Artist Research: Everyday Things

When developing new work, it is probably a good idea to examine what has come before. Artist research is one of those areas of my practice which is probably neglected too often. With tight time constraints I often pick playing in the studio over artist research. However, this is when my duel role of artist/teaching is beneficial, as when planning sessions, I will always include artist reference to learners to draw upon. This aspect of planning directly feeds into my own art practice, as I will inevitably be inspired by, or see connection to my own practice in some of the artists I present to my learners.

Recently I was looking for examples of artists who created several outcomes based on the same object for a session which focused on still life drawing. I had not noticed at the time, but by searching within these terms I was already drawing parallels to my own practice, as I am essentially look at artists who are creating collections of the same type of thing – for me that thing is road signs. For the artists I researched that type of thing varies. However, what does stay the same is that the artists are often looking at things that fall into the notion of the everyday.

This pull of the everyday as inspiration within art may come from the lure of having the power to help it escape the commonplace, by manipulating the subject matter, controlling it within an art context or simply letting it surrender to the free-play of our subjectivity (Vaneigem, 1983). Whatever it is, the everyday is as popular now as an art subject as it ever has been.

The first artist falls into the latter category, as I have enjoyed the work of Michael Craig-Martin for as long as I can remember. Initially this was due to An Oak Tree, 1973 which as an artwork holds conceptual thinking processes at its centre (Manchester, 2002), conceptual art plays a huge part in my practice.

Craig-Martin, An Oak Tree, 1973

However, more recently I looked to Craig-Martin in reference to his drawing and sculptures. Within my art teaching we look at his works in relation to line drawing techniques, to illustrate how drawings do not have to exist on the page but can also exist sculpturally.

His recent exhibition, The Shape of Things (2019b), echoes my linguistic preference – this is in preference to the word ‘object’ mostly, as object/art objects/everyday objects come with a lot of baggage. Thing feels relatively baggage free. The exhibition sees six steel sculptures installed outside around the Kinder Lake in Houston (Craig-Martin, 2019b). What is evident in these works and the others like them is firstly the simplicity and the power of a strong line to convey information about things. But also, the use of increased scale. The work perhaps slips into notions of the uncanny, by taking these familiar things and changing them in such a way that they start to feel strange (Freud, 1919).

Craig-Martin, Sculpture, 2019a

His things of choice; paperclips, scissors, bottle openers, umbrellas are usually overlooked, very everyday and probably unchoice (O’Doherty, 1986) as subject matter to most. These three categories, I feel are shared with The Road Sign Collection. They are both over looked in the same way, as we use paperclips and road signs functionally, but they are overlooked in other ways. They are very much a means to an end. By using these and increasing the scale Craig-Martin can make the viewer look again (Sedation, 2019). Not only at these supersized versions, but also at the originals, helping to emphasis the significance of these things in our everyday lives. Playing with scale is still on my to-do list and is something that I very much want to explore. Particularly, when seeing how successful the outcomes can be when done well.

The move into sculpture is possibly where the similarities end between me and Craig-Martin. It is not something that I have considered playing with, my main worry is that they would become copies of the original signs, which are in themselves (functional) sculptures. The change in scale would have to be significant to make my outcomes different enough, original enough.

Patrick Caulfield’s work was new to me, (and they actually reminded me of Craig-Martins painting when I first saw them – though his clearly have come before Craig-Martin, you do not always discover things in chronological order).

Craig-Martin, Untitled, 2016 / Caulfield, Wine Glasses, 1969

A quick search of Caulfield and you will see many outcomes which focus on ordinary everyday things, such as wine glasses. Looking at his work I felt that familiar parallel to my own practice, again we both working with collections of everyday items. His style draws on paring down what is in front of him resulting in simplistic but effective still life images. This is something that I want to bring across into The Road Sign Collection. When I first started to draw each of the road signs, I was concerned with capturing every scratch and dent and following them though with the continuous line, however going forward my intention is to pare this back to the most essential lines only. The use of block colour is something I want to explore and having every detail traced stands in the way of this aesthetic.

The print-like nature of his paintings manages to make even the most three-dimensional shape appear flat and I think that, in essence this is what I want to do. As mentioned, before I intend to eschew the sculptural and I guess the opposite of that is to make everything at two-dimensional as possible. It feels just as effective as a means to get the audience to consider these things in a new way.

In relation to my own practice this research has given me a few things to consider;

• I need to do something with scale and not just say I am going to
• I am also intrigued to explore the uncanny a little more, as surrealism usually finds its way into my practice this route of enquiry could be fitting
• As I continue to develop my digital skills, I will explore making the road signs more two-dimensional

References

Adams, T. (2015) Interview: Michael Craig-Martin: ‘I have always thought everything important is right in front of you. [Online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/apr/26/michael-craig-martin-interview-everything-important-is-in-front-of-you--guru. [accessed 23/01/20].

Freud, S. (1919) The Uncanny. Imago, Bd. V., 1919 [Translated by Alix Strachey.]

M, Craig-Martin. (2019a) Sculpture. [Online] Available at: https://www.michaelcraigmartin.co.uk/exhibitions/2019/5/31/sculpture. [accessed 23/01/20].

M, Craig-Martin. (2019b) The Shape of Things. [Online] Available at: https://www.michaelcraigmartin.co.uk/exhibitions/2019/8/1/the-shape-of-things. [accessed 23/01/20].

M, Craig-Martin. (2015) Paintings: Untitled. [Online] Available at: https://www.michaelcraigmartin.co.uk/painting. [accessed 23/01/20].

Manchester, E. (2002) Summary: Michael Craig-Martin: An Oak Tree, 1973. [Online] Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/craig-martin-an-oak-tree-l02262. [accessed 23/01/20].

O’Doherty, B. (1986) Inside the White Cube. University of California Press. 

Sedation. (2019) Michael Craig-Martin: Sculpture. [Online] Available at: https://www.seditionart.com/magazine/michael-craig-martin-sculpture. [accessed 23/01/20].

Tate. (2020) Caulfield: Wine Glass. [Online] Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/caulfield-wine-glasses-p04092. [accessed 23/01/20].

Vaneigem, R. (1983) The Revolution of Everyday Life. London: Rebel Press.