24th December

being turkey (elective)

man by pool

I Climb

so you dont have to.....

obJECTS

Thoughts and Ideas:

as a result of discussions in the end of term crit.

The focus of this crit was considering the direction of my current practice and thinking about how to take ideas further.
The key point gained from this discussion was to focus on forming a strong body of work, now that now I have a central subject I’m exploring.
I need to keep focuses on this idea of reconsidering how we react to the spaces around us. Through investigating this subject I have also started to reflect on how I present and record my work.
Certain aspects such as the issue of the duration of a performance and as mentioned before, how the final piece is presented are subjects I have been think about more carefully recently.
Considering the ‘time’ a performance exists in, is very important. The length can make or break the piece. A piece of work that is performed only exist for a few moments, there are a limited number of witnesses or sometimes none, to the actual event. It exists in a completely different way to other art. By giving duration to a performance is has more of a chance to progress, the longer it goes on for and the harder the action gets. And this is when the real work begins. Or is it something that happened so rapidly that only the traces are left.

It was also mentioned that often my work only exists as a final product. The viewer does not get to experience the process, but are presented with one final image or an edited film. For example the series of images titles ‘I climbed over so you don’t have to’ present only the final product of an action, in quite a controlled way. The viewers can form their own ideas about what actions took place from the one image they are given. The documentation of the work is never going to be the same as the actual event. You can never re stage the event as it was at first. I must consider carefully what ideas I want the final piece to convey.
Conviction in the work is still something I must persist with, if I want it to be successful and believable.
.

These aspects informed ideas for new pieces of work:

Continuing ‘I climbed over so you don’t have to’.
Climbing over higher walls/ barriers and possible making a book from images. Its very important that all images follow the same format.

A two-week exploration of the ‘space in between’.
Reinvestigating at the thing that instigated this line of study. A durational performance/investigation about this space. Actions that could take place vary, but are all linked by were they will take place. Ideas included:

-Holding an event in this space, a party, meal and club meeting.

-Spending a day in this space, unknown by people working in the studio. Recording the sounds and movements from their point of view.

-Drawing /making work for the space that is labour intensive, then boarding up the entrance and inviting people to view the work that they now can not really see.

-Try to fit everything in the room/everyone in the class in this space.

-What could escape from this space? Bubbles, smoke, noises, people.

-Sounds from behind the space, of climbing /drawing, could be amplified, by using microphones fix to walls. Sound traces of the actions are played back after event.

Relationships between objects.
An ongoing enquiry in to what happens when objects are grouped and placed together. The noises created between them and the relationships that are formed.

Restaging photographs.
Offering a photocopying service, a photo is given to me and I will and remake the image with the material and equipment surrounding me. This process will have a time limit and only the single image of the restaged photo will record the procedure.

reflect the space

crit

Crit- ‘over the wall’ photos and ‘traces of climb ’ video piece

-Context/conceptual ideas- I want to change the way I look at space. Investigate it using my body. React to space differently to what is expected of you. This was first realised after a brief from my elective- to make a one minute film called being animal. I wanted to climb/explore and investigate the space the way an animal may. To seek out the no-spaces.

-How work has developed. I’ve become much more interested in how I can document the exploration of a space. Rather than just filming the climb, what traces are left? How can this action be expressed, through marks, sounds, drawings etc. This piece of work is a re-edit of a piece of work I had previously done. The viewer is only given hints of a human present, slowly making there way around the room. ‘Over the wall images’ also follow this idea of an action that has taken place, and has been missed. Focusing on one idea has also been a hard; although I feel more committed to this work then I do to most. When the struggle begins so does the real work?

-Artist / theorist you have looked at-Rirkrit Tiravanija (events that leave traces) Matthew Barney, Lucy Gunning, Richard Dedomenici, George Perec.

-NEXT- climbing over walls-higher ones.
Performance that is controlled by viwers:

plan...
Duration- 1hour
There will be a room; it will have just a chair (maybe more objects)
The room will be shut
There will be a mouth piece that can be used for communication. Using a map viewer’s instruct my movement around the space. I will trace my steps using tape/charcoal/ pencil…
After an hour the room will be opened, and the collaborative drawing reviled.

Also. Re staging photographs /study of a group of objects (over long period of time).

Michel De Certeau 'The practice of everyday life'

'.... From TV to newspapers ,from advertising to all sorts of mercantile epiphanies, our society is characterized by a cancerous growth of vision, measuring everything by its ability to show or be shown and transmuting communication into a visual journey'....

The lines used to depict this space create tension and interaction, between subject and setting.

Rirkrit Tiravanija

Look for what it is that is important to you, something that you need to make other people think about. Always ask ourselves if what we are doing is really necessary'

(Interview by Lauren Harkrader in ‘making contemporary art, How today’s artist think and work’)

were to go from here

MUST

provide more conviction and enthusiasm to practice

whats left....

I revisited the footage taken during the climb performance and have created the following piece. it explores a different aspects of the climb, the viewer is only given hints of what occurred.

it happened, you missed it.

I climb so you dont have to

Recently I have been exploring the ways in which my performances are documented. The elective programme has informed me hugely on this subject. Following is a piece I wrote after visiting the ‘Live art development agency’.

I have never really fully considered how I document my performances. Just used the normal ways of recording a moment: photos, film, and objects/relics that were used in the performance. But the discussion we had on Monday opened my eyes to how carefully I must consider the ways I document my work. This becomes the trace that is left of that moment. This becomes a record of your work and its what you are left with as an artist.

The thing to do is document your work in as much ways as possible, video, photo, sound recording, writing about it, drawings, relics, objects. Then you have a choice afterward and lots of material to work with. Every little detail must be considered, as the person that is viewing the work will read into everything.
Quality of the work is important. Printing off a few pictures on a bit of old paper is not enough. These things have to be considered as they all add and take away from how your work is portrayed.
You can control the documentation of you work. The performance could have been shit, but the pictures could make it look incredible. Does is have to tell the truth?

Could I record this activity of exploring space (climbing/crawling without presenting the actual act? What are the traces left behind?

As result I made the following works. Which hint at the performance. The viewer can imagine the action that took place. They have missed the main event. What they are left with is a memory.

re-edit

inconvenient conveniences

I started off thinking of this space I want to explore exclusively as a kind of hidden/small/private world. However after reading a number of text (some of which are listed below) this idea of non-space has been expanded. I have become interested in places that we have to use as part of everyday life And the Systems we have to go through in theses ‘non places’.
The ' inconvenient conveniences' that we come across everyday… like motorway service station/bus stops/ huge department stores (ikea!?)

All these non place sites: supermarkets, chain hotels, airports, motorways, bustops, phone booth are associated with the tedium of everyday life but they all have there own unique histories,/technologies and landscapes.
In ‘reading the everyday’ by Joe Moran he describes one of these non-place environment, motorway service stations as ‘terrains vagues’ were strange liaisons can occur. Different rules apply.
The squat concrete building, harsh neon lighting, the cramped shops filled with things nobody really wants. You buy postcards in the shops to the towns that are being bypassed. All has poetry of it own.

Once glamorous environments. They were filled with young people who would drive to them taking full advantage of the 24hour opening times. They had extravagant Bridge restaurants (peculiar form of sightseeing watching speeding traffic) and other amusements.
But this change, the service station, as we know it is far from being a destination in its own right. But something we visit only more convenience.
Motorway stops have become no-frills services, they had a heavy use and wipe clean appearance. Tables and chairs bolted to the floor, plastic knifes and forks, lino floors and hardwearing carpet. This place in not trying to impress.
Alain de Botton says
‘They are lonely, but in a nice way. They are ugly but in a fun, interesting way. There is a special quality about them’.

Part of what is interesting about these places is the sense of relief; you are invited to surrender to the environment. Signs tell you were everything it, sometimes-even arrows on the floor direct you from beginning to end. There is no need to even thing about which direction you should be travelling. In airports you are even relieved of your identity as you check in. Then Sent off in to the departure lounge were you can wonder around the isles and counters of food/drink/perfume/toys/brightly and cleanly set out for you viewing pleasure.

A feeling of loneliness may be felt but it’s a communal experience. You can just walk aimlessly around and this in completely accepted.
Auges suggests this is a positive aspect of these Non-places. Because although we are in the company of others they make no demands of us.
He talks about these places having ‘faceless,contractual obligations replace human interactions’ like ‘get in lane’ / ‘queue this side’ /key in your personal number’

expanding grow, become/make larger, become/make bigger, increase in size, increase in scope, upsize; extend

Artist: I have been exploring and my thoughts on certain works

Roi Vaara





Lucy Gunning


‘ Climbing around My Room’ 1993
Video piece. Close to the ceiling Gunning moves precariously around the room. Dressed in a startling red dress. Her concentration unmistakable and as a result you the viewer become transfixed, waiting to see her movement. Quite often her work is about ‘acting out’, she has reacted to her room is an unusual way. This piece has a nostalgia sense, evoking memories from childhood. It’s a very engaging video work,because of a few simple aspects.

Pawel Althamer
Video work(not sure of the name)
But it took place in Ljubljana in 2000.
The performance staged is a seemingly everyday scenario in a busy square in the city. Different characters included a couple kissing, a boy on a skate board, an busker playing music, an old man sitting outside a café.
The same actions by these characters are carried out everyday and you would have to view it on a number of days to notice the intervention/performance.
These interventions interest me because the public become part of the performance, without realising they are characters. The space has been altered, everyday activities are scrutinized. We are asked to consider these places and people around us.

Ducha.
A Brazilian artist who uses stiunationists like intervention in the routine of everyday life. In a particular performance He crosses a very busy road junctions carrying a large bag of oranges. As the light changes back to green for the cars, he appears to accidentally drop them. As a result they roll everywhere and chaos breaks out. The end result is people trying to help pick them up; traffic starts to move and lots of confusion. The drama is intensified in an already chaotic city.
A Small intervention (a few oranges!) can bring efficient junction to a halt. Suddenly a place with an carefully prearranged system has nothing .
It doesn’t take much to upset these apparently solid structures that are everywhere in the city.

Rachael Whiteread
Her work considers transient spaces
She explores the inner life of rooms and objects. What cannot be seen and yet exists.
She looks at the In-betweens /emptiness.
The tiny details that are overlooked.
Describing her work as
‘Mummifying the sense of silence in the room’.

Her works asks us to reimage our relationship to the space in which we live.
How can I examine the spaces I live in and inhabit?
Get close to the walls?
Investigate every crack and corner?

Alex Hartley- In ‘LA Climbs’ Hartley comes up with alternative uses for architecture in LA. The city is approached from a topographical perspective of the rural climber. He explores geo graphical routes over exterior of buildings; he offers a fresh approach to a city. We are asked to consider the correct way to respond to modern architecture. What are the different approaches? Surely sometimes these extravagant structures are begging to be explored?


Atelier bow-wow
Wants to offer people an experience/a feeling.
They like to surprise, and they take delight in what Marcel Duchamp called the ready-made.

In pet architecture guidebook(2001), they act as urban detectives in Tokyo, small even tiny buildings that frequently inhabit the left-over spaces and gaps in the city are systematically catalogued as readymade architecture, fans, windows, signs etc these spaces are all used for something
They also produce something called ‘micro public space’. Micro means small but at the same time individual, so the smallest public space might just be for one person.
Before they make something in a city they go beforehand and observe the people and the city and respond to that.
Their work ‘life tunnel’ was at the Haywood ‘psycho buildings exhibition’.
This focuses attention on the perceptual and sensorial role of our bodies (you must alter your poster to enter the space) this prompt us to explore the space in a much more playful manner.

Our relationship with space is changing. The Internet has been a huge part of this, it’s a whole other realm of space that keeps growing and growing.
We spend hours logged on t spaces that aren’t ‘real’.
‘Impalpable realms of electronic communication’
Do we only think of space as a visual thing? And no longer use our other senses because of this.
We can now see the world as a picture due to the Internet. We experience it as a picture and no longer a space.
I want to re-examine our notions about the relationships between the individuals and our surroundings.
What spaces change the way we act?
Why must there be rules of behaviour in certain places?
What changes when we break these rules?

what to do in non-places....?

everyday

‘Reimagine the parameters of our spatial experience'

'Rediscover more active ways of placing ourselves in the world'

My work requests people to more clearly grasp the architecture of our everyday behaviour and thought.

AND

'the line between art and life should be kept as fluid and perhaps indistinct as possible .'
Allan kaprow

should be

The uncommon life of common objects

Everyday objects

Collage/Assemblage
I must respond to what’s in front of me, Play games. Make quite decisions. Use found objects/images/material.

I started by thinking about the traditional method of college. However the result was images that were quite contrived and dint seem to have much relevant other then being pretty.
Instead of this 2-week exploration being separate from my personal work I furthered ideas I was exploring using the strategies that had been suggested in the brief.
By constructing a physical/interactive/moveable/changeable/three-dimensional college.
Rearrange objects , slightly alter them, change relationships between things. As Marcel Duchamps did with his ‘readymade’
Erwin Wurms 1minute sculptures expanded this idea of the 3d collage.
He explores the concept of sculpture through performance; sculptures are not static there is no fixed form. By introducing the idea of process and action the living body becomes a sculpture like others before him, (for example Bruce Nauman , Richard Serra, Charles Ray )Spontaneity and brevity are key elements in his artistic vision.
Anyone can follow his instructions (press up on cups/asparagus nose) . Everything is possible for a minute.
He brings the awkwardness and limits of the human body to our attention.

Everyday objects, how can I react to these differently. How can they be placed/arranged to produce different meanings? What changes when I reject their normal uses and find new way to engage with them?

List of objects use:
• 2 oranges
• Glove
• Tea cup
• 2 books
• Photo album
• 2 glass jars
• Straw bag
• Jumper
• Metal tea pot
• Shoes
• Postcard of the last supper
• Mice pie
• Found slide
• Glass bottle
• Feather
(Objects added for video piece)
• Chair
• CD rack

non-space

-Places that normally go unnoticed,
-Places that are left alone
-Places that are small and in corners
-Places that have no real use
-Places that no one inhabits

I wanted to react to my studio in a different way.
My feelings toward the studio were unenthusiastic.
I felt it was sucking away my thoughts and inspiration.
When I sat down at an empty desk my mind became as blank as the walls surrounding me.
The room felt distance, a space I couldn’t feel anything towards but annoyance.
I wanted to change this.

Then I noticed a space in-between. It wasn’t part of the studio, bit it wasn’t a separate space. Boards had been put around ½ a metre away from the actual wall of the room. (For last years final degree show?)The space was use for nothing (only dumping rubbish). The greying walls was no longer visible, freshly painted white boards had hidden them. What could this space be?
This inspired me to interact with the room differently.

Adding to this ideas I had to make a 1min film about ‘being animal’. So the film ending up being a combination of reacting to the room how an animal would and trying to engages with the space in another way.

After reading an essay by Ralph Rugoff (taken from the book ‘Psycho Buildings’ that accompanied the exhibition of the same title at the Haywood gallery). I few point stayed with me

-Re-define the uses we make of out surroundings.
-We must confront and respond to the spaces in which we live.
-How does built space function as a social/psychological and perceptual environment?