Anish Kapoorley

Sick-bed television was a must, and on good recommendation, and cos I keep finding books with tabs in about him in the library, and his stuff is good, I watched the BBC documentary on Anish Kapoor.

His sculptures are hard to not like I think, obviously large and not particularly narrative theyre just eye candy really, in my opinion. He has a massive team of people working for him, wowee, and a lot of resources and materials at his disposal. Everyone seems to work so hard and maticulously.

Two particular quotes appealed to my working brain: "objects behave in a very similar way, the skin of an object tells you about its history, materialrity, it's physicalness, and the skin is often an illusion" This idea of the objects skin having a narrative and an informative element excites me a little, the idea of it being an illusion also is interesting, the outer physicalness is often different to what is below the surface, the essence and reality of the object is not just about its outer appearance.

"just as you cant make something beautiful, or set out to, you also cant set out to make something spiritual, what you can do, is recognise that it might be there. It normally has to do with not having too much to say, there seems to be space for the viewer, and that seems to be something that we recognise as spiritual, and its all about space."

"the route to meaning might not be direct" His ideal's seem interesting, he's not trying to preach something to everyone or to be loud or give out a particular message, he says he's just creating sculptures that allow for interaction and insight, which I find really interesting, particularly in relation to my work at the moment.

Wednesday's Confusing Numbers

Collecting, collecting collecting. Slim Pickings in the History section today. Germany and WW2 mustn't be a very popular subject at this time of year.
History students are MESSY too, disgraceful.

Numbers have had to be brought into the conclusion today. A conversation with a lunatic and some custard creams meant my brain got disengaged today and panic and disorder really set in. Numbering the tabs is the only way im going to keep on top of which one is from where if theyre going to be displayed up on the wall in the way they are.

That is All.

Tuesday 19th. A good day

Today I had my head well and truly stuck in some books. I don't think I've ever been so far in the zone, to the extent where time flies by and it ends up being 6.00 by the time you decide to leave, and only then because you've been coaxed out of my little bubble to persue a social life (thank god though or I think i'd have never left).



These shocking photos demonstrate todays catch and general work. Painstakingly time-consuming work results in little effect and the hours will carry on rolling tomorrow I feel bobbing up and down and along and around the library I managed to conquer the ground floor today until reaching the magazine archive section, I figured that could wait for another day.



This little one brightened up my day a little bearing the word "ralph"...exciting.
Ive been dealing with the issue of organising these little buggars. I've decided itll be silly not to make a catalogue of the books and names and cross reference to the tabs themselves, it will make the project more acceptable I think. So, I've been counting and referencing through all my lists and tabs to check things are still in order and accountable for, pinning them up in order and keeping track of which is going where. Several times I ended up with total brain fuck, papers all over the place, people asking me questions or talking to me and I'd just loose track, It's becoming my everest trying to keep everything ordered, not my usual thing at all.

Anyway, It's all in preperation for the Moonfish "invasion" show which i next week then the link show the following week. Hopefully a big installation of the work will make it all seem a bit more understandable. People are starting to think im going nuts, but it only serves me to love it more.

Odder do the best sweet potato chips in town, moustaches are back and I finally managed to keep a pair of 3D glasses, skills.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Llama's make good guard dogs..

-- Posted from my iPhone

Everything I Have

My life has been a wash of objects recently. Even the word "objects" is starting to feel a bit obsolete and overused in my vocabulary at the moment, I'm wishing there were a few more synonyms for the word "objects"...."items", "things", "matter", "stuff"...blargh! Maybe ill just invent some that reflect my daily poetic level and relevance to the "matter" in my life.

Today, I found an arteest, Simon Evans who has created some very interesting work that involves all the shinanigains (objects) in his life, literally! My eye was immediately drawn to his work "Everything I Have" probably because of the manner in which he has displayed every single shinanigain (object) he owns. Documented with care, love, precision, like an archive of his life, he provides me with this:



About the work, I found the following quote by "an expert from the show's press release" (not name worthy?!)
"Simon Evans’ delicate text-based works are collaged and assembled from prosaic materials including found paper, scotch tape, pencil shavings, colored pencil and white out. They describe a world poised between two poles of earnestness and irony. With his anxieties laid bare and his wry brand of melancholy, Evans presents us with a veritable laundry list of drawings that take the form of diagrams, charts, maps, lexicons, diary entries, inventories, cosmologies and epistolary entreaties that plunge the viewer into alternate states of pathos and hope"

How very precise and important, I love how he has reacted to the shinanigains (objects) that have made up his life, they are laid out bare for us all to see and it just seems really honest, what could be more honest and realistic than displaying everything you own? I would try it, but patience is not my virtue. The way he has displayed them though reminds me of how I have started to display my paper tabs. Maybe a systematic approach like this gives each item time to be important and seperate from the other, and maybe a level or order and organisation can make things seperate from the chaos. Afterall, time and care have been taken to collect them it is only right that we retain a sense of calm?

Library Tuesday

Tuesday was always going to be the day to kick my arse into a better gear.

Last night I had a revalation.....My paper tabs were in the studio on the wall (not like they would have moved somehow) and the radiator was miraculously switched on and working. The tabs were blowing from the air of the radiator and it gave me a little epiphony. This was how I felt like I see the tabs really. To me they are posessed by their knowledge but other people think im mad. The breeze was making them spontaneously flutter like they were alive "buzzing" i think is a term i have used in the past to describe them. Maybe this is all they need to try and convey my view of them, a little fluttering.

Da Vinci Exhibition Design

I know Michael Howard definately would not classify for one of my favourite and most interesting people on earth. Giving him a second chance, he proceeded to make me dozy once again, a very clever man but in my brain its a little too dull for me to enjoy. However, eventhough I wasnt interested in the MOSI Da Vinci Exhibition, I ended up submitting work to it anyway. I figured the brief was pretty good and pretty vacant and some things I'd had in my head when thinking about "objects" for such a long time fitted in. So, reluctantly my pen to paper technique just about scraped my own vague approval and heres my grand design and submission. Maybe I should be an inventor.....doubtful.

In my mind they are a pretty straight forward invention. Clearly, they are a contraption through which you can gaze into someone elses eyes and they yours. They were, in my train of thought, a response to the idea of objects that are used by two people, the manner through which they are used is a shared experince therefore the relationship with the object is meant to also be associated with another, maybe special, person. Playing with the idea of connotations.

Monday Monday

a ususal monday meeting: 1.30

Nicky Douthwaite, who i'd had quite a good chat with two weeks ago while she was putting up her pictures of Kimmi Reikkonen, David Coultard and Jenson Button in the link, arrived to give us a pep talk. She seems to have done so well for herself, not only fulfilling her dreams but being a big success too. She definately seemed a good source of inspiration and she emphasised the importance of working as hard as possible this year. Kind of makes you feel guilty to your own work wehen you have a job and friends to see, definately makes me question my priorities.

then we wrote poems for eachother.

Drawn

Today I tried to do some drawing.
It's not taken me 4 years of art college to realise that I have definate problems visualising through the medium of a pen or pencil, writing and talking have always been my method. Still, sometimes I think i can get into the right frame of mind and get something, eventhough it's usually of little use either to the eye or to my drawing self-esteem. But it still doesn't stop me thinking that one day ill be able to put pen to paper and impress myself out of the blue, it's something I really want to be good at I just think I lack the confidence to trust my hand and my eye.

I tried to be methodological about it today. I was enthused when I saw a copy of a book by David Shrigley "Red Book"
I think he uses his witty observations to do what I want to be able to do, visualise and humour, at the same time! A genious.
So, I thought, if I made some observations (left vague for maximum options) I could work with my little skill on content rather than ability. I managed a few doodles and kept up the momentum for about an hour. Hopefully I'll come back to them in a few days and be interested to give it another go. I think it's a step in at least some direction. I'd like to be able to use drawing more in my practice and general life, I am meant to be an artist afterall.

Monday Monday, 2 Nov (Journal info)

Today was a day totally FULL of information, bearing the following messages.

Journals
Joy! Choose on presentation, This year it's more of a portfolio journal and a portfolio of images or web show-reel

Its MORE FORMALIZED. Include:
#Review Course Experience, not just the year.
#contextual research
#personal map
#project evaluations, improved ones aswell, not the usual crap!
#professional research and application forms (fuck!)
#Artists Statement (thats right, we are artists)
#content and time
#CV

Become and expert in chosen field. history, technique, issues, research....
Develop technical skills
Think "What do i want to be able to do in 6 months time", go away and LEARN IT!
DONT BE DEFEATED

Always think about the context work will be in, Audience, Function, Place.

End of Digest.

Pep-Talk

These words were for Emily in South Africa but on reflection they are useful for me too I shall start taking my own advice.

Collage ('col-large' not 'col-ledge') Link Show

Ex student Nicky Dothwaite, who did the dot collages 2 years ago, Lewis Hamilton and Simon Cowell, has now done 3 more, this time, not dots, but large scale collages of Jenson Button, Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard to unveil in the Link gallery this week. All interactive arts students were invited to submit a piece of collage based work to accompany Nikki's work.

As I've been working predominantly in paper so far this year and mostly in some for of collage, I thought I'd put something in. I fancied the chances of the balloon casts to be honest. I'd been looking for a reason to be doing them and this seemed like a good opportunity to actually do something with 'em rather than just make them like a little robot but not know why.

At this point what I had looked like this:


I has lots of them, and they looked alright stacked up like they are. However, problem número UNO = stability. I would manage to keep them in this position for maybe a few hours before a person or a breeze or a sneeze on the other side of the studio knocked them over. Not good prospects for exhibition time now! So, time for some options..My brain was here:

Trying to work with maybe a plinth, hanging, stacking or even building...


I'd have needed more of them to be able to make that one possible and I definately didn't have time for that. Instead, hanging was the front runner in the saftey and practicailiy categories and eventually, after stringing on 50 balloon casts to a string this is what I ended up displaying....

Fishing wire and suspension makes them look like they are floating, it looks a bit odd, but thats what I wanted to see...does it work? I'm still not sure. It was looming and it was alternative for a "collage" but perhaps that's what it needed to be, maybe it should be bigger and touch the floor...It appears to only have made me wish I'd worked harder on this, when it comes down I'll put my brain to work...and put in the time! Collages-ho!

Andy Goldsworth and his Snowballs

I had a bit of a heads up from the Gazatron today.
I was stacking away with my balloon casts, as I have been for about 3 weeks now, to little gain, I feel, and most confusion with the up and coming Link show (what the hell am I going to do with them and are they even worth it?! Who knows yet!)
Anywho's, he made an interesting observation. We were all observing them, thoughprovokingly and interested as we all often are (not!) and we decided they look like snow, which they do. They remind me of the work I did in Finland, the snowball heads as well as all the snow sculpture and stuff. The rough layers and bumps create shadows on the white surface that do really replicate the snow, I have felt anyway.
Gazebo suggested I take a look at Andy Goldsworthy. Ive seen lots of his stuff before, for Foundation cardboard catwalk and in general, I think his work is great, the natural elements and the interaction and reassembling of his observations with nature are insightful and beautiful. Anyway, apparently he did some work with snowballs. Cue Google.



So, this is his "Snowballs in Summer Series". Ill stick what I've read in, then ill comment.

http://absheze.wordpress.com/2008/06/03/andy-goldsworthy/ Says about the work: "In his Snowballs in Summer series, Goldsworthy makes large snowballs in winter and preserves them until the summer. Inside of each snowball, he “hides” different materials such as chalk, old pine needles, and dogwood [pictured above]. For this project, Goldsworthy is interested in how different snow melts, the patterns the materials inside will melt into, and the relationship between a city and the imposed natural form."

GreenPeace Website Says:

Greenpeace backs 'wonderful' giant snowball art

Andy Goldsworthy: snowball

The artist Andy Goldsworthy has released 13 giant snowballs on the streets of the City of London.

The 6-7 foot snowballs will be left to melt and public reactions recorded via webcam's for broadcast on this site and at www.eyestorm.com.

The snowballs were made from Scottish snow last winter and transferred from cold storage down to London on midsummmer's eve. Asked how he thought people would react Andy Goldsworthy said:
"I don't know what will happen. Some people will get quite angry. And some will probably have snowball fights. And some will think its wonderful."

Peter Melchett, Greenpeace Executive Director, speaking from the site of one of the snowballs, said :
"I've always been a fan of Goldsworthy and I think the snowballs really are wonderful. They make an astonishingly powerful piece of work. Climate change means that snow is already a rare thing in London. In future whole generations of London children may grow up without knowing what snow is."

Greenpeace is a beneficiary of the project and will receive a 10% donation from the sales of Andy Goldsworthy's photographic images sold via their website, linked to www.eyestorm.com.

Peter Melchett added,
"By chance, one of Andy's snowballs is outside BP's HQ. Oil companies play a direct role in the meltdown that is already affecting the arctic ice cap, and the Scottish mountains from where this snow came."

I think this is a really great reaction to the aspects of nature that are important at the moment. It is a nice reflection on the use of objects too, revelations as the snow melts makes a performance and unpredictability means that changes could happen and the work could change course any time. I think it's beautiful. The change snow makes as it melts and reveals something new beneath it, gradually peeling away some of itself to give way to something new, it's like a renewal and a sign of change. It is something I am very familiar with after being surrounded by the stuff for 4 months to wake up one day and see it slipping away. Eventhough it's really epic theres something sad and horrible in it. Pure whiteness is replaced by speckles which turn into muddy and mesy remains and all the beauty has just melted away.

I can see how, aesthetically, this relates to the work I am doing, emotionally, it's definately more pogniant. The relation to objects and placement and performance I really like about this work, but in connection to my paper casts I dont think they are too great an influence unfortunately. The do however bring something out in my imagination that I find very intreaguing, they relate to something I understand, and because of that, I am definately a fan.

Essay Seminars 1.30-4.00

Short presentations and feedback on our essay progress. Looking round the room we have Jane, Andrea, Ryan, Rob Hazeldine, April, Jenny Lawler, James, Laura, Katie Mason, Dafyd and Me

Interesting hearing everyones subjects and ideas. Few peoples work dpes actually relate to what I'm doing, some object related work, some psychology related work. Katie and Jen in particular. Katies doing object sexualism and jen was doing creative autism and relations to feelings.
My notes were looking like this....

Why do we collect things?
Consumption --> Social Lives of Objects --> Antiques
--> Our Interactions
Consumerism --> Habits/Tastes etc.

Latour (interactions between humans and non humans essay)
Leader New Black
Appandurai Social Lives of Objects (and Castlefield)

#new life to saved objects
#order of chaos, live long, emotions

Conclude-relation to own work, work with blank objects to enable them to make own life or recreate a new life for old objects

Suggestions/Feedback
Andrea suggested "on longing" susan Stewart
Poetics of Space
The Colelctor
Cabinets of Curiosity

CAN AN OBJECT EVER BE A BLANK CANVAS?

Jane also mentioned she was happy to see that I have a theory to my conclusion and that I seem to have developed some kind of theory on my topic. Eventhough I could probably rabbit on for ages about the subject I think this session was useful and also really good to hear othe rpeoples ideas and give some feedback to them too.

Welcome Back, Monday Afternoons notes and KEY COURSE FEATURES OF 3rd YR

So, we are back and getting on top of the business. Our Monday afternoon Meeting, as of the 28th of September commenced thus, no pressure, eyes down!

This year Is to be made up of the following elements, pay attention now, this is important:

~CREATIVE PRACTICE and RESEARCH (Pretty Key aspects)

CP- ending in an eventual resolution. Not just the Degree Show although eventually one project will get proiritized to become the degree show work.
RESEARCH- Become and expert in whatever chosen field and at the end we should be able to tell other people all about it. BE INFORMED...ASK HOW? WHY??

It is imperative to DEVELOP GOALS please be realistic and experimental Libby!

~JOURNAL
(more of a portfolio Journal, important to be relevant to own work, be reflective, show progress)
Develop creative independance and development

~Develop Contacts and Networks