Emergence

Whilst browsing through The Guardian Arts website last night I surprisingly came across my recent exhibition in their “This week’s exhibition previews” article! Channel is being shown as part of the Millais gallery’s offsite program. “The new exhibition focuses on the Channel, that notorious stretch of water between the city and France that has been an inspiration to cultural aesthetes over the ages. Contemporary artists including Andrew Cross, Susan Collins, Peter Collis and Rosie Maguire join forces to provide an idiosyncratic vision of this watery throroughfare” says The Guardian (see link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/nov/07/art-exhibitions-previews-the-guide). I know my name isn’t in it but as Channel is my first exhibition post graduation I am quite excited about it! My first review!

I am currently developing some sketches in front of the warm fire and I’m also working on another new idea which I thought of whilst thinking about the lack of tourists who actually simply stop and look. I will post new images soon.

My application form for the open submission exhibition in The Forum, Norwich is in the post so fingers crossed! I am trying to apply to as many things as possible to get my name out there. I suppose The Guardian has helped a lot with that!

After a very nice comment on my previous blog I have been thinking. I was focusing too much on the logistics of a, frankly undeveloped idea. What I was asked was “Why do you want to make this?” “Why the specific rectangle?” “Where would you like the installation to be situated geographically?” and “What is it you would like your audience to experience?”… These are very good considerations to think about which I had lost since graduating. They would have been the first thing talked about with tutors, so maybe I have just lost my way a bit in the big wide world. I have been reminded they are important things any artist needs to think about.

So, here goes… The horizon… It offers so much to all of us. It is a thing to longingly view, to wonder at and try to reach. What is beyond it? What is beneath it? For me it offers a sense of mystery and an idyllic atmosphere. Maybe because of all of the romantic poems, songs, paintings and from the British seafaring time that I love so much, but also because of my Great Grandfathers memory who was lost somewhere out there. This is what I want the audience of my installation to feel, the quiet stillness of looking out to the oceans horizon. In todays world hardly anyone stops to actually look. I live in a small seaside town and despite the crowds of daytripper’s the seafront is lacking in people just looking. There is only one of those charming old binoculars that the seaside boom brought to our shores. There are ice cream stalls, putting greens, cafe’s, beach huts and piers to entertain the masses, however, in my opinion we seem to have forgotten what we originally travelled to the coast for in the first place… the sea!

It is important therefore, that i find somewhere near the coast to show my installation. I had never really thought about why i automatically chose a rectangular room to experiment with, mainly because when you look ahead at the horizon or take a photo of it your eye sees a line in front of you – i automatically thought of a rectangle room but it would work equally well in a oval curved room. Whilst writing this blog I have become also aware that it is very important I use a still film piece over the top of the installation to show the sunrise and sunset – the most beautiful times in the day. I hope it will add a romantic atmosphere to the piece which will make people just stop and be almost hypnotized as I am at the beach.

Anyway, speaking of sunsets, the sun is beginning to go down now. I think I’ll go and take some photos and have a look at the horizon with a sketchbook poised. But before I go thanks to Andrew who (with his great comment) has got me on track again! Lets hope the ball gets rolling again.

I am having a creative crisis! Yesterday, in a rushed attempt to sketch the idea I talked about in my last blog I came to the conclusion that I am more of a conceptual artist… As I have recently read in a new blog by Gina Furnari helping recent graduate artists “It’s post art school that molds an artist” (Joe Bun Keo) See: http://undergroundartschool.typepad.com/underground-art-school/2009/11/tipping-points-submitting-your-work.html… and this certainly seems to ring true. I have learned more about myself since graduation in July than I did on my whole course! I tried in vain yesterday to sketch my installation idea about bringing the seascape directly into an entire gallery room. However, I soon realized that I am a lot better at simply creating my ideas from scratch rather than planning them with drawings and calculations. I guess this means I will learn from mistakes, but the only thing is with this idea is that it is so big that it will be very expensive and time consuming to just go for it. I need to find a space big enough and the right rectangular shape I envisage and will need to actually do planning. The image attached here shows my rather amateur attempt to sketch the idea.

All of this frustration got me thinking about how other artists plan and document the development of their ideas. I realize sketches/ideas shouldn’t be neat and tidy, if they had to be we’d all be graphic designers! But I am going to to some research into other artists sketchbooks in an attempt to reassure myself and make myself feel better, I mean look at Emin – her drawings aren’t exactly anatomically correct and in proportion. Does anyone else have this same crisis?.. maybe it is just my perfectionist side coming out.

Anyway, to further my idea and develop more of a visual representation of what is in my head I am going to take some photos and photoshop them together to make a smaller version of the installation. I am also taking Gina Furnari’s advice and I’m going to apply for as many exhibition oportunities as possible to get out there, so I’m in the process of applying for “Elements” (an open art exhibition at The Forum, Norwich). Wish me luck!

I was walking along the Sheringham seafront at sunrise yesterday morning when suddenly inspiration struck! Whilst walking the dog with my partner, a former fisherman, I asked him why there seems to be light and dark patches in the water close to the horizon… This is apparently because of the oceans depth. The darker areas show the water moving faster over the lumps and bumps of the seabed. It was when he said “it looks like the sea has just been cutout” that I had one of those lightbulb above the head moments…

A “cutout” in the sea lead to a literal “cutout” OF the sea. Since graduation I have had so many ideas that have simply remained in the form of a sketch or quick note on a napkin. However, I am especially keen on this idea and am now going to develop it more and work out some of the logistics. I would love to perhaps use photographs or paintings of the sea, horizon and sky to form an installation in a entire room. What gallery/studio will have enough white cube style space I do not know, but I envisage viewers standing in the doorway viewing the piece in front of them with the horizon being where the floor meets the wall. Literally bringing the seascape into the gallery, lifesize. I would also like to experiment with using a still film piece to project over the top of the installation that will change the time of day in the room and show sunrise to sunset in a shortened amount of time. It could be an entire cycle of the day’s seascape in a more manageable hours installation.

I am heading into Norwich tomorrow to meet a friend who studies photography so will begin the search for the ideal space to develop this idea. My studio in the spare room of the flat is just not big enough!

Sketches to follow soon…

I don’t think there’s any need to introduce myself, I have been blogging for a while now. For those who don’t know me have a look at my website (www.lauraball.co.uk). Sadly, my previous unedited blog took a sudden nose dive after I graduated and moved house to the eccentric little seaside town of Sheringham. Naturally, many things were lost in the big move and I got distracted from doing anything remotely to do with art. But now I am settled into a new job and new flat my work is beginning to pick up the pace again! Thank god! It is so frustrating having ideas and literally not having the time to carry them out, if anyone has any advice on how to juggle being an artist AND working full time it would be much appreciated. I swear to do everything I want to do I will have to cut sleep out of my life completely!

Anyway, after my degree show, a small spin off exhibition at The Greyladyes Art Foundation and an exhibition for Suffolk Showcase 2009 I have another exhibition coming up at The Millais Gallery, Southampton. It is called Channel and includes “New work by contemporary artists including Andrew Cross, Susan Collins, Laura Ball, Julian Germain, Dominique Rey, Peter Collis and Rosie Maguire.” I was very surprised to be in such high demand after the degree show but I cannot wait to get to see this new exhibition, curated by Les Buckingham. The private view opens tonight – eek!

For those of you who don’t know my work looks at the sea surrounding Britain and its influence over our daily lives. In 1957 my Great Grandfathers fishing boat was lost at sea with no evidence of what happened. It was thought he and his crew of 8 trawled a mine. However, no trace was ever found so this suspicion has never been confirmed. I am absolutely fascinated by things I have recovered whist on a trip on a Portsmouth fishing boat. There is a sense of sadness about them which brings up a longing within me that I can’t quite explain. Overall in my work I aim to show the true dangers of the sea and yet include its very mysterious and idyllic side.

I am beginning this new blog to talk about my works progress post graduation. At the beginning I found it difficult to find inspiration without the structure of being in a course with tutors to nudge things on but things are picking up now so writing a blog will help me work through ideas and thoughts… and get feedback to the work of course!

For now I have only one thought, when shall I go and see the new J M W Turner show at the Tate?! I simply have to see it, Turner is one of my key inspirations, his work is exquisite.