A Four Lettered Word - Part One

A Four Lettered Word was inspired by a piece of work that I created for the @lockdownandlight exhibition which took place virtually during the COVID-19 lockdown.

For this virtual open call I created light text which showed the message of 'here' (one of my favourite words to work with, due to its links with time and space and 'nowness'). This was a temporary light installation, captured, uploaded to the internet and then removed.

When considering what to create going forward this Four Lettered project came about.

The two things to overcome are; what word to use - keeping in mind that I have four windows and am therefore limited four letter words (get the title now...). I did not want to use smaller text to include more letterings as readability is key, also by having one letter per window I can easily plan for the spacing between the letters being equal.

The next thing to consider is how to make something that in its nature is temporary into something tangible. They become photos, that is how they exist, but can I elevate them beyond that? The solution here could be prints. This is not something that I have explored before.

The aspect that I have on my side this time around is that it is getting darker much earlier, meaning it should be easier to take photos of the work. Lockdown and Light took place in the summer and outside never seemed to get that dark - darker the outside, brighter the letters.

Word Choice 

I have been working with four lettered words for a while now, as I had been exploring their use within my lino work (again, ruled by the length of the lino). 

Word choice for this outcome could not be random, it needed to be full of meaning and it needed to draw upon our shared public language to make sense to others.

I landed on the word home, it felt fitting as that is where we are spending most of our time. It is simplistic and its reading is open to infinite amounts of interpretation. 

Plans for an imagined space

I have not had the opportunity to solely take over a space and fill it with text and feel that having the opportunity to do so would allow me to continue to develop professionally, here I explore what I might do in an imagined space. I believe that using this imagined space would be beneficial to my practice as it would allow me to develop my skill sets around planning, creating and exhibiting an installation piece. My practice lends itself to installation which can mean that creating final works can be difficult in my studio. I enjoy embracing the aesthetics and limitations of new sites and working within them to create art. My process for creating the exhibition would involve spending time within the site and seeing if the site itself suggests any language to me, or if any text already exists within the site that I may want to explore. As well as engaging with those who work in or visit the site to collect language from them too.

I would be keen to view the space playfully and make use of its individual quirks and areas which may usually be over-looked. I feel that it is important to create installations which are fitting to a site, rather than reproducing the same work in a number of locations.

The duration I would be in the imagined space also appeals to me, as my artistic practice focuses on temporary art and on nowness. I am interested in created works that can be interacted with or that change during the duration of the exhibition in some way. Bringing in notions of play. I feel that art can be used as an escapism from daily life and by engaging viewers directly in the work, hopefully I can go some way to achieving this. This is not something that I feel I have been able to fully explore in my art practice yet, as to create work such as this you need a safe environment for it to exist in.

I have previously shown interactive works within group exhibitions and found that only children understand that the work is there to be interacted with. As the other works on show where not interactive, there was an assumption that mine should not be touched either.

Within my artistic practice I have a want to create large scale art, however without sites readily available, this is something that I have not been able to fully explore. I have a fascination with teleperception – something too big to see all at once and aeroscopy – looking down, which can only truly be explored when working large. To achieve these kinds of viewpoints I am keen to use the floor in this imaginary space. I am also drawn to the floor due to its simplistic nature and everyday life quantitation’s, in contrast to focusing on the use of while walls and their art world baggage.

I want to create art that is engaged with and notion of touch, extend to the eyes and the feet (as well as the hands). By creating work that can be walked on, it gives the audience this direct access to the art. Any damage sustained is expected due to the nature of its location, the effects amplified depending on the number of people who interact with the work, allowing the work to change though time.

I am keen to explore working with materials that can be directly applied to the site, but which are removable and leave no trace of them being there. Materials such as vinyl, string, electrical tape and tiny plaster letters.

In a similar vein I would be keen to use this imaginary space to utilise the use of projection. I find there to be a crossover here relating to the temporary, as once the projector is switched off the work ceases to exists. However, it can also be interacted with/interrupted by an audience, if they walk in front of the light.  This mixed-media approach is one that I have not yet had the opportunity to experiment with.

My intention would be to use this imaginary space to create a n installation that encompasses audience engagement, play and surrealism. The art that I produce is based around a shared public language and as such is relent to be activated by the interaction of an audience.

I invite you to also imagine a space that you might show work in.