Nevertheless, this act of subversion is a bid for freedom from fear.
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden defy God through an act of curiosity. They gain the true meaning of life in exchange for death. Reality is as likely to tear you to pieces as the Maenads do the body of Orpheus.
The artist in a final moment of defiance tries to hold that moment just before looking back. But the inevitable turns what is in the mind into a pillar of salt, a sculpture, painting, film or some other simulacrum of life.
Art attempts reversal of what has been lost or about to be lost; to capture the moment before the head is turned. The result is often tinged with regret for what was not done, but also satisfaction for what was done.