Having reviewed the previous day’s activities writing the blog I began the day with defined strategies, a sort of map of activities to follow. I recognise I’m alternating between working intuitively responding onsite, and defining parameters within which to work. I’m not working to specified outputs.
I considered the Japanese Sumi-e perspectives again, decided to ‘draw’ the views of toad eye, human eye and bird eye. Drawings were with charcoal on one page, and then film, of an unusual ash that had a large branch low to the ground that had grown to a form representative of an arm reaching out. In choosing to record these different perspectives I had to climb up into the tree and onto the branch. Shadows constantly change the appearance of the forms in the forest, I experimented with my shadows putting feet or hands into the image, putting myself into the landscape and subject. This fits well as much of the reflection is subjective.
The pastel drawing:
human eye is the tree itself
toad eye is the leaves on the forest floor
bird eye is the drawing of the light and shadows on the paper cast by the canopy
“As a discursive exploration, drawing is first performative and only second a product, demonstrating a switch of emphasis from the dominance of visual appearance towards a consideration of drawing as an interactive dynamic and as a space of conception and speculation.” TRACEY 2007 p.xix
There is a performative element in the ways the drawings are produced, in how I move through the forest and engage with it. In how I approached the tree constantly checking the ground for snakes, climbed onto it, made shadows and expressed through my body but all in silence. It would be interesting to record this somehow, to help review it.
Drawing with a stick and recording the audio – there was more expression in the mark making sounds than the drawn message which fades on the paper. https://vimeo.com/126368702. Two more attempts had increased soundscape and less visible marks made in the dry earth. https://vimeo.com/126373875. It might be interesting to separate the two, use sound only to express and then draw from the sounds recorded. I started this
There is discomfort in hearing my voice in the films when my voice sounds performative, rather than authentic. How to create authenticity in the responses – is this more viable with a structure to follow or an improvised approach? What approach allows greater authenticity in response?
Japanese Sumi-e can be about drawing the poem, or writing the picture. http://www.sumiesociety.org/whatissumie.php They are about the beauty of the drawn line and the experience of nature. I had found the seventeen syllable haiku limiting in terms of my voice and expression, in her lecture Madoka Mayuzumi commented:
“Haiku is the world’s shortest literary form, consisting of just seventeen syllables. This is why it’s sometimes called “the literature of silence.” In fact, many of Japan’s traditional art forms are built on an aesthetic of reduction, on the principle that less is more. We tend to find the greatest beauty on what is left unsaid, in the rich possibilities of blank space.”
So again there are two opposites: the silent subtle haiku voice and the longer, more expressive and definitive prose. I seem to be defining and combining opposites with the project, text and image; intuitive and prescriptive; inner thoughtscape with outer forestscape. Exploring the possibilities found in the interplay between opposing approaches and ideas.
