Week Thirty-Three | Organic Matter of Fact
Dead Critics Society | Compost Drawings - 16th October
I have asked for a crit slash brainstorming session with my fellow Critics and it’s got me out and working with sludgy, organic kitchen matter once again, which I haven’t much felt like doing recently. I am going to take advantage of this warmer spell to aid the rotting and blotting of kitchen scraps on paper.
My question
How can I develop these drawings further to explore the ideas I have around narratives in the earth that consider death, boneyards, grief, decay. How could I research these ideas further and how could I start to imagine presenting this body of drawings. It is important that these works remain drawings and that they in some way relate to the compost heap but I am otherwise open to a discussion on all possible avenues.
The process so far
A2 and A3 watercolour paper made wet with collected rainwater and then kitchen waste tipped over the paper. I then left them overnight and then added another layer of rotted compost from the compost heap and some dried, cut grass from the lawn mower. I am now leaving them to dry for a while, although I am a bit worried about how many animals and pests all that unattended food might attract, not least my undiscerning dog who is sniffing about with ideas of pilfery wafting about her greedy, ginger snout.
The feedback from Unit One was to consider creating my own materials and the paper making has been fantastic, as has the compost humus ink. I don’t feel I can do both at the same time though, as the paper I have made is too fragile and collapses the moment it becomes wet. The stable substrate of shop bought, albeit handmade watercolour paper has been more fruitful (so to speak) and I have decided to pursue the two as separate lines of enquiry. It would be great to reach a point where I can draw with compost ink on compost paper and I will keep thinking about how to do this.
Satisfying first dump of kitchen waste on the paper. What does our waste say about us… I felt an instant concern about this, feeling the need to remove evidence of a middle class existence: waitrose melon peels and quite a lot of avocados. Probably from Chile or somewhere. I was asked about the coffee pods, which are home compostable and quite hard to come by - one of the marketing ploys of many producers of such coffee pods is to say they are compostable but only when the elements are carefully separated and sent off to undisclosed recycling units. Which of course no one does. This collection of domestic scraps tells the story of someone trying but still leaving a significant footprint.
The next stage has been to add more well rotted compost from the compost heap and add it in. It really smells.
I’ve been sitting quietly with the drawings, watching them work their magic, dancing with gravity and surrendering to the sun. The critters are hiding under the wood, which weighs it all down, worms and creepy crawlies galore.
Having left it outside for three days the paper is really starting to fall apart. I have cleared off the debris back into the compost heap and have started to wash off the bits of egg shell, rice, sweetcorn. The marks are beautiful, earthy, unapologetic. These feel like a satisfying collaboration with my garden, with my compost. A happy, earthly balance.
Below are some previous, smaller efforts from last term, also on watercolour paper. I also used some compost paper as the drawing medium on some, which has been partially interesting and partially just lumpy. I think this needs more thought.
I have also distilled the compost humus into a more concentrated ink and have been drawing more traditionally using the ink. These are A1 drawings on watercolour paper. I have used a reed pen I bought but I think I could make a dip nib out of some of wood from the compost, will have to investigate. Some of these drawings have. moved down the route of drawing fungi and mycelium networks and I like the way they are moving. I would like to jet wash them and keep drawing over the top.
Response to the Crit
Obvious response is that if we did this properly on the MA our work would move on much faster! Anyhoo. Following points were really helpful:
Catherine made the point that I may be overthinking. I think this is true - I feel comfortable with the concepts and ideas I have been considering since around 2019 in one form or another so maybe the time now is more for unthinking doing
Tom said maybe stop for a while and see what happens and what I choose to come back to later
We discussed the idea of a performance piece and it was pointed out that I don’t have to be a part of the performance it could be durational, which I really like. I have been looking at the durational durings of Catherine Danoe and reminding myself of my grids from my show at Camberwell in 1996! I made grids where I would fill in certain habitual tasks over a fixed period of time. It wasn’t very good but I think I really like the idea of grids and recording, charting
This fits in nicely with my RP and discussions with Professor Goodwin about art as witness by way of documenting and recording what is inexplicable or unrelatable in science or climate change specifically. My writings lately about Einfühlung are right on point here so this makes a lot of sense. I also like that it takes me out of my comfort zone, which was rightly questioned in the crit
Feedback around the use of the compost being a bit literal rang true to me. In discussions with Jonathan previously I have raised this and JK talked about how we have to go through these art-schooly techniques to simply begin and see where it goes from there
Roz talked about observation and participation, how much are we just observing the marks made in the compost and how much am I personally participating in this. I haven’t got a rounded sense of what this might mean but I definitely feel it would be useful to spend more time thinking about it, particularly in light of possibly doing a performance piece
A dialogue with the compost might be of interest - mapping all the activity on a daily basis, as I did with the interim drawings. Drawing, rubbing out, same again the next day. That is in a way already a performance piece.
Talking about the compost helped cement the idea as the right way to go, I love the boneyards idea, I love how it speaks to metaphor, it feels authentic, it feels personal to me etc. The question really is how to express that visually in my work.
I found the crit very helpful and I do so very much wish we had more opportunity to talk about our work with those who know more about our subjects than we do.
Huge thanks to Catherine, Tom and Roz for their contributions.