Borders: Tickets, Please

Tickets, Please, draws it inspiration from the train journey that connects Colchester and Ipswich. The train ticket allows us to cross over the border. It is elevated above what it is, a piece of card and it becomes something that give your access to a service. In a similar way, with this piece I am also elevating a piece of card to something else, a piece of work that exists in the art world.

The work draws on the train ticket as a symbol and hints at the original with the use of replicating the size, shape and lines of an original. I wanted the work to be recognisable but not to be a copy a when working with reproductions something from original is always lost (Benjamin, 2015) and so I wanted to avoid this by taking inspiration and elements, rather than the train ticket as a whole. 

The medium has been chosen to add a DIY quality and uniqueness to the objects, something that their inspiration lacks. As train tickets are mass produced and computer generated. This addas a human element to the aura of the artwork and is fitting to my art practice.

The work itself is sculptural – not 2D. It is intended to exist laying on a surface, preferably the floor – where it seems from experience most train tickets end up (or at least it seems that way!). There are parallels here too to the train station floor and the gallery floor, they are both spaces that are overlooked in everyday life, which is another reoccurring theme in my practice, the Duchampian unchoice territories (O’Doherty, 1986).

There is an intended simplicity here which helps give the audience immediate access to the work (Stiles and Selz, 2012). Just by putting something on the floor, draws attention to it, make it similar to the everyday encounter of the original train ticket and that experience of looking down at it (Virilio, 2010) and helps to replicate a moment from real life. It allows me to try and emulate that immediacy and experience of being in the moment and spotting something (Hayward, 2004).

The text on the tickets is taken from the letter coding used for each location within the context of the railways system.

It uses, as all of my art does, our shared language (Wittgenstein, 2007) and social facts (Burke and Crowley) – in this case social facts specific to train stations (COL instead of Colchester / IPS instead of Ipswich). All language aims at communicating something (Delacroix, 1924 in Ullmann, 1962) and

my use of linguistics within the artwork (both of the text and the title) sets out to communicate notions around train stations, to engage the mind of the viewer and take them to that train station context (Saussure, 2013, p19).

Tickets, Please at Firstsite

The work itself has changed since its inception, in meaning and in placement. I used to travel by train between Colchester and Ipswich three times a week for work – the pandemic ended that, and now I do not even work there and never returned before I left due to home working. This now represents a moment from my past, whereas when it was created it was my present. The work too changed once in situ at Firstsite, with photos showing slight movement in placement, something you come to expect with floor-based works.

References

 

Benjamin, W. (2015) Illuminations. London: Penguin.

Burke, L. and Crowley, T. (2000) The Routledge language and cultural theory reader. London: Routledge. (The Politics of Language).

Hayward, K. (2004) City Limits: Crime, Consumer Culture and the Urban Experience. Routledge-Cavendish.

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

Saussure, F. (2013) Course in General Linguistics. Duckworth; New edition.

Stiles, K. and Selz, P. (2012) Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artists. University of California Press

Ullmann, S. (1962) Semantics: An introduction to the science of meaning. Oxford: Blackwell.

Virilio, P. (2010) Art as Far as The Eye Can See. London: Bloomsbury.

Wittgenstein, L. (2007) Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology and Religious Belief. ed. Cyril Barrett. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

DANGER OF DEATH | UNSAFE BUILDING

Making the move from idea to actualised project was definitely easier when I was in education and had, seemingly, all the time in the world to focus on my art practice. Now that I am juggling jobs, real-life and my art practice the road from A to B takes much longer.

I started The Road Sign Collection in September and it has developed. However, my biggest problem is that it is developing much faster in my mind than it is outwardly. I am stuck between wanting to get to an end point – for my practice this means something outward facing, and not to rush the process in case I miss something important in the developmental stages. (Not to mention also trying to find time to read around the subject to ensure that it is contextualised). My lack of time requires me to plan ahead and then realise ideas when I can find a slice of time to do so. Ideas will often start in my sketchbook and then go through a digital process where I try to figure out the site from afar. 

This is why I ended up installing my latest site-specific text piece in the dark (and freezing cold). This installation, ‘DANGER OF DEATH | UNSAFE BUILDING’ utilises a site that I have used before. In a previous installation I looked to the site to inspire the language used within it.

My reasons for wanting to revisit this site where two-fold; firstly, due to its crumbling aesthetic and its size, which allows me to play with aspects of teleperception (Virilio, 2010). This new installation had a slightly different approach to the first. This time I was looking to the found text from The Road Sign Collection and applying it to appropriately to the site in question, allowing the work and the site have a dialectical relationship (Owens, 1998).

This approach allows me to re-position the text away from its original state/site/purpose and apply it directly onto the site in question. This allows the text to feel more directly related to the site, meaning that the chosen words start to come from the site, in this particular instance it is as if the building itself is warning the reader of its state. 

My choice of vinyl was in keeping with my art practice, but mostly in this instance picked due to being able to fabricate the lettering ahead of time. Meaning that the installation is much quicker than for example working with tape on site. Using both black and white vinyl was intentional and intended to be used as something sort of experimental; which colouring would be most readable? Most jarring?  

Reflecting on the choice of colouring of the vinyl I found that both brought something different to the installation; the white was easier to view, the black draws you in closer for clarify. Viewing the work in both day light and darkness only emphasised this further. This change in conditions is important to consider, given that the text is installed in a public place, which can be view at any time (Rose, 2013). The passing of time is key here, as the falling-down process has happened over time. 

Revisiting the water tower allowed me to find a new way of working within the specific limitations and conditions of the site (O’Doherty, 1986). Having said that, the limitations and conditions of the site have changed slightly since I last used it in 2017. The building is disused and has continued to deteriorate in the last two years, making it less accessible and more of a hazard. It was unchoice territory two years ago and that has only increased over the years (O’Doherty, 1986, p.67). 

Originally, I wanted to work with all for corners of the water tower. However, from a site visit I knew that this would be impossible as the access to two of the corners was now blocked by fallen debris. By using the corners, the audience are encouraged to move around the work, again touching on notions of teleperception (Virilio, 2010), as the work goes on farther than the eye can see. working with this placement also breaks the text, as it moves around the corner (Deleuze, 1997), echoing the breaking up of the site itself. 

The materiality of the work and the intention that it will be temporary allows the text itself to start taking on the characteristics of the water tower; both are falling down. After one day of being installed some of the vinyl lettering had fallen from their place. While the water tower has existed for a much longer time period, it too is losing part – largely slates from the roof, hence the chosen warning signs. There is a rawness of ‘nowness’ (Hayward, 2004) as things are changing continually. 

Going forward I plan to install these words into a new site, one which clashes which the original intention of the text. This will allow me to create something quite playful which encouraged a more lateral interpretation of the text.

References

Deleuze, G. (1997) Essays Critical and Clinical. University of Minnesota Press.

Hayward, K. (2004) City Limits: Crime, Consumer Culture and the Urban Experience. Routledge Cavendish.

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

Owens, C. (1998) The Allegorical Impulse: Towards a Theory of Postmodernism. New York: Oxford Press.

Rose, G. (2013) Visual Methodologies. Sage Publications Ltd; 3 editions.

Virilio, P. (2010) Art as Far as The Eye Can See. London: Bloomsbury.

Who is the audience of road signs?

This is something that I have been considering lately, in reference to audience and audiencing of the road sign (Rose, 2013). The natural audience for road sign is, unsurprisingly, people using the roads. This audience intentionally engage with the road signs daily. The road signs engage us with their use of our shared public language (Wittgenstein, 2007) falling into the category of conversational texts, instructing the audience on how to use the roads (Eco, 1979). Going forward I will also need to consider the audience of my copies too.

As I go through this process, I am trying to draw on comparisons between the two contexts for the road signs; real life and the art world. In their current locations the signs are specifically fitting and, in a context, allowing it to resonate. gives the audience immediate access to the work (Stiles and Selz, 2012, p.712). This will change once repositioned. Artists strive for immediacy to be ‘in the moment’ and road signs exist in that state naturally (Hayward, 2004).

Since starting The Road Sign Collection one of two things has happened; there has been a sudden rise in the need for road signs in my local area, or, I have awakened my attention to their existence. As I cannot now walk down a street without feeling absolutely bombarded by them. It is quite distracting. However, I do not feel fluent in this new language, so I investigated this system of signs to find out more about the basic rules.

Road Sign Shapes

Circular road signs -> give orders

Triangular road signs -> warn.

Rectangular road signs -> signs inform

(RAC, 2018)

Road Sign Colours

Black and white -> regulations (i.e., speed limits)

Yellow -> warning
Green -> guide signs

Blue -> guide signs

Orange -> construction occurring

Brown -> parks and recreation

(Top Diver, 2017)

Some signs are very to the point and I appreciate then for that! However, I find myself with odds with others, for example I learnt that this sign means ‘no stopping’ – who knew?! (This is of course a rhetorical question, I’m sure many of you did know).

Some signs irk me more than others, particularly the sign below. The mix if text and image annoy me. If you only look at the image you do not get the full message and likewise, if you only read the text, the sign also falls short. It appears that my own confusion is mirrored by most intended uses, with research showing that only 21% of people surveyed could correctly identify the meaning of the sign (Allen, 2019). 

The audience of the road sign is something that I want to address within my art practice. Firstly, I want to change who the audience of the road sign is, by repositioning them into an art context. My intention being that by positioning them away from the road they will be looked at by either; the same audience in a new way, a new audience in a way that differs to their original intention.

The next step in this process is to step away from the original features of the found road signs. By rendering the signs in tape, rather than creating copies in mental, the signs become cheap, disposable and physically weak. This uncrafted aesthetic communicates to the audience something about my art practice and positions me, as one of them, rather than as an authority figure (Eco, 1989). The font used on the original road signs will slowly be replaced with my own, ACComplete4, to further that feeling.

References

Allen, J. (2019) Survey reveals the road signs most motorists don't understand. [online] Available at: https://www.driving.co.uk/news/survey-reveals-road-signs-motorists-dont-understand/. [accessed 21/11/19].

Eco, U. (1979) Role of the Reader Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts (Advances in Semiotics). Indiana University Press; Midland Book Ed edition.

Eco, U. (1989) The Open Work. Harvard University Press.

Hayward, K. (2004) City Limits: Crime, Consumer Culture and the Urban Experience. Routledge-Cavendish.

RAC. (2018) The Highway Code - Common UK road signs and what they mean. [online] Available at: https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/learning-to-drive/the-highway-code-uk-road-signs-and-meanings/. [accessed 21/11/19].

Rose, G. (2013) Visual Methodologies. Sage Publications Ltd; 3 editions. 

Stiles, K. and Selz, P. (2012) Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artists. University of California Press.

Top Driver. (2017) Black, Yellow, Green, Blue, Orange, Brown: Know What Each Type of Road Sign Means. [online] Avalable at: https://www.topdriver.com/education-blog/know-type-road-sign-means/. [accessed 21/11/19].

Wittgenstein, L. (2007) Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology and Religious Belief. ed. Cyril Barrett. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.