Week Four | Stock Take
Following my tutorial with Jonathan this week and the realisations that followed I am taking smaller steps and allowing process to drive my explorations. As I feel my practice has been experimental over the past few years I feel there are still plenty of loose ends and lines of enquiry that I could continue to explore.
As I am frustrated with no studio time currently I will be dividing my time between drawings, which I can do easily from home and seem to be working well and taking stock of loose ends in the studio that could provide avenues for continued work.
Vessels
Funerary urns, burial urns, mortal remains, cinenary urns, amphora, containers
There are 30+ of these pieces, they were unplanned and spontaneous
I enjoyed how they appeared quickly and without much thought. They feel unique and relevant to me
They are a bit aesthetic and ‘light’ - I feel I could develop them
Perhaps larger scale might create more gravity
Death, grief, loss, personal grief, burial.
2. Atmospheric Landscapes
These have formed the mainstay of my work this year and formed the body of work exhibited in the three shows I have had this year
I like the evocative nature of these, the moodiness and I definitely want to continue with the nocturne themes
I am hugely attracted to this type of work
Can sometimes feel less unique to me, possibly a bit more ‘off-the-rack’
Integrating some of the more experimental aspects of my work will help make them feel more unique
Loss, grief, belonging, identity, nocturnes, anthropocene, apocalypse
3. Drawings
I have been drawing at home due to lack of studio time and it feels good to draw. I don’t feel all of the drawings are newsworthy but they are driven by the doing and are helping me to explore ideas of violent landscapes, lawless death and burial and insignificant burial sites.
I feel there is reliance on muscle memory and they tend to go a similar way each time.
Looking for new ways to use materials. Using liquid charcoal, garden hose to remove marks, pencil, charcoal and pastel
Bring in more discomfort, new materials maybe
Personal grief, personal ancestry, places, spaces, memories, childhood, apocalypse
4. Penthos
Continuation of the series of very layered painted fabrics
Exploring ancient storytelling around grief, death, underworld, lamentation, memory.
Mostly unfinished work but could easily become an interesting series of works.
Grief, collective grief, memory, loss, extinction.
5. Free canvas pieces
Started during the CASS course with the RCA in 2022 these pieces were initially conceived as hangings or grief tapestries/hangings but they didn’t resolve
The format and markings were exciting to make and I enjoyed the process until they had to be presented and this stage of the process felt forced and unsatisfactory
Soaking fabric with marks, painting over them, layering them. Bleach and blue fabrics all felt wonderful to me and I loved how they felt and looked
I could revisit these in light of my recent tutorial with Jonathan and worry much less about ‘what they are’ and just allow a new process to evolve.
