The terror of neutrality

ABSURD

I’ve been thinking about the dadaists all week, since our last lecture. My understanding of them is that they produced absurd art as a reaction to the absurdity of the war. I’ve been wondering why there is no movement as strong as this around at the moment, as there are many absurd global practices going on. Someone asked after the lecture whether we have all been neutralised and it seems that we have. I saw a trailer to the film ‘the age of stupid’ yesterday. This film is set in 2055 and the main protagonist wonders why we didn’t try to stop global warming now.

I’m wondering whether I should only make absurd art.

Here is a dada poem discovered on my foundation course which has been on my studio wall for many years.

Kurt Schwitters

To Anna Blume

You, oh you, beloved of my twenty-seven senses, I love ya! – You thine thou yours, I you, you me. – Us? This (incidentally) does not belong here. Who are you, countless woman? You are 
- are you? – People say you are – let 
them say it, they don’t know where the steeple is. 
You wear a hat on your feet and stand 
on your hands, on your hands you walk. 
Hello, your red clothes, sawed into white pleats.
Red I love, Anna Blume, red I love ya! – You 
thine thou yours, I you, you me. – Us?
That (incidentally) belongs in the cold embers.
Red flower, red Anna Blume, what are people saying?
Prize question: 1. Anna Blume has a bird.
 2. Anna Blume is red.
 3. What color is the bird?
Blue is the color of your yellow hair.
Red is the cooing of your green bird.
You plain girl in an everyday dress, you dear 
green animal, I love ya! – You thine thou yours, I 
you, you me – us?
That (incidentally) belongs in the ember box.
Anna Blume! Anna, a-n-n-a, I am dripping your 
name. Your name drips like soft suet.
Do you know, Anna, do you know yet?
You can also be read from back to front, and you, you 
most marvelous creature of them all, you are from the back 
as you are from the front:a-n-n-a.«
Suet drips caress my back.
Anna Blume, you droppy animal, I love ya!

An Anna Blume

STARTING POINTS

initial ideas as starting points are

Emotions that compelled me:

stunned hummingbird – I once held a stunned hummingbird whilst travelling;

whirling dermish – the energy from that controlled religeous whirling is very interesting;

Birds – terror, hitchcock.

Control/Formations:

synchronised swimming;

red arrows;

soldiers.

I’m hoping to combine these ideas – possibly the terror of the everyday.

Even within the most beautiful landscape, in the trees, under the leaves the insects are eating each other…..Fransis Bacon

The folded raven is an idea that I had whilst doing a drawing workshop with Rupert Hartley on space and architecture in the centre for drawing. The fold is an architectural theory. The abstract grass folds onto the next page and I was also thinking about the tyranny of the page.

EXPERIMENT

I am nearly two months into my MA at Wimbledon. Three weeks ago during my first tutorial I was encouraged to experiment more. I gave myself a task – i bought a new sketch book and told myself to make one new drawing everyday, allowing myself one double page only. This was to allow myself time to experiment, look for new ideas, without being precious about my work or ideas. I am now 25 days into my sketch book and really enjoying the freedom to draw anything at all, links are definitely appearing and some not so good stuff too (I thought i’d see if I had any Edward Gorey type animals in me and have discovered that unfortunately I definitely don’t). This change in practice has also freed me from worrying about my research question for my disertation. I have also discovered that I don’t know much about anything.