This week:
- Izzy and I tested out various cabinets to display our work in the library, including choosing one to leave our work in as an impromtu temporary exhibition
- I continued working on my large 1m square drawing
- I gathered material from the studio, as well as making some new drawings, to go in the collaborative book Izzy and I are making. We’ve now drawn out a rough page-by-page plan so we can start working directly into the book
- I drew up some measurements for an initial plinth
- I researched taxonomy, meronomy and archives, considering them in relation to my own work
- I completed the final session of the Tate Emerging Artist Platform
- I also completed the final session of the CAST Saturday Club
- I spent a day at the Gardens of Heligan working collaboratively with students on other courses for a live brief
- we’ve also continued the hunt for cabinets
This was a bit of a hectic week for me, being in Kent for the first half of it, but I feel last week’s slightly shorter to-do list was helpful in keeping me focused where possible. Being able to finally try out mine and Izzy’s work, together, in cabinets was particularly useful. We tried our work separately in the table cabinet at first, and then collaboratively in both the table cabinet and the two standing cabinets.
As I have discussed before, I am still a little unsure about the resolved-ness of the cabinet mode of display. It certainly gives each item a particular framing – a taxonomic context unlike that of a plinth alone – which is effective, but I would still like to test out other modes of display. Even within the cabinet, as seen above, I did attempt a more unconventional layout, almost wave-like, to see what this brought to the display; I preferred the initial more traditional layout but I’m struggling to pinpoint exactly why. This would be good to discuss in my tutorial this week.
Visually, there were some unexpected consequences to using these cabinets. The glass, particularly in the shelved units, added curious reflections to the items, and allowed for a sense of depth/layering that isn’t present with a conventional plinth (shelves as strata?). It is a little distracting visually to be able to see through the unit, but perhaps this also links nicely to my exploration of windows – seeing the window pane, seeing the cabinet as it’s own thing etc. This also raises the question of if the cabinet could be disrupted in any way – could something be placed on the outside? Could the cabinet be left open? Or even broken?!
The context of the library also brought an interesting new dynamic to the display. I think it again helped the taxonomic reading of the work, situating it amongst conventional archives/records of ‘knowledge’ and people studying. As we weren’t allowed to take the cabinets out of the library, the librarian did suggest we could direct people to the library which isn’t something we’d considered before. I’m not sure if it a little too conventional a context, but perhaps this could work in our favour considering it isn’t so much a conventional art context? Again, perhaps something to discuss in my tutorial. It could be that if I have any work left over/that doesn’t fit in the main display could be displayed in the library additionally?
Next week:
- workshops: embossing quotes for the book (need to prepare these first), as well as ordering wood and assembling the plinth
- go to the Poly and collect my last batch, as well as dropping off the new one
- continue with large drawing (try and finish this week!)
- another water drawing
- quote drawing
- catalogue form and Instagram form for London show
- potentially go and measure the space (depends on first year show) to start drawing up measurements for plinths etc
Anna Harris 