CONTEXTUAL STATEMENT:

 ‘One man's trash is another man's treasure’- Idiom.

Using discarded materials I am able to transform an everyday space into a new way of experiencing inspired by trace and architecture.

Transforming the old into the new. Giving new forms of life to old discarded materials. I scavenge far and wide to find materials wherever I can. I give these forgotten and thrown away materials a new identity through mark making, construction and colour placement.

Conversations between textures, colours and shapes are what drive my making process. The immediacy of this conversation makes the physical process of making a first hand experience that is subjective to ones own personal interpretation. I react to the subjective experience I have with the materials by adding new elements whilst still retaining the previous marks made.

I’m interested in the process of illustrating a new form of interaction and a new form of identity. There’s a complete contrast between the gallery space and my own practice, between ‘The Permanent and The Temporary’.  

Jessica Langley

MY WORK: FINAL!!!!

No Name,

2012,

Wood, Tape, Paint, Wire, Wall Filler, Metal

This is my final installation. I choose this set up because it encourages the viewer to walk in and around the art, viewing it from all angles.

The materials are all recycled from construction sites, the 3D labs and from other students.

I choose to use only this blue colour as it doesn't distract from the work as a whole and it resembles the colour you get when metal rusts.

There is a strong layered quality in this work as I've been working with the marks already made on the materials previous to me changing them. There is a constant conversation between old mark makings and the new, Which in turn highlights my ideas about working on and with traces but not erasing them. All of the marks I have made on my materials look very crisp and sharp, creating a constant rhythm between the objects chosen. This conversation leads to reactions to textures, colour and forms that are purely a physical experience. The immediacy of this conversation makes the making process a first hand experience that is subjective to ones own personal interpretation.

I'm using the tape and wire not only as material to wrap around my work but also as another form of painting. This then produces that idea of the temporary that has had a constant play in my work.
The balancing of boards and the use of materials to wrap or hold up other elements gives the work this reconstructed ideal, if for only a moment. Nothing seems set in stone and looks moveable and easily re-arrangeable. 

This works also have a strong conversation with architecture as all of my materials are or could be used within a house or building site. I then construct a new object that uses a sculptural quality, blurring the lines between painting and sculpture.

There’s a complete contrast between the gallery space and my own practice, between The Permanent and The Temporary.

The spectator’s role in interacting with my art piece is a very important part in this work. When I talk about experience I’m talking about the interaction and reaction between the viewer and what is being viewed. Without the spectators participation and interaction this art piece wouldn’t be able to provoke any type of experience or pass on any knowledge to the audience.

MY WORK: FINAL OPTION

Another installation idea, but with all pieces flat on the ground.

- Again this denies the view of the other side of the art pieces.

- Less interaction between the pieces as an architectural structure.

- Interesting view of the work, unseen yet in my practice.

MY WORK: FINAL OPTION

These are the final art pieces I have decided to put into my final work, I'm just looking at different option of installing them into my space.

-Restricted interaction against the wall.

-Denies the viewer the chance of seeing the other side of the work.

-Doesn't use the full potential of the space I've been given.

READING: The Everyday and Architecture

In this reading there are three different writings about different ideas to do with the everyday and architecture.

First Writing: Sarah Wigglesworth and Jeremy Till- The Everyday and Architecture.

"Aspects of the world overlooked or suppressed by high architecture are thus allowed to flourish in a manner which captures the redemptive and creative potential of any act of making." pg. 7.

With this writing it opens up my mind to think about the everyday and how it influences our experiences based on materials and architecture. 

I'm interested in using everyday materials but changing them individually and as a group, cohesive, crisp and having a constant rhythm between each piece. 

Second Writing: Phillip Hall-Patch- Breacking the Veil.

"- a material architecture of engagement and experience. In this context, the overriding concern must be that of time and/or ability to place materials and processes of construction within a time-frame: to read a building as one might read a palimpsest where the memory of previous construction and embodiments (although indistinct) have left their trace; traces which the weathering effects of time itself may be allowed to magnify or conceal, but which may never be erased." pg. 37.

This interest in traces has been very strong during the process of my practice. I react to the marks left from my last work and create a conversation between the old and the new. 

I'm also interested in the marks already made on the object i've collected. Not erasing them but adding to them and reacting to their colour, shape and texture.

Third Writing: Asmund Thorkildsen- Turning the Commonplace, sure... (A Potic Appreciation of Jessica Stockholder's Art).

"Jessica Stockholder's installations. One is taken by the unexpectedness of the obvious. The common objects she uses as building materials are woven into full-scale, three dimentional installations that invite direct participation. One moves easily in them; they offer suprises, shifts, obstacles." pg. 53.

I like the way Stockholder uses everyday materials and recreates them so they offer a new shift that evolves the participation between the art and the spectator. 

She makes statements between the materials she uses and the setting she places them in. There's a constant conversation between all elements in her work.   

READING: Jacques Ranciere

The Emancipated Spectator

“To be a spectator is to be separated from both the capacity to know and the power to act” (Ranciere, J, pg. 2) I’ve found Ranciere’s writing about ‘The Emancipated Spectator’ to be very helpful in understanding my own and other artists ideas. The spectator’s role in interacting with an art piece is very important as they create all the meaning without any prior knowledge of what they are looking at. The audience uses a combination of previous experiences to translate and interpret what they understand in the artwork. 

When Ranciere talks about the spectator being separated from the capacity to know and the power to act, I believe he’s talking about combining the act of looking and doing into one experience you have with an art piece. By looking you are doing some of the work for the artist in the sense that you are talking for them about their work.  

I want the viewer to interact with my art work. Walk around, in, out of different parts. This will give them the chance to view the work from all angles and notice that the work isn't one sided and i have created a whole new object out of these recycled materials.  

MY WORK:

For this work I was just testing other installation ideas I could do. 

I want the work to interact with the space more than how its is against the wall. I'm interested in adding an active quality where the audience and move in and around the art. 

Against the wall the interaction with the work becomes limited. 

IDEA: Painting & Sculpture

The way in which i paint strongly relies on the formal structure that my work is painted on. What i am painting on becomes more important than what i am painting. 

I have a strong interest in painting and its relationship to sculpture and how paint can give new life to something old. 

The formal shapes, textures and colour of the object i use to paint on are often mimicked throughout my painting styles. I always have a constant conversation between the material painted on and the marks i make onto that object. How that mark will influence the next mark made and so on.  

MY WORK:

No Name,

2012,

Wood, Metal, Piping, Fabric, Plastic, Thread, Paint, Wire, Tape and Wall Filler.

From my last work i did a lot of research and have made a few changes. 

I've decided on what materials i want to use and that is building site materials. Materials that could be found on the inside and outside of a building or house. The materials and objects i have selected already come with lifetime of previous use, they are covered in marks and traces that influence the way in which i change them. 

I wanted the installation of my work to show a strong conversation between the materials and the process of making I've been having. Each piece of work has a conversation with the last work creating a flow between the formal qualities of the work.

There is so much to look at with is work that i think i need to pinpoint the conversation i want the viewer to have with the art.

As i look at my work I feel there is a strong conversation going on between the work I'm making and architecture within an everyday setting. There's a temporary feel that comes with placing pieces against the wall and using tape and wire to hold things together.

The dominance of the pink I think takes away from the rest of the work as it doesn't fit in with the industrial setting my materials are from.

ARTIST: Jessica Stockholder

http://www.jessicastockholder.info/index.php

.

1991

(A)wire mesh acrylic yarn, wire and metal bar
(B)two pieces of plywood laminated together with cloth and two hinges and acyrlic paint

 .

1994

wall bracket, bias tape, window sashes, acrylic yarn, plastic orange, wire and hinges

 With Stockholder's work i feel like i can relate to her ideas about materials and how they interact with one another. She is influenced by the materials first them she places them within the gallery context. She is inspired by recycled materials and their colours, textures, shape and size, which is also what inspires my practice. 

IDEA: Trashformation

I read a book called Transformation by Lloyd Herman that talked about many of the ideas i use in my own work.

"Today, virtually everything costs more, so it makes sense to recycle materials, adapt buildings to new uses while preserving their architectural intergrity, and make new products from old ones."- pg. 10

Im interested in this idea of giving new life to an old product. 

" 'ready-made' a common object raised to the level of a work of art through the process of appropriation- but it was preceded by simple assemblages made from more than a single "found" object."- pg. 12

The idea of using borrowed elements in the creation of new works. 

I really enjoyed this reading as my main idea in my work is to create a new way of looking and interpriting a recycled object. 

These objects/materials come with this already established meaning but through my own work i'm trying to maybe not change but add more, developing the ideas behind this objects previous existing meaning.

I become inspired by the form qualities of the material, the textures, colour and shape. 

MY WORK:

No Name,

2012,

Plaster, wood, pins and paint on wall,

100cm x 80cm.

For this work i started by reacting to the traces and marks left from my last works. The formal shapes and how they interacted with one another gave me a starting point. 

I decided to use materials that are found around the studio or in the buildings structure itself.

I wanted to experiment with these materials and install them in a new way that differs from their traditional use.

This work also uses the idea of interaction with the setting and the audience. The way the work is installed it forces the viewer to experience the studio wall in a new way that differs from their usual everyday experience.

READING: Spatial Aesthetics

Spatial Aesthetics is a reading by Nikos Papastergiadis. This reading related to my ideas of using everyday materials.

"Artists engage with everyday life, now, in a wide variety of ways.....

The ultimate aim may well be the initiation of experiences that occur in everyday settings." pg. 372

This reading talks about the engagement in place of the everyday. The processes of illustrating a new form of interaction.

In relation to my ideas of using recycled materials that have a common theme I've decided to have them relate to the setting that i will place the art in.

The studio is a industrial setting constructed from concrete and metal. I'll use common materials found around or inspired by the buildings setting.  

MY WORK:

Adding the orange colour to this work just gave the piece another focal point that stood out and highlighted the woods form. I choose orange because of the tone of the wood and how they are both warm colours. 

I'm interested in how this coat of paint gives new life to the wood and creates a flat plane against this three dimensional installation.

MY WORK:

No Name,

20120,

wood, paper, plaster.

With this work its all about the reaction to the last mark made. The conversation im having explores the use of painting with objects and the overlapping of materials without using a paint brush or paint itself. I often mimic what i already see the rhythm of the wood or the cracks and texture of the plaster. 

IDEA: Experience

‘Separated, we are together’ is a line in a poem by Stephane Mallarmé called ‘The White Water lily’ it talks about how as an individual spectator you have your own personal interaction with an artwork, you then can discuss with others but the initial interpretation is an isolated act that involves only your own thoughts.

Everyday we go through multiple experiences that we are either exposed to or participate in. These experiences add to our knowledge of a specific context.
With my own work I am interested in manipulating environments to create new elements that change ones perception of a space and how they interact within the space.  

ARTIST: Gedi Sibony

Gedi Sibony, The Cutters, From The Center, Her Trumpeted Spoke Lastly, 2007/2010. Canvas, paint, wall, hollow-core door, matted drawing reversed in frame, 137 x 164 x 13 inches.

Gedi Sibony, Untitled, 2009, Plastic sheet, packing tape, ink290 x 183 cm

Gedi Sibony, Side Show, Side Show, 2008, Wood, 241 x 151 x 20 cm

Interesting formal structure in Sibony's work. I enjoy the relation between the gallery space and the art work itself, Interaction between the two.
Materials used also interest me as im interested in using materials for their opposite purpose. 

IDEA: Materials

The materials i am interested in using or have already used are mostly reused and recycled objects i have found or been given and only new material I've used is the paint and the plaster. I plan to continue with this idea of reusing materials that someone has discarded. I have yet to decide what type of materials I'm mainly interested in and have a strong relationship with my ideas, i don't want to use materials for the convenience or just because i can.

ARTIST: Clay Ketter

 In My Mind in Venice, 2006, 143 x 180 cm, mixed media

 R.T.P. 20.B, 2000, 200 x 200 cm, mixed media

T.P. alb. 18.X '99, 1999, 180 x 180 cm, mixed media

Signs of life, painting as a process.

"The demolished buildings left traces of levels, plumbing and ventilating shafts on the gables of the beautiful old houses left standing, bearing witness to the lives that had been lived there. Clay Ketter perceived them as large-scale Trace Paintings. Once the necessary permission had been obtained from the city, he devoted himself to a form of mural painting, but this time painting straight onto parts of the gables. His interference with the existing architecture – enhancing certain sections and thereby making the facade reflect the floor plan of the apartments behind it – became a public work of art"

" Here, a layer-upon-layer relationship arises, since the paintings are paintings of photographs of paintings made on walls that bear traces of earlier paint and building work. Step by step, the works are abstracted and distanced from the house wall that was their origin." - Magnus af Petersens

http://www.clayketter.com/txt_map.html

I have a great interest in Clay Ketter's earlier works and his idea involving traces of levels. It makes me think of my work in a new way, as i am always working with plaster, pins and wood, when removed from my studio wall there is a trace/marking of what was there before. Now when makings a new piece on my wall I'm always thinking about how the remanding marks from my last work will interact with my new work. Im also interested in that layer-upon-layer idea in changing the original and developing from recycled materials.

MY WORK:

No Name,

2012,

Plaster on wall,

Each square 30x30cm

For the drawing paper i found that i really enjoyed working with plaster. I've decided to use the material opposite to how it would traditionally be used. Instead of fixing a surface i've used the plaster to create a new aspect to the wall. Adding to something already existing.