DEGREES UNEDITED

Richard Taylor in conversation with Nathalie Bouleau Chabot

Making the most of medium and material, two sides to juggling the creative whole

Nathalie permeates her practice with meditative ease. Here she discusses the duality in time spent mark making and reflections made or transformed through the 'medium' of the blogosphere. By retaining an inward and tactile quality to her practice, sustained by a concentrated length, her work looks towards a virtual and altered future.

How far can someone gaze through the matter at hand whilst still using it to tend to the here and now? Read and comment on Nathalie's blog »

Thoughts from a previous decade, Nathalie explains:

Some of my blog posts mention that I am a nervous artist: constant self-doubt often necessitates reassurance before I embark on an idea. When I told my friend Ben Jeans Houghton that I was only doing this course to please the tutors he was shocked. He couldn't believe that my attitude was so different to his, and I think it was only this month that I realised what a stupid statement that was. I just didn't trust myself. It may be that they have the final decision on what classification I get, but what does that really matter?

What matters is that I fulfil my interests in a physical way, where I feel a connection to the tools that I hold in my hand. Physical mark making is important to my work, whether that be the heavy indentation a pencil makes, the sharp slice of a knife or the uncontrollable burn of an incense stick. When I work, a contemplative space is created wherein I am more fully able to reflect on my own sensory experience. I want to create a similar meditative space for the viewer where they can experience the familiar through my work; with mark making acting as a form of contact between artist and medium, artist and audience and audience and work.

Taking some time out to talk about time spent

Richard Taylor: How do you use the definition of "medium" in your work? It strikes me that medium as in material crosses with medium as spiritual connectivity: the artistic act, with which you mould an environment for experience, lies somewhere in between...

Nathalie Bouleau Chabot: Yes, this spiritual connectivity is very interesting... It relates to my practice as a Buddhist, where meditation is used as both a physical and mental act (I often contemplate whether my work could be presented as a simple, single mark, the union of the mind and the hand.) A lot of people around me in the studio are able to come in and maybe work for an hour and a half and then leave, whereas my practice revolves around creating a period of at least five hours where I can gain the meditative experience I require, during which I am very aware of the medium (material) I am using, the implications of the mark it makes and why my hand is making them.

This notion of time is also important in how my entire practice operates: in order to blog, I must experience the entire length of a day, how I use the time determines what I blog. The blog is situated in a public space, where typing is a very quick and immediate activity, in complete contrast with the long hours spent labouring over a pierced sheet of paper in my private studio space. The time frame is constantly shifting, yet I must always show mindfulness and awareness in my daily activities, experiences and art making.

RT: It is interesting how you consider blogging to be such an important aspect, an extension of timescale, yet distilled within shorter time frame. Do the differences in immediacy and immersed studio time make your practice more rigorous? Is this a duality that you think is worth persevering with?

NBC: Paradoxical qualities tend to drive my work: I went to a talk recently based on the concept of doing and doing nothing, I felt it related to my practice in that I have recently decided not to photograph this new body of work. As the blog is such a public element, I see the artwork operating in a more private way, being seen only when and where I determine. In light of this, it may seem that all I do is talk about the work and as there are no visual results available, it may also seem that I am doing nothing. However, I am not inactive and it begins to feel that I am only working for my eyes; I think this releases some of the pressure I put on myself when making.

RT: It's odd that you have chosen not to photograph any of it, but I guess this makes it more 'of the moment', and the writing/blogging comes afterwards almost as a cleansing exercise - would you agree? I like the idea of disguising yourself within apparent inactivity. Do you think you might end up with two separate bodies of work: the work itself and the textual/fictional description...? This might be quite an interesting way forward.

NBC: Yes, it is a way of making the artworks seem more 'immediate', there may be pre-conceptions about what it looks like physically (perhaps I should become more descriptive) but this is only revealed when I choose to exhibit it. At present, the work I produce is cyclic - the art is fundamentally about the blog, yet I'm blogging about the art. This idea that you mention about having two bodies of work is in fact the way I am progressing, yet they also operate as a whole... it may already be working through this discussion!

RT: Keeping two sides to a whole is a healthy way of working, and again this refers to a certain duality within your practice. You mention using the blog as a driving force for the work, but then that the blog is about the work itself - this is a paradox is it not? Have you considered having two different blogs, one that comments on the other - a sort of pseudo commentator?

NBC: It is indeed a paradox. I haven't thought about the idea of having two blogs, this could be an addition to my work in Semester Two. I see how it would relate to the other blog, and I wonder how it would work in relation to the artwork... I see in your blog that you write:

"...This conference between note book, photocopied page, photograph and BLOG, is paramount to the working of an artwork."

Do you see these elements working together only in order to realise the artwork, or do they also operate on their own? Do they work in one sequence (notebook-photocopy-photograph-blog) or are you able to use them in various cycles?

RT: The elements seem harmonious: the blog is a relatively recent addition to the recipe, something that has arisen from not having a studio space, an alternative outlet for community, or even a virtual wall to pin my ideas too. The only thing that works separately seems to be the finality of a project / exhibition.

How do you see your practice changing after the build up and melt down of your degree? Will the virtual and contemplative sphere be a plane, upon which to build a practice outside of institutional security?

NBC: How long have you worked without a studio space? Did you choose to work in this way, and do you see it as being advantageous?

The virtual and written side of the work will probably become even more important once the degree is over; the physical making will no longer have to be the fundamental aspect and so I will be able to work to my own rhythm. I recently attended a lifeworkart conference, where the stand out statement was "Do not stop working after your degree show," and as you mentioned that for you, the blog works as an alternative outlet for your physical studio, I think that for me too, it will be a way of keeping my practice rolling, straight from day one out of university.

RT: I work in this way I guess because of the values that I had at the time, earning money was more important than making art and I had never considered self employment and studio costs as an option straight away. I do find that I have adapted my practice considerably due to space, but this does not mean it has retracted; it has just gone in different directions.

The virtual sphere is a useful tool for some and it sounds like your practice is just as much conceptual as it is physical. By working on both levels, do you find your ethos to be more versatile? Is yours to be a virtual studio too?

NBC: I think that up until this semester my work only operated in a physical way; although the physicality is still an essential element, it was only when I began to blog and take the writing more seriously that a new concept came about. I was told during assessment that this was a bold step in my practice, yet I no longer feel restricted in materials or imagery. This could potentially open up more avenues in how I choose to produce the work and whom I collaborate with. This profile could even become part of the work...

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

What is the validity of virtual possibility and how much can the blogosphere act as sustenance for extension in physical practice? How do you see Nathalie's exercise in using multiplicities of both the virtual and the real-time to 'open up more avenues'?

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First published: a-n.co.uk January 2010