Note 47.55 [Under the influence]
I was
recently reminded about Mark
Wallinger’s Royal
Ascot in which he uses footage of the Queen repeating her actions on consecutive
days. Wonderful work, it echoes with some of my experiments.
To be frank, artless even, I am not that interested in art, or even Art. Comparatively to other people I am very interested but compared to my other interests it's not in my top ten.
I am interested in life. Life! And Death and the decisions that are made along the way that define a life. A life lived versus a life spent. So, I do go see exhibitions as often as possible and I have enjoyed a few over the past several months and some have been reminders…
Edward Krasiński’s show at Tate L'Pool was a good reminder that a body of work is exactly that - a body, dismembered even.
Also at this same Tate outpost I was taken by some paintings by Yves Klein – a series of basically identical blue monochromes, thing is each was originally sold for a different price - a game subsequently played out by several other Artists - and seeing them now reunited they were all framed differently (some were modestly framed and others encased in bulletproof glass) indicating the different lives they had lived since leaving his hands.
Another memorable sound and light installation was at Tate London - Philippe Parreno's "Anywhen". He states that "the exhibition is a construction of situations or sequences in a non-linear narrative" in addition he 'combines aspects of chance and control: the sequences of events are triggered by software which is informed by micro-organisms.' An enjoyable, thought provoking and playful accomplishment.
Anselm
Kiefer lining the walls of White Cube's Bermondsey space with lead
was potent. Literal heaviness. Thumbs up to Walhalla.
Being exposed to the Serving Library and their ongoing endeavour has been reassuring - ongoing projects have the potential to grow and regrow and pollinate, if not self inseminate.
There have been more than a few notable events, talks and a bunch of thought provoking things compliments of the Liverpool Biennial – I will be adding some more instances at a later date.
Note 47.74 [One thing leads to another] I have just presented my latest installation "re:rereadings". Not displeased with this iteration, I worked in the space for a week which allowed for multiple occasions of unfolding and refolding in situ and I got to think everything through until I learnt to embrace even the unstraight lines and made the unworkable work.
For me this is a key work and it is teetering between my past and my future. The elements that I have used - a projection (of 'nothing'), an object (containing 'nothings'), the 'key-lines', the subtle soundscape and my table (folded, paused) - came from a toolbox of many things. And they were just enough.
This sketch came out of the experimental installations I developed at our Make residency (image pending), which evolved out of my installation with Trasi Henen at Surtsey (image below) which was an offshoot of my containers (image above) investigation. All these experiments are notable, and I see my next work following on from here.
Note 47.63 [Oscillationism] My works, and the way I choose to exhibit them, have been oscillating. Mind you, not in any way counterproductive. On the contrary this process - sparse then clusterfuck then sparse then clusterfuck - has reminded me about the important role restraint plays during making and when installing work.
And not restraint in the form of holding back from adding elements but rather restraining myself from tying up too many loose ends; a certain amount of unfinishedness counterbalances the decisive elements and allows them to just be versus be seen as (potentially) anally retentive.
One skew line allows all the 'straight' lines to decisively be themselves, and not be taken for granted. This relationship between the unfinished and the finished - in a purposefully installed environment where everything is considered and counts - is of real import when setting out to build stuff and retain the casualness of the approach in the 'so-called' end product. I refer to it as a 'so-called' end product because it is just a point in time - a thing that came from a generative process.
Note 47.43 [Stuff] Talking of products, production and such - I am comfortable that what I exhibit is a mere by-product, and I embrace its loose sketchiness.
I am not trying to undermine the work and do recognise that some of the objects, things and motion pictures
are probably worth framing, archiving and/or gifting. But I don't aim to make X - rather I aim to be a verb; actively engaging with my environment and by doing, undoing and redoing I find pertinent things 'n stuff that belong.
Note 47.49 [Three ecologies] Being an outsider has its pros and cons. One advantage obviously is to have a clear view in from the outside versus being on the inside and not being fully aware of its peculiarities.
Anyhow, being in this increasingly precarious position of being an auslander has got me thinking about how important it is for my work to consider itself as part of something other than itself - for it to be aware of and acknowledge its environment and the times it exists in. Guattari's three ecologies linking environmental ecology to social ecology and to mental ecology comes to mind here.
Note 47.96 [Expanded Cinema] When I make an installation I aim to create an immersive environment, a space that is a place - another place to fleetingly transport oneself an other place.
A key element in these environments I build is the use of motion picture. Seldom do I present video on its own, I did try it out with my Women's March film (ERL phase2) and it worked out fine, but I digress.
So, these installations are leaning towards what I hear is called Expanded Cinema, I am pleased to have found this descriptor / category. Albeit a bit heavy handed it is useful. And the book of the same title published in 1970, from which it borrows its name, has a wonderfully strange intro by Buckminster Fuller.
Note 47.55 [Truth] In my application to join this course I mentioned my interest in the notion of Truth. I note its awkwardness and its slipperiness. A couple of years back whilst on residency in Miami I had written this poem ...
"I look for you in untidy places.
Wearing gloves has never been an option before
but now if I want to sustain the search
I may need a layer of protection.
I want life to be long,
longer, long enough
to sit comfortably again.
With you,
the Truth.”
... and now the notion of post-truth has been formally acknowledged by the Oxford dictionary as 'word of the year'. All this circles back to my concerns about the place held by the Artist - I have always hoped that the Artist could be seen as a trustworthy source and in turn be the truth-teller.
Could the Artist - who according to Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe enjoys "special rights" - take on as he puts it "the task to translate society back to itself"?
Somebody needs to represent incorruptibility? (of all the members of society the Artist seems most likely to embrace debauchery and otherwiseness, but this does not mean that they lose their integrity. Yes? No?) It is fair to assume after the many exposés of corruption in organisations - be they the fourth estate (and fifth, well actually all so-called estates), corporate bodies, religious and political entities - that they all have ulterior motives that render them untrustworthy.
Note 47.57 [Who?] Everyone makes art these days; everyone takes and makes pictures, posting them online. Then there is Art, this is made by Artists.
Media-theorist and activist Franco 'Bifo' Beradi's 2013 text "Why artists?" includes this provocative declaration - "strictly speaking Art does not exist. Artists do. Who are they? I define artists [...] as those people who stay human in times of de-humanization."
This title - Artist - is a privileged one. Josef Beuys thought otherwise declaiming that "everyone is an Artist", Gustav Metzger challenged this sweeping statement by asking him "Himmler aug?".
Note 47.11 [Looking forward] …
