Visualising Soft Sculptures

In a potential future installation, I'd like to make some doll sculptures to sit alongside my book and other things - to bring the book's world into reality. I want them to look purposefully crude and childish, but also adequately reminiscent of my character drawings. These are some general plans about the look and feel of the dolls I'd like to make.

MCP writing planning/methods

I had my first MCP tutorial this week with a small group of students (there were 7 of us). We described our research and focus to each other and then had to explain each other's projects to the group, the idea being that we could pinpoint what parts of our objectives aren't perhaps very clear to an audience. We also discussed methods of getting the work done, and were given these hand outs. I've definitely brainstormed ideas in this haphazard sort of way, although I tend to lean more towards lists to get ideas out of or into my head (although in many cases very messy lists!).

In order to organise my time at the moment, I've started keeping a box of notes. I use a small notepad to make several different lists each day - a general to-do list and more specific ones, lists of things to do daily, or lists of questions or things to look into regarding certain ideas or categories. I find that organising through multiple lists works really well for me, and I can revisit past lists easily if I store them in a dedicated box (looking back on previous lists often provides new ideas or reinvigorates old ideas that I can revisit or elaborate on). There is also a great website called listography.com which I use when I want a digital list. Sometimes I write down a lot of things quickly on a page and then transpose that into an easy to digest list, It means all my ideas are syphoned off onto paper and I don't have to worry I've forgotten something because I know I've written everything down and can thus concentrate fully on one task.

My MCP draft is reasonably close to being complete now, but I need to make sure I'm still working away at it, because some of the bits that are left to retool are quite tough bits. I find it so hard to keep going sometimes after I've been working on a piece of writing for a long time (I've been writing this essay for several months) but I've found it quite encouraging to go through the essay so far with someone else and discuss with them how I can change and expand sections. Having someone else look at your work can give you a fresh perspective and make you feel motivated again.

It also just feels very rewarding to have successfully improved a part of your essay, so I think it's good for me to remember to work small in order to really concentrate on one section and not get overwhelmed, as well as to ask someone else to give me some feedback - I don't need to completely rely on myself reading my essay again and again, desperately trying to figure out a way to change something.

Notes & exhibition ideas following first stage 3 tutorial

The main conclusion I could gather from my tutorial with Richard is that I need to concentrate on/plan for future assessments and ultimately the degree show and really figure out something that I'd like to show that is big enough and bold enough and sure enough. My 360 book is a great little world, but for exhibition purposes I really want to be aiming at bring that world out into a bigger space (like the picture of my wall below, covered with pink paintings).

I have sketched & brainstormed some ideas for a small installation space reminiscent of my original 'Lilly's Clubhouse' placement exhibition idea. I think it would be really fun to have a little corner with all sorts of things poking out of it - shelves, sculptures, paintings, collage, trinkets, my 360 book, and maybe other homemade books of some kind. There are lots of possibilities and I really have to explore this now and try to show something bigger and more world-like.

Dalston Anatomy

Lorenzo Vitturi's show at The Photographer's Gallery focuses on the incredible depth of colour and culture he sees in Dalston. In an interview with Time Out*, he explains that he has "always been interested in states of precariousness." It is clear that, like me, Vitturi has an affinity with the moment - those beautiful and unique instances all around us, thousands and millions of them new and then gone, over, every day. Vitturi says: "Using all this organic stuff like fruit from the market, photography is the only way capture it - otherwise something might only last for five minutes." The transience and expiration of the things/moments pictured in his photographs are integral to his practice, and he marvels in the unique joy of each one.

*The interview is here.

Paper Trail (an inspiring collaborative project)

image via Rookie

This morning I came across this collaborative collage project posted here on Rookie Magazine. The two collaborators describe their build up of "daunting" unused materials and their efforts to finally overcome them together. This was the perfect thing for me to come across today, as whether working collaboratively or not it's always worth being reminded that materials are there to be used. Everything is transient, including all forms of my produced art, and regarding them as special can get in the way of making, moving, shifting, recycling, etc. The only constant is change.

Further Thoughts On Collaboration

Following my previous post on LAB451, performance art, and my ideas for creating collaborative artworks, I have discovered a couple of useful/relevant/interesting things today. The first is a blog in which an artist details her (reluctant, at first - on her part) collaborations with her daughter. Her daughter essentially demanded that this artist share her sketchbook. Whilst the artist was initially peeved at this idea, she soon discovered that co-creating with her daughter was incredible fun. This blog post is here, and the most delightful part talks about the child's unashamed derision of her mother's artistic choices.

The second thing I found is an article by Brian Sherwin, titled "Collaboration in Art -- mutual respect, mutual work, mutual exposure". In it, he discusses the potentially beneficial effects of collaboration. Sensitivity is mentioned. It's true that artists often work in their own worlds. Art can be very solitary and personal, so often in order to collaborate effectively, artists must struggle through their psychological responses and habits. Anyone reading this is likely to have struggled through agonising group work at some point. Working with others can be exhausting, stressful, and downright impossible. If a collaboration is successfully traversed, however, it does offer some fantastic benefits. There is a great scope for learning through working with others. Collaboration forces people to address and modify their methods and barriers. This can easily be a disaster with the wrong people/situation, but with the right components in place it is ideal. Artists should recognise the importance in continuous re-evaluation, progression, and improvement. The right collaboration can facilitate just that.

LAB451 at Camden Image Gallery, performance, and collaboration

LAB451

I don't get to see much performance art very often usually, but my band recently performed at a performance art focused event in Camden. Performance is effectively a component in every artwork through the process of creating it and the process of showing it. These actions can be termed performance and can be viewed through the lens of performance. Performance art is not something I directly and purposefully interact with in my art practice, however I perform in a musical context, and in a wider sense my art practise concerns itself with the methods via which I make art and the emotive transmissions and transferences therein.

I made a video journal depicting the night at LAB451 which is viewable below.

During our performance, my band/duo (Rescue A Family) played projected videos with each song. My bandmate, Ed, usually controls visual filters and effects as we play. Different effects are assigned to a series of knobs which increase or decrease effects as they are turned one way or the other. We wanted to invite audience participation after our initial performance by running our videos and allowing people to play with our effects as Ed does as we perform.

COLLABORATIVE ART

In tandem with my MCP essay (currently titled "Why Do People Reject Themselves As Artists?") I have been increasingly interested in collaborative art. My art practice has always been very solitary, and following criticisms of it's insular nature and accessibility concerns it seems it might be an idea to work with other people as a way of pushing myself towards work that is more comprehensible and purposeful. I particularly would like to collaborate on projects with people who are reluctant or shy about art.

I'm interested in bringing "non artists" (or as I like to refer to them, the "artistically dormant") into my art practise and into art making generally, as an exercise that would serve to create bonds between both us as people, and between my collaborate and art. Functionally, I sort of want to drag someone into art against their will.

I have elicited several drawings from my boyfriend - a person who doesn't really draw. I thought a nice way of making "unwilling" collaborative art would be to collect requested drawings and then myself organise them into a college, which I can then embellish. Thus the collaboration is completed without directly collaborative participation from my collaborator. Sneaky.

I have attempted to have us both draw alongside each other in a booklet, but (as is evidently the natural fearful response of someone who is not really used to drawing) he tends to locate his drawings far away from mine and usually with quite a lot of blank space around them. This doesn't really work for collaborative purposes as he instinctively distances his drawings from mine (as well as from each other). This is the reason I came up with the idea of my doctoring of his images as a means to construct collaborative artworks, as that way he can contribute in a passive way to a collaborative project - the only way it would be possible (unless he shed his artistic instincts and barriers).