Failure

I have my 'Installation Under Sink' work on the Failure blog, Take a look!

http://failure2011.blogspot.com/

Canvas Unpicked and Dipped III

 

These are a series of images showing the making of the work I am intending to show at degree show. (Bath School of Art and Design Degree Show, 11th - 15th June 2011) I have built a 120 x 200cm stretcher and stretched it with canvas. The canvas has been tugged off the stretcher and is being unpicked thread by thread.

 As each thread is unpicked it is dipped in oil medium before being laid back over the stretcher. Each strand is laid over the stretcher in the same direction as it was unpicked from, i.e. if a thread was pulled from the canvas vertically it is lain vertically. The 'finished' lattice of dipped threads then will, in part, be a description of the structure of the canvas. The oil medium is vital in retaining the liquid, visceral quality of painting. The addition of the medium and the process of redeploying the canvas strands means the work is not only read as a deconstruction of painting.

The finished installation will hold the performance of the making within it but also transcend the process. The viewer will be asked to look at the, often hidden, materials of painting and see them in a different light.

These Words I Seek Are Not My Own

I performed a work for an exhibition in Bristol recently, the work is entitled 'Canvas Unpicked and Dipped II' It consisted of me pulling canvas from a stretcher, unpicking it thread by thread and dipping the threads in oil medium before remaking the canvas by laying the threads back over the stretcher.

The performance seemed to be quite mesmerising for many viewers. However the whole thing looked rough, practical and as if it was a studio space. This meant many viewers had trouble reading the performance as a  whole. Instead they were looking at it as if I was making a piece, not that the act of unpicking and dipping was the work.

Even though it was not a complete success it was well received and gave me alot to think about. The performance needs simplifying and staging more. The other route however would be to accept the object as the work and to concentrate on making the performance evident in the object itself.

20 x 30cm Canvas Unpicked and Dipped

This series of images shows 20 x 30cm Canvas Unpicked and Dipped as it is being made.  

The work has moved on quite dramatically recently. I have been making works which make more of the fact I am unpicking canvas. I have begun to unpick whole pieces of canvas and am displaying the resulting threads together, rather than unpicking and isolating a few strands.

Consequently I feel the work is much less charismatic as a finished piece. It works much better as I am making the work, as a time based performance. This is something I wish to explore further.

For 20 x 30cm Canvas Unpicked and Dipped I began with a piece of canvas the size the title suggests, I attached this to the wall at a comfortable unpicking height, next to a shelf also at a comfortable height to work on. I then unpicked the canvas, dipping the threads in a jar of oil medium before dropping them onto the shelf.

The canvas therefore went form being an ordered piece of material to being a pile of chaotic, sticky threads. There are numerous problems with this piece however. I intend to further the work by moving away from the wall and making the work into more of a practiced, rather than an accidental, performance.

Intervention Under Sink in Painting Bays I

 This is an image of 'Intervention Under Sink in Painting Bays I'. It is an almost invisible work, consisting of a length of canvas thread installed under a sink and poured repeatedly with Lukas IV oil medium. The work has a tension within it; it looks as if it could have been formed from the sink, yet if the viewer looks closer it becomes apparent this is improbable, and it has been installed.

 As the reader can see the work is almost imperceptible. I do not know how many people, if any, have seen the work without being told it is there. This does not bother me however, I like the notion of rewarding anyone who does notice it, yet simultaneously I like the idea it is a secret work. To me it seems more of an intervention, and gives the work a parasitic feel if it is unseen.

Project Space VI

 Project Space VI

 Canvas, Lukas IV oil medium, Fishing line, Staples.

This is Project Space VI, made last week. The work stretches from a pipe, near the floor under the window, at one side of the room; and the top of the wall under a high, narrow window at the other side of the room. There is a walk-through intersecting the room at right angles to the work. This means everyone who walks through the space has to either duck under or step over the piece. The large white paper installation hanging from the ceiling is by Vicki Ley and the foil sculptures are Olivis Rowlatt's work. 

 Project Space VI is harking back to previous works in that it is cutting up space and so forcing the viewer to interact with and encounter the work. However there are faults with the piece. The main one being that the canvas lines poured with Lukas IV have merely become a tool for cutting up the space. Which is a result of having exploited this format too much I think. The process and making of the work has become a means to an end; rather than an intrinsic part of the work which is possibly more important than the finished product.

The work was successful at showing the mark of the viewer though. These images show how undetectable and almost invisible Project Space VI is. This makes the work a little disconcerting for viewers who walk through the space. The canvas threads which have jumped up and clung to the fishing wire and each other; shown in the image above, have done so because someone tripped over the fishing wire when the Lukas IV medium was still drying. The tangled threads are jarring in comparison to the regimented lines of the unaltered threads.

Interventions

As it is the start of third year I have been thinking about how to modify and expand my work. I want to keep the compelling elements and take out the parts I feel I have explored. I want to continue forming and making spaces with the threads. I will build spaces for them to inhabit so the viewer experiences them in a near perfect environment. Conversely I have been scouting around for sites where I can install a few threads as an intervention. I am looking for sites in which the works will look as if they could almost have formed themselves. Though I still wish it to be obvious that they are paintings. There is a contradiction here, though one which I hope will create tension in the work.

Under sinks, from pipes and from trees are sites I am looking at and experimenting with. Threads hanging from under sinks and pipes may look slightly grotesque and put the viewer in mind of slime and tendrils of mineral deposits. Whereas hanging from trees the threads will look much more like sap, and perhaps even bodily. I have started testing these ideas and will update the blog soon with progress.