With the Aspects of Interdisciplinarityconference coming up at the University of Wolverhampton (October 8th), I have been thinking about how artists use ideas. It is not simply a borrowing, it is more a deep excavation – in all directions. Generally, it is about the interweaving of concepts from different disciplines rather than a wholesale use of one idea from one discipline and, in the end result, it is probably hard to pull things apart and put back in their own place. My thoughts, which I will present in a performative paper called Glorious Corruption, are that this amalgamation creates new ideas that could feed back to their origins and a new way of looking. Artists such as Katie Patterson are so adept at pulling out ideas and presenting them in such a beguiling way that make you question and think long after the exhibition has finished.
I class myself as a practicing artist which means I have interests in ideas around the actual production such as the way artists work, methods of display, materials and processes and finding a way to reconcile practice and research – in a way of presenting material that is rooted in research, or research that is rooted in practice especially when the two are so closely intertwined. I find this incredibly difficult without almost presenting an essay to accompany the work.
Went to photograph a dead thrush, almost perfect. My original idea was to dress them in baby clothes highlighting their vulnerability but I don’t always have them accessible. Today, I went with intuition and used petals and herbs. Not quite sure what this means in relation to the other images and I definitely don’t want to create a shrine. Perhaps when all the images are put together, I will be able to evaluate the series and maybe decide they have no value whatsoever as a photographic series.
