This week:
- finished collecting plinths from first and second year exhibitions – they are now all in our degree show space
- emailed Andy about a larger table-like plinth – may need to chase this up? to know if and when we may need to make our own instead
- (also emailed Megan about plinths which was a no)
- various admin – forms for catalogue/degree show etc, and also started looking at the Cultivator funding application
- book: completed the ‘thing’ drawings page, the experiments with slip/clay/glaze on paper, and the scientific plastioglomerate page
- despite ongoing kiln issues at the Poly I was able to bisque-fire my last batch, glaze them, and hand them back so the last two batches can be fired at the higher glazing temperatures – hopefully I should be able to pick these up next week
- water drawings: more non-rectangular pieces, including one with additional paper strings/threads, one just with water on the surface rather than submerged, one coloured after soaking (also some brief experiments with plastic/more transparent material on the windows)
- started writing some text to go alongside/tie the pieces together in the exhibition
- applied to internship at Kestle Barton
- worked at Newlyn and Tate
This week I have moved the focus back from the more practical side of finding plinths/cabinets to the work itself. Although I did a little work on my ceramics (mainly glazing), the majority of my time was spent on the water drawings. As it stands I am struggling to resolve these; there’s something about them that just doesn’t quite seem to be sitting right. I think on the one hand it may well be the slightly muddled agencies/techniques. I started off with the ‘thing’ drawings – drawings of strange, unplaceable forms – and then moved on to making these double-sided. The double-sided element elevated the paper from an unseen surface to almost a sculptural medium, and set up a nice dialogue with this idea of looking through vs at objects (that I also went on to explore with the surface of the window/glass too). From the very first double-sided drawing, I think part of the problem was exactly how to exhibit it; initially I had planned for it to be up against the window, so that only one side was visible but it had a shadow of the other side shining through. However, it ended up being shown hung in space, which changed the effect from one of focusing on the translucency of the paper, to one of the paper as a three dimensional object. I then complicated things further by introducing the water-soaking to the paper. This further heightened the feeling of the paper as a sculptural medium, as well as linking it nicely to the sculptural work with the watery processes behind them all. However, it also introduced the agency of the water which shifts the focus away from what the drawing itself is depicting, and onto what is happening to the paper itself. This is further confused when the work is displayed directly in the window as there is then the additional agency of the sun/shadows playing on the work, as well as the visual information of the window pane and view outside the window.
I find most of these components to be important factors in the work, and as such would like to be able to include as much of it as possible in the degree show. However, I do feel trying to include them all in one work/series of works is perhaps making the work a little muddy and hard to decipher. As such, I have spent a lot of time this week considering how I might separate the agencies/techniques out a little. As it stands I’m thinking that separating the watered paper from the works shown in the window might work in making clearer what each is trying to do. The work in the window can retain the sense of the disruption of the window as an object to look through, instead bringing it into focus as a surface in and of itself, while the water-y bits of paper can then be placed in dialogue with the objects that are reminiscent of watery processes etc. I would like to hang the backwards quote drawing in space as it’s important to me that it can be seen from both sides – both the side it can be read from and the side it appears indecipherable. The quality of movement that hanging opens up is also interesting – some of the most effective moments viewing the work is when the paper/light shifts and the surface suddenly goes from being opaque and one-sided to translucent and three-dimensional. This is where some experimentation in the space itself would be useful. I’d like to play around with the possibility of hanging the pieces so there can be some gentle movement, as well as more broadly how the pieces feel in the space. It could be that they are placed at unusual heights, wrapped around corners in the room etc, which I imagine would result from physical experimentation in the space rather than carefully considering from the space in which I am sat writing. As such, this is something I’d like to ensure I play around with in the coming week.
Writing the text to go alongside the artworks this week has also been a big, and exciting, undertaking. I wanted something to emphasise the geological processes that I am emulating in the ceramic works, but something too on-the-nose as to over-explain it. At present the text is developing into a poetic emulation of the cosmic and the geologic – a strange, sensory description of the evolution of the Earth since the Big Bang. I think this has been in part inspired by Rachel Carson’s The Sea Around Us (which I found through the work of Tania Kovats), as well as drawing on display ideas from Rosanna Martin’s Other Interesting Stones. I find it fascinating how Rachel Carson’s book is to all intents and purposes a scientific book, documenting the evolution of the oceans and the species within it, but yet it takes such a poetic tone. It is rare to find texts that fall into this overlap of the arts and sciences, which is a large part of why I am so drawn to it. In Rosanna Martin’s book she accompanies images of her ceramics with the geological history of Cornwall, creating a scientific context within which to situate her artistic works. In creating my own evocation of the processes and material agencies that shape our world, and situating my work among it, I hope to draw the two together in a similar way. Once the text is finished, however, I do still need to work out exactly how I’d like it to be incorporated into the display. Printed? Hand-written? On water-soaked paper? On the walls?
Next week:
- finish text to go alongside work
- move out of studio
- play around with water drawings in the space
- try water drawing with water-soluble pencils
- finish quote piece (think about any other quotes I want in the space?)
- make a start on any practical things in the space we can – e.g. neatening some of the plinths we’ve gathered, possibly even playing around with the arrangement of work on the plinths? also try colouring in one side of a plinth?
- email Andy to ask when he might know about the table-plinth – get started on building one if needed
- start gathering supplies for hanging work – a B&Q trip may be needed !
- continue with book – embossing page, print photos for strata
- take down library display
Anna Harris 