The Pillow Book: October 2008

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Current thoughts and Work Directions

http://images.google.ie/imgres?imgurl=http://www.recirca.com/reviews/2007/images/ellen%2520gallagher/x19874-Mike-Bruce.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.recirca.com/reviews/2007/texts/eg.shtml&h=299&w=380&sz=31&hl=en&start=19&usg=__TuzpZXKmItViEzYZSiG8tbgq8yg=&tbnid=qjRrL34UWKrmpM:&tbnh=97&tbnw=123&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dellen%2Bgallagher%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DG

I am currently thinking alot about Development of the human form... irregularities in this development. Mutations...

Thinking about the Bra as a space for storage and the body as a vessel for memory led me to thinking about the womb as a kind of container, the way perhaps a book is a container for learning... tenious i know...

I am also intrigued by the idea of identity... animals, humans.. were all made up of the same materials and processes... most mammels develop pretty much the same way...

This thinking led me on to researching the babies development in the womb, it struck me how similar we are to fish, indeed we live in water for a very long time... many deformed babies-fetuses have 'failed' to develop past this point...I find this hybred image intrigueing.

I am really interested in this relationship of development- both aesthetically and personally...

I have been thinking about the use of colour and I intend to broaden both my manner of using colour and the colours that I tend to use.

I am drawn to these images due to there possibility towards abstraction, this is a possibility in the human form that i have been at a loss to create or deal with in a subtle manner . the fetus- not yet human ( in my eyes), not quite fish or bird... just a mammilian form, offers itself very well to this kind of symboitic relationship- between animal and man- mother and child... its animal yet something else and it is a part of its mother yet it is something else...

This is not some kind of pro choice statement, I sencerely want the work to be a positive comment on all life, on development, change, growth, relationships...

Life Dawing

Here are a few images from my life drawing practice... see work statement for relevance.

The latest box.

I remade these images into the box format mainly see test there possibilities, are they more effective than the more didactic medical like images????

The box from different angles....

I really liked the oppertunity to work quickly that this method allowed me, i like the quick instantanious feel of this piece.

I really enjoyed playing around with the figure in context to the rest of the page.

In order to further explore the body i took a series of photos of myself dressing and undressing to work from- see work statement for more details.

Work Statment

I have always had an interest in the body, ergonomics, body image, perception, and the shock of the mirror, internal and external identity.

My studio practice this year began with an object. I was drawn to the bra on account of its visual possibilities, its capacity for visual associations. Overall in retrospect I think it most interested me on a psychological level- it is supporting- it holds things, protects them.... but I digress.

The bra in turn brought me back to the body. I first began to examine the body in the same medical manner as I had the bra, trying to take it apart with the hope of eventually putting it back together. I was (and still am) using personal diary entries (regarding bras) in order to clasp it all together.

This looking at the bra and the diary’s led me on to thinking about memory as a process, the storage of memory. From this thought I started to make the books and then the box..... I really liked these objects as they demanded the viewer to take part in a physical interaction with the pieces; the viewer had to open them out in order to view them fully.

Then due to a tutorial and a crit I began to question the images and text in these works, it all came off as a bit cold, didactic- there was very little room left for the viewers interpretation, very little elbow room- they lacked subtlety...it was altogether too prescriptive.
Since this realisation I’ve been playing around more freely in a less ‘graphic’ and medical manner with the body. In order to facilitate this I took a series of photographs of myself getting dressed and undressed. I really liked this ‘idea’ of getting undressed- a process of revealing, hiding and revealing, sexuality, venerability and voyeurism, the unease of reading some else’s diary- all rolled into a subtle image.

I have thought a little about the significance of using my own body. At the time I did it due to availability (we don’t have a female model in life drawing class) but now I feel that the use of my own body adds to the personal and autobiographical element in my work. From these photos and life drawing I made a series of drawings and quick sketch like paintings of the figure. I did this mostly to clear my head and to distance myself a bit. However a really like there instantaneous and semi washed out quality- they visualise my concept of memory... there somewhere between forgotten and existence, distant yet present.
I put a selection of these drawings up on the wall to reflect on them more clearly and I began to enjoy the dialog between them as characters in my mind...

The isolation of the female figure (me) undressing however was what really resonated for me. I like that it’s everyday and routine. Everyday routines are after all what like is made up of, the banality- if we can find beauty in there then its all more enjoyable... each moment savoured- like in Zen Buddhism.

I remade the box as I like it as a visual regarding the concept of storage. I am thinking about the body as a vessel for memory- perhaps we store them (memories) in our gestures? They surface in the banal moments of day to day life, I am interested in these moments- they count- they are the grains of sand that make up our lives.

Over the last few days I have made up a series of boxes out of different materials indicative of storage...I haven’t yet really made up my mind about how I feel about these objects and where I feel they are going. I think on a whole I need to look at the body in a less pre-established manner and perhaps broaden out the subject of diaries into stories. I recently went to see the ‘bookish’ exhibition in cork and this has had a huge impact on how I feel I will continue to work. Since making the fabric box’s I felt like I missed paper, researching Ellen Gallagher has helped revive my imagination with regards to this medium.

Researching Tracy Emin and Louise bourgeois has greatly broadened my perception on the use of the body, I feel Louise bourgious’s work has opened my mind to how non literal and suggestive the body can be in Art. I hope to continue working on this vein hopefully with a newly broadened base of ideas.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Images- Book cover- Book Art

Research regarding Book Art

'2001 book project 100 Jahre—101 photographs of people ages 8 months to 100 years, arranged at perfectly regular intervals around the perimeter of a large, open gallery. The subjects are all Feldmann’s family, friends, and acquaintances, identified only by age and first name; inevitably, viewers pause to compare wrinkles with a stranger who was born the same year. '

see full text

http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/art/reviews/10449/

http://www.fundaciotapies.org/site/spip.php?page=view.ft_publication&id=57&lang=en

Bookish Exhibition

'Bookish: When Books Become ArtWhat happens when books become part of an artwork? And what does that tell us about the nature of books? This summer the Lewis Glucksman Gallery addresses these questions with Bookish: When Books Become Art, an exhibition that explores the changing status of books, as featured in sculpture, film, photography and other art forms.'

see full text

http://entertainment.ie/event/Exhibition/details/Bookish-When-Books-Become-Art/2411398.htm

thoughts of the day

yessterday we went on the bookish trip to cork.... today i am thinking alot about books, the format, the space of a book, there status, associations with books.... my favourite stories... writing.. the role of illustration in books... im going to try get some images

I have always had an interest in the body, ergonomics, body image, perception, and the shock of the mirror, internal and external identity.

My studio practice this year began with an object. I was drawn to the bra on account of its visual possibilities, its capacity for visual associations. Overall in retrospect I think it most interested me on a psychological level- it is supporting- it holds things, protects them.... but I digress.

The bra in turn brought me back to the body. I first began to examine the body in the same medical manner as I had the bra, trying to take it apart with the hope of eventually putting it back together. I was (and still am) using personal diary entries (regarding bras) in order to clasp it all together.

This looking at the bra and the diary’s led me on to thinking about memory as a process, the storage of memory. From this thought I started to make the books and then the box..... I really liked these objects as they demanded the viewer to take part in a physical interaction with the pieces; the viewer had to open them out in order to view them fully.

Then due to a tutorial and a crit I began to question the images and text in these works, it all came off as a bit cold, didactic- there was very little room left for the viewers interpretation, very little elbow room- they lacked subtlety...it was altogether too prescriptive.
Since this realisation I’ve been playing around more freely in a less ‘graphic’ and medical manner with the body. In order to facilitate this I took a series of photographs of myself getting dressed and undressed. I really liked this ‘idea’ of getting undressed- a process of revealing, hiding and revealing, sexuality, venerability and voyeurism, the unease of reading some else’s diary- all rolled into a subtle image.

I have thought a little about the significance of using my own body. At the time I did it due to availability (we don’t have a female model in life drawing class) but now I feel that the use of my own body adds to the personal and autobiographical element in my work. From these photos and life drawing I made a series of drawings and quick sketch like paintings of the figure. I did this mostly to clear my head and to distance myself a bit. However a really like there instantaneous and semi washed out quality- they visualise my concept of memory... there somewhere between forgotten and existence, distant yet present.
I put a selection of these drawings up on the wall to reflect on them more clearly and I began to enjoy the dialog between them as characters in my mind...

The isolation of the female figure (me) undressing however was what really resonated for me. I like that it’s everyday and routine. Everyday routines are after all what like is made up of, the banality- if we can find beauty in there then its all more enjoyable... each moment savoured- like in Zen Buddhism.

I hope to remake the box as I like it as a visual regarding the concept of storage. I am thinking about the body as a vessel for memory- perhaps we store them in our gestures? They surface in the banal moments of day to day life, I am interested in these moments- they count- they are the grains of sand that make up our lives…. Putting on this bra this morning…I wore one like this when she kissed me in the rain, it was so cold that day….

Monday, October 13, 2008

current work -directions ect

My work has reached a sort of cross roads. This has come about due to reflections on the idea of progress , i am and have always been in a way torn between two disciplyns- sculpture and painting, and it has arisen that in both i have different ideas of progress. Over all my work in short tends to deal with the body as a vessel for memory... this had branched off to the box[see earlier posts ] and was headed in the sculptural idea of progress which comes automatically to me ... i was considering different materials- dispite my attachment to paper- materials that indicate warmpt, security, insulative, protective.

However at the moment im choosing to pull bach a bit and re examine my work so far in order to find a way to make it better without automatically viewing the sculptural element as the progress..... i would be lying if i said that this was easy for me, but i would also be lying if i said i was not glad to delay my absence from paper......

In short i am taking it as a challenge. i am also doing alot of life drawing at the moment- which a really LOVE. i tend to be making the drawings as focused , expressive and free... in places leaving out sections and letting the viewer fill them in... this is something i want to bring into my work more

Upon looking at the box's ect more closely [alongside my lovely tutors] i have found that they feel a but too perscriptive, didactic towards the audience- this is hard for me because i have alot of time for subtalty in Art, even if i am not perhaps the most subtal of people. thinking about my work as being too obvious actually HURTS- but ill deal...... I think that maybe moving outside the body to its outer form through life drawing alongside thinking of anatomy and biology in a less illustrative manner may help this along. Im trying to challange my automatic sectioning of the body more, perhaps try to dissect in a less controled manner... represent it as i feel it to be rather than in the medical fashion that i seem to be relying on......

I also learned to stretch paper.... cant wait to explore that... im thinking about my use of colour, challenge myself more, use it in new ways [for me] - not just to map out areas of space.....

At this moment in time im trying to figure out how my work lost its emotion and got so sterile- medical.... i think i need to write more.... the body as a repository for memory... still like the idea of fabric boxs- soft sculpture... maybe remodel the bra- is it still an element

ok i need to think more- is it about all bodies or is it primarily a female experience

my digital camera broke, but picture soon i promise

Thursday, October 2, 2008

http://http://www.oneroom.org/sculptors/bourgeois.html

http://http//www.guggenheim.org/exhibitions/exhibition_pages/bourgeois/index.html

http://http://www.pbs.org/cgi-registry/mediaplayer/videoplayer.cgi?playeraddress=videoplayer.cgi&media=%2Fart21%2FLB3_video_lo.rm%2C%2Fart21%2FLB3_video_hi.rm%2C%2Fart21%2FLB3_video_lo.mov%2C%2Fart21%2FLB3_video_hi.mov%2C%2Fart21%2FLB3_video_lo.wmv%2C%2Fart21%2FLB3_video_hi.wmv&title=%22Cell%20%28Glass%20Spheres%20and%20Hands%29%22%20by%20Louise%20Bourgeois&widescreen=true&playertemplate=%2Fart21%2FTemplates%2Fart21_mp.html

http://http://www.pbs.org/cgi-registry/mediaplayer/videoplayer.cgi?playeraddress=videoplayer.cgi&media=%2Fart21%2FLB2_video_lo.rm%2C%2Fart21%2FLB2_video_hi.rm%2C%2Fart21%2FLB2_video_lo.mov%2C%2Fart21%2FLB2_video_hi.mov%2C%2Fart21%2FLB2_video_lo.wmv%2C%2Fart21%2FLB2_video_hi.wmv&title=%22Cell%20II%22%20by%20Louise%20Bourgeois&widescreen=true&playertemplate=%2Fart21%2FTemplates%2Fart21_mp.html

http://http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/louisebourgeois/default.shtm

http://http://www.recirca.com/reviews/louisebourgeois/index.shtml

http://http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A5486&page_number=55&template_id=1&sort_order=1

http://http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A5486&page_number=50&template_id=1&sort_order=1

http://http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A5486&page_number=48&template_id=1&sort_order=1

http://http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A5486&page_number=36&template_id=1&sort_order=1

http://http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A5486&page_number=12&template_id=1&sort_order=1

http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A5486&page_number=11&template_id=1&sort_order=1

http://http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A5486&page_number=6&template_id=1&sort_order=1

http://http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A5486&page_number=5&template_id=1&sort_order=1

http://http://whitney.org/www/collection/feat_kiki.jsp

http://www.gregkucera.com/smith.htm

http://http://www.uam.ucsb.edu/Pages/kiki_view.html

http://http://www.uam.ucsb.edu/Pages/kiki_train.html

http://http://www.uam.ucsb.edu/Pages/kiki.html

http://http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2003/kikismith/flash.html

http://http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2003/kikismith/

http://http://www.tracey-emin.co.uk/tracey-emin-work/my-cunt-is-wet-with-fear.html

http://http://www.tracey-emin.co.uk/emin-articles/emin-dark-bed.html

http://http://www.tracey-emin.co.uk/emin-articles/whenithinkaboutsex/emin-those-who-suffer-love.htm

http://http://www.tracey-emin.co.uk/emin-articles/whenithinkaboutsex/traceyemin-nothingshocking.htm

http://http://www.tracey-emin.co.uk/emin-articles/whenithinkaboutsex/emin-sometimes-i-feel-so.html

http://http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/tracey_emin.htm

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

This is a small section from a series of 'Artists book' like things that I have been working on in the studio. For me they have to do with ideas of storage and processes of memory, Diary keeping and such. The related and used text stems from my own Diarys and experiences. Many of these entries originate from me looking closely at the bra as a concept, the visual language and visual posibilities for the bra as an object... these thought patterns brought me towards reflecting on my personal diary entries regarding this object and its role within my life. The bra (which i deconstructed) has actually been used to print with in this 'book' in order to further explore this object and personalise the piece.

More details of the 'book'

The book is made up of many mixed media type arrangements, sewing, printing, text, paper combining......

I enjoy working with a broad range of papers, this feeds into the idea of books and the different qualities the material has to offer.

The 'book' is stored in a box that can easily be folded out I am trying to make this envokative of the processes of memory and indeed process on a larger scale as books are a process for many artists and in a manner the world at large, a process of loosing, finding, discovering, intrigue...delving, defining, a process of evaluating, discussing and growth. The box type storage also -I think- helps to seperate and perhaps elevate the 'book' above other books, to aid it being seen as an art 'object' this is a sort of solution to the notion that perhaps a book cannot generate the same 'finished' qualities as a finalised painting... what seperates it from a sketch book... I think that the Box Helps in objectifing the 'book' while adding to the notion of memory, storage and mind editing.

The book folded stored in the box

The Box

Book in Box...

This then led on to me challanging the role of scale. I prefere the smaller box but a sought to push the idea of the box and this put greater demands on the storage capacity of the box... I am toying around with many ideas as to what to put in the box, should I make a series? Is there any need?

As I mentioned before, as a process of investigation a deconstructed several, different types, of bra's, some of which I dipped in wax ( Ideas of preservation regarding the body and memory- trying to get that across visually through a material) Im also toying with the idea of casting elements of the bra in wax in order to distort and draw a less obvious identification with the object from the viewer, but I need to think more about this. I am thinkink of making a 'book' from the deconstructed bra parts perhaps with encoded memories or fragments of memories..... I am also thinking about a fabric book, I like the ideas of process and patters, maps, building and maybe a 'diary' like pattern book could get this accross. I would also like the box to be an archive of its making, to document its own process...

I like the idea of the viewer engaging with the box as they would with a object, to challange the viewer to draw there own conclusions from the work rather than stagnantly 'admiring' or 'looking' at it.

To maybe be challanged to take it apart and learn from it...

I like the notion of the bodies direct engagement in the work, this is something that seems to crop up in my work dispite the concept.

Close ups of the box's detail, I like intimacy in the work and feel that this could be lost with an increase in size...

I feel like I need to challenge myself to use more 'wet' materials this year, leave more to chance as indeed our memories seem to at times... Im still trying to work out the dynamics- both visually and conceptually- between 'wet' and 'dry' materials, control and chance, male and female, passive and active...in order for this to perhaps add to my work and make it visually more 'rounded'

I like the ides of hiding and revealing things in my work, playing peek-a-boo to engage the viewer physically, like a process of getting to know the work, deconstructing it, reconstructing it...perhaps reading yourself through the process.

I love the notion that the spine is the root of all things, stability, nervous, holding us erect.... the spine of a book, holding us together, binding us safe.

more details of the Box.

ect

The open loose closing of the box...I dont think ill close it though...

more mixed media detail of the box

Its empty at the moment...

The box in my space

The beginings of a book for the box, Im not sure ill use it for that though... I like the ideas of the 'good' and 'bad' books, make the viewer choose.... I wonder which one ill choose.