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. 

The Ten Minute Session: Draw This

 

Description

Follow these instructions to create your own work of art.

 

Task one

Instructions

1.     On a piece of paper draw a large circle

2.     Inside the circle draw, towards the bottom of the circle draw a semi-circle

3.     In the top left quarter of the circle draw a smaller circle

4.     In the top right quarter of the circle draw an identical circle to the one you just draw

5.     Outside od the circle draw a straight line going from the edge of the circle to the edge of you page, every 1cm

 

Task Two

Write your own set of instructions for others to follow, post them below. 

Developing a Peer Support Programme: Part Three: Online Creative Practitioner Support Programme

 I've not talked about the Creative Practitioner Support Programme on here in while so catch up with part one and part two first if you like!

Like with everything in 2020 the Creative Practitioner Support programme had to move online due to COVID. For the programme this transition was not too painful and in the end quite rewarding.

The main reason we were able to make this transition quickly was that we already had an online home, our Facebook Page, which allowed us to easily make contact with our attendee. We did not miss a session and went straight online the week of lockdown, letting our attendees know we would be there for their creative outlet needs!

There where changes to our online delivery

• We went from hosting 2 sessions a month, to a session every week
• We explored Zoom before Facebook introduced Rooms
• We were able to extend our offer to those outside of Colchester/the surrounding area

The main difficulties came from the tech (as always!), getting people onto Zoom, Zoom cutting out after 40 minutes and then once we moved to Facebook Rooms the issues of attendees not having Facebook accounts!

As we get use to the 'new normal' (sorry), the Creative Practitioner Support Programme sessions have gone back to twice a month, giving attendees time between session for their practice to grow.

One of the benefits that has comes from online offer has been the ability to grow our community, but also for our community to take more ownership of the Facebook Page. The page, unlike our in-person offer, is active 24/7 and attendees can - and do - post outside of our scheduled sessions. This is great as it allows for creatives to access advice and support whenever they need it and it also allows conversations to carry on over a longer period of time.

It will be exciting to see what happens with the Online Creative Practitioner Support Programme going forward!

If you would like to join us, give the Facebook Page a 'like'.

The Ten Minute Session: Instructional Art

Description

Instructional Art is created by the artist, formed by their ideas and concepts but is carried out exclusively by spectators.

Due to the instructions being followed by several different spectators it is unlikely that any of the results will be identical due to the individual’s interpretation of the instructions or any mistakes made.

Instructional Art is considered incomplete until the spectator has followed the instructions set out by the artist. This allows for the artist to create distance between themselves and the finished piece.

Some artists use of Instructional Art relies on the curators or galleries rather than spectators, with the artist leaving sets of instructions on how to install their work.

Instructional art can produce many outcomes such as drawings, objects and actions.

 

Task One

1 - Set yourself up with a piece of paper in the portrait position and a pen

 

2 - Starting from the top right-hand corner of the paper one cm in from the top and side of the paper draw a semi-circle with the outside of the semi-circle facing the left-hand side of the paper and finishing in the middle of the paper

 

3 - From the last point you made draw a second semi-circle with the outside of the semi-circle facing the right-hand side of the paper finishing at the bottom left hand corner one cm in from the bottom and side of the paper

Task Two

1 - Set yourself up with t a piece of paper in the portrait position and a pen

 

2 - Starting at the top left-hand corner one cm in from the top and side of the paper draw a vertical line downwards towards the bottom left hand corner one cm in from the bottom and side of the paper

 

3 - Starting at the top right-hand corner one cm in from the top and side of the paper draw a downward, vertical line to the bottom right hand corner one cm in from the bottom and side of the paper

 

4 – Starting at the top of the line on the right-hand side draw a diagonal line finishing in the centre of the paper

 

5 – Starting at the top point of the line on the left-hand side draw a diagonal line finishing in the centre of the paper

Task Three

1 - Set yourself up with a piece of paper in the portrait position and a pen

 

2 - Starting at the top left-hand corner one cm in from the top and side of the paper draw a horizontal line to the top right-hand corner one cm in from the top and side of the paper

 

3 - Starting at the bottom left hand corner one cm in from the top and side of the paper draw a horizontal line to the bottom right hand corner one cm in from the bottom and side of the paper

 

4 - Starting from the middle of the bottom line draw a vertical line finishing in the middle of the top line

Task Four

1 - Set yourself up with a piece of paper in the portrait position and a pen

 

2 - Starting at the top left-hand corner one cm in from the top and side of the paper draw a vertical line downwards the bottom left hand corner one cm in from the bottom and side of the paper

 

3 - Starting at the bottom of this line draw a horizontal line towards the right and side finishing one cm from the bottom and side of the paper

Task Five

1 - Set yourself up with a piece of paper in the portrait position and a pen

 

2 - Starting at the top left-hand corner one cm in from the top and side of the paper draw a downward, vertical line to the bottom left hand corner one cm in from the bottom and side of the paper

 

3 - Starting from the top of the line draw a horizontal line towards the right-hand side of the paper stopping one cm in from the side of the paper

 

4 - Starting from the middle of the first line draw a horizontal line towards the right-hand side of the paper stopping one cm in from the side of the paper

 

5 - Starting from the bottom of the first line draw a horizontal line towards the right-hand side of the paper stopping one cm in from the side of the paper

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.

The Ten Minute Session: Paku-Paku (Secret Teller)

Instructions

 

Take a square piece of paper

Make the first fold

Make the second fold

Turn the paper over

Fold each corner into the centre of the page

Turn the paper over and fold each corner into the centre of the page

Fold in half

Place your thumps and first fingers into the four flaps created

 

Add your chosen text to each section

 

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.