http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 Continuing Conversations Sat, 20 Mar 2010 01:53:17 +0000 a-n rss generator a-n The Artists Information Company and contributors edit@a-n.co.uk technical@a-n.co.uk http://www.a-n.co.uk/img/logo.gif http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 I've been considering starting this blog for quite a while now - technically it would probably have made more sense when I was working towards my recent solo show at Fold Gallery, or perhaps when I first started my MA course. However, I've been having a little difficulty with the concept of it - what 'project' am I doing? What would people be interested in reading about (assuming that this is one of the reasons I'm writing it)? How honest can you be in a piece of informal text when you don't know who's reading it?I've been having a few conversations with other artists recently, and have basically come to the conclusion that I'm interested in how they go about making work, where their ideas come from, how they develop, so I figured that other people would probably be intersted in this too. And so the blog has started. A note on the title: I find writing artists' statements incredibly difficult. How do you formalise a series of ideas which are connected, but not in a linear form? I write things down with arrows connecting all the various strands, often ending up writing upside down on the page, to get everything in. The only time I feel that I can really explain what it is I'm doing is in a conversation with someone. And usually that takes quite a while, and I often need my notes. I've tried writing a statement as a conversation, but the act of trying to write it made it self-concious and a bit false. So basically, I'm seeing this as a way of getting those conversations I'm having with myself out of my notebooks and into an arena where they might help other people have a clearer idea of what I'm doing. And my doing that, I'll be getting my thoughts more organised, and that will therefore help me.  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 I've been spending a while trying to really get it straight in my head what is  at the core of my practice. There's loads of things I'm interested in (in fact I find it quite difficult to edit things down) but I'm trying to really gets to grips with how all these strands are connected, and why I'm interested in them. As I think I've already explained, I don't think thoughts tend to follow a linear narrative (mine certainly don't), so instead of trying to elaborate here on all these different aspects, I've photographed my most recent mapping of these ideas. I could read it when I just checked the image on my screen, so hopefully should be okay online. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 I've been feeling a bit numb recently. I think this is mostly due to reading lots of things I really ought to read (and many are really interesting - I've got books out on concepts behind collecting, interpreting objects, installation, aesthetics and The Poetics of Space) but then finding that it's quite difficult to actually make work. I've never gotten the balance right - I either read and think so much that I can't make work, or make work, so that when I look back on it later, feels rather concept-less. I'm trying to work out my reasons for using the materials I use, and working with the objects I'm working with. I've often worked in quite a process based way, but I don't feel satisfied with that anymore - I don't think that it's challenging me intellectually enough anymore. The trouble is, a lot of things, I think I just like them, because they’re attractive visually. The difficulty is that everything is so inter-reliant, that it's difficult to separate things, and then I find myself thinking about ways to go about thinking - I've decided that the way to try and solve this is to plan out what I need to make and what I need to read about. Otherwise I'll just not get anything done and I hate that.  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 Rather bizarre experience today – I received an email directly addressed to me from a-n about these blogs, only to find I was quoted in the first couple of lines. It’s mildly peculiar to read something addressed to you, that you’re speaking in – kind of like having a conversation with yourself. Apparently, I “dedicate my blog to a critical self-reflection” – and there I was concerned I was partaking in a large amount of self-indulgent rambling. However, it has got me writing again – my head’s been getting a bit full the last couple of weeks, but I have made quite a bit of progress on where I’m coming from. More on that later. For the moment, let me explain what I’ll be doing for the next week or two. I’m using a project space until the 5th Jan, so omitting time to visit family for Christmas, this gives around 10 days to work out some ideas, and try things out. Access to the internet on site isn’t yet possible, so although I’m writing this in the space, I’ll be posting it up later this evening, along with a few photos of Day One. The dress on the mannequin is the in-progress culmination of two months work. The idea is that a second hand dress is used to suggest a trace of a person - it is stiffened in such a way, that the fabric takes on the shape a body, whilst also being ephemeral and fragile. I’ve spent a long time trying to find a way of chemically ‘thinning’ the cotton fibres in the fabric, only to have nothing work in the manner I want so far. I’ve therefore gone for option two for the purposes of these two weeks – I’ve been through the time consuming process of pulling out individual threads from a thin fabric, hence making it even more fragile. I’m applying starch to stiffen it, so it should hopefully be strong enough by the end of the week to support itself and the shape which is has taken on from the mannequin. A note on the mannequin – I wanted it to be quite a realistic form, so instead of using a dress-maker’s dummy, I did a body cast of a friend, then created a resin and fibre-glass positive. This took a long time. A really long time. The other part of what I’ve been doing today is drawing lace and doily shapes onto the walls, which I will be ‘carving’ into said walls with a dremel tool in a few minutes.  The positioning of these in the space is important – they need to be stumbled across, not particularly obvious at first sight. I’m putting them in corners, creeping up the wall, hiding out of sight. They’re a bit lonely, a little lost. And that loneliness, that sense of loss, decay and fragility is what I think my practice is about. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 Today, I've mostly been using a rotary tool to mechanically scratch paint off the base of a brick column. This has succeeded in giving me a sore back and knees, but as resolutely failed to do what I wanted it to. When I've done this previously, the layers of paint beneath the surface were a pale colour, and even if I scratched too deeply and went back to the plaster, this wouldn't matter particularly. However, there seems to be some black paint under there somewhere, which means that the entire design is looking too dark, too obvious. (And also a bit like pencil lead, which ironically I used to draw the design on the wall in the first place. The way it looks currently, I really needn't have bothered with this time consuming scratching process).    When you get close enough you can see the layers of colour, which is interesting enough, but overall it's not working. Might try painting over it tomorrow, so all that's left is a scaring on the brickwork, a trace of the shape.  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 I’ve been thinking about how my moods are associated with my work, and how they go in waves quite a bit. I’ll feel like I’m on to something, I’ll have a rush of ideas which need to be written down very quickly, and I feel really energised. However, that pinnacle on this rollercoaster is inevitably followed by a very low dip, which brings me crashing back to questioning everything, and feeling numb and muddy in my head. I woke up the latter this morning. When I’m like this, I find it really hard to focus on what I’m making, and really feel like just giving up on the day, but at the same time I know if I do that, then the feeling will just continue – it’s basically finding a way of working myself out of it. I achieved this, this afternoon by making myself a list of each stage I needed to do in order to photograph the dress piece and the doily carving. I then made myself work through this list, and gradually the numbness faded, and I began to think clearly again. I realised I’d been thinking of the dress as a dress, rather than as a vehicle to suggest the absence of a person. So I’ve tightened the fabric over the mannequin, and I’ve coated the fabric with more starch and watered down PVA, so when it dries, it should be quite sturdy, and also really get the shape of the figure across. I’m not sure I like the way that the fabric finishes with the hem-line at the moment. It seems a bit sudden, like a line being drawn underneath something to divide what is below from what is above. I wonder if there’s a way of making it seem to fade away, like you can do with paint? I’ve also been thinking about this concept of blogging again. I’ve found myself narrating what I’m thinking in my head, mentally dictating sentences to write. Does this mean that the process of writing my thoughts for this blog is having an effect on my thinking process? ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 Well, it's been a bit of a while since my last post - Christmas, New Year, and having a rush of applications to complete have taken over recently. I've also been spending an inordinate amount of time sitting in front of this computer either arguing with it about colour calibration or researching various ideas. I'm attaching a photograph of the dress piece I completed just after New Year and photographed in the project space I was working in. I've recently applied for some funding for training in alternative photographic processes (using liquid emulation and making tintypes, a late 19th century process), but for the moment, I'm trying to get the colour accurate for digital printing. Which is a mission in itself, as my computer resolutely refuses to stick to the correct calibration I've worked out for it. Anyway, until that is solved, I've attached an image to give an idea of how that last piece of work is looking. I thought it worked quite well in the space, until my partner told me the space made him think of some sort of underground torture chamber, which gave the dress rather different connotations. I was seeing the work set up there as a chance to work out how to photograph in those types of interiors, what sort of lighting etc, and for that it worked - I'm now looking for alternative locations to set up a shoot (which preferably avoid aforementioned implications).   I'm off to meet one of the Keepers at the Discovery Museum later today, to have a nose through the objects in their social history archives and collections. I'm looking for items which have some information about their previous owners, some sort of story attached, as I think this might be another direction to take this work - an actual history or story, rather than it all being anonymous. I was reading various theories about collecting over Christmas, and looking at some research about what sort of people ‘collect’, and what is collected. As I was reading, I was thinking about how after we’ve died, all that is physically left behind are the objects we’ve amassed during our lifetimes. So by collecting, (either consciously knowing it to be a collection, or not) is that an attempt to create a permanence, a physical grounding after we’ve gone?     ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 Apparently, my blog was one of the most read last month. I’m rather flattered that people are reading it, although it also feels a little peculiar at the same time – by trying to discuss my work in quite an honest, day-by-day way, I’ve made a conscious decision to omit ‘art-speak’; but in doing so, it has all become more personal, which is a slightly un-nerving act in itself. The format of writing in a blog makes this easier though, I think. By putting my ideas in this context, it’s automatically less formal, and there’s less of a temptation to add some pretention into the mix. This is also about the only time I write anything for Other People to read without asking my partner (who has a degree in writing) to look over, re-arrange my sometimes rather erratic sentence structure, and generally smarten up. However, I’ve looked back over my posts so far, and I still feel happy with them – I wonder if there’s a way of taking extracts to include in that elusive Artist’s Statement? Looking around the archives at the Discovery Museum was great. They’ve got a fantastic collection of objects, which I could have nosed through for quite a while. What interested me more when I got there though, were not so much the objects which they know a reasonable amount about, but the ones that they don’t. There are quite a few objects which the museum owns from previous collections, when the cataloguing and record keeping wasn’t as detailed and accurate as it is now. I quite like the idea that a museum is effectively there as a place to house knowledge, but when the museum lacks this knowledge, it heightens / creates a sense of loss about that particular object. I’m going to be spending the rest of the afternoon reading some essays about collecting, and making a few notes. There was recently a call out for papers for a conference called ‘Museums and Biographies’. They want to ‘draw together analyses of representation, material culture and personality’ and they are ‘inviting papers that can cast a new light on the study of lives, objects and display’. My work seems to fit rather nicely into this, and they are asking for artists as well as historians and museologists, but as I’ve never done anything like this before, I’m not quite sure where to begin. Hence the reading.   ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 My computer decided to behave itself with regard to its colour calibration for a good hour the other day, which gave me chance to play around with colours and tones of some shots I took in the project space. I still need to get these printed to see how they work in reality, but these look quite good on my machine, so I thought I’d upload a couple of examples. I quite like the slightly painterly qualities these images have, and how they feel much less warm, after getting rid of the yellow cast from the spotlights. I’ve been thinking along the lines of photographs becoming works in their own right, so that they are more than straight documentation. In order to do this, it’s important that they become an object also – by this I mean that they the photograph would be more than the image: it would be the surface it’s printed on, the smell and the weight of it, in addition to the depiction of the space. If I’m successful in the funding I applied for recently, it would mean that I would be able to have some training in using alternative photographic processes. (By the word ‘alternative’, read nineteenth / early twentieth century ways of producing a photographic image). I’m particularly interested in tintype, which in layman’s terms, was basically like the equivalent of an early Polaroid, and using liquid emulsion, as I quite like the idea of being able to create photographic prints onto a range of different surfaces. I like the tangibility these processes entail, and also how using these methods would mean losing some control as to how they turn out - the prints would then be unique. On a completely unrelated matter, not being particularly familiar with the art of blogging, I’ve only just realised that people have been making comments on my posts. Apologies for that, I wasn’t ignoring you, I was just rather slow. I’ve just responded, but rather annoyingly, despite being allowed 400 words, the comments feature doesn't seem to be showing them all after I pasted them in. Which is a little irritating really.    ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 February 12th continued I've tried to explain this work and where it's coming from three times in the last two days, due to giving a talk and having tutorials with both Minty and George. It's gotten to the stage that I find myself repeating particular phrases, so that now they feel like self-made clichés. I also found that during my talk, I had pretty much the same problem I have with writing a statement - a linear narrative doesn't work. I've got ideas which spin off from ideas, which then produce more. I've got reams of images, notes, essays and thoughts which influence what I'm making, and I know there are connections, but they seem vague and insubstantial. This annoys me because on one hand I like a level or organisation and exactness - I make lists so I know what needs to be done and then I can feel satisfied when I've ticked items of and have a sense of achievement. But the work itself is about the exact opposite - it's about things which aren't there, empty spaces, absence, fragility... all stuff it's hard to put your finger on, for want of a better phrase. I like making things, but I also use pre-existing objects. I'm interested in how these things are neglected, but I take care of them. I'm creating things, and yet I like emptiness. I like finding these objects, but I like that they're also lost. And so these layers of contradictions seem also to be an inherent part of my practice. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 February 12th continued I'm showing the dress piece I was working on over Christmas, together with another two that I've made since. The corridor is entirely empty apart from these dresses and four spotlights. I've got them set up at the end of the space, hanging from cotton threads with are sewn into the exposed seams. These in turn hang from a couple of wooden sticks, which is hanging from a single thread from the ceiling. This methods means that the structure of the dresses isn't squashed, but also means that they spin and move when people walk past. I've been thinking about different ways of lighting work since Still Lives in the summer. On this occasion, I've got two different lighting set ups depending on the time of day. When there's plenty of natural light, I've tried to highlight the dresses themselves, to emphasise the subtle colour differences in the fabric. During the evening, I'm lighting them from further away, so that there's a range of shadows. From the end of corridor during this set-up, the dresses themselves seem to disappear, or at least become less visually prominent - you see the shadows first. I'm not sure how successful this is. Whilst I've gotten quite a bit of positive feedback, there are a couple of things that keep reoccurring - the fact that they are female forms, and that people think they look ghost-like. I chose a female form primarily because I wanted to give an impression of more than just a torso, and with one item of clothing, as I wanted it to hang without a break, and so that it could fade away at the bottom. And at least in Western culture, a dress is the really the only item of clothing that is a total body covering by itself. As far as the ghost comment is concerned, whilst there are ‘ghosts' involved, echoes and traces from unknown people, I'd rather things were a little more subtle than a Boo. (Continues) ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 Been rather busy this week, so much so that it's taken me a good hour and a half this morning with a couple of cups of tea to wake up enough to be able to string a series of coherent sentences together. I'm currently showing some of my work as part of a group exhibition called Re-appropriated Phrases, Sayings and Idioms. It's basically using various parts of the university over about three weeks, with different artists from the MFA course showing each week. So I was hanging that on Monday, sorting out the final things Tuesday morning, followed by a very long but productive meeting with Sarah Tullock, an artist who I'm organising some projects with. Tuesday afternoon I went to a talk by Minty Donald who's just completed a three year research project in Glasgow called Glimmers in Limbo about understanding urban environments and authoritative versions of the past (http://www.glimmersinlimbo.co.uk/). Really, really interesting stuff and rather creepily relevant to the ideas me and Sarah were discussing earlier. She gave quite a clear theoretical framework for her research, which I found really useful - I'm been trying to figure out something for my own work with not too much success so far, so it was useful to see how someone else was relating their practice / research to ideas within geography, anthropology and architecture. Wednesday started off with a talk by George Chakravarthi (http://www.georgechakravarthi.co.uk/index.html), followed by a bit more running around, then me and a couple of the other artists exhibiting in the current group exhibition gave talks about our work. The space I'm using is a bit odd - it's effectively a corridor with a window along one side, and an area at the far end with a very high ceiling. And a definite lack of electricity points. Add to this the fact that universities are pretty crazy about anything vaguely health and safety related and  you understand why I spent three hours on Monday morning learning about amps, fuses and appropriate cables so that I could extend the wires on my spot lights so as not to used a load of extension leads plugged into one another. (Continues) ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 12 March 2009 continued On a slightly different track, I picked up an old Brownie camera at a market a few weeks back, and I’ve been given some help about how to use it, what film to use etc. I also got a manual for it from the internet, so I’m a bit excited about trying that out at the weekend. A friend of mine has also very generously given me his medium format camera on a bit of a long-term loan, so I’m going to have a play with that too. All this is leading up to photographing the dresses in various locations, one of which is intending to be the interior of this empty library. I was then going to print these images as either tin-types of using liquid light onto various materials – unfortunately I wasn’t successful in my funding application for materials and training for the printing processes, so I’m going to have to come up with a cheaper / DIY version. It’s also becoming a bit tricky as regards coordinating getting into the library, having some help from a friend and borrowing some lighting equipment all for the same dates. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 Been a bit of while since my last post – I’ve been up to my ears in various applications, including a residency, a commission, a collaborative community project (which I did get, usefully). I’ve also been trying to document my work (which unfortunately meant re-hanging the installation a showed a few weeks ago because the first round of photographs was useless – the second set of photos was much better though, see the images which accompany this post), negotiate access to a disused library near to my flat which I want to photograph the interior of, and plan a few workshops I’m supposed to be running. So the actual making of work has been a bit slack in the last few weeks. All this buzz of activity has got me thinking about the practice / planning / administration / application / everything else balance. I’ve never had a great deal of success with these nationally advertised residencies etc, mainly I’m assuming because so many people apply for them. I was given an application number of 116 one time. The other thing which was becoming more and more apparent as I was writing, is how incredibly difficult it is to explain your work / practice in a way which is suitable for an application process, but which doesn’t sound incredibly dry and boring. It feels as if an overly casual tone sounds a bit naff and rather forced, where as my natural formality for applications comes across as rather unexciting – it’s difficult to get the enthusiasm for a project or idea across. This is of course leading back to some of the reasons I started this blog in the first place. The other thing is, as been especially apparent over the last few weeks, giving all this time over to applications has meant that I just haven’t made much work. So what is better: (and it there a ‘better’?) applying to get work shown / for various advantageous opportunities, or thinking about and making work, with the idea that my work and ideas will improve as a result, thus improving the chances of success with applications? There is of course the other argument, that perhaps I’m just thinking about it all a bit too much, and that that time could be put to better use my thinking about the work itself. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 (16th April continued) What has been weird in the last week, is that I finished the community project being aware of how much I work I can make in a really short space of time, and planning to apply some of that urgency and sheer work ethic to my studio practice. But of course, that hasn't happened. I had to catch up with admin that I'd been putting on hold, get my head back into what it is I'm actually doing in my work, plan and deliver a workshop, go to a talk at the Baltic, visit family for Easter, read a pile of essays for some seminars next week.... so hence why at 7pm last night, I was still in the studio and have been since about 9.30am and my list only had the first couple of things ticked off. I know I'm better at working for deadlines, but this is ridiculous. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430  (16th April continued) Just before the project described above, I managed to negotiate entry into the empty library building I mentioned in my previous post. I spent a weekend hanging my dresses and photographing them and the rest of the interior with my Brownie and borrowed Lubitel, with the help of a friend. I'm pretty pleased with the results (see images attached to post) and also very glad that I gave up on using a digital camera in the first half hour of shooting. I've gotten so used to using a digital camera to document my work, taking loads of shots with varying exposures to get documentation right and checking them immediately, that it felt incredibly liberating not to have to do this. The two cameras I've got are much less accurate - the Brownie leaks quite a bit of light and you've got to work out the exposures (of anything from 2 seconds to five minutes) by referring to chart in the manual I downloaded. The Lubitel is more accurate, but a bit of guesswork is required to get the shot lined up as the viewfinder is through the second lens and it's completely manual, so I've been teaching myself all about handheld light meters and reflective and incident readings. But not knowing exactly what the shots were going to be like was great. They feel rougher, less precise and I like it where the exposures are out a bit or the shot isn't lined up that well. Everything feels less clinical, less ‘perfect' and I like that. I'm intending to print some of these photographs onto old paper bags, old carrier bags and patterns of the dresses, cut out of pattern paper. The idea is that the photograph becomes an object, and that the material qualities of the support of conceptually relevant to the photographs and the dresses themselves. That's why I'm interested in using quite low value objects, cheap everyday stuff, which has perhaps had another use.... I want to be able to explain or ‘justify' this further, but I'm aware that this could easily become an overly intellectual exercise, and that some of these answers will come about by my making / using the objects and materials. (continues....) ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 (16th April continued) I really liked the concepts behind the project, the use of stories and memories, plus the collection and use of second-hand materials, as these are all things I'm regularly using in my own work. However, it was a pretty intense project, because after the initial research time of talking to people and collecting stories, there were only three days allowed to make three shrines. It was also a little tricky, because although I (and several other artists) were employed partly as being ‘local', I'm not originally from the North East, so not particularly local. So, you've got that weird thing of making contact with community members so speak to them about their memories, but feeling like you're parachuting in, taking their stories to make ‘art', then swooping out again. There were a few groups of people who were really up for helping with the project, particularly members of the local history society. The theatre company too, have run loads of projects like this, and they seem to make some really interesting performances, so perhaps this occasional uncomfortable feeling came from me not being used to working like this. The major problem I really had was the level of pay. There are a couple of other blogs on a-n discussing this issue, and it's not what I set up this blog for, but nevertheless, £80 a day is pretty crap however you look at it, especially given the immense range of skills, both artistic and otherwise, required for the job. The reason I got involved despite this, is that I could see ways in which the research from this project could lead into my own work, otherwise I would have avoided it. (continues....) ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 This ‘it's been a bit of while since my last post', is getting to feel a little habitual now. This isn't done intentionally exactly, but I do feel that I ought to be writing something interesting if I'm going to write a post, rather than rambling on pointlessly. Also (as usual) I've been rather busy of late, so haven't had so much thinking time. I spent a couple of weeks working on (for want of a better phrase) a community art project. I normally cringe at the idea of these, picturing murals in primary colours, but the concept behind this was a bit more interesting, hence my getting involved. I was working on what was effectively a small part of a much larger site-specific theatre project. Basically, myself and several other visual artists and theatre practitioners were working in a couple of areas of Tyneside, speaking to residents about their memories of these areas. These collected stories were then used as concepts for the artists to make memory boxes or ‘shrines', which were then displayed in a local hall. These shrines will then be used as part of the outdoor theatre performance event in the summer. The theatre company work across the UK and parts of Europe on projects like this which involve using local communities and their stories and memories to form part of the event. Local shops, markets, car boot sales and charity shops provide the majority of the materials for making the shrines, as a way of giving back to the community from where the visuals come from.  (continues...) ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 (29th April continued...) I'm making a concerted effort not to effectively realise my ideas in my head, rather than allowing the making process to also inform the concept and content. I can easily talk my way out of making things, by seeing the idea in my mind, and then working it out on paper. This links back to the problems regarding really well-crafted work which is effectively concept-less, or not making anything at all, because it's been thought about so much. I want to make casts of objects because I like the idea of re-making something pre-existing but having it ‘shift' slightly ( I envision this idea like a something I've seen on a film, when an image is overlaid by a repeat of itself, but it's not quite aligned). The problem is that I've never cast an object before, I don't really understand the processes, and it's getting rather frustrating trying to find out the best way of making a mould so it can do what I want it to. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 I had a conversation with an artist about a week ago, who said that what I've been referring to as ‘dresses' aren't actually dresses at all, but are more accurately read as négligés. I spent quite a while trying to think of a way of create a dress which didn't have an obvious historical grounding, as I didn't want to limit the work to something in the past. The reason I went with this particular style is because I saw it as something that could have been worn in the past, but also as something that would be worn today. I chose thin, translucent fabric, as I saw this as a way of suggesting fragility; the lace had references to domestic environments, but also clothing. However, as was pointed out, other the obvious reading, (which had kind of skirted across my thoughts, but not really settled into my conscious), was that flimsy fabric, revealing a body (which in this case isn't actually there) has quite apparent sexual undertones. This wasn't what I was aiming for, and obviously brings into play a whole host of other issues (one of which, interestingly enough, is that négligé is the part participle of the French verb négliger, to neglect. The neglected bit I like, but not in direct association with a female body, which could be used to go down an abuse avenue). So I'm putting the ‘dresses' on hold for a bit, while I explore some other ideas I've been tossing about. Firstly is the idea of casting some domestic objects out of unsympathetic or materials which seem slightly wrong, so that the cosiness, safety and security associated with home is shifted. I'm thinking along the lines of concrete or porcelain. I've also been preparing a range of possible supports for printing photographs of the library onto - brown paper bags, plastic carrier bags, reclaimed letters and bills. The first time I tried this yesterday was a bit of a disaster, as they all pretty much fell apart as soon as they hit the developer, so I've invested in some waterproof PVA and a subbing and hardening solution. (Continues...) ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 (8th June continued) I had a tutorial with Louise Wilson when both she and Jane gave a talk through the visiting lecturers programme at uni recently. The main issue that came out from this, is to have a much clearer idea of where I'm positioning myself in a wider context, both within the visual arts arena, but also wider than that, to a larger cultural context. I've been reading some essays about Ann Hamilton and Mary Kelly at Louise's suggestion, and I've also ordered copies of The Everyday and Appropriation, part of the Whitechaple's Documents of Contemporary Art series. Stephen Johnstone's introductory essay in The Everyday is relevant to some of my thinking: quoting Rebecca J. DeRoo, he writes that ‘the everyday might be the common ground of experience that allows museum visitors to "understand the effects of history on the private lives of those who were usually overlooked"'. The photographs I've been accumulating have this personal, yet generic quality about them, yet due to their age, there is also this feeling of exoticism. So they have this contradiction of being something everyday from a particular period of time, yet because this time period is in the past, from a contemporary point of view they are special, something unique and different from our present-day notions of an everyday photographic image. More contradictions in my practice again. I'm attaching an image of a ‘dress'-trace to this post. I've taken apart this item of clothing, reconstructed it from an old net curtain I found in a charity shop, then sprayed car paint though it, so the image is left on floor. The car paint is the wrong material (suggests something quite industrial and manual, even though I am very particular about the shades of spray paint I use, so they have to all be mixed up specially for me at Halfords), but I quite like the effect on the floor. More pondering required though, I think. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 Given the events last night's European elections, the admittance of two BNP candidates and the feeling of a general swing to the far right across Europe (at least in terms of those elected), today I've been thinking more about if there's a way of my politics having a more direct, or conscious influence on my work. Although I'm very politically minded and aware of current affairs, I've avoided a direct reference to specific issues in my practice, as I don't think that the way I make art is the best format for these types of discussions. However, I'm beginning to wonder if by thinking about these issues consciously, they could have an influence on my work, even if the results are still a visual layering of ideas, suggestions, my way of thinking...(continues) ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 (continued) I made the plaster pillow by literally filling a pillow case with casting plaster, then resting my head on it which it hardened. (I also tried mixing some of my hair into the plaster, but I need to work on the technique here - my friend Jennie who was helping me just ending up with plastery-hairy hands). It seemed to have the potential to be such a personal and potentially private experience, that something was maybe missing by doing this act in the studio space. So I'm intending to make another one, but doing it at home, by myself, in my bed. The plaster would then take up the shape of the mattress, as well as my head - it also seems to make sense to do this whilst wearing one of the négligé-dresses. It would effectively be a private performance, but I don't think I want to record it - that would make it a performance for the camera, rather than for how wearing that clothing, in that environment would affect the end result. I haven't had time to read much recently, as I'm been making a concerted effort to think-make rather than read-think which is what I can so easily get caught up in. We did just have a short break in the Lake District, during which I got to finish W. G. Sebald's Austerlitz. It's written without any paragraphs or speech-marks to indicate which character is speaking, the result being that you sort of flow along this continuous narrative, one section blending seamlessly into the next... I'd like this installation I'm working on to flow like that.  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 I'm really not sure where to begin with this post. There's so much going through my head at the moment that I'm finding it even more difficult than usual to keep track of everything. The main thing is that I'll be showing during the MFA exhibition at the end of August, so working towards this is occupying my thoughts through all of my waking hours, and if last night's dreams were anything to go by, into my sleeping hours too. What I'm doing is making sense at the moment, and I really love intense, crazy work - but I'm also looking forward to the reflective bit once the exhibition is up, so I can clearly see where to go next, rather purely planning the most appropriate order in which to 'finish' the work I need to. See www.newcastlemfashow.co.uk for more details about the exhibition (preview August 21st, runs for two weeks after that). The weekend has been spent making mould parts for a cast of a cut-glass jar and lid that I'm intending to make from slip-cast porcelain, whilst also working out a way to use cheap art-school temporary walls in a way that doesn't disguise what they are (as that could be a bit fake and theatrical) but at the same time pushes them beyond this base. At the moment, the idea is lining paper, so I can reference a domestic interior, without being overt about, but paint the paper brilliant white, so I've still got a gallery reference. I'm splitting the space up into an entrance or 'ante' space, which feels pristine and clean. Maybe like a porch. This leads into a space which suggests a wider, more spacious space, but still something to travel through. I'm planning on printing the photograph of the library window onto a personal and handwritten letter from the market, which appears to be in the wall. (I need to learn how to plaster quite quickly). The porcelain jar will probably be here somewhere. The next space will imply a living area, which is where I'll put the drawer and the tin with its dirt (see the attached photos). I'm going to add some sliver-leaf to the dirt as a reference to the found photographs which I'll no longer be using. I think the absence of them is stronger than them being there is reference absence. Around the corner (an incomplete wall which suggests that it may have been longer at one point) will be the plaster pillow. The pristine-ness of the space won't quite be there by this point - it won't be obvious, but it won't quite be as clean, as sharp, there'll be something different. So that's the plan. Or at least the idea as it is at the moment. I'm still trying not to over-plan, but work through each making process. (continues)... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 I worked out the other morning, that if I just paint the lining paper back to the art-school-come-gallery brilliant white it's not going to be enough of a shift. So, I'm going with shades of white, taken from some of the paper-based items I've collected. I also don't think it's going to work if it's all just lining paper, it could all just be too little - not so much subtle, as nothing. I think that a touch of pattern might be required, so I'll see next week if it's possible to paper Anaglypta the wrong way round, so that the pattern appears like it's going into the wall. The mould of the jar is finished - just need to wait for it to dry out completely before pouring the slip. I want to get to terms with the photograph next week, before finishing off the walls and wallpapering at the weekend.    ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 So, should the floor be painted another colour or not? It's the standard art-school-grey at the moment, but is to paint it a completely different colour going to be taking the entire installation down the theatrical route? If the colour is referencing a floor colour which could / has been used in a domestic environment going to be not so much shifting the space, as attempting to make it into something else? So a different shade of grey? I'm a little concerned that the shades of white that I'm using might be so, well, white, that there won't be much of a distinguishable difference between them. And it's also been brought to my attention that the photograph printed on the reclaimed letter is a little too black and white, where perhaps a bit more subtlety involving grey might have been preferable. It's also going to be a bit tricky trying to make this appear as if it's in the wall in a gentle way - I've had to bench the plaster idea, as I realised that I really wouldn't have time to learn how to plaster properly, and the finished result would most likely look like I hadn't had much time to learn how to plaster properly. So the photograph is behind the lining paper, and idea is to rub / sand the paper away, and perhaps involve a little silver-leaf somewhere along the lines. I've also realised that I'm thinking of these ideas in terms of something 'finished' again - an easy trap to fall into I think, when preparing for a public exhibition. However, part of my original philosophy in approaching this particular exhibition was to try and think of the work / works in terms of ideas in progress, thoughts and suggestions. Perhaps I need to be thinking in terms of this again.... I'm going to find out about different shades of grey paint tomorrow.  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 So here are some initial installation shots from my interim exhibition. I hadn't though in terms of a title for it before now, but retrospectively it makes sense to call it Shift. It's pretty difficult to document due to the shape and size of the space, but also due to the subtly of colour and the manner in which is changes depending on the time of day and the amount of sun shining through the glass panels in the ceiling. The colour for the floor became a bit of a mission in the end. I went with grey-shift idea, but the colour I chose turned out to have a lot more pink in than I was expecting. That, combined with the different shades of white on the walls gave quite a head-f**k in early morning light. Okay, so this was interesting, but it was taking the installation somewhere else, which I wasn't sure about. It also seemed to make the floor-based work less substantial, less there somehow. It was only after a day of debating this, and also trying out a much more grey-grey, that I saw how it worked in evening light. The pinkness became a more subtle grey-brownness which shifted the space in a softer way, and worked with the floor pieces. I think the photograph piece needs some more work. It feels a little unrefined now, in comparison with the other pieces. The wallpaper covering rips away a bit too easily, so it reveals the image too easily and too much of it. I'm also wondering if a letter is the best support - it's beginning to feel a bit too literal; not just in the sense that there's writing involved (it's a personal letter written in the 1930's I picked up at a market) but perhaps there might be softer ways to make the references? I went on a tour of Tyne and Wear Museum's archives a few months back, and got rather fascinated with how the conservators repair velum manuscripts with sausage skin and a starch glue, so I've been thinking about how this might work with a photograph printed on it. I'm also beginning to do some research about making my own photographic emulation, or at least using a silver based powder or solution to take some more control over this process. Or perhaps I could print onto silver leaf, or imbed the support with it somehow, so the image doesn't appear too fixed, so static?... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 I spent Friday and Saturday at the NOTES on a Return symposium at the Laing Gallery. This two-day event rounded off a series of artist talks and new commissions in relation a number of artist performances which took place at the Laing during the mid-eighties. Whilst I've not worked with performance, what interested me about this event was the discussion surrounding documentation, memory and the archive in this case related to performance-based practice. The conversations and presentations were pretty wide ranging, but what struck me most was how a lot of the issues raised could be applied beyond live art - the most relevant area to my work being issues surrounding the affective documentation of a work which relies heavily on the moment and the atmosphere of that particular time and space. This conversation can easily be applied to installation work, and some of the problems I'm encountering at the moment. Several of us clubbed together to get professional photography of our work, but I'm not sure that in my case it'll be enough. In order to view my work, you need to physically move into, then through and around the space. There's no one place that you can view all the pieces, or indeed see the entirety of the space. So is a series of photographs the best way to explain the piece? All documentation risks become something in its own right - a really good photograph can make something look more interesting than it actually is in reality - but is there a way of enriching / adding to this type of documentation to create a more rounding understanding of an installation?   I thought about videoing the space, but it seemed a little odd to use a time-based medium to record static works. One of the speakers at the symposium mentioned something quite interesting though - they'd had access to three different accounts of the same performance. Obviously the accounts themselves differed quite considerably in their descriptions and experiences of the event, but they nevertheless added a further depth to the documentation. Owing to a lack of time (the exhibition has closed now, and I need to de-install in the next couple of days) I'm not going to be able to get three people to write accounts for me, but I thought it would still be something useful that I could do myself. I want to write something using language / in a style that reflects the feeling and content of the work - I'll have a go and post here as regards the success or otherwise.  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 Reading back through my text documentation, it still seems to be making sense. Only thing is, I'm not quite sure how to share it - I think the best thing will be to post it up here once I've got the professional photographs back, so that the images put the text in context and vice versa. The other thing I've been thinking about over the last few days is social networking / blogging and the arts (or more accurately, my practice as an artist and how social networks can show my work to more people). This basically came about from opening a Twitter account a couple of days ago, as it seemed a good idea at the time. Interestingly enough, I then came across some musing along related lines on Fabrica Gallery's blog: http://www.thetangledhedgerow.blogspot.com/ (see the September 8th and August 19th posts), which I got to via Twitter. What he says about the 'behind the scenes' bit seems to make sense, I think that's pretty much how most people view their blogs - a more casual, social approach to discussing their practice. What I have found quite tricky is transferring this more laid-back manner to my website - some things make sense to be formal (statement, cv etc) but I'm attempting to make the commentary about the works a little more informal, as I think it can be more interesting to read then. Just updated it today, so have a look if you fancy it: www.laurenhealey.co.uk... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 I've been taking an inadvertent break from blogging over the last couple of months. I've been doing a lot of reading and writing (I'm in the middle of writing my MA dissertation) and it felt like my head's been full of so many things, that to try and surmise them for this blog wouldn't work. The writing itself is becoming a piece in its own right, beyond the remit of an academic text. It's about trace and absence with the home and it rather apt, as we've just moved house - I'm therefore using our house as a basis to discuss these ideas.   The move was pretty hectic (to put it mildly) and as a result of not having a kitchen for about 6 weeks, we've been living with my in-laws. The previous owners of our new house were rather attached to their plants - so much so, that a massive ivy was growing up the front and partially covering the bedroom window. It was really sunny on our first morning there, so I photographed the resulting shadows on the curtain from our bed. I think it was the shadows which made me think of Anthony Boswell's work (he's got a couple of blogs on this site). I've been flicking though The Comfort of Things by Daniel Miller recently (Amazon's 'other people who bought this book also bought these' proving very useful these days). It's basically an anthropological look the interior of people's homes, specifically the objects and things they surround themselves with. The first 'portrait' is about a pensioner called George whose flat is empty - he doesn't have any things. Miller describes that 'there is a violence to such emptiness'. It's really sad because the empty flat effectively reflects the person who occupies it - 'this was a man... waiting for his time on earth to be over, but who at the age of seventy-six had never yet seen his life actually begin. And, worse still, he knew it'.    ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 I finished a commission for Enchanted Parks in Gateshead a couple of weeks ago, which went well I think - a local photographic group very kindly sent me links to images they'd taken (see accompanying photographs). It turned out to be a bit of departure from the muted, quiet and contemplative sort of work I normally make, but I think it was really good thing to work in different way, and produce pieces for an exterior location, something I haven't done before. Just arrived down in Herefordshire to spend Christmas with my family. We inadvertently benefited from other trains being delayed after ours was cancelled, but it's still a 6 hour journey from Newcastle. Still, the county seems to be catching up with the rest of the country thanks to the copious amounts of snow currently falling. Looking out of the window just now where the snow was falling under a streetlight, the flakes were so big that they made spinning shadows on the white blanket underneath. I love the smell too - really fresh and clean, gorgeous.  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 Cold and misty yesterday. My parents live in the middle of nowhere, which whilst very isolated, can be quite beautiful. I took these photographs when we were walked their dog in the Malverns - the mist reminded me of Dylan Trigg's photographs on his blog: http://side-effects.blogspot.com/ It's a little like the snow, everything is detached, separated from what's usually seen around it. Re: work - just thinking about ways to combine a more delicate approach to the casts I've been making. The dresses were fragile, ephemeral; can this be furthered in relation to domestic objects, parts of homes?    ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 Just realised this'll be the first post of the New Year. I've spent most of it so far wrapped up in blankets and a shawl, admiring the beauty of the snow, before turning back to my computer to continue writing my MA dissertation. As I've mentioned before, this is about trace and absence in relation to the domestic environment, in particular to the house myself and my partner have just purchased. The idea is that there are effectively two sections to the text, having a symbiotic relationship with each other. The more formal, academic side is the critique of ideas and artwork in this area, whist the opposing side is a personal account of how the various ideas / points are related to the experience of creating a home in our new house. So, while yesterday was the bodily traces in art objects day (think hair, dust, blood etc), today has been about Boltanski's Missing House from 1990. (If you don't know it, see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/niah84/2842382429/). There seems to be a bit of contradiction going on as to whether Boltanski saw this piece in the same vein as his post-memory Holocaust work - one critic quotes him as saying that the installation is about "'the finger of God'; that is, the absurd and arbitrary contingency that determined that the residents on one stairway would be blown to bits, whilst those on the other might escape unscathed", where as another writes: "He ... discovered the names of the previous Jewish inhabitants, which he then used as the basis for the memorial content of the work". I've always liked Boltanski's work, the tricky bit is referring to artists who are so well written about in this field - it's really easy to go off on perhaps a really interesting tangent, but a tangent nonetheless. The snow's pretty much all melted here now. Give the metro's headline of 'Briton's heaving a sigh of relief' as the forecast heavy snow failed to materialise, it seems I'm one of the few people in the country who would prefer that it had stayed. Okay, so the trains were crowed, the death-ice wasn't much fun and I really didn't like it when my boots leaked, but my god, wasn't it beautiful?  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 My shortest post ever: Writing this dissertation is beginning to feel pretty much like curating an exhibition - I know there's a way that all the ideas will work together on the page, but it's taking a ludicrous amount to time to figure out exactly which way that is.  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 Finally back in studio to actually make stuff, rather than rushing in to print off a couple of things, grab some books and get back home to continue writing. The MA dissertation is finally finished, and although it's nearly killed me to get it in, I'm actually pretty proud of myself. I have posted previously about what I was aiming to do with the text, but I thought it might make a little more sense if I quote from the writing directly: "The critical essay positioned on the left side of the page, draws upon anthropological, geographical and aesthetical sources to place the ideas of trace and absence in a domestic environment into a visual arts context. The accompanying text and images on the right side of the page are a series of reflective writings and photographs related to my personal experience of the issues raised in the main essay. The symbiotic relationship between the two sections contextualises the main essay, whilst creating a piece of work which can be understood as a manifestation of my artistic practice. The sections of each chapter have been ordered to create a sense of overarching narrative, while the language used has been chosen to imbue a sense of these works and ideas in the reader's mind." I'm seeing this writing as a piece of work itself - the design, paper stock, typesetting etc were all carefully considered, and were in fact integral to the understanding of the piece. I'm intending to put a low-res version of it up on my website for download, just as soon as I've had chance to make it web-ready. I've also been buzzing with ideas about new work today - I want to incorporate the more conceptual ideas I've had as a result of the writing into the sculptures / installations I make. Firstly, this is going to involve thinking of the traces left in our house in terms of layers of semi-factitious narrative. There are various indents in the carpet from both our furniture and the previous occupier's furniture - whilst I know the narrative, the stories associated with our own furniture, I only have vague memories of the previous furniture. These memories are intangible, fragile things, subject to erosion by time. So, any traces I associate memories to in relation to this pre-existing furniture, while based on fact, gradually loose this 'factual' content, become embroiled with imagined ideas, and hence the coined word 'factitious'. Buildings don't exist is a set time periods of 'then' and 'now' (see http://www.glimmersinlimbo.co.uk/) - there is a fluidity in how they would have existed at different points. So the other area I want to incorporate in this new work is a way of suggesting the gradual build-up and erasure of these traces over a period of time. What I'm intending to start with is a cast of the carpet in our living room - the carpet is cut to the walls, so the size and shape of the room, plus an idea of the type of building is implicit in the work. The cast will include indents from various items of furniture - ours, theirs, other furniture which isn't theirs, but is similar to what I remember it being like.   So it looks like I'll be making something pretty big. Yeay!... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430 I've been having one of those weeks / most of the month when my brain just feels like cotton wool. Trying to pin down a cohesive thought has been nigh on impossible. So instead of rushing off to the studio this morning to faff about and not achieve a massive amount, I'm sitting under a couple of blankets on our bed (very cosy) sorting though emails of various upcoming things (AV festival kicks off next week) and writing lists. We've got the carpet all rolled up, and I've managed to locate a space I can roll it out to see it in a different context over the weekend. Not an easy feat, as it's about 6m long by 4m wide. I've had a chat with a few people about ideas for the carpet piece, but I don't think I can make any decisions until I've been able to view as an object as opposed to the floor of a room. The trouble with making a cast is primarily the enormous cost, plus if it were being made out of a stiff material (such as concrete of plaster) it would need to be assembled in sections, something which would affect the work visually. I then wondered about treating the carpet in some way, perhaps with wax and graphite power, so if people walk on in during the exhibition, the marks of their feet would be left as traces along with the indents already in there. Trouble with this is that the indents have been made over quite a long time period, where as the foot marks would be created in a period of days - the work could easily end up being about the time of the exhibition, as opposed to the much longer history the carpet has. There's also the problem of using quite 'arty' material such as wax and graphite. I tried to shift away from the materials a bit by burning some of the flea market photos I have, effectively creating my own carbon. But then, it this trying to bring too many things into one piece? I've gotten hold of several pairs of 1920s creamy coloured elbow-length leather gloves from another flea market. I thought these were pretty fascinating because of them being made of a skin to cover a skin; they're a little stained, some are really crisp, others are very soft. I wasn't sure what to do with them, so I started unpicking the seams, seeing what happened when I opened them up. I was also thinking about using them as a support for printing photographs onto. But as was pointed out to me (quite rightly, I might add) is that the glove would basically be acting as a canvas for an image - it wouldn't really be about the skin, but the glove. And why a glove? And is this trying to put too much into one piece again? I realised that even though I haven't worked with print or drawing for several years, let alone paint, there's a way of working that is easy to fall back on. It's something quite habitual, even though I've been working with objects, I still see things very much as images. Also, it's very easy to want to 'make' something. Perhaps just moving the carpet out of its current context will be enough. Maybe the glove says enough just by being unpicked.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/486430