Research Task
Evaluate your making, methodologies, research and relevant professional practice. Write down and make notes on each of these specific elements. My notes and bullet points will be the source material for a creative conversation with my peers in the next exercise.
● Media, materials, processes and techniques you utilise.
I work with a wide range of materials, and apart from painting and drawing, I make 3d objects, mostly with wire/raffia, paper, fungi and clay. For drawing or painting, I prefer charcoal and oil paints. I explore the materiality of these materials and other artists’ contemporary art practices, which focus on interconnectedness and agency (with the non-human in mind). I became more fascinated with my materials during the course of my studies at OCA and making opened up to experimentation with materials. I think about the physicality (tactile) of working with my hands. I focus on a series of works – finding kinship between objects I make – making them and drawing or painting them, either upscaled or minimized. I will return to the work I did earlier, change it or consider re-using it for other work. I would like to do more printing – I would prefer to work with not only Monoprint – but would like to do some chine colle experiments with the forms and shapes I create.
Considering upscaling as a technique of making work in the environment has been part of my thoughts. For this I will use wire and tree/plant branches as the structural material.
● Research concerns that drive, inform and facilitate your practice-led research.
I am thinking here to focus on what ‘informed’ my work. The nest has become a space/place to give meaning and deal with life, connectedness, safety, protection and loss. In many ways, the nest became a physical space to contemplate safety, rest, intimacy and connectedness. Could I call it an entry point into my own needs and ideas? In many ways, one’s home is filled with memories, and one takes this with you wherever you are. Nests remind me of a haven or shelter, something I am very aware of if I look around my community and see poverty, loss of social cohesion, homelessness and then broader into the world where wars are causing people to become refugees without safety. I would also say the nests became a metaphor for a container – a space that holds. I also like the idea that the work can develop and grow in size which again (a life sized nest) can dissolve back into the landscape. I would like to look at building a massive nest with concern for the landscape in mind, but also create it in a safe space where humans can interconnect with the idea of a natural environment and being part of it.
A nest carries ideas of fragility, transience, nature, harmony, and the tenderness of life. I hope it will provide visitors with a sense of peace and tranquillity and the potential for growth and renewal.”
I recently came upon a book, suggested by a friend, Exploring Art for Perspective Transformation by Alexis Kokkos. I believe art strongly influences how we think, learn and live. I have become more familiar with Louise Bourgeois’s work and focus on exploring the emotional context in her work to consider how she dealt with the intensity of emotions by transferring the energy into her sculpture-making process. I like that it is not about how the artist manages the materials; the subject of the work becomes about emotions. I will also research the making and process of Eva Hesse, as she also considers that artwork comes from the artist and that there is closeness, a feeling of the presence of the act of making in the work. My process is an enquiry-based exploration with materials that focuses on considering the materials’ history and agency. I work with archives of other artists to learn from their making and the materials used. This implies that I must archive and synthesize articles, photographs, video stills, and videos. Making work as an installation outside the studio will also consider ideas of impermanence and human attachment and trust the process of nature and the changing due to natural decay. I also like the idea of having humans ‘climb into’ a nest and consider our place as equal to that of all animals and encourage thought processes which are less anthropocentric. In a way being in a nest could also have an audience ‘re-connect’ with own animalistic roots and consider adapting ways of living which would benefit all, our planet included.
I also think it essential to stay with the idea of not knowing – earlier reading of Rebecca Fortnum comes to mind. “Ginsborg describes a feeling of “helplessness before the object” as he makes and speculates, “It seems to me none of my work has a foreseen conclusion to it.” 5 The sculptor Alison Wilding also makes this clear when she voices her ambition for the work, “What I’m trying to do is to make a new thing which is increasingly more and more difficult. I sometimes wonder whether I’m simply repeating or re- making the first object in [my different] streams of work.” 6 She continues, “For me, a good piece of work (something that either I have made or someone else has made) is when the hair at the back of your neck stands on end when you encounter it… That’s what I demand from the things that I do….” 7 Wilding’s drive for a Eureka moment could be characterised in part as an echo of Ezra Pound’s imperative, “make it new!” yet I believe the desire is quite complex and can be unpacked further. Another artist, Maria Chevska, responding to Wilding’s statement counters: I’m really interested in that sort of epiphany type moment that you can have with a work that would give that visceral reaction… I would think they’re very few and far between but an artist continues to make work and I’m interested in the sense of failure you could have by showing a body of work that you’ve not had that experience with. 8 Although Chevska’s comment marks her out as an artist rather more consciously grappling with what Rosalind Krauss terms the “working assumption” of originality it is interesting to note that she too acknowledges a belief in the importance of this moment when the new is recognised manifest. Ryan Gander, another artist aware of the competing ideologies at play in the studio, reasons that pre-existing knowledge can lead to the lack of a creative challenge, reasoning, “If I make a successful work, and I know how, then it’s no longer challenging. It has to take you to a place you don’t know, somewhere that scares you.” I am just so much more aware that one can only continue to push the boundaries of one’s practice through self-reflection, experimentation, and a willingness to embrace challenges if and hopefully make a meaningful contribution to the art world.
I have started researching the work of recent/contemporary wire artists and am creating a substantial list with information on their process, materials and making. (Racso Jugarap, a Filipino wire artist who recently was a finalist of the Loewe Craft Prize; Nils Udo, Jacqueline Mallegni , Michele Yi Martin (a Korean-American fibre artist) and Nettie Sumner, from Australia Ralph Borland and Celia Smith both South African wire artists are current artists whom I will research)
● Means and methods of reflection and evaluation
Reflection about the outcome and the process is important to me. I write and share work with fellow students, friends and other artists. I explore the methods and learning of my making process and reflect on outcomes.
● Processes and means of recording and documentation.
Mostly short videos and photos. I also enjoy writing about my process.
After recently attending a wire workshop where a Zimbabwean artist demonstrated his techniques, I became interested in Southern African wire artmaking traditions. My making process is meditative, therapeutic, labour-intensive, and time-consuming.
I have to coil every piece of wire before I can start working. I coil it around a wooden dowel, then bend it flat into e-shaped loops before I start weaving with it.
● Content & context around the work.
Nest as Metaphor: Symbolizing safety, protection, loss, and connectedness
Home and Memories: Reflecting on memories, safety, and intimate spaces
Human and Nature Connection: Exploring fragility, transience, and harmony
Building a Massive Nest: Focus on creating a life-sized nest in a safe space within the community as to provide an opportunity for people to engage with the work. Can it become a work of Public art ? I would hope so.
Collaborate with a local artist to explore a safe space/vulnerability/: Solo Studio’s August 2024
● Professional Practice Sustaining your Practice
I read about the Dundee Urban Orchid project on the OCA learn site: It caught my attention as the artists saw their role as collaborative, working with the city and its residents to realise the vision of Dundee as an Orchard City. The project has created 25 orchards across the city, with the orchards defined as having five fruit trees or more. Species planted include apples, plums and pears, emphasising planting Scottish heritage varieties. (https://www.creativecarbonscotland.com/library/dundee-urban-orchard/)
My thoughts started with the ‘apartheid’ history and the forced removal of families in this community. I want to bring the story to the front as a way of thinking about how we connected and how history has caused segregation in town development, unfortunately, continued on this pathway. I believe we still live in a very divided community with no focus on integration.
I also want to look at the project I do voluntary work for – www.rasa.be which is focussed on art for children between the ages 9 – 13 years (primary school kids)
Other ideas could be vegetable gardens, fruit trees, beekeeping, play areas for kids, cleaning and keeping up the cemetary, kids on bicycles, and a skateboarding area. There could also be included activities such as healthy living, such as fitness, handwork, art, and reading for adults.
Exercise 1: Creative conversation with peers
This exercise asks you to work with one or two other people, ideally your peers, to help to explore and formulate your personal set of artists’ intentions and speculative statements on professional practice. Exchanging ideas and discussing work can become a natural aspect of an artist’s practice. Indeed, artwork, when made public, itself projects and communicates content to the world. During this exercise, you are encouraged to share your ideas and work with others.
My first exercise in SYP asks me to work with peers to explore and formulate a personal set of artist intentions and speculative statements on professional practice. I have started making notes but need an objective perspective to inform my future aims. It would be great if I could discuss with two people where one could focus on listening during the conversation, noticing keywords that appear to reflect or iterate pertinent threads, themes or ideas. So, it means I would need feedback notes as well! I am happy to reciprocate and support you as well. ( I would be glad to record the meeting if that would suit you – we can share this on the padlet for future use. (grubby hands padlet)
Artist intentions:
Speculative statements on my practice:
One of the main outcomes was that I explored materials and worked across painting and drawing in my practice. I have also learnt about new artists whom I research in these discussions.