Pop-up Exhibition and Crit

The first day back entering the second year of my fine art course, we were assigned a task to create a pop-up exhibition in our new studio spaces with the work we created over the summer in group - how we would be displaying our work together within a space. We decided to bring all our work together into the centre of the space, this gave us a good perspective on what all of our work was, the scale of each piece and what pieces worked visually and contextually in conjunction with another. It was interesting to see a theme of colour and engagement with materials and objects within in our work. As well as this I enjoyed the chance to display my work, amongst other peoples, to evaluate and contextualised my work within the exhibition space.

Abi used the techniques of weaving, threading, hole-punching and knotting to explore the context of materiality and nostalgia relating to summer holiday crafts. She linked the 90s popular scoubi chain making and traditional methods of craft by using coloured twine by making many circular woven chains intertwined. I was drawn to the repetition of it and thought would have worked well the more and more she created. As a group, we felt the most resolved piece was Abi’s woven and beaded ‘lantern’. The piece was bold in colour and craft material, almost garish, which is contrasted by the subtle rotation of the piece. The way the beads rested on the floor and moved gently through this rotation provoked a calming sensory association. This worked best nearer the center of the space to be viewed from several angles. Rob’s work, we felt, crossed context of violence and British iconography. His piece was created during the curation of the pop-up exhibition by hitting a large nail into a can of beans against the wall. Such a simple yet powerful act. We decided this would best to take up most of a wall to allow there to be space also so that the beans didn’t spray onto others work. This piece, during our discussions, decided would have been interesting as a performance piece as during the curating it was one of the strongest part of the installation. Rose made a series of numbered door signs created from two rotten doors reclaimed from a skip. She was experimenting with the idea of purpose. The doors which once had a purpose, losing it through becoming a ‘waste product’ and claiming a new purpose by being salvaged into brightly decorated signs. Initially we began thinking about scattering the signs around the room, but we quickly recognised that, due to scale the pieces, they may become lost within the space and so decided to use an entire wall to line them up. I thought this was effective as it had this suburban, terrace house feel. Each sign was uniquely designed which connoted the individuality of the ‘owner’ of the house, you almost wanted to peer behind each of them to see what was behind.

I spent a while deliberating and trying out how I wanted my work to be displayed. Initially, I wanted my silk clay parts to be piled on the floor and a projection on top or just above of the “Stack/Build/Collapse” video to show the object and the interaction. However, due to the projectors being unavailable I decided to not show my video and present the prints, papier-mâché and silk clay sculptures. My potato prints and papier-mâché sculptures were linked through the designing and making process, so I wanted them to be in a close proximity to each other; this led me to pinning the prints to the wall and underneath on a plinth display the sculptures in a random stack. I hoped this would allow a dialogue between the two works of mine. This being said, I wasn’t taking into consideration the entire space and by putting the plinth directly under the prints made it look cluttered. I positioned the plinth more central which allowed the exhibition space to flow, furthermore, creating interest within the center of the room. I placed the silk clay parts in a stacked pile on another plinth, a black plinth to create contrast and the height. The height I hoped would make it easier for an audience to see all the individual parts due to the miniature scale of them.

The critique part of this pop-up exhibition required whoever’s worked was being discussed to leave the room, allowing group members to have honest and present a productive evaluation of their work. I had some constructive and interesting feedback to my work. Their initial reaction to my work was that it took them back to their childhood and this sense of developments of movements (motor skills). They expressed that the work linked in well with each other through colour and form. I forgot to mention the artist that I had researched based on the summer projects, however, my group drew links between my work and Franz West which I was pleased and also surprised about. They believed my work was un-conventual due to the abstraction and how playful the work is and could be developed through interaction. A large part of the feedback was that, although the sculptures looked inviting to interact with – touch, knock them over, stack, throw – the series of work was more leaning towards looking rather than touching. To change this, I would have to adjust the way it is displayed, being on a plinth made the work feel as though a sculpture that must be observed. Furthermore, the use of the dark plinth added to the silk clay sculpture being less inviting to touch even though the contrast of the two plinths looked visually interesting. When asked what aspect of the work that was the most successful/ they would keep, they said the playfulness as well as the materiality of the work. I thought this was interesting, as a big part of my developing practice is the play with material and how it can be changed through interaction. Overall, I found the feedback from my group discussion helpful in the understanding of how my work is experienced by others and how, in turn, it can be developed.

TATE SUMMER PROJECT

Over the summer, I had created a series of work inspired by the playful, vibrant and often absurd sculptures by Franz West in his exhibition at the Tate Modern, London. One work in particularly that I was drawn to was "Redundanz" - which included a tower of hats and other varied objects, distorted through being covered in papier-mâché. The stack-able dynamic and play with sculpture was what I found interesting, how it was made from a combination of smaller parts or building blocks in order to create this precariously formed sculpture. I almost wanted to break each of the sections away and rebuild it to give a new order or form. There is a sense in this work of play with construction, the lack of purpose also the curiosity with the object and materiality. I loved the thick abundance of colour from West's Outdoor sculptures, also the bumpy, uneven surfaces which drew this childish connotation. I preferred the joyful colours in this particular collection of work compared to "Redundanz" because, for myself, the colours were predominantly more visually exciting than the earthy and almost abject tones the stacked tower. I think it was important for these sculptures to be outdoors. With the gallery, it is very much a controlled environment but by displaying these monochromatic, gaudy sculptures out in the public domain disrupted the environment and really added to the absurdity of the work. They stuck out and West didn’t want his sculptures to suit the place in which it is exhibited but more subvert the hierarchy of public monuments. The use of papier-mâché and other ‘poor’ materials was really interesting, this lack of perfection drew onto the idea of child-like play and craft.

Drawing on from the ideas of this exhibition, I began creating a series of work based on the idea of a child's approach to sculpture. Many of Franz West's work is based doodles and this led me to begin to plan a sculpture in the mindset of a child. I think it’s important to note that during this set of work, and with my future work, it is not my aim to imitate a child but to learn from and to explore infant's process and their approach to play. As a child, an activity when doing arts and crafts would often be potato stamping. It was a way of creating of creating repeated patterns using relief printing method. I wanted to 'plan' my sculpture through a child's process. Furthermore, I wanted to cut abstract natural shapes out of the potatoes. I find it interesting the thought of simplifying, dramatizing, and/or simplifying forms in a way of crossing paths between reality and play. I used bright, gaudy colours which reflected on West's outdoor sculptures as well as having a fun, childish connotation. By 'designing' the sculptures, I was able to test out on the paper the placement of the individual elements, how they would work together. I really enjoyed this experiment based on the immediacy of image making and the crudeness of the technique. The imperfections of the prints were interesting as, like the welding of Franz West's metal sculptures, the making process is visible.

Following on from this experiment, I wanted to replicate these 'designs' into the three dimensional, having a tangible and playable dynamic. Sticking with the theme of a child's approach to sculpture I created my own papier-mâché clay by shredding, pulping and draining newspaper, before combining flour. It reminded me of salt dough that I used to make in art lessons at school, however this material was a lot denser and lumpier. It was a great material to work with, easy to mold and held it’s shape. This being said, the material required thin layers as well as ample drying time as I found that a couple of my sculptures grew mould unfortunately from the excess water and flour mixture. If I were to use this material again, I would try baking the sculptures in the oven to absorb water, almost acting like a kiln. The sculptures dried to various shades of grey and had an appearance of unusual shaped stones. Once, stacked they had an appearance of a stone monument, the reminded me of how Franz West likes to mock public monuments with his sculpture and perhaps this is something I could investigate later on. I painted the sculptures in reference to the potato prints, the bright palette transformed the sculptures to appear playful. The sculptures could be repositioned and stacked, each time creating new dialogues though how they balanced and met – with each transition creating an entirely new form. Through participation the structure going through constant transformation. During the drying stage, my nephew (1 and ½ year old) found the sculptures and consequently began stacking them without instruction or visual prompt. He would begin placing one on top of each other until they toppled over and would repeat the process again. Repetition is an important part of play, it allows children to delight in the experience of learnt motor skills. Walter Benjamin described repetition as “the soul of play, that nothing gives him greater pleasure than to do it again”.

During this project I visited the London aquarium to gain first hand visual research on coral reef forms. I was inspired by the patch dynamics of the reef, the many species that build up to create a large and varied ecosystem. I was imagining all these small sections being broken apart into something sensory and playful. I began designing 98 unique abstract forms in my sketchbook – geometric, natural and reef shapes – the uniqueness in shape would allow a different sensory relationship between an audience and the work. I was unsure on what material would work best. Down a children’s craft isle I found ‘Silk Clay’ which is a self-hardening, flexible clay that dries with a soft, rubbery texture. I loved the playfulness of the colours and the texture, for me at least, was both soft and comforting. In my last experiment I made sculptures for the hand and I wanted to investigate how the change in scale may affect the interaction with the sculpture. Instead of scaling up I decided to make the sculptures even smaller, almost like little collectables or figurines. The process of making was time consuming, but I think the miniature sculptures looked effective once together. I found myself arranging all the pieces in different combination, stacking them and playing around with which of the shapes fitted well together. Subsequently, I thought it was important to document this process of play. I set up a neutral white background and filmed myself placing each sculpture and stacking. Stacking has become a continuing theme within this work so far furthermore by documenting it I felt highlighted both the achievement and frustrations of play.