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apricot-to-rot · 4 years

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Archive: Development, Process, Research & Reflections {Diary}

A change in ability- the transformation of removed functionality through a hospitalised body: Fruit as body - Fruit as soul- As damage. Developing my ideas around the mending of fruit in the last module, the text continues to metaphorically personify fruit as a way to conceptually connotate some form of ‘mending the broken’. The text speaks of fruits and objects with marks, stories and impurity.

Revisiting Artists-

Zoe Leonard, Strange Fruit, 1992-1997

I am still interested in how Strange Fruit presents the indexical qualities of objects as it metaphorically “raises questions about the permanence of art, and whether it resides in objects, ideas, or people's experiences and memories.” (1). Though the work has crude undertones, the beauty within its natural materials enables a polemical discussion; of oxymoronic fragility. A beauty yet grotesque darkness? Strange Fruit translates this powerful notion of cycles through the permanent impression of its impermanent materials. Encapsulating this temporal relevance within my concepts and physical matter between words, imagery and materials is something I want to continue as a way to explore the idea of fragility- The fragility of memories, spaces and bodies.

“This mending cannot possibly mend any real wounds, but it provided something for me. Maybe just time, or the rhythm of sewing [. . .] Once the fruit is eaten, I sew it closed, restore its form. They are empty now, just skin. The fruit is gone. They are like memory; these skins are no longer the fruit itself, but a form reminiscent of the original. You pay homage to what remains” (2).

There is a play between the polarising embodiment of restoring the broken which I am fascinated by... The notion of reinventing ‘the decrepit’ through placement on a platform and special treatment.

1 Philadelphia Museum of Art (1997) Exhibitions & Events- Zoe Leonard Strange Fruit.

2 Nina Q. (2019) Intent in the making: the life of Zoe Leonard’s ‘Strange Fruit’. Burlington Contemporary.

Group Critique

The text shown translates a domesticated space, connotating the experience of home/body/fruit. The work needs to become physical: Start collecting, gathering, finding psychical matter to merge with the text. Allow the text to inform the gathering whilst the objects can inform the writing. Experiment with how these collections can interact with a space. How can negative space give weight or light to objects... Consider the importance of placement and curative decisions when experimenting with these installations. Less can be more- make critical decisions within curating these collections of words fruits and objects. Allow for mistakes: the emotional connection to the underlying weight of relating to a sense of broken body/ a need to mend, needs to be explored freely not preciously in order to develop this concept through experimentation. So, create a multiple of different works using films, objects, sounds and words. What is the intention of an object, how will the installation ‘parts’ inform each other and interact.

Revisiting Artists-

Katrina Palmer- Archives

I am interested in Palmer’s work because it deals with , “storytelling, distributing fragmented elements of narrative across found sites, audio environments, printed matter and performance” (1). Her narration symbolises loss and memorial through thoughtfully layered fragments of sculpture, sound and text. These narratives formulate through the involvement of multiple mediums reacting within a place or lack of it. The curative importance between space these collections instil a polarised feeling of history and current journey within the audience.

Images of Portland Island, used by Katrina Palmer as a visual aid for her book, Dark Matter 2015

I have started a collection, an ‘archive’ of fragments that connect through their embodiment of fragility. To create new work, Palmer carries out extensive research by collecting text, files, websites, articles, photographs, sounds, objects and ideas; with this she creates an ‘archive’ of information. My installation of language will presents itself through an interactive use of multi medium elements and spaces. Furthermore, creating my own collection of gathered parts: my archive. As I rejoin scattered fragments I connect a relationship between text, objects and ideas. These created connections emulate the joining of broken-ness, in a cleverly connected yet nonsensical, illogical way.

ARCHIVE

Gap be Closed Installation

Streets with no doors Installtion

Widening the Archive of sounds:

More sounds: make more sounds!

Zine Commission work:

‘Something you have made during this time of isolation. Curate one A4 page, that will not be edited in any way, the work you send is how it will look in the publication...’

Isolation archive experimentation Installations/Photographs:

How does the archive translate in a space of limitation, a space with domestic nostalgia and sense of claustrophobic stillness?

Using reflections in mirrors and DIY approaches to lighting placement and documenting, I am intrested in how an image can be encased within a reflection. This add a new dynamic to work with an importance of capturing and playing with perspectives through light and shape. The colour is something that my work connected with in the last module and although it continues to have a nostalgic thoughtful-ness, the potency of the colour may distracts from the emerging importance of perspective and shape.

What is the work? I think as installations the colour from the light is an important ‘object’ in achieving a warmness to the narrative. The light connects the archive through this sensory softness as the objects without coloured light become more disjointed and unsure within a space. However, as black and white photographs the installations gain a dramatic structure. The light and shapes of the object become important to the work as it creates a dramatic aesthetic. This is something I would like to experiment with more and makes me question what is the work...

Can the work exist as installations and photographs, how can they be merged. Do the installations work better as photographs or can the work be both...

{Perspective-drama-structure-domestic-space-archive-light}

Next, experiment with varying composition through changing the density of structures in a small space. To create photographs/ installations that encapsulate areas of density and others that allow for more space... Then reflect and analyse how the narrative of the work changes between the simplicity and density structures and how does the work hold different meanings when viewed as an installation or image.

I’ve been thinking about what my work is and I think that in some ways continually developing a persons practice revolves around curating and sharing that work? I think what my work does, is it reproduces itself in different perspectives- creating an installation, reproducing that in different spaces, with different objects or sounds, photographing it, then projecting the photograph and making another installation. The work continues in this cycle of development, and exists in different paradigms and it works for my use of materials and concepts.

But what is my work if I cant share it? I’ve been thinking of new ways to curate work without facilities, technical support and equipment and how this will or has already changed the work. There always has been a theme of domesticated objects in my collections because it conceptually narrates this idea of forgotten fragility and bodily experiences...But now the idea of ‘home’ is ever more prevalent. I want to use my new understanding of ‘what my work is’ and try make things that I can share with people in their own spaces.

Domestic spaces- Mundanity- Everydayness

New thoughts for my work: What is my relationship like with my home- how does my vision change this relationship.

PHOTOGRAPHY /// Artists who merge installation and image through space

CAMERA OBSCURE BY ALEBARDO MORELL

AISSA LOPEZ

Zoom Critique Reflection & Inspiration:

Explore the low-fi limitations at my disposal- using such ‘limitations’ as rules for making work can be based on space, sound and perspective. Creating set ups of the ‘archive’ for installations, photographs and sculptural films {Recording sounds and films may be difficult as no equipment or laptop} directed in ways that experiment with time; one shot, varied perspectives- the play on time through light, darkness and length.

stillness-movement

Only go North, only take 23 steps, only move using hands {eyes closed}...

Work within the radius of the house- use the house as guidelines for creating through the limitations of space. Walk in a specific directions and dig. Capturing the everyday-ness ‘mundanity’ of illustrating my relationship with domesticity.

Space as Poetry

‘In truth, to me Rome was a kind of living poem, which the soul read unceasingly, with the soothed sense which poetry inspires’ {1}

The stillness or movement of a space or object encompassing the notion of living poetry.

‘To describe it as ‘a kind of living poem’,

...however, suggests not just the visual artist’s acute perception of the city’s distinctive appearance, but also a deep sensitivity to the overall tone, history and special atmosphere’ {2} How the structures, light and tone create a sensitivity and thoughtfulness. Nostalgia as feeling and space as words.

‘It was the union of deep feeling with profound thought; the fine balance of truth in observing with the imaginative faculty in modifying the objects observed; and above all the original gift of spreading the tone, the atmosphere, and with it the depth and height of the ideal world, around forms, incidents, and situations, of which, for the common view, custom had bedimmed all the lustre, had dried up the sparkle and the dewdrops’ (3)

The days gone by Return upon me almost from the dawn Of life: the hiding-places of man’s power Open; I would approach them, but they close; I see by glimpses now; when age comes on, May scarcely see at all (4)

1. William Bell Scott, Memoir of David Scott, vol.3, Edinburgh 1850, p.195, cited in Marcia Pointon, William Dyce, 1806–1864: A Critical Biography, Oxford 1979, p.8.

2. Stafford, F. Tate Website, Art and Poetry in Focus: William Dyce.

3. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literaria, ed. by James Engell and Walter J. Bate, 2 vols., Princeton 1983, vol.1, p.80.

4. Ibid., Book XII, lines 277–82.

The Forgotten Chronicles

A space for videos, photographs, texts and sounds. Immersive, inclusive experiences of sensory art: spaces...

Ideas/Planning:

Sound: Monday Morning {North}

my house has 13 steps/.. sound

Selecting images and projecting to merge outdoor spaces and domestic imagery. Suspend and place archives within installation, using sound and words to inform narratives. Film spaces created, consider wind and light to gain stillness, lightness, movement and darkness. ‘De-skilled’ approaches of filming and editing installations, using a phone camera to walk around with and record in one shot from varying perspectives.

project a film outside onto wall: film made in room

make new sound- sound and text

multiple installations in the garden

using lights and objects

film me walking around saying poems looking at installations all over garden and house

write about digging

RUIDO I (Nostalgia) 2000

Two metal basins hung from the ceiling, draining water through a hole. ‘The water drops felt into another basin located at the floor creating different sounds...The sounds where highly amplified by the resonance of the space and the sound decay lasted almost until the next water drop’

Experimentations

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apricot-to-rot · 4 years

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Five Critical Profiles

stories that are forgotten

Research Contents

1 Statement of Intent

2 Laure Prouvost: Looking at the ways Provoust uses text as an informative tool to dictate an experience and create other worldly experiences of art in immersive tactile installations of Digging. Thus, finding lost parts whilst also becoming lost in the repetitiveness of doing: What is so special about digging?

3 Joan Jonas- How can space be curated in a way that reflects an interconnected experience for ‘bodies’ {house, skins, peels, objects, words} to become part of spaces and thus in touch with the concept of temporal and spacial fragility: Experience within Perspective.

4 Visages Villages, Agnes Varda- Reviewing the ways ‘Places Faces’ {documentary} opens a polemical representation of memory within lost bodies and space, through Laure Prouvost journey to make new memories of places and faces before she looses her vision: Seeing Before I Can’t.

5 Francesca Woodman- Analysing the way Woodman presents and joins ‘the decrepit’ through space and objects within decayed domestic mundanity: Timeless Decay

6 Alebardo Morell: This research looks camera obscura works that connect outdoor and indoor spaces. I am interested in the notion of ‘third space’, and how Morell achieves this joining of familiar places into one new perspective for viewers: Temporal Spaces

Statement of intent

The following research looks at the ways practitioners conceptually and literally formulate different a relationships between the fragility of time, bodies and memories throughout spaces, sounds, texts and objects. There is a rawness and a purity of truth within this research that presents an emotional experience in the tactility of the works discussed as the artists often open up new ways of seeing or experiencing themselves, ourselves or other worldly phenomenons. Thus, some of the research looks at the ways relational aesthetic art impacts conceptual narratives through spaces and bodies.

Laure Prouvost: What is so special about digging?

Prouvost is a conceptual artist who’s work aims to form a tactile and sensory relationship between the audience and the artist. I am interested in the physicality of Prouvost’s narrations as the work comes to life within the viewers through the act of doing. To look at this notion of a physical relationship with the work in a conceptual and literal way this research will be analysing the ways this artist forms such work within the concepts of memorial and memory but also the raw physical relationship of digging.

Burrow me,12 minutes 53 seconds

Burrow Me, is an multi media space installation by Prouvost, it is an interactive and space consuming work which requests the physical involvement of its viewers. The piece is a memento to Prouvost’s late grandfather who has been missing for the past 20 years, after he disappeared when building a tunnel from France to the UK during a performance piece. The work encompasses a series of tunnels that follow the footsteps the artists grandfather, the fellow conceptual artist and contemporary of Schwitters. The artist invites the audience to select their own shovel, enter the tunnels and search... digging for the left over parts of her granfather. {Prouvost dislikes it when people refer to their grandfather as a fictional character by discussing the search for ‘fictional remains’ so for this reason I will be seeing this work as an authentic narrative.}

There is something fascinating about the act of digging itself. Turning flat dirt into holes and piles of discarded mud. The repetitiveness, the way you can become lost in the motion of the digging and with this piece, the goal of forming tunnels to no where that appear to be these consuming endless tunnels of memorial. Within my recent works I have spent time digging searching for lost items in house house so I can relate to the tactility of this cathartic doing. Along side of the bodies digging and buried this multi media installation consists of objects from the artists home, projections and other ‘parts’ scattered through carefully curated placements along these tunnels. Through the act of entering and being submerged in a 360 all encompassing ‘installation’, ‘the viewer entered the artwork to be immersed’ {1} . With this the artist creates an other worldly and intimate bond where the lies within the work. ‘Burrow Me, Prouvost attempts to create a bond between narrator and viewer, developing a world where the audience’s imagination is at work… Here a place is made where the believable be- comes unbelievable and the unbelievable believ – able.’ {2}

Laure Prouvost, Shed a Light, 2018 {Video projection with sound, 17.56 min}

‘a sprawling complex of buildings erected when the centre was founded, gallery space, pottery, residency accommodation (a sixteenth-century farmhouse) and new artists’ studios.’ {1}

The tunnels and all the ‘bits’ inside them such as films and objects encompass the interest I have within the tactility of a narrative. The bonds this artist has with the viewer and the work as well as the many other aspects of her practice. Furthermore, Prouvost continually deals with the merging of mediums as a way to conceptually narrate scenes. ‘The image, the object, the screen and the body collude’ {1} through the tactility of the work in the way engagement of the audience.

‘Prouvost makes videos, but also performances and installations of objects, drawings, printed matter, screens and texts. The stories she tells, like the one about her grandfather, might sound made up, but they are as real as any other’ {1}

Laure Prouvost, Ring, Sing and Drink for Trespassing, exhibition view at Palais de Tokyo (22.06.2018 – 09.09.2018). Photo: Aurélien Mole

I am interested in the way artists differently narrate the space of memory and ‘stories that are forgotten’ {1}. Prouvost uses these multi mediums to inform each other and the experience of the audience. The signs and almost instructions describing directions or ‘informing behaviour’ within their work revolve around the relationship between space and text. These cerebral sensory directives almost dismantle authority and through this unusual intimacy of the artist and viewer there is a heightened sensory value to these works.

‘There are small panels on the walls of the Wysing exhibition HEY, I’M MR POETIC, which are more suited to interior space, mimicking gallery text panels. The signs gesture to themselves as signs; they impacting on objects around them: DON’T LOOK UP; IDEALLY THIS SIGN WOULD BE DEEPER; IDEALLY THIS SIGN WOULD NOT LET YOU GO; IDEALLY HERE WOULD BE SOMETHING UNDISCRIBABLE. The un- in undiscribably, although grammatically incorrect, implies that something has been reversed, like the un- in undone. Unraveled, the word somehow means more as it makes less sense.’ {1}

{1} https://www.thewhitereview.org/feature/interview-with-laure-prouvost/

{2} https://lux.org.uk/work/burrow-me

{3} https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/may/09/artists-secret-tunnel-aims-to-link-france-and-britain-via-venice

Experience within Perspective: Joan Jonas

‘A picture of a place as a series of interrelated events: now surface, now depth, now reflection, now figure on space, now all of these at once.’ {1}

I am interested in the ways Joan Jonas creates a new relationship with the perspective between spaces, objects and the experiences of these with our bodies through the curation and distortion of ‘sculptural’ images and sounds. Thus, how this is explored throughout her practices techniques and processes.

Babette Mangolte "Funnel" performance by Joan Jonas at The Kitchen in New York City in 1974, 1974

Jonas’ ‘time capsule’ like work shows how she connects memories to places. Using space as a means to reconstruct these memories through structural forms it opens up the investigation of the ways shapes and noise can create sensory nostalgia. With this remembered space, Jonas merges the outdoors with the inside and playfully breaks this up, recreates the space and thus the empty space from which she took. To control the narrative of this space Jonas uses her body as a point of transition. In the same way I open up hospitalised bodies conceptually through the use of objects and actions, Jonas a like deals with shifting paradigms.

Through becoming part of the work {artist and audience}, we inform the work. As my objects gather meaning alike Jonas, there is a drifting reality between truth and reflection of psychical and non real, subject- object. In this play of binaries, to some degree she makes these ‘spaces’ accessible to people who it may not had been before, playing around with the idea of experiencing something without the need to be in psychical contact with something- or in my case the ability to fully see something.

Within the space Jonas commands a layered narrative through the placement and re-framing within the frames of existing objects. The structural forms are enhanced through the contrasting tones of each element. ‘The complex spatial illusions already embedded in her chosen locations’ {1} are even more so distorted ‘on the other side of life shadows’ {1} through mirrored reflections.

‘In addition to creating a space, a mirror also disturbs space, suggesting another reality through the looking glass...’ ‘To see one’s self as the other... to see oneself also among, as one with, the others. {3}

Jonas’ conceptual and physical narratives often present the notion of ‘seeing’ or experiencing art work through manipulated reflections to symbolically encompass the fragility and temporal essence of spacial matter. This process consists of delicately collecting ‘parts’ as she explains, ‘in a book I found images of strange beautiful forms’ {1}. This process navigates the tactile relationship Jonas has within her process. ‘I begin with an image how to frame it, and alter it through the various mediums of the mirror, distance (in landscape for instance), video, narrative, and sound’ {1} Thus, this framing and distorting enables her to perpetuates the aspect of seeing your self within a space figuratively and literally as ‘views of space between mirrors, served to weave discrete aspects of the overall space into a constantly shifting and unstable surface of the overall space’ {1}.

Through this manipulation between the relationship of images and space the reflections serve the audience a means to form a narrative that explores the involvement of reflecting on their own bodies in a spacial and temporal context of truth ‘.... figure/ground relationships by weaving them into her space and into the present, a space and time she also shares with her audience.’ {1}

The gestures of moving fragments within Jonas’ performance based installations such as ‘Funnel’, incorporate the disruption of internal logic. This dichotomy between the visual transformations and the pre-recorded images projected throughout the space allows the work to entwine with the audience in way that they can experience beyond just ‘seeing’, as they become part of the work. Such expressions of movement through out objects films and sounds create a ‘fleeting’ experience, for when the cloth or mirrors are removes, it reveals something else, ‘ but during those moments, she is self-consciously challenging the viewer's reflexive relation to viewing images of space’ {1}

{Joan Jonas, Video still from Disturbances, 1974.}

Filmed with no camera illusions Jonas uses cleverly placed camera shots. The Low-fi sounds of heavy breathing swimmers and the smashing of water of rocks in films such as Disturbances, allows the audience to question ‘how such space can be experiences as environment, akin to other environments elsewhere, not because it resembles them but because of what it , too can simultaneously reveal and obscure.’ {1]

These non visual structures navigate sensory space and allow for audiences to become structurally immersed. Thus, in the same way how an objects may block light the sound track of these works ‘concrete sounds paper crinkling like ice cracking, storms, and voice reading selected passages from the novel’ act as an echo the memories of space.

‘The field that you are standing before appears to have the same proportions as your own life.’ {4}

{1} They Come to us without a word, Book, Joan Jonas.

{2} Halldor Laxness, Under the Glacier, trans. Magnus Magnusson, 1972 (New York): Vintage International, 2005), 81.

{3} Joan Jonas in Johann-Karl Schmidt, ed, Joan Jonas: Performance Video Installation 1968-2000 (Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2011), 7

{4} John Berger, Why Look at Animals? (London Penguin Books, 2009), 75.

Seeing Before I Can’t: Agnes Varda

The following is analysing the documentary film Visages Villages {Places Faces} Scene II.

Film title: Faces Places Director: Agnès Varda, JR. Starring: Agnès Varda, JR. Release date: 21 Sep. Certificate: 12A

{*Intimate acoustic guitar plays} ‘VISAGES VILLAGES’ appears on screen... ‘I’m always game to go towards villages, towards simple landscapes, towards faces.’ Anes Varda.

Part II: Janine

Varda holding old postcards of miners discusses how she wants to put the faces to the places. Together they visit an old mining French community. Here, they meet Janine, the last remaining resident on an entire street. Once home to the miners, this last remaining resident stays as protest to its demolition. Using the old postcards the artists decided to paste the bodies of the miners on the bricks of the houses.

Janine, ‘I have too many memories here...’

The documentary style of this film, encapsulates a truthfully raw and emotional interactions between seeing ‘faces and places’. There is a part where miners families gather to watch the homes transform into these memorials, projecting the faces of lost bodies onto the bricks. A miner recalls the struggles of mining in 1956. There is an authenticity of the actions and conversations that are quite poignant, though sad the stories are polemically beautiful.

My two favourite moments include, Janine’s explanation of how her dad would save her a piece of bread from his day of mining, waiting for him, he would return and shout, ‘Alouette Bread!’ Secondly, a man recalling his father stripping naked after mining, that is ‘Everything but the barrette’, he would then wash down his bruised back from where the coals collapsed on his skin.

There is something rare about capturing these moments of natural words, movements and emotions that Places Faces does. Through honouring the men, the memory, the experience through this Janine tears up,

*sobbing in awe, ‘what can I say’ ...you don’t have to say anything, ‘we are friends now. we wanted to pay homage to you.’- Varda

Varda discusses her failing sight throughout the documentary and her want to create new memories of faces and places before her vision is gone and she cannot make more. She discusses how she tries to replicate these feelings of loosing her vision, ‘Im ruining myself. My legs, my eyes. You look blurry.’ I am inspired by the relationship between the two artists, in its romantical wholesomeness of the friendship and their aim to memorialise what others have lost on their own journeys of loss. I find Varda’s perspective within her body and the work she practices in this documentary very moving and powerful.

...‘Attachment to a home is a powerful thing’- Varda. Through their work they encapsulated a memory, for Varda, for Janine but also for the past to re live throughout the structures of these homes.

Francesca Woodman: Timeless Decay

Despite her short career Woodman created hundreds of iconic black and white photographs shortly before her tragic suicide at 22 years old. I am interested in the way she narrated ‘the decrepit’ through domestic objects within spaces and how she uses symbols to metaphorically narrate ‘the broken’ through photography that embodies decay and life.

Francesca Woodman Untitled, 1976, Rhode Island.

The ‘recurring symbolic motifs such as birds, mirrors, and skulls’ {1} speak to me as symbols of mortality. There is a pattern of varying cyclical phenomenons that conceptually and literally depict mortality, time and memory. As I sit here {listening to the Claire de Lune Radio on Spotify} I see a wider picture. Weaving these symbolic narratives within her use of materials and processes to form a combining comment on the expanding essence of temporal fragility. This merging of conceptual significance with her physical techniques ultimately embodies the fleeting experience of memory and time. Her photographs are characterised ‘by her use of long shutter speed and double exposure, the blurred image creating a sense of movement and urgency, “Am I in the picture? Am I getting in or out of it? I could be a ghost, an animal or a dead body, not just this girl standing on the corner …?” {1}

Her work is very reflective of what most young people think about, ‘relationships, sexuality, questions of self, body image, alienation, isolation and confusion or ambiguity about personal identity.’ {2} Within my work I take a closer look at myself. Using reflections of my surroundings, the things that are aged and broken emulating parts of myself.

There is something intimate and pure about the relationship we have with ‘the decrepit’ and the domestic. The want to be present in the moments that feel fleeting, the want to give meaning to those entities once symbolical ruined, broken or mundane. Without wanting to romanticise suicide, I do feel the artists death is significant to the work; the melancholic purity between the polarising movement of her body and the stillness of the old house windows... Is an intimate, almost disturbing experience for the viewers. ‘Her images capture a life cut short which makes them sad and poignant today. Her ghostly presence in the photographs, whether blurred, partially hidden, obscured, camouflaged, fragmented or disguised is intense and powerful.’ {2}

Tragically Woodman ended her life through jumping from a window, from learning this; the constant imagery of birds, windows and light has a very dark narrative that I did not see before when selecting these works.

There is a relationship she commands in the spaces and with the objects she photographs as she captures a flashing moment of connectivity, as though she is the only mind and body for miles, almost proposing to mend or bring to life these places or things once forgotten or damaged. ‘The images convey an underlying sense of human fragility’ {2}, and she does this through not only her physical body but the domestic objects and spaces of which she joins.

Francesca Woodman, 1958–1981. It must be time for lunch now, New York, 1979. Gelatin silver print, Sheet: 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm)

‘She created an imagined reality through her use of locations, lighting, clothing, props and her own body’. {2} In addition to this, her fundamental aesthetic is iconically timeless. Through manoeuvring light around the decaying interiors the tonal quality of her photographs is another layer to this mysterious, dramatic and timeless work.

{1} http://www.artnet.com/artists/francesca-woodman/

{2} https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/francesca-woodman-10512/finding-francesca

Temporal Spaces: Alebardo Morell

This research is looking at the ways Morell creates temporal spaces through the merging of the outdoors with domestic indoor spaces through camera obscura techniques. In particular, I am interested in works which deal with the layering of mundane domestic space and reflections which propose an illusion of what domestic space may mean.

‘I made my first picture using camera obscura techniques in my darkened living room in 1991.’ {2}

Houses Across the Street in Our Bedroom, Quincy, Massachusetts, 1991

There is an intentionally ‘de-skilled’ aesthetic through the choosing of space and his process of the work that exerts such a raw and physical relationship within the imagery that equally extends through out his processes. Morell covered ‘all windows with black plastic in order to achieve total darkness. Then, I cut a small hole in the material I use to cover the windows. This opening allows an inverted image of the view outside to flood onto the back walls of the room.’ {2}, I think this hands on D-I-Y approach reflects the tactility of outdoor spaces on the purposefully honest truth in the textures and impurities of the domestic objects.

This ambiguous illusion achieved from the camera obscura effect creates a structurally layered composition through the movement contained throughout the ghostly structures. The unmade bed in Houses across the street in our bedroom, 1991, mirrors ocean like movements of the swaying outdoor spaces. Thus, such merging of structures encompassing the notion of movement suggests to the audience a temporal questionability in the harmony of stillness and wave like wind depictions. The transient photographs ‘capture more momentary light.’ {2}, giving us a time subjective experience of this other worldly view. As the permanent capture of these impermanent motions ‘fold the view outside the original window and unfold it inside the room.’ {3}

Through ‘the marriage of the outside and the inside’ {2} Morell, ‘provokes an overlapping of domestic space and outside world, thus creating an ambiguous and disturbing third kind of space.’ {3}

The Sea Attic, 1994,

What is ‘third space’? I think this other space is achieved through the illusional inversion of images within the domestic mundane and the temporal importance as it stops the mundane from being overlooked.

Mundane/ Third space

The everyday-ness in mundane outdoor, domestic space and objects is a prevalent theme through out my work, which has become even more so relevant in my recent conceptual narratives. Morell uses spaces indoors that reflect those outdoor although he also takes simple structures that oppose through much subtler contradictory linear aspects. This marriage holds the essence of time within a propelling merge of stillness and movement, thus giving you this third space to question and dissect the domesticated Mundane as an often overlooked phenomenon.

Some would describe the relationship I have with my ‘home’ as unique. I rely on my muscle memory to navigate the structures and empty space through textures, listening, heat, my body and counting. Spanning across five floors, the 200+ year old house as I like to say; has it’s own time zone, climate and at times is otherworldly. From the climbing wall to the cave tunnels filled with stalagmites, it is without a doubt an interesting space. However, to have existed here whilst adjusting to the changes in my vision, it’s the ‘mundanity’ of the house I have become familiar with. ‘In moment of pause, we look and are overwhelmed with a level of detail and experience which, relieved of the typical haze of inattention, is practically foreign to us.’ {1}

There is a simplicity of Morell’s structural components in these specific works, as he presents basic and mundane backgrounds and setting although it is this plain-ness that such a dramatic effect is achieved. This subtle drama allows the audience to view these spaces in a closer relationship through the inverted looking glass of the outdoor space. I feel like the outdoor space acts as a vessel within these works as it describes the home in a all encompassing place, a place of life and significance.

There is a truth to be accessed in viewing our spaces in new ways and through ‘Pulling on the thread of the genuine woven into the mundane’ {1} these fragmented components unveil a truth in what can be experienced in these abrupt moments.

Furthermore, I think despite captivating the motions of wind and the fleeting temporal notion in tonally dramatic shadow work, there is an all encompassing stillness to the work. Morell wants his audience to feel the movements in a stillness as experience, and digest the components of each fragmented part within this work. Ultimately, creating this dramatic marriage of mundane temporal spaces.

{1} Lynn, J & Kenway, W. 2017. Art and The Ordinary: Literary and Visual Constructs of the Mundane. UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 2995

{2} https://www.abelardomorell.net/project/camera-obscura/

Additional Sources

{1} Aware Women Artists Website

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apricot-to-rot · 4 years

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The Publication

Sculptural Noise

This is an archive for collected fragments of sounds, rubble, discarded plans, disembodied parts, the decrepit- now mended. Words, objects, photographs, films and spaces... I am interested in the ways the mundane and the decrepit live in nostalgic places. The work is to be smelt, tasted, touched.

{There are no installations- only words. There are no sculptures- only sounds.} SCULPTURAL NOISE, is a series of photographs capturing my archival practice of collections during the past 6 months. The ambiguous nostalgia of this ‘sculptural text’ series sits in the unknown, with yet a familiarity. There is an embodiment of feeling the belonging within loss through objects and places that are tactile, bitter and soft. The colour of the work sounds like a Claire De Lune piano song. Dramatic tone, emotional structures with textures felt inside your mouth.

The work experienced is a reflection of taking an image, reflecting this, projecting the reflection, now onto a body, inside a room...recorded sound {outside a room}... projected onto your body in your space with a mirror, in the reflection is my home, my hands, my feet, my stick, cup, bed pan, hair brush... The process is that it is never really begun nor finished, through repeating the work in different ways, in different places, through different archival objects something seems to happen in the shadows and the noises.

What does it all mean? The work is looking at things once overlooked, I am inviting you to question what you experience in this publication, what it might mean for me but what it is for you. How does the noise of where you sit change this, maybe you are walking in a field... I’m looking at the connectivity I feel with space-my home as though it is my left leg and my body like a set of rusty cutlery. For optimum listening, do whilst swimming.

I want this publication to be accessible as my work places importance around experiencing art beyond the visual paradigm. Therefore, texts are coded in brail like waves in the cloth the sound describes the polemical textures and structures. It reflects the once mundane experiences or perspectives that I’ve now experienced within my ‘loss’ of vision.

This publication is intended to be ‘read’ in barns, boats, under stairs, sheds, empty buildings, lost land, sitting still, a nostalgic space, outdoors... Notice the background noise, the feel of your clothes, the texture you sit on, the time of day.

Apricot to Rot.

⠠⠎⠉⠥⠇⠏⠞⠥⠗⠁⠇ ⠠⠝⠕⠊⠎⠑ ⠠⠞⠓⠊⠎ ⠊⠎ ⠁⠝ ⠁⠗⠉⠓⠊⠧⠑ ⠋⠕⠗ ⠉⠕⠇⠇⠑⠉⠞⠑⠙ ⠋⠗⠁⠛⠍⠑⠝⠞⠎ ⠕⠋ ⠎⠕⠥⠝⠙⠎⠂ ⠗⠥⠃⠃⠇⠑⠂ ⠙⠊⠎⠉⠁⠗⠙⠑⠙ ⠏⠇⠁⠝⠎⠂ ⠙⠊⠎⠑⠍⠃⠕⠙⠊⠑⠙ ⠏⠁⠗⠞⠎⠂ ⠞⠓⠑ ⠙⠑⠉⠗⠑⠏⠊⠞⠤ ⠝⠕⠺ ⠍⠑⠝⠙⠑⠙. ⠠⠺⠕⠗⠙⠎⠂ ⠕⠃⠚⠑⠉⠞⠎⠂ ⠏⠓⠕⠞⠕⠛⠗⠁⠏⠓⠎⠂ ⠋⠊⠇⠍⠎ ⠁⠝⠙ ⠎⠏⠁⠉⠑⠎... ⠠⠊ ⠁⠍ ⠊⠝⠞⠑⠗⠑⠎⠞⠑⠙ ⠊⠝ ⠞⠓⠑ ⠺⠁⠽⠎ ⠞⠓⠑ ⠍⠥⠝⠙⠁⠝⠑ ⠁⠝⠙ ⠞⠓⠑ ⠙⠑⠉⠗⠑⠏⠊⠞ ⠇⠊⠧⠑ ⠊⠝ ⠝⠕⠎⠞⠁⠇⠛⠊⠉ ⠏⠇⠁⠉⠑⠎. ⠠⠞⠓⠑ ⠺⠕⠗⠅ ⠊⠎ ⠞⠕ ⠼⠃⠑ ⠎⠍⠑⠇⠞⠂ ⠞⠁⠎⠞⠑⠙⠂ ⠞⠕⠥⠉⠓⠑⠙.

{⠠⠞⠓⠑⠗⠑ ⠁⠗⠑ ⠝⠕ ⠊⠝⠎⠞⠁⠇⠇⠁⠞⠊⠕⠝⠎⠤ ⠕⠝⠇⠽ ⠺⠕⠗⠙⠎. ⠠⠞⠓⠑⠗⠑ ⠁⠗⠑ ⠝⠕ ⠎⠉⠥⠇⠏⠞⠥⠗⠑⠎⠤ ⠕⠝⠇⠽ ⠎⠕⠥⠝⠙⠎.}

⠠⠎⠠⠉⠠⠥⠠⠇⠠⠏⠠⠞⠠⠥⠠⠗⠠⠁⠠⠇ ⠠⠝⠠⠕⠠⠊⠠⠎⠠⠑⠂ ⠊⠎ ⠼⠁ ⠎⠑⠗⠊⠑⠎ ⠕⠋ ⠏⠓⠕⠞⠕⠛⠗⠁⠏⠓⠎ ⠉⠁⠏⠞⠥⠗⠊⠝⠛ ⠍⠽ ⠁⠗⠉⠓⠊⠧⠁⠇ ⠏⠗⠁⠉⠞⠊⠉⠑ ⠕⠋ ⠉⠕⠇⠇⠑⠉⠞⠊⠕⠝⠎ ⠙⠥⠗⠊⠝⠛ ⠞⠓⠑ ⠏⠁⠎⠞ ⠼⠋ ⠍⠕⠝⠞⠓⠎. ⠠⠞⠓⠑ ⠁⠍⠃⠊⠛⠥⠕⠥⠎ ⠝⠕⠎⠞⠁⠇⠛⠊⠁ ⠕⠋ ⠞⠓⠊⠎ ‘⠎⠉⠥⠇⠏⠞⠥⠗⠁⠇ ⠞⠑⠭⠞’ ⠎⠑⠗⠊⠑⠎ ⠎⠊⠞⠎ ⠊⠝ ⠞⠓⠑ ⠥⠝⠅⠝⠕⠺⠝⠂ ⠺⠊⠞⠓ ⠽⠑⠞ ⠼⠁ ⠋⠁⠍⠊⠇⠊⠁⠗⠊⠞⠽. ⠠⠞⠓⠑⠗⠑ ⠊⠎ ⠁⠝ ⠑⠍⠃⠕⠙⠊⠍⠑⠝⠞ ⠕⠋ ⠋⠑⠑⠇⠊⠝⠛ ⠞⠓⠑ ⠃⠑⠇⠕⠝⠛⠊⠝⠛ ⠺⠊⠞⠓⠊⠝ ⠇⠕⠎⠎ ⠞⠓⠗⠕⠥⠛⠓ ⠕⠃⠚⠑⠉⠞⠎ ⠁⠝⠙ ⠏⠇⠁⠉⠑⠎ ⠞⠓⠁⠞ ⠁⠗⠑ ⠞⠁⠉⠞⠊⠇⠑⠂ ⠃⠊⠞⠞⠑⠗ ⠁⠝⠙ ⠎⠕⠋⠞. ⠠⠞⠓⠑ ⠉⠕⠇⠕⠥⠗ ⠕⠋ ⠞⠓⠑ ⠺⠕⠗⠅ ⠎⠕⠥⠝⠙⠎ ⠇⠊⠅⠑ ⠼⠁ ⠠⠉⠇⠁⠊⠗⠑ ⠠⠙⠑ ⠠⠇⠥⠝⠑ ⠏⠊⠁⠝⠕ ⠎⠕⠝⠛. ⠠⠙⠗⠁⠍⠁⠞⠊⠉ ⠞⠕⠝⠑⠂ ⠑⠍⠕⠞⠊⠕⠝⠁⠇ ⠎⠞⠗⠥⠉⠞⠥⠗⠑⠎ ⠺⠊⠞⠓ ⠞⠑⠭⠞⠥⠗⠑⠎ ⠋⠑⠇⠞ ⠊⠝⠎⠊⠙⠑ ⠽⠕⠥⠗ ⠍⠕⠥⠞⠓.

⠠⠞⠓⠑ ⠺⠕⠗⠅ ⠑⠭⠏⠑⠗⠊⠑⠝⠉⠑⠙ ⠊⠎ ⠼⠁ ⠗⠑⠋⠇⠑⠉⠞⠊⠕⠝ ⠕⠋ ⠞⠁⠅⠊⠝⠛ ⠁⠝ ⠊⠍⠁⠛⠑⠂ ⠗⠑⠋⠇⠑⠉⠞⠊⠝⠛ ⠞⠓⠊⠎⠂ ⠏⠗⠕⠚⠑⠉⠞⠊⠝⠛ ⠞⠓⠑ ⠗⠑⠋⠇⠑⠉⠞⠊⠕⠝⠂ ⠝⠕⠺ ⠕⠝⠞⠕ ⠼⠁ ⠃⠕⠙⠽⠂ ⠊⠝⠎⠊⠙⠑ ⠼⠁ ⠗⠕⠕⠍...⠗⠑⠉⠕⠗⠙⠑⠙ ⠎⠕⠥⠝⠙ {⠕⠥⠞⠎⠊⠙⠑ ⠼⠁ ⠗⠕⠕⠍}... ⠏⠗⠕⠚⠑⠉⠞⠑⠙ ⠕⠝⠞⠕ ⠽⠕⠥⠗ ⠃⠕⠙⠽ ⠊⠝ ⠽⠕⠥⠗ ⠎⠏⠁⠉⠑ ⠺⠊⠞⠓ ⠼⠁ ⠍⠊⠗⠗⠕⠗⠂ ⠊⠝ ⠞⠓⠑ ⠗⠑⠋⠇⠑⠉⠞⠊⠕⠝ ⠊⠎ ⠍⠽ ⠓⠕⠍⠑⠂ ⠍⠽ ⠓⠁⠝⠙⠎⠂ ⠍⠽ ⠋⠑⠑⠞⠂ ⠍⠽ ⠎⠞⠊⠉⠅⠂ ⠉⠥⠏⠂ ⠼⠃⠑⠙ ⠏⠁⠝⠂ ⠓⠁⠊⠗ ⠃⠗⠥⠎⠓... ⠠⠞⠓⠑ ⠏⠗⠕⠉⠑⠎⠎ ⠊⠎ ⠞⠓⠁⠞ ⠊⠞ ⠊⠎ ⠝⠑⠧⠑⠗ ⠗⠑⠁⠇⠇⠽ ⠃⠑⠛⠥⠝ ⠝⠕⠗ ⠋⠊⠝⠊⠎⠓⠑⠙⠂ ⠞⠓⠗⠕⠥⠛⠓ ⠗⠑⠏⠑⠁⠞⠊⠝⠛ ⠞⠓⠑ ⠺⠕⠗⠅ ⠊⠝ ⠙⠊⠋⠋⠑⠗⠑⠝⠞ ⠺⠁⠽⠎⠂ ⠊⠝ ⠙⠊⠋⠋⠑⠗⠑⠝⠞ ⠏⠇⠁⠉⠑⠎⠂ ⠞⠓⠗⠕⠥⠛⠓ ⠙⠊⠋⠋⠑⠗⠑⠝⠞ ⠁⠗⠉⠓⠊⠧⠁⠇ ⠕⠃⠚⠑⠉⠞⠎ ⠎⠕⠍⠑⠞⠓⠊⠝⠛ ⠎⠑⠑⠍⠎ ⠞⠕ ⠓⠁⠏⠏⠑⠝ ⠊⠝ ⠞⠓⠑ ⠎⠓⠁⠙⠕⠺⠎ ⠁⠝⠙ ⠞⠓⠑ ⠝⠕⠊⠎⠑⠎.

⠠⠺⠓⠁⠞ ⠙⠕⠑⠎ ⠊⠞ ⠁⠇⠇ ⠍⠑⠁⠝⠦ ⠠⠞⠓⠑ ⠺⠕⠗⠅ ⠊⠎ ⠇⠕⠕⠅⠊⠝⠛ ⠁⠞ ⠞⠓⠊⠝⠛⠎ ⠕⠝⠉⠑ ⠕⠧⠑⠗⠇⠕⠕⠅⠑⠙⠂ ⠠⠊ ⠁⠍ ⠊⠝⠧⠊⠞⠊⠝⠛ ⠽⠕⠥ ⠞⠕ ⠟⠥⠑⠎⠞⠊⠕⠝ ⠺⠓⠁⠞ ⠽⠕⠥ ⠑⠭⠏⠑⠗⠊⠑⠝⠉⠑ ⠊⠝ ⠞⠓⠊⠎ ⠏⠥⠃⠇⠊⠉⠁⠞⠊⠕⠝⠂ ⠺⠓⠁⠞ ⠊⠞ ⠍⠊⠛⠓⠞ ⠍⠑⠁⠝ ⠋⠕⠗ ⠍⠑ ⠃⠥⠞ ⠺⠓⠁⠞ ⠊⠞ ⠊⠎ ⠋⠕⠗ ⠽⠕⠥. ⠠⠓⠕⠺ ⠙⠕⠑⠎ ⠞⠓⠑ ⠝⠕⠊⠎⠑ ⠕⠋ ⠺⠓⠑⠗⠑ ⠽⠕⠥ ⠎⠊⠞ ⠉⠓⠁⠝⠛⠑ ⠞⠓⠊⠎⠂ ⠍⠁⠽⠃⠑ ⠽⠕⠥ ⠁⠗⠑ ⠺⠁⠇⠅⠊⠝⠛ ⠊⠝ ⠼⠁ ⠋⠊⠑⠇⠙... ⠠⠊’⠍ ⠇⠕⠕⠅⠊⠝⠛ ⠁⠞ ⠞⠓⠑ ⠉⠕⠝⠝⠑⠉⠞⠊⠧⠊⠞⠽ ⠠⠊ ⠋⠑⠑⠇ ⠺⠊⠞⠓ ⠎⠏⠁⠉⠑⠤⠍⠽ ⠓⠕⠍⠑ ⠁⠎ ⠞⠓⠕⠥⠛⠓ ⠊⠞ ⠊⠎ ⠍⠽ ⠇⠑⠋⠞ ⠇⠑⠛ ⠁⠝⠙ ⠍⠽ ⠃⠕⠙⠽ ⠇⠊⠅⠑ ⠼⠁ ⠎⠑⠞ ⠕⠋ ⠗⠥⠎⠞⠽ ⠉⠥⠞⠇⠑⠗⠽. ⠠⠋⠕⠗ ⠕⠏⠞⠊⠍⠥⠍ ⠇⠊⠎⠞⠑⠝⠊⠝⠛⠂ ⠙⠕ ⠺⠓⠊⠇⠎⠞ ⠎⠺⠊⠍⠍⠊⠝⠛.

⠠⠊ ⠺⠁⠝⠞ ⠞⠓⠊⠎ ⠏⠥⠃⠇⠊⠉⠁⠞⠊⠕⠝ ⠞⠕ ⠼⠃⠑ ⠁⠉⠉⠑⠎⠎⠊⠃⠇⠑ ⠁⠎ ⠍⠽ ⠺⠕⠗⠅ ⠏⠇⠁⠉⠑⠎ ⠊⠍⠏⠕⠗⠞⠁⠝⠉⠑ ⠁⠗⠕⠥⠝⠙ ⠑⠭⠏⠑⠗⠊⠑⠝⠉⠊⠝⠛ ⠁⠗⠞ ⠃⠑⠽⠕⠝⠙ ⠞⠓⠑ ⠧⠊⠎⠥⠁⠇ ⠏⠁⠗⠁⠙⠊⠛⠍. ⠠⠞⠓⠑⠗⠑⠋⠕⠗⠑⠂ ⠞⠑⠭⠞⠎ ⠁⠗⠑ ⠉⠕⠙⠑⠙ ⠊⠝ ⠃⠗⠁⠊⠇ ⠇⠊⠅⠑ ⠺⠁⠧⠑⠎ ⠊⠝ ⠞⠓⠑ ⠉⠇⠕⠞⠓ ⠞⠓⠑ ⠎⠕⠥⠝⠙ ⠙⠑⠎⠉⠗⠊⠃⠑⠎ ⠞⠓⠑ ⠏⠕⠇⠑⠍⠊⠉⠁⠇ ⠞⠑⠭⠞⠥⠗⠑⠎ ⠁⠝⠙ ⠎⠞⠗⠥⠉⠞⠥⠗⠑⠎. ⠠⠊⠞ ⠗⠑⠋⠇⠑⠉⠞⠎ ⠞⠓⠑ ⠕⠝⠉⠑ ⠍⠥⠝⠙⠁⠝⠑ ⠑⠭⠏⠑⠗⠊⠑⠝⠉⠑⠎ ⠕⠗ ⠏⠑⠗⠎⠏⠑⠉⠞⠊⠧⠑⠎ ⠞⠓⠁⠞ ⠠⠊’⠧⠑ ⠝⠕⠺ ⠑⠭⠏⠑⠗⠊⠑⠝⠉⠑⠙ ⠺⠊⠞⠓⠊⠝ ⠍⠽ ‘⠇⠕⠎⠎’ ⠕⠋ ⠧⠊⠎⠊⠕⠝.

⠠⠞⠓⠊⠎ ⠏⠥⠃⠇⠊⠉⠁⠞⠊⠕⠝ ⠊⠎ ⠊⠝⠞⠑⠝⠙⠑⠙ ⠞⠕ ⠼⠃⠑ ‘⠗⠑⠁⠙’ ⠊⠝ ⠃⠁⠗⠝⠎⠂ ⠃⠕⠁⠞⠎⠂ ⠥⠝⠙⠑⠗ ⠎⠞⠁⠊⠗⠎⠂ ⠎⠓⠑⠙⠎⠂ ⠑⠍⠏⠞⠽ ⠃⠥⠊⠇⠙⠊⠝⠛⠎⠂ ⠇⠕⠎⠞ ⠇⠁⠝⠙⠂ ⠎⠊⠞⠞⠊⠝⠛ ⠎⠞⠊⠇⠇⠂ ⠼⠁ ⠝⠕⠎⠞⠁⠇⠛⠊⠉ ⠎⠏⠁⠉⠑⠂ ⠕⠥⠞⠙⠕⠕⠗⠎... ⠠⠝⠕⠞⠊⠉⠑ ⠞⠓⠑ ⠃⠁⠉⠅⠛⠗⠕⠥⠝⠙ ⠝⠕⠊⠎⠑⠂ ⠞⠓⠑ ⠋⠑⠑⠇ ⠕⠋ ⠽⠕⠥⠗ ⠉⠇⠕⠞⠓⠑⠎⠂ ⠞⠓⠑ ⠞⠑⠭⠞⠥⠗⠑ ⠽⠕⠥ ⠎⠊⠞ ⠕⠝⠂ ⠞⠓⠑ ⠞⠊⠍⠑ ⠕⠋ ⠙⠁⠽.

⠠⠁⠏⠗⠊⠉⠕⠞ ⠞⠕ ⠠⠗⠕⠞.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. To access work log into my personal account {this is the only way to access sound.}

password: Susietaylor1

2. After login in, follow this link, press ‘present’ in top right corner of screen.

Please look at slides in chronological order. Click the sound icons to listen to noise.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rL7vOcCbRyVz2KpTos9hX3V5KJwbTrPPUIWgZ-tS1_Y/edit?usp=sharing

Back up:

#documentation

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apricot-to-rot · 4 years

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Publication & Forgotten Chronicles Research

Art and The Ordinary: Literary and Visual Constructs of the Mundane

The mundanity of domestic spaces and objects is a prevalent theme through out my work, which has become even more so relevant in my recent conceptual narratives. This thesis describes Mundanity as an often overlooked phenomenon.

Some would describe the relationship I have with my ‘home’ as unique...

Bedroom-kitchen...

Hip level door knob beneath a sea of hung coats, left side waist height rim of smooth edged wood following the stair case down 9 steps. First landing pause step and a half, now 13 steps down full pace like a race horse- {because you can do this with your eyes closed.} The bottom, the 14th step is cold and hard unlike the matt of rough carpet. Kitchen knob- why are all the knobs in the house in the wrong place? When you reach out for a door here they are always too high or too low for the usual doors I’ve encountered the last 22 years...

There is something about the combination of language and aesthetic within ‘the mundane’ that creates a sensory rich experience of art. ‘As a student of literature, I’ve discovered the rich exchange between the depiction and the description of mundane objects even though the two are more often treated separately.’ {1}. In the publication and my digital books I ‘seek to bridge that division by taking an interdisciplinary approach to the aesthetics of the mundane and looking for interconnections, that is by, using each discipline to pry open the other.’ {1}

There is a truth to be accessed in the mundane that many may be blind to. My proposal in these digital publications is that through ‘Pulling on the thread of the genuine woven into the mundane’ {1} the fragments of these works will unveil the experience of truth without the proper gander of sight.

This research in this thesis describes ‘key points in three literary case studies in which the mundane is used to access the genuine: the use of domestic tasks by Jane Austen to both comment on and locate genuine sensibility; the search for the genuine in poetry located within commonplace objects by Marianne Moore; and lastly Karl Ove Knausgaard’s determined autobiographical record sifting for intrinsic substance seeks the genuine within mundane acts of life’... I hope to weave text through the publication in an accessible way that visualises the ‘mundane’.

{1} Lynn, J & Kenway, W. 2017. Art and The Ordinary: Literary and Visual Constructs of the Mundane. UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 2995

https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3998&context=thesesdissertations

Sensory experiences: An archive

Katrina Palmer: The Loss of Adjusters, 2015, 34.28 minutes, is a three part interactive Sound piece that investigates the loss of stone from The Isle of Portland as it was over quarried and sold across the UK to create buildings. Palmer conceptualises the land as having a sculptural significance; through this she depicts the loss of land. I believe the inner fragments of her archives symbolise the scattered land, as she continues to play with the idea of reconnecting forms within stories. Palmer’s narration of the “sculptural excavation of this elemental island, marked by unsettling absences,” (2) , is further signified within her creation of fictional characters as they explore sexual desires and fantasies to symbolise a compensation for “what’s missing or vanishing” (4), further depicting the loss of the stone.

Palmer’s practice usually involves similar structural investigations that use forms of language as a means to achieve narration. This narration materialises and re-purposes themes in a way that brings to life an interactive experienced story for the audience; because Palmer created The Loss of Adjusters, as intended for: listeners, readers and walkers. I think this amplifies the importance of language and experience within her work as the audience's role of walking and listening creates an element of performance and sensory experienced narrative.

“… The narrative is accompanied by field recordings from Portland – the swell of the tide, the banging and cutting of quarry work – and, as they walked, listeners might have experienced some of what they heard seeping out into reality.” (2).

I think the use of sound successfully forms visually emotive imagery; as it presents a stronger sensory experience and reflects her practice. It enhances the sensation of journey through the outdoor intended listening experience and the naturally shifts between mediums expands on the experiences of storytelling through the audience.

“I will compose a text solely comprised of end matter such as an epilogue, a postscript, an afterword, some addenda, or appendices etc. The shadowy quality of the work’s documentary vestiges will act as a memento to the missing body of the book.” (3).

2 Art Angel, Katrina Palmer, End Matter, The Isle of Portland, Dorset 2015, Available at: https://www.artangel.org.uk/project/end-matter/

3 Book Works, Available at: https://www.bookworks.org.uk/node/1845

4 Sam E. & Ed E., Interview with Katrina Palmer, 2015, Youtube

Francesca Woodman

Democratising art: how the art world is opening up to blind and partially sighted visitors

“Blind people experience the same emotions as everyone else, they are subject to the same feelings of attraction or repulsion as others; however, they need alternative sensory pathways to gain that experience whether through touch, audio description or other inroads.” David Johnson, a Hitchin-based artist who is registered blind.

Audio descriptions:

‘...the warm auburn hair, the scarf around her head as blue as the deepest part of the ocean. He goes into such great detail, it forces sighted volunteers, staff and observers to notice things they never would have.’ {1}

‘A lot of curiosity lies around what blind and partially sighted people “see”. But that’s not quite the point: art demands emotional reactions from people, and the way we instinctively react is the same, regardless of sight or not. Perhaps the more interesting conversation to have is in the different ways to continuously open up art to as many people as possible.’ {1}

“It’s about using the visual memory that visually impaired people might have, and not being afraid to use everyday terms or the use of colours,” explained Barry Ginley, equality and access officer at the V&A museum. “Even for people who have never been able to see, they associate colours with parts of life. They understand that green is grass and blue is the sky, maybe except for UK skies.”

1 https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/brenda-sjahrial-blindness-art-270718

Joan Jonas, They come to us without a word

Documentations of installations and performances. Some pages are just images others spliced with texts. Poetry, quotes, narrations of documentation and process descriptions with sketches. The book is split into different sections ‘FISH’ & ‘WIND’... Showing works that connect visually or conceptually. Font is very small, and in some areas very dense, quite hard to read but there is a nice balance between text and imagery through out the whole publication. Something important to my publications is to give the reader space to interpret their own narratives, so I think I need to write and curate these pages with that in my intentions, I want there audience to see my work but I don’t want to be spoon feeding a water tight narrative.

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apricot-to-rot · 4 years

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Documentation of Work

Contents

Streets with no Doors, 2020

Gap be Closed, 2020

A Name Full of Colour, You Remind Me of Home, 2020. {Series of 4}

Waves Woven, 2020. {Series of 4}

Gravel under Foot, 2020. {Series of 3}

28/97 Bananas, 2020

Casa Afuera, 2020. {Series of 9}

Wait Patiently 2020

Dorian Way, 2020. {Series of 5}

Sunken Movies, 2020. {Series of 5}

Streets with no Doors

Streets with no Doors, 2020. Installation, Mixed Media. Dimensions Variable.

Description: This is a mixed media installation titled ‘Streets with no Doors’, as a response to an extract from one of my poems. This piece consists of, two ivory aged cloths, one suspended by nails draped in a wave like shape, the other placed beneath with impure purposeful wrinkles. Two dried bananas, one hung ‘limbs’ outstretched whilst the other on the ground shrivelled and entangled. A dark wooden green leather chair with copper embossed edges. A bed pan delicately placed on the leather cushion. Beneath the suspended cloth is a mini speaker, behind the door {top left} is another speakers playing a 5 minuet loop of ‘Little Anne Street’ 2020. This piece is looking at memories of hospitalised bodies through suggestions of light, decay and space. Poem:

Putrid pear

Streets with no doors

My broken chest-

That of draws

With floor without carpet

Spines scarlet

Skins sore

The sycamore no more-

Lost sight to be bore.

Whirr were there- tear, where?

Now? no.

You’re in the all clear...

Impure impair unsure, un-cared, broken peel un-repaired. Bones rejection, spinal injection. Juice extraction but mould infection. Infested sores sewn indoors,

Fruit flesh behind locked doors

Knees on chest- knows no rest

Fruit forbidden- taken home in a bag

Plums bruised- fruit confused

A patient so rare.

No apple to compare

Chair ground bound- going no where

Teddy bear companion- in living room warfare

Tastes no toffee apple- empty fair.

Empty remains

Leftover fruit

Sofa body remains- sight mute

{Abnormal Veins}

Gap be Closed

Gap be Closed, 2020. Installation, Mixed Media. Dimensions Variable.

Description:

Gap be Closed, is a film installation spin of from Streets with no Doors, 2020. This documentary film is following the first person steps through a hospital during an Eye Electro-physiology test. The film projection and sounds are spliced across a multitude of archival objects such as dried fruit and domestic objects.

A Name Full of Colour, You Remind Me of Home

A Name Full of Colour, You Remind Me of Home, 2020. Installation Photography, Dimensions Variable, Series of Four.

Description: This series of photographs explore various domestic space installations and archival objects. These installations are photographed with an importance around perspective through the angular shots and reflections. Through the focal points of one window these illusional ‘de-skilled’ effects are heightened through dramatic shadow work and contrasting tonal qualities.

Waves Woven

Waves Woven, 2020. Installation Photography, Dimensions Variable, Series of Four.

Description: These black and white photographs detail four separate space installations, in different ways they each have a painterly narrative through oceanic movements. This series presents a balance between tonal experiments of structural light and tactile materials. Each fragment of this series is focusing on a different ‘part’ to a wider archive, such as, discarded copper wires, abandoned windows, old cloths, decayed fruits and shadows. This series conceptually emulates the fragile beauty of ‘the decrepit’ and uses broken or mended parts to narrate decayed bodies {of oceans, fruits and people}.

Gravel under Foot

Gravel under Foot, 2020. Film Still Photographs, Dimensions Variable. Series of Three.

Description: This series of photographs are film stills taken from an experimental film capturing the fleeting moments between bodies and their tactile connections with outdoor spaces. The film in some ways emulates my navigation of space through my hands. There is a merging between various forms such as body parts, outdoor spaces, domestic objects, reflections and movements. The techniques of these stills uses a long exposure camera effect following performative interactions.

38/97 Bananas

38/97 Bananas, 2020. Sculptural Photography, Dimensions Variable.

Description: This photograph is capturing a temporal sculpture, through the blending of rusty metals and leathery fruit skins. This piece pays homage to my collection of 97 dried bananas and uses the circular focal point to narrate perspective and create an intriguing ambiguity of decayed imagery.

Casa Afuera

Casa Afuera, 2020. Installation Photography, Dimensions Variable. Series of 9.

Description: ‘Home Outside’ is a series of bedroom installations using a range of projected photographs. Collaged through bedroom objects the projections and camera obscura techniques create illusional spaces through reflections and shadow work. This series merges a multiple of binaries such as outdoor & indoor spaces, beauty with decrepit. Thus, conceptually this work aims to create one visual through the joining of once separate perspectives.

Wait Patiently

Wait Patiently, 2020. Shifting medium, Dimensions Variable.

Description: Wait Patiently, is a photograph of a sculptural installation. This work is made in response to a piece of text exploring bodily decay through fruits, buildings and people. The work displays five thoughtfully nailed bananas in a human like linear queue. Overlaying this with a projection of an image from Waves Woven, 2020 Series of 4. The work is physical, you can smell this, touch this, taste its shape. It is dried, for months, photographed, suspended, nailed, collaged, and repeated. Text:

Fruit as Body,

Fruit as Soul,

As damage.

Listen- {to my meadow Memorial}

Pull my peel

Pope my parts

Wait till I’m decay

Rose my days,

Gate my shades

Woe my path be spoken

Silk my fruit

Insides broken garden.

Dig my soil the same

Peach be bare

Second floor up- door down there...

Popes cuisine

Angels desert

Grave for a fruit

Baby be hurt,

Woe what’s deserved

Doubted loss

Ring my remains

Orange on a cross.

Dorian Way

Dorian Way, 2020. Spoken Word Performance, Series of 2. 372 Bristol, Live stream.

Description: Dorian Way is a delicate spoken word performance piece, performed during lock down at the 372 residency {additionally as a live stream.} The work deals with inclusive and accessible ways to present texts and visual matter to audiences. The title ‘Dorian Way’ is a nod to a place I connect with recovering form an illness that resulted in changes to my vision. Thus, the work explores tactile movements and language that provokes visually stimulating imagery.

Sunken Movies

Sunken Movies, 2020. Installation Photography, Dimensions Variable. Pt 1 - Pt 2.

Sunken Movies, Part 1:

Description: Part 1, is a piece that informed/is in formed by a piece of text I wrote about a forgotten place at sea. Using pages from a sketch book of cut out words sourced form various old books, bedding and abandoned cinemas, spliced together through textures and projections. Text:

Conversations in the ocean

A body - slow motion

The silent melody

Buried endlessly

Swam in waves woven,

Pitted potent ocean

The siren so speech-less

Spitting sea swallowed (w)hole

But buried pip

A breathless drip,

Of lonesome serenity

No place heavenly

This sound-less melody.

Now gap be closed

Core exposed

Fruit decomposed the skin unclothed.

A doves message

Deep sea wreckage

The mothers message

Sea soaked dressing,

Wound be stung

Salt covered tongue

Now waves begun...

Sunken Movies, Part 2.

Description: As a continuation of the Pt.1 {including the text}, this extension playfully navigates nostalgia through subtle dream like colours, and fragile textures. The combination of archival aged objects such as mirrors, fruits, bedding and more... with this palette and tonal investigations create a ‘heavenly’ illusion. Interested in nostalgia, third space and perspective, Sunken Movies investigates the relationship between space, object and text. I also see this work as something experimental, exciting and new to my practice in terms of colour and softness. Responsive text:

Lost baby

Hollow tree

Halo be broke

Tip his harp

Now grasp my wing,

A heart to hop

But rein to grasp

of fallen crown

Solemn chamber land

So, drink the gone

Forgotten now?

A child's message-

Spent sleep-less nights

The longing for daisies...

Her petal-less meadow

A buried babe,

Now apricot to rot

Sleeps in a grave.

Dig deep to be caught

Seed sown sorrow

{Noise in the back}

Time-less thought...

Movement gone

Whistling swan

Silence from

A bruised plum

#documentation

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apricot-to-rot · 4 years

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Additional Documentation of Work

Streets with no Doors, 2020. Installation, Mixed Media. Dimensions Variable.

Gap be Closed, 2020. Installation, Mixed Media. Dimensions Variable.

Text:

Pip my grain, bodies twain. Dis-join eye strain of scum disdain.

Weep to be milked, for the metal is silked. A petals conflict now picked- slip snip.

Space-less cavan, in gravels found patterns. Splatter scattered disasters the puddle shatters- Listen...

Spitter

Spatter

Splash

Peel wash.

For the copper to rust, crop her trust. The air find weight, no pupils dilate...

Shape dissipate

A Name Full of Colour, You Remind Me of Home, Developmental, 2020. Installation Photography, Dimensions Variable.

Waves Woven, 2020. Installation Photography, Developmental Dimensions Variable.

#documentation

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apricot-to-rot · 4 years

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Supporting Material {Documentation}

#documentation

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apricot-to-rot · 4 years

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Art Plan:The Forgotten Chronicles

Final Work: ‘The Forgotten Chronicles’

CONCEPT Use the space below to write a description of the concept of the artwork and how it relates to your practice.

I wanted to create a space to present my ‘archive’ of sensory collections. This would have incorporated a multiple of textures noises and ‘bits’, ranging between sounds, words, music- lights, mirrors, projections- films, photographs and sculptures. The archive presented is wanting to form a sensory experience within ‘looking’ at the home and the outside. There is a temporal importance to my practice through the use of light and the fragile beauty of depicting decayed ‘bodies’. Through non real visuals of very real things the piece would reflect my interest in wanting to make art that sounds tactile, smells nostalgic and tastes as potent as it looks. Through varying pieces of tech equipment, shelves and holes I planned on making an interactive ‘third space’ where by the viewers would be submersed in what what is beyond visual. This would be loosely narrated by my experience of hospitalised bodies, my collections of special fruits and what these sight impairments have left me with. Thus, reflecting my interest in relational aesthetic art.

I intended to make a series of different spaces, with each one acting like a chapter to a book.

Dramatic stillness, chaotic movement, swirley motion in the steps through a street-less road and the cold air of an empty boat. These chapters would visit multiple places in memories. Following footsteps through the textures of a video projected onto dirt. The concept of this work revolves around the merging dysfunction of these archival parts, the claustrophobic darkness where structures are incoherent. Yet gentle silk waves pour on a bed of milk. It reflects my practices integral relationship with space and the questioning behind experiencing art or words as my ironic love for the things that are visual or written has been changed. Thus the work I vision, questions how we see, why we un-see what may be right before us in the mundane and in this, hopefully, the audience would taste, smell, feel the weight of their clothes, the importance of noise and perhaps ‘see’.

With access to equipment and facilities through this installation, I could see this work beyond a specific exhibition space, possibly as a download for listeners to experience in unusual or possibly comfortable places; barns, rivers or under beds: ‘Digital Books: for Visual Listeners- The Forgotten Chronicles’?

PROGRESS & PLANNING: DESCRIPTION Use the space below to write a description of the progress and planning you had undertaken for the artwork prior to the closure of facilities.

I spent the beginning of this module collecting and gathering to widen my archive, listening for noises, drying my fruits and mending broken or lost parts. Once my archive began to formulate I created two experimental installations using a project space at Spike Island, speaker and cable equipment, a projector, lighting. I also used my studio space to create the fruits used for these and the computer and technology software to edit and record sound and film. I also used tech support through fabrications where I was beginning to earn how to professionally edit film and sound using the UWE tech software.

My vision for these narratives in space was coming to life, I had booked out three sessions using different spaces at Spike Island with different equipment. I visioned using a project space once or twice a week to continually experiment with the curating of these through making supportive material through out the rest of the year to develop these ideas into a refined series of chapters. I was going to book a session in the sound room at Bower Ashton using the Foley studio as I did an Induction at the beginning of this module. Looking back on my daily plan made for this module I wanted to make sculptural textures in fabrications to emulate tactile photographs... Objects, imprints, castings and metal works for people to hold and smell.

PROGRESS & PLANNING: DOCUMENTATION AND EVIDENCE Use the space below to insert photographic evidence or drawn plans of the progress and planning you had undertaken for the artwork prior to the closure of facilities. Add pages as necessary.

ARTWORK VISUALISATIONS

Use the space below to insert visualisations of the final artwork – these can be photoshop images, exports from programmes such as Blender or other digital programmes, stills from films, photo-collages or simply drawings. Add pages as necessary.

The following link is a space to try emulate ways I might show this archive in installations/chapters. All of it is made using DIY, de-skilled tech as I used by mobile phone for this entire submission. My phone broke 2/3′s into the lock down so I was unable to continue working this way as I couldn’t create any more experimental films or sounds. Something else I would like to highlight is the difficulty I have in representing my visions for this as the impact of seeing my ‘plans’ on a digital screen give very different connotations to my ideal conceptual aesthetic; of natural decay, raw intensity and subtle fragility. The work becomes less soft although I do believe the works themselves are interesting and reflective of the narrative I aim to form.

Basing my ideas of written sketches as seen in the ‘progress and planning’ section, I would have used technology and space to curate and edit these archival parts. I wanted to create an outdoor exhibit for the final chapter using tunnels or boats.

I have coded some texts into brail, and I would have liked to have used an invigilator/ guide, for the installations to describe the visual work for some works in more detail, although the point of this series is to try bright to light the other sensory aspects around vision through descriptive, plosive words and ‘polemical’ textures.

Thus, I have also seen the Publication task as a way to showcase these fragments best as possible due to the many constraints. I think the relationship between the works in the publication best display my hopes for what I would created at Spike.

Please press ‘present slide’ top right corner.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11eSkcloFUwJSoA4gq0459Kbj8spTAgY121Plj2JSeK4/edit?usp=sharing

INSTALLATION: TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

Use the list below to describe the technical requirements of the work. Highlight the answers as relevant.

(Please circle Yes or No)

Electrical points Yes No

If Yes, how many points required? On average, two on either sides of the space with at least 2 extension cables

Wall - based Yes No. Wall and floor.

If Yes, what is required approx. length and height of space? Large scale projections, dimensions variable, I would use a whole room for documentation then for the submission I would have ideally had an entire wall including part floor and ceiling.

Is the work exceptionally heavy? Yes No. Speakers, mirrors and projectors

Floor - based Yes No

If Yes, approximately how much floor space is required? 3 plinths, and the length of one project space wall to inhibit disrupting the projector.

Do you require dark space? Yes No

Do you require equipment to be provided by UWE? Yes No

(Please tick ‘no’ if you can provide yourself)

Please detail what equipment is required : two speakers, cables, extensions leads, projectors 2 ideally if not more, 3 plinths, headphones, nails and hammer, paint rollers for set up, safety cable covers, lighting.

If you require monitors, data projectors or slide projectors, how will they be installed?

The projector would sit on a low level plinth angled upwards, distorted and overplayed with a second or third projector, spanning across wall space floor space and ceiling space. The cables would be neatly kept under a wire safety holder and the plinth would be positioned near a socket to stop cables running through the room. Other than that, it is difficult to say as I have not been able to experiment with this, I think If i was to have the psychical space and the time the work would change as it grew.

Does your work have an audio element? Yes No

INSTALLATION: VISUALISATIONS / REFERENCES

Use the space below to insert visualisations that help the assessors understand how you would install the work. You can use images of other artists work to help provide a context for your intentions and choices. Add pages as necessary.

Home Experiments

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apricot-to-rot · 4 years

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A Professional Practice: Graduate Strategies File

Contents:

1 Link to power point slides & evaluation

2 Current avenues:

- ‘Apricot to Rot {in progress}: An Independent Artist’

- Curator & Events Organiser- The 372 collective & Spike Island Coordinator

- Art Therapy Career and Volunteering

3 Future Career Plan Evidence & Evaluation

Link to Power Point

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nkruGAGsBUJtVLIEc14-UcM0OEtI8TyDUPfYF5qpd8U/edit?usp=sharing

Evaluation

Looking through my presentation now, seeing the work I was making at the beginning of this project, the visions I had for what this module might be... It is beyond what I imagined. I’m writing this after spending so long in lock down I don’t know how long its been and life at Spike Island seems hard to fathom. Although I miss Spike greatly, in many ways I think think lock down has given me an experience of making that is totally unique and through this it has transformed the work greatly, I think for the better.

In the presentation when discussing my current work I focused on how I wanted to grown my archive, and how I set out to collect and gather, far/wide and near by. At the time of the presentation my work was dictated by text, although I now realise the words have become an equally woven part to the archive; a component that informs the objects as the objects inform the words. I seem a more developed and experienced practice of techniques with the relationship between text and the other medias. Through the greater importance of the curative environment the parts have become connected, thus allowing loosely for objects to speak a narrative in their symbolic presence. Narrating more so through objects than the words has allowed the text to become more ambiguous. I feel the less informative sensory stories of memory and other themes allows the audience to come on their own journey with me.

I have continued looking into some of the artists or themes within my research back when I did the presentation. I had a great interest in artists who dealt with hospitalised bodies and works that emulate or incorporated bodily experiences. This led me to research around the idea of the decrepit and thus led my interest in collecting and ‘framing the decay’ and treating the broken with fragility. Since the last module, the work has evolved through new avenues of photography and the importance of curation and thus how structures and reflections within these can narrate my themes through the archives in subject. I hope to continue researching around relational aesthetic art.

When making the presentation I was at the beginning of planning these collections, where I would go, what I might hope to find... Through this I wanted to shift the 30 credit module into new themes. The work has grown through moving between transforming concepts around ‘domesticated-ness’ that have carried the collection to integrate with and place under the magnifying glass- the mundane. How do we see things, how do we see differently from each other and what is seeing if not experiencing.

I am feeling very fulfilled to have made so much progress with the collection I set out to create and how the work has evolved and the exciting prospects of splicing these with sounds. I will continue widening this archive and finding ways to curate them in spaces including digital space, books, places, exhibitions... Now turning to the career aspect of the presentation...

At the time I had undertaken a lot of exciting responsibilities, in particular the role of coordinator for level three and training for an arts facilitator session through St Mungo’s Homeless Charity. On the evening of the presentation I reflected on how I felt I did, I felt I didn’t have much to show for the art making but I had lots of plans to discuss. I felt very excited with where it was going and the possibilities as it was about to take of. However, for the career side I felt there was a lot I didn’t say. It was the part of the presentation I felt most excited to discuss and possibly the pressure I put on myself to talk about it almost made it difficult to fully translate the lengths of my passion and efforts. I guess the lack of visual aid didn’t help when referring to the the presentation, but it was pretty impossible to include pictures. I think I didn’t give enough of a platform in the way I discussed it and its presentation on the slides when in fact both the art therapy and the coordinator role were two things I felt very strong about and was putting a lot of energy and soul into it. I’m not sure... When presenting things dear to my heart I often loose the outline of my body and find it hard to be sure of what I did or didn’t say.

I feel like I have accomplished a lot since this presentation. I have completed all of my training including additional training for the prospects of learning to work in an arts therapeutic role. I have worked in a complex needs hostel running my own sessions and I joined a team for the Drugs and Alcohol Recovery College at St. Anne’s facilitating art groups. This is something I am keen to pursue further and although this year has been very demanding I am in a position now where I feel my efforts have set me up with new possibilities. Additionally, the experience and connections I have made through being the coordinator with Erin and Esther has enabled my full involvement with Spike Island peers, events and tutors. Spending most days at Spike has allowed me to be full immersed and develop connections that I hope to carry through.

Current Avenues, ‘Evidence of Future Plans’

In many ways my practice is a true reflection of my personality and what I seek in life. I don’t want to be limited within one career when there are many avenues I am keen to pursue. Thus, my many interests in life seem to combine into one globular paradigm, this is equally mirrored in my use of varying mediums and concept based art work and my taste in music. This multi meaning and substance encompassing practice I have developed is a reflections of my equally expanding and shifting interests in many other aspects of my life. Reflecting on this, I decided to focus my efforts and developmental skills within three specific fragments as a way to develop my skills and progression towards a career that can encapsulate some areas of my varying interests. Thus the following is split into three segments of current avenues:

- Apricot to Rot {in progress}- An independent artist

- Curator & Events Organiser- The 372 collective & Spike Island Coordination

- Art Therapy

Within each section I shall be discussing, analysing and reflecting on my aims to peruse and develop these areas during the past year and looking towards the near future. In addition to this, I will discuss the current situation of Covid-19 in terms of successfully continuing my future career plan within these constraints and the implications of these limitations.

‘Apricot to Rot {in progress}: An Independent Artist’

- Artist Instagram account

- Covid-19 limitations and planning

My original vision with becoming an Independent Artist has been some what delayed in terms of selling works as I am unable to produce and distribute during Covid-19. However, working to exceed these constraints I have recently focused more on elevating my online presence. I have created an art account on Instagram to advertise my work so that once I have access to facilities I can set up my website again and continue selling prints.

372 studio

26/3/2020 Image: Screenshot of Artist Instagram account, displaying my zine page segmented into 15 images.

18/5/2020 Screenshot of Artist Instagram account

In addition to my Instagram, after submitting this Tumblr account I hope to create another account into a professional space that displays ‘digital books’ of images, sounds and texts for isolated listeners. I think my work is very suited to the formats of installations of photography ‘books’, but I have been unable to produce any in physical form because of limited access to facilities and equipment. Therefore, I am very keen to continue making whatever work I can and use my Tumblr as a space to almost digitally plan the works that I will one day publish in a physical book. I hope to make these digital spaces as immersive as possible and try ensure the digital aspect of it doesn’t change the narrative too much.

11/4/2020 Screenshot of Artist Instagram account

Research into Digital Books See under DIGITAL BOOKS/ PUBLICATIONS RESEARCH

Curator and Events Organiser

372 Collective

For the past year I have been developing an art/music collective residency at 372 with ten other artists and musicians {including many more who have passed through}. We have decided to stay for another year, for me this collective is integral to being an artist as it gives me the space, peers and creative city that allow me to be fully submerged in setting up myself as an independent artist and forming this collective. Before the out break of Covid-19 I was running events and exhibitions almost every other weekend with the collective at 372 and my plan was to continue running these as a main source of income through this next year however this may not happen quite as I envisioned but the show must go on. My vision is, to get events and exhibitions back on- to give up coming independent artists a space to exhibit work, collaborate, showcase and create and a space for the collective residents to curate and present their work.

6 month Calendar I have created for residents-

Art Based Residents: April Kirkwood, Sadie May, Sylvie Whitfield, Anna Young, Ashleigh Swain, May Bell, Katya Skyes, Charles, Toby George, Oli Camp, Joe Camp, Max

June Aims: Transform the garden: Build plantiers, wormary compost, risen beds, water system, Grow our own vegetables. With aims for 372 to be a communal and fully sustainable place with our own fresh fruit and vegetables all year.

Repaint house areas- fresh vibes! Enquire for paint from land lord {end of may}

July

Week One: 4 new residents {Ashleigh Swain, Anna Young, Oli Camp, Joe Camp} Walls to be painted in personal spaces, communal areas.

Week 2: Discuss Covid-19: how can we utilise this collective when on lock down, digital exhibitions, publications, use event spaces as studio spaces, apply for group funding/ research opportunities.

Week 3: Turn the Basement into a transformable studio space so that artists have a space to make work which we can still use for events and exhibitions.

August Aims:

. Move into basement

. Create one croup art work

. Hold an exhibition {for exhibition plans see section 5}

September {Lock down lifted?}

Week one: Organise an in depth Calendar: When do people have work, university deadlines. When can we do Events. Create off limit days on a calander.

Week two: Social Media take over! Using the social media account I created this year, document everyone's work at 372 and post about up coming exhibitions and opportunities to curate/ rent / attend the space.

Week 3&4: Everyone split in 4 groups to plan a different exhibitions running everyone other weekend from October- November. Roles and responsibilities to consider: sound system, decorations, event staff, bar set up, call out posters, clean up team

October: {information to be added} Names of artists, themes, name of exhibitions, roles, equipment needed

Group A Exhibition {Week 1}

Group A Deinstall/ Clean {Week 2}

Group B: Exhibition {Week 3}

Group B: Deinstall/ Clean {Week 4}

November: {information to be added} Names of artists, themes, name of exhibitions, roles, equipment needed

Group C: Exhibition {Week 1}

Group C: Deinstall/ Clean {Week 2}

Group D: Exhibtion {Week 3}

Group D: Deinstall/ Clean {Week 4}

December/ January Performance Month: Transform the basement into an immersive space used for a ticketed night(s) of performances: sound system, decorations, event staff, bar set up, performers, scripts, costumes, call out posters, clean up team

Artist CV:

Ebony A Wray/ Apricot to Rot

Tumblr: Apricot-To-Rot

Instagram: EbonyAwray

Email: [email protected]

Artist Statement

I am a ‘visually challenged’ independent artist, part of the 372 residency in Bristol UK. I am a collector. I gather fragments, ‘bits’; these bits can be sounds, rubble, discarded plans, disembodied parts, words or objects. The work questions boundaries between ideas, emotions and objects through space, narrative and sound. My practice is multi-dimensional, dealing with installations, sculptures, photographs, sounds, film, painting and poetry. Too access this archive of work please see my social Media or request my documentation file via email.

there are no installations- only words, there are no sculptures- only sound.

Education

Fine Art A-Level, York College 2015, Grade B

Fine Art Foundation Diploma, York College, 2016 Grade Distinction

Fine Art BA Hons Degree, The University Of The West Of England, Present

Exhibitions/ Curation

Tits and Bits, 2019, The Flat . Curated by Clara Troy. Role: Life drawing model & Sketcher.

Whoever was using this bed, 2019, The Flat. Curated by Clara Troy, Isaac Jordan & Alis Toe. Work exhibited: Tea cup Rabbit Spatula, 2019, Painting, 1m x 1.7m. Untitled Sketch book works, 2019.

Trust Absolute Unconditional, 2019, The Crypt. Curated by Leah Wellington. Work Exhibited: Untitled, 2018, Sculpture, Dimensions Variable.

Callaborative Painting UK, 2019, Kosar. Work Exhibited: Untitled, 2019, Painting on Canvas, 1m x 1m. Untitled, 2019, Painting on Canvas, 5.3m x 1.6m.

Fine Art Fright Night, 2019, Spike Island. Role: Coordinator & Curator of Events Managment. Work Shown: How to Mourn An Orange, 2019, Installation, Mixed Media, Dimensions Variable. King Barry, 2019, Performance, Costume Design, Make-Up, Cat walk model.

80s! Prom Fine Art Fundraiser, 2020, Spike Island. Role: Events Coordinator.

Take Two Fine Art Fundraiser, 2020, 372. Role: Events Coordinator.

Curator and Events Organiser

In this section I will be providing Visual documentations as evidence for the events that have taken place at 372. This section will continue to discuss similarly my role as coordinator of events and fundraising for Fine Art Level 3. This sections aims to demonstrate my efforts throughout this year in developing skills to equip my future career plan in terms of curating, organisations and fundraising music events and exhibitions.

372 2019-2020

Coordinator Level 3 UWE

This year I had a joint role of coordinator with Erin and Esther. I took the lead in coordinating for the first half of this year, and I have also ran fundraising events at 372. Through the events at 372 me and Sadie organised a Bursary scheme to offer students unable to pay the £50 degree show entry a free ticket to curate their work. However, since covid this money has been contributed towards an online degree show. My role as coordinator was to ensure the connectivity between each member of the team, to record all information and act as a point of call for any queries within the organisation of all events. I took more of a lead role within coordination in the first half of the year. My main hope was to form a connected group on level three through encouraging people to contribute creative ideas and take of roles within the fundraiser events. I wanted all creative voices to be heard and so I spent a lot of time ensuring and supporting everyone's contributions came to fruition. Looking back now I am very proud of these events and my efforts because I wanted to create a series of exciting events at Spike and bond the year to combine everyone talent.

Planning meetings, organising roles and keeping track of information to chase people up with their jobs:

I leased with Wayne and other tutors, musicians and accessed tech support for these events. I ensured everyone working at the events understood the health and safety procedures and kept to the licensing. I bought and transported all the alcohol and used my knowledge of bar work to run a cheap but efficient bar with trained staff.

Social Media control and encouraging the group to engage:

Link to rota for events I created: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eVUXUOf71-J2GYIz4hD5dzNesCW_5xJmly6ZeVvDXUg/edit?usp=sharing

Link to Power Point Lectures I held:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1yzB5pouN0jlWI-xkKe5cbu9hIUdM8XuKpdb28hmWzRc/edit?usp=sharing

During the events I took on a multitude of roles, including; First Aider, overseeing the bar, ensuring the change and cash flow of the bar through Beckie and our bar team. I would greet all the event goers by standing on the front door and introducing them to the event. I would be the point of call for every team member on the night, ensuring the time plan of the night was kept to and solving any issues and pointing people to the right person to talk to. Finally, I made sure Spike was left in a clean acceptable condition with everything recycled.

As the year has continued, I have spent an increasing time in hospital so I took more of a back seat within the coordinating. Esther and Erin did a fantastic job with organising the publication for the degree show and as a group with Beckie we did a lot of expenditure planning for how our fundraiser money would be spent on an ambitious and innovative degree show. My role was to still ensure all voices were heard in the creative decision making and the decisions around democratising how the fundraising money was spent. I held a series of discussions, power point lectures and workshops for all of Level 3. I recorded this and then me Esther and Erin made the final decisions on where money would be spent most effectively.

My main hope in doing all of this was to get some really exciting events happening at Spike with the importance of inclusivity by getting as many people involved as possible. I am very proud of the events, I learnt a lot and have made a lot of connections through doing so.

Event Pictures:

Spike Island 31/10. Catwalk Models Pose for group photo. Models: Ebony Wray, Clara Troy, Alis Toe, Ashleigh Swain, Joel Mansfield, Lucy Mardell, Fran. Todd Clarke and Sadie Arellano.

Spike Island 31/10. Set Design and Installation work by Ebony Wray and Daisy Jones. Face Painitng workshop.

Spike Island 31/10. Ebony Wray Installation Performance.

Spike Island 31/10. Ebony Wray Installation.

Spike Island 31/10. Set Design: Sheets of paper for event goers to draw illustrations.

Spike Island 31/10. Photograph: Ebony Wray. Model: Sadie Arellano, Catwalk Costume.

Spike Island 31/10. Sadie Arellano and Barry {Ebony Wray}

Spike Island 31/10. Barry {Ebony Wray} and April Kirkwood

Spike Island 14/2. Exhibition space.

Spike Island 14/2. Dance Floor, Projections and set desin by Diasy and Ella.

Spike Island 14/2.

Spike Island 14/2. Photobooth made by Loulou Jane and Daisy Jones.

Spike Island 14/2. Bar area.

Art Therapy: A Vessel for Self Expression

Before studying Fine Art I placed great importance on the ideology of using creativity as a way to heal and enrich the self from experienced trauma. My passion for this has always drawn me to explore a sense of underlying self within poetry, collecting and story making. Although my practice usually explores a multitude of important concepts such as the notion of home, nostalgia and uncomfortability... The underlying cathartic release is the integral experience that continues my growing practice. My interest in this relationship between therapeutics and Fine Art is what has led my sought training and PPWE research this year; with the aims to develop basic skills and knowledge to equip me for progressing into to the industry of Art Therapy.

[Due to Covid-19 complications, the ‘evidence’ of my efforts to develop these skills will be presented within six screen shots of emails between myself and my employer.]

I went to the UWE Frenchay employment and volunteering fair in November and through this learnt about St Mungo’s Homeless Charity. Since then, through this charity I applied for my DBS check and have undertook a multitude of training programmes. I then set up my own art based group in a complex needs hostel.

Training completed:

Core Training

Mental Health Training

Conflict Resolution Training

Complex Trauma Training

Borderline Personality Training

Shadowing existing session

Setting up the Art Group

Longhill’s complex trauma hostel St Munngo’s: I gained a lot of experiences and knowledge from running these sessions. My next step after this was to join another existing team doing art sessions at The Drugs and Alcohol Recovery College, starting on 27/4/2020.

Covid-19 complications:

Since Covid-19 I have been in contact with St Mungo’s and I plan to return after the 26th of May. I hope to progress within this charity to develop a career within care that can involve therapeutic art practices for vulnerable people.

Additional Evidence of Future Plan

Future future?

UWE Bristol Postgraduate Santander Scholarship of £4,000 to continue full time post graduate study in September 2020. {Deadline 19th June) Waiting for feedback on draft submission to 'My Questions' on InfoHub {Curating MA, One year course.}

DLA for Adults Application

Evaluation of Future Plans?

Throughout my reflections on current possible avenues I have already evaluated at lengths the three avenues my efforts have gone into persuing these. The Art Therapy role through St Mungos’s, my interest in curation and running events and finally being an independent artist. Advancing on what has already been said, I find it hard to fully create a water tight, logical future plan right now for a society that is constantly changing. My health and abilities are constantly changing and the many innovative opportunities that may arise in the end couple of months are hopefully unimaginable as I’m sure exciting new roles will arise for me. So, with that said I think the plans I have discussed is the best I can provide right now. I am looking into applying for DLA through the government to support me throughout my hospital endeavours. Becoming visually impaired has massively impacted my life and my sight is constantly changing like the world is right now, so I will just have to take life as it come. I am passionate about following these three avenues through and I will think about the curating MA. It is tempting because it is free although I think the opportunities I already have lined up this year are overwhelming and a masters in art psychotherapy in later years would be better suited to me. I will continue to keep my ears open for open calls and I really am passionate about making exhibitions happen this year at the residency.

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