Monday 11 September 2023
My tutor set out generous time for the discussion, which mainly revolved around my making to reflect on this process regarding how the body of work will be seen as an outcome.
The work that stood out is the nest I held up against the sun – time and other things beyond made form were shown. This is something to explore – these connections can be explored in the space where humans and non-humans meet. We discuss the materials used, which is not always what we associate. I should consider this collision space: What happens here? Think about what happens here. I want to bring in a human scale – this could assist with this connection. I feel I have some catching up with my making.
My documentation and visual material should show my making. I need to remember how an external viewer (examiner) will see the work. Upscaling of the work becomes necessary – consider more drawing. The context is there; I am clear about my plan to work, but I must look at what I am making/doing and share the making process. What happens in that space – how I get to them is necessary to show and to focus on the making. The act of making is the area where I spin or make connections with nature. It is essential to show this. I need to consider the decisions, the pauses, and the hesitations that come through in this process. Compare the outcomes with this process of connections, which happens in the making. It is about looking at the process and how this brings me (my body experience) into the making. I value as this is what I am considering in my Research Part of the course – share that connection.
I need to think about how I will go about that: I consider the process of care I weave into my making and thoughts. How I document this process shows my vulnerability. Think about the possibility of having a different understanding – like sensing, not necessarily the intellectual understanding that happens. I see my work connected artists such as textile, a local basket weaver and or with a scientific project. In terms of place, it could be outside in nature, in a garden, a natural area. My tutor shared the work of Nils Udo – placed outside in nature (the landscape) and this connects with my own ‘dream’ of where I see my work could go. I have been considering putting some of my nests outside – but I have not been sure if I should do this. I consider using the area around the dam on our farmyard to display my work.
OCA student – who grew willow and wove some, burnt it and made drawings with the charcoal. Thinking of my love for this, the tutor suggests using the umber and exploring it. Bigger drawings to make that connection between the outside and inside. Continue to explore the makings. A good learning here is that this process inside the studio will help me not to get too ‘picky’ about my making. It will make the work more physical and stay with the circular form. It should become more visceral. I will be making big charcoal nest drawings. On my easel is a big sheet of archival paper ready for me to start. (I’m excited to take that outside and explore that space.) Imagine the space where I see these works outside of my studio. Important to think of that placement of the works and the connection which happens there…..that space and how we come across it, what we see in that space. I consider deep time/deep space, which is different when we encounter nature. Mindful thinking of documenting how I make and questioning that will benefit my work and make it more transparent for the viewer. (I thought after the session of the writing I started as a conversation blog between me and another student about our making and responding on each others work – I will look into those thoughts again: I like the idea to think about turning the thing inside out.)
My tutor suggested I look at the essay on how artists think and share the pdf with me: Creative Accounting: Not Knowing in Talking and Making, Rebecca Fortnum. I remember I read this article and am grateful for this reference at this time. It is an article I can make use of – I agree that not knowing is what motivates me (the artist) to strive to find and I need to explore as this leads one to a process of discovery.
I shared my research question with my tutor to consider how my making will interweave into this.
We plan the next tutorial.
PS to my tutor: Thank you for sharing the pdf by R Fortnum; I think I have realised something quite profound – in a way my nests are also a container or protective space (?) for my own vulnerability. I feel pretty insecure in the idea if I will be able to upscale them to human size, but I know I need that space, a place I really would like to go and sit in quiet (and hide away at times) I asked myself new questions: What if I consider my studio a space to connect with the outside world? Can my studio be a container of thoughts as well? If I look at my studio from an outsiders perspective I always want to tidy it and not show the chaos -lots of things are lying about, things I would like to return to. Is this because I want to hide my vulnerability? Fortnum writes about the studio having the ability to ‘hold’ a process non-sequentially and making it ‘present’.
This conversation motivated me to revisit P Barlow and notes I have made earlier: ” Drawing is an integral part of Barlow’s practice; she draws before, during and after creating sculptures, both as a means of developing a working process and to visualise ideas which are later translated into three dimensions. Drawing provides the artist with the freedom to improvise and engage directly with materials. The resulting works are fluid and dynamic. She works across media, using pencil, acrylic and watercolour, always with the intense physicality evident in her sculptural work.” ( ). One of my lessons learned from her earlier in my studies, think it was in UVC 2, was that ‘the work’ takes the artists on a journey, not the artist taking the material/work on a journey. Remembering this is to get back into that space of doing the work, making it, being aware of what happens, when I work and explore. I have to contemplate this in my making, as this feels real and truthful about my own making process.
I would love to get hold of the book: Phyllida Barlow: Collected Lectures, Writings, and Interviews launches on 23 August 2021 publication from Hauser & Wirth Publishers,