Taking on board some of the comments and my own ideas after the last group crit a clear direction of investigation came about last week.
Screen-printing lends itself to quick investigation (especially if you are not fastidious about quality) and it is satisfying how much can be done in the space of a few hours. From the idea of taking just one image and repeating it to build up a wave of almost a pattern, with enough to cover a small room, led me to print and print over and over to achieve this. Then, simply pinning up these pieces on the wall to get a rough idea of how this might look. Almost, but not quite what I imagined – it was not enough to cover a whole room, by a fair bit and it wasn’t the quality of image that bothered me but the gaps in-between – I’d like it almost to overlap I think.
We talked about this in my crit later in agreement – and how the possibility of the logistics of the printing could be changed, instead of single sheets, how about a roll almost like wallpaper? I can work out how that can be done later. I’d like to get it done soon so that I can see it better, as a complete installation. I definitely feel its a way to pursue – a flat surface becoming something else through repetition and placement. How would this be either just as a whole room or with other elements incorporated? This is one way to go down.
There was also the experimentation of the same repeat on a more traditional canvas. More of an object, it is really quite pleasing – which is certainly an indication of my thoughts about painting and the object. My practice sometimes seems quite conventional at its core despite my attempts to push it to employ more contemporary methods and ideas.
This canvas, however, is not finished – I discussed in the tutorial the ideas of adding something and the conversation turned back to the idea of some sort of text. The previous attempts to “add” text didn’t seem to fit. I believe more of a billboard style may be more successful – Lucy McKenzie’s Depeche Mode/Erasure paintings (text on found canvas) as a reference point. These things can be tried out through projecting first and seeing what fits or doesn’t.
Returning to the idea of a singular image, the idea to project/paint seems fitting. How these may be painted in another matter to explore. Looking at David Salle’s work has been a starting point – either outlined, quite painterly marks or semi-realist aspects to the work make for contrast within the image as a whole. It is worth finding my own way to pursue how this might work.
Salle’s work makes me imagine how these aspects could work combined in a space, more physical than a canvas however. The seemingly intuitive placing of different elements – could work in a space larger than the rectangle frame it is contained in.
To offset the practical work, I took a trip up to Aberdeen-shire at the weekend to visit Emily at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop. I love these kinds of residency places which are really isolated in small communities – there is this strange mix of traditional, twee, remote, with some really modern, contemporary and innovative aspects thrown in. It reminded me a lot of the residency I stayed at in Iceland last year, but with a lot more resources.Although we are just in the first semester, it did make me think and reconfirm my desire to complete more projects through residency based work in the future, after this course is finished. I know I am the kind of person who works well with a specific project and time frame. Which is why I enjoy academic framework and why I am on this course.
