Research Blog

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http://www.artmonthly.co.uk/jean.htm

2010-04-09T02:11:00.000-07:00

Mike Womak's Links

2008-05-15T12:46:00.000-07:00

I just flicked through Mike Womack's links page on his site and was totally amazed. I have come across Arthur Ganson before which is a bit like sharmanka but more delicate and Ellen Harveys interventions in NY. Justen Ladda's work is really interesting too and is similar to something I have thought about before. They all seem to have this playful element along side quite strong ideas.

Mike Womack

2008-05-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

Thought id add a little bit about chairs in here as I haven't really mentioned them much. I googled chair art and found this amazing guy Mike Womack. He seems to be dealing with some of the ideas I talked about in my brief- the space between opposites and the idea of conundrum. Visually I find it really attractive- its also playful and fun while keeping strong conceptual roots (just like what Jim Lambie was talking about).

Arte Povera

2008-05-13T12:41:00.000-07:00

I have just realised that I have left out one of the most important threads running through my research. I only really found out what Arte Povera was at the start of the term when I flicked through one of Lorraine's books. I really loved some of the images and materials that were used so I got a few books out myself. Gilberto Zorio really stood out, I loved his structures and use of materials- it reminded me of Claire Barclays work. Giovanni Anselmo, Lucianno Fabro, Mario Mertz and Michelangelo Pistoletto were all artists I really liked as well. Although not exactly the same, Martin Puryear's work sort of fits into this category too. The 3d forms that he makes have been somewhere in the back of my mind for a while.

1/0

2008-05-12T14:48:00.000-07:00

I was about to write a really long complicated blog about 'The Theory of Everything' and dividing one by zero. I have been reading about it online, especially a guy called Garrett Lisi. Its sort of like 'Being and Nothingness' (not that I have got very far through it) by talking about infinity, absoluteness, positivity and negativity. Suggesting circular ideas about time, magnetism and unity this article really interested me. I have no idea who wrote it and although the sources may not be credible I feel like it is saying in detail what this project (and all of them to an extent) have been about for me. Im not upset by this though because everything I have done has reflected a degree of myself in it whether through the thinking or the making. Just as I mentioned in my previous post the article describes simultaneously being positive and negative, similarly to my seeing myself individually and on a bigger scale at the same time. I think there is a lot more to explore with this...

Requiem for a Dream

2008-05-12T14:07:00.000-07:00

For the first time in at least a couple of years I had a really horrible sick feeling at a simple comment someone made. I was stacking the glass washer at work and someone said ' I hate doing that, it feels like you will be doing it for the rest of your life'. Im not sure if I have ever had such a sick feeling in my stomach. It was like looking at everyone and just imagining them all doing the same things for the rest of their lives. I do this all the time but this time I saw myself as being one of these robotic style workers too. The reason im including this here though is that I could sort of see myself from two perspectives simultaneously. As I know myself and as other people see me. More than this though I felt like I could appreciate each individual person in the bars interpretation of themselves. This really reflects the mandelbrot fractal a few posts before this. Visually it makes me think about overlapping circles and sequences. It was such a strange experience and all I could think about was the film Requiem for a Dream.

Plinths

2008-05-08T11:48:00.000-07:00

I spoke to Ken yesterday because I felt when I soaked the sheet in plaster it had ruined it. He mentioned that I should try putting the work on some kind of plinth, even on the table or an upside down bin. I have been thinking about this quite a bit although I haven't actually tried it because its not the easiest thing to move. It made me think about the Kenny Hunter talk and the way he talked about plinths. He used old crates, boxes etc but also more traditional ones depending on the work and its concept. For example, he used a small plinth for Citizen Firefighter to give the firefighter who puts down his life for others some recognition. However in Man Walks Among Us he uses to plinth so that the viewer can relate to the figure of Jesus. I sort of feel that elevating my work would only increase the distance between the viewer and a normal chair (obviously there is some distance already) but id like to keep that minimal. Also, I think it might become less accessible and could be taken too seriously - obviously its meant to be quite fun. I think I might try to do the opposite of what I think a plinth would and make the work blend more with the floor. I was thinking about using wax to sort of blend the plaster sheet and floor together- hopefully it comes off afterwards though...

Jim Lambie

2008-05-06T14:20:00.000-07:00

Today was great. It left me with loads to think about but the one thing that sort of stood out was the idea of having a strong conceptual grounding of an idea but then just letting your imagination do the work. Not having to have solid links, x means this and y represents that. I have felt a bit bogged down in this project (in all of them really) somewhere in the middle. I suppose its the fear of making something crap that doesn't show where you really ended up. I was chatting to Paul about this today as well- that whatever you make is only ever going to be a document of the past because you always keep moving (maybe not always forwards) and there comes a point where you just have to make a decision of what you are going to do- even if by the end of a project you feel your ideas have gone beyond that. To get back to my point though, I think what I got from it was to trust your own creativity and that making the jump from research to work, without knowing where you are going, is where your own unique thoughts exist. The more free they are the better.

Wrapping Pictures

2008-05-06T14:10:00.001-07:00

I experimented with wrapping things - mainly chairs and people. Would you know this if I didn't tell you what they were? As I mentioned in my last post, I was thinking about the title of 'chair made of carrots covered by cloth'. I would hope that this would throw up more questions which isn't my objective but is sort of inevitable, so they may as well be interesting ones, eh?

Forms

2008-05-05T15:27:00.000-07:00

I haven't really been updating this as often as I should but the last week has been a bit strange. Lots of sitting in the studio doing nothing, well something but nothing very productive. I have been thinking about ideas a lot and how they can be made visual without content. A bit like Plato's Theory of Forms. Im not sure how far this can go though without art becoming nothing. I suppose you need a few little hooks to grab onto when you are looking at something, even if you take a totally different path than the one intended you need something to hold onto. I have been thinking about this quite a lot. I thought that the title of the work could be quite important but on Friday I was taking a more literal route. Im using an actual chair- not for any higher purpose but because its universal- everyone knows what a chair is and it's quite simple. Other than that I just decided I wanted to use a chair. I experimented with covering it with material and giving it a title like 'Chair made of Carrots Covered by Cloth'. The illusion and conundrum ideas keep coming back. I think a bit of humour is important too but more dry than slapstick. I think im talking in circles a bit so im going to stop but ill post again tomorrow.

The 8-Circuit Model of Consciousness

2008-04-30T11:28:00.001-07:00

I can't find a way to directly link this to the rest of my research but the idea of consciousness is always ticking over somewhere in my head. This layering of 8 levels isn't something I have heard of before so I thought i'd include it here. It also reminds me of the Divine Comedy, spirals, circles and chakras. I suppose it could also be linked to high/low art- 'low' art fulfilling circuits 1-4 - the more basic human needs and 'high' art being linked to circuits 5-8 being linked to more spiritual and intellectual aspects. However, I this is probably quite a snobby thing to say and possibly a bit misguided. Theres no point in having a head and no body (or a body and no head) so must the best art be accessible to every level on consciousness?

Pendulum

2008-04-29T11:58:00.000-07:00

I used the term 'I would be happy to make some work that reflects the point of instability and adjustment I am at when I make the work.' in my self initiated brief and I have been thinking about it quite a lot. Almost like the different stages a pendulum goes through, ideas are continually changing while usually keeping a central idea or theme. In the DVD we watched on Pietro Fortuna he said ‘In this oscillation between net yet and forever we capture every beginning’ which I think is such a very interesting view of time. I suppose time could also be compared to a pendulum- its always moving but never gets very far. I decided to include this horrible image because tacky shops seem to dectroy everything.

Mandelbrot Fractal

2008-04-20T14:07:00.000-07:00

Again, I can't really explain what this is- but it's amazing. The idea of this is so exciting although the horrible colours they use ruin it. In another video someone described this equation as being the 'fingerprint of God' which I thought was a great way of putting it. These ideas really support some of my previous, slightly shaky ideas about time and space. I think im beginning to see some sort of structure of ideas...

As above, so below, Spirit rules matter, The unseen rules the seen

2008-04-20T13:35:00.000-07:00

Its quite hard to summarise this website but it's about structure, mathematics and how we view reality. It also talks about time and space which are titles that seem to be recurring... here's the link.

Lucid Dreams

2008-04-19T05:24:00.000-07:00

I have only ever had one lucid dream. I had a mouse in the hood of my jacket which kept running around and I was spinning round trying to get it out. Then I realised I was dreaming and made the mouse disappear by thinking about it. It sounds silly but I was thinking about this happening in 'real life'. Imagine being able to just imagine something and it happens. It makes me think of the world as being made up of underlying structures covered over by nature...

Chris Duncan

2008-04-19T04:49:00.000-07:00

Chris Duncan. Really into the sort of singularity idea in this guys work. I like the way his work seems to have progressed from 2-D to 3-D, from paper to string installations. It reminds me of space, the big bang etc which I find really appealing.

More Balloons...

2008-04-19T03:36:00.000-07:00

High Wire by Catherine Yass

2008-04-15T13:45:00.000-07:00

Although I didn't think this show was mind blowing, it could potentially talk about some of the ideas I have been looking at. Ideas of balance, in this case social order, Derelict Utopias and Life vs Existence although the ideas could really be applied to anything...

A drawing I did before I saw the show:

Alan Sonfist

2008-04-15T13:20:00.000-07:00

Im really attracted to Alan Sonfist's work - I think the idea that he becomes a tree is great. Its like becoming the wind or the sea or fire, a sort of romantic hippy notion. I can't help but love it. I think it's something to do with becoming something else so that YOU almost don't exist, but you are hanging there by the slightest thread. I suppose this is as close as we can get to knowledge- to know almost nothing. I have included a drawing by him when he was 8 because childhood/adulthood is another one of the opposties I have been talking about although im not sure if im much further forward in finding a balance between them.

Urs Fischer

2008-04-15T13:04:00.001-07:00

I just realised that I haven't really put any secondary research on here so I thought i'd start with Urs Fischer. I don't really know what to say, I think his work speaks for itself. Not so keen on the chair work but thats a bit earlier than the stuff that I find really interesting...

Balloons

2008-04-14T13:37:00.000-07:00

After I made the smoke tower, I had the idea of tying string to a helium balloon and seeing how far it would go up in a straight line. Nice idea, not so easy in practice. I tried to do it over the motorway but it was far too windy so I went to Kelvingrove. I thought i'd feel a bit stupid walking about with a balloon but it was actually really nice. Several babies smiled and waved at me (well, probably at the balloon) and people gave me kind of strange looks but I didn't care because I had a balloon and they didn't. So much fun. Eventually it got stuck in a tree and I filmed it for a few minutes because I thought it was just a nice thing to watch- quite a lot of people sat and watched it too. I thought that tying about 30 balloons to a tree would be nice, I imagine it looking as if the tree was being held up by the balloons.

Smoke Tower

2008-04-14T13:26:00.000-07:00

I decided to make my own axis mundi using incense sticks today. Loads of fun to play with, I must have looked like I was doing tai chi or something when I was making patterns with the smoke. That slow movement reminds me a bit of Nan Hoover. Anyway, here are the pics-

Axis Mundi

2008-04-13T07:11:00.000-07:00

The axis mundi is a ubiquitous symbol that crosses human cultures. The image expresses a point of connection between sky and earth where the four compass directions meet.

I love this idea of a connection between separate things, but I also love the visual tower, pillar etc. The universality of the idea is key, I think. It crosses all borders and divides and has the ability to make connections between people which for me is probably the main 'function' of art.

Sink Photographs

2008-04-13T06:53:00.000-07:00

Opposites that Fit Inside Each Other

2008-04-13T06:14:00.000-07:00

In my last project I felt the need to create a literal structure from which objects would be suspended or balanced on. Structure is something that I always seem to want to have so that it can be manipulated. Rather than a physical structure in this project, I would like to think of it as more of a conceptual structure. Ideas that fit inside other ideas and are their opposite. I think that this will give me more freedom but an equal amount of difficulties.

Interactions

2008-04-10T08:30:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in my first post that I was interested in the way opposites interact with each other and I think thats what I was trying to say in my last post. Although the content changes, the basis for a lot of my interest is actually the way the contradictory ideas react to each other and often sort of fit inside each other. I was thinking of it almost like the two faces/candlestick images. Rather than seeing one or the other, could it be possible to see both at the same time? Similarly, could we understand two contradictory/complimentary concepts at the same time, even though they are saying opposite things?

Condradictions

2008-04-10T03:53:00.000-07:00

I just came across an interesting idea that rather that thinking of everything across time as being equal, that objects only exist now. They cannot exist in the past or future which seems to make much more sense. This also reminds me of the chinese idea that a person only exists right now, in the present. There is no past and no future you. Imagine that someone implanted all your memories into your head- they never really happened. Is there any way of knowing this? I was thinking about the idea that time doesn't exist, but maybe its just that the past and future only exist in our heads. I might be rambling a bit but I will try and untangle all of this before my next post...

Cellular Memory

2008-04-09T11:55:00.000-07:00

The idea that all the matter in the universe was once squashed together in an infinitely small space really fascinates me. Everyone you know and everything you can see, all so close that thinking about it makes me a bit claustrophobic. But then I saw a news item about cellular memory- that organs retain some sort of memory when transplanted from one patient to another. This got me thinking that if organs possibly have a memory, could molecules and atoms also have one? If they could, could we interpret and understand the information? It seems that there were no witnesses to the big bang, but everything you can see and the molecules that make up all the people you know were there and will be around forever.

Beginnings

2008-04-09T11:26:00.000-07:00

Over the last couple of days I have been looking at some artists and writers but also back over the work that I have done in the last two terms. I think im getting to grips with the sort of things im interested in; the way in which opposites interact with each other; physical/psycological; metaphysics; people; perception and so on. I think my research is going to be focused on metaphysical ideas, more terms of science than religion though. The cosmos, the big bang and orbiting movements interest me in particular.

2008-04-09T05:10:00.000-07:00