Sketchbooking

Art Research

Back to a foundation sketchbook.

Some new pointers from tutorial discussions to follow up

1.We Form Geology (2012-13)

2.Physical Geology (2008-9)

1. ‘Ripple-Marked Radience (After Hertha Ayrton)’ 2019

2. Keepsafe (I) 2019. Keepsafe (II) of the pair pictured in installation shot 3.

3. Core Values

4. Ghostly

1. Nigredo Laid To Waste (1992)

2. As Above So Below (1992)

3. Flammable Solid- Flammable Liquid.(1994)

4. Mossers, Rebels and Wolves. (2000)

RESPONSE

Inspiring range of practices in terms of materials and processes.  With Donna Haraway’s ‘Staying With The Trouble’ in mind…. Papova tapestries = particularly interesting and appeal to my interest in the  haptic aspect of textile work and possibly the gendered ones too? Stimulates thoughts of possible developmental work in textiles. artists’ practices in this context are enviro-ecologically motivated in quite a political way. I am also interested in a sort of spiritual perspective too – the Laniakea sort of notion from Tom Chi perhaps?”…. Evoking a spiritual materiality – is that an oxymoron? I suppose I mean finding ways to articulate the sense of awe and wonder – the joy – of ‘being stuff’ (nature) rather than purely anthropocentrically cultural. Here back to thinking about Latour and his arguments against simple binaries like this.

Shared with RW, in tutorial, the sense of pure green-eyed-monster envy that Onwin’s practice raises in terms of working at scale in such inspiring locations – ‘As Above, So’ Below’ project going onto my jealousy list along with Penone’s massive bronze and gold trees, Eliasson’s Turbine Hall Sun installation and the whole of Little Sparta. Aspirations to make work at scale even more squashed by this lockdown and lack of space to make anything very much at all!

Of Halperin, noted how much I enjoyed her sound installation at Glasgow (GOMA –  CIA trip last Autumn) and that the geologic/personal unity of  ‘The Eldfell Birthday Event’ work resonates with me quite deeply. Something about how different ‘timescales’ interplay ….

Studying

Following -up some of the mind-mapping in the sketchbook has opened up new reading avenues and we have a list of texts for close reading to prepare for a forthcoming seminar programme. This keeps the mind busy though the body, in truth, is most happy at present being outside doing the allotment. PEAS and BEANS are ‘in’ though under protection and more tender things are migrating to the poly tunnel or the new cold frame we’ve built, leaving window sills for the second round of germinations.

Bennett,J. (2010)”Vibrant Matter: The political Ecology of Things” London, Durham. The Duke University Press.

Murdoch Mills, C. (2009) ‘Materiality as the Basis for the Aesthetic Experience in Contemporary Art.’  ScholarWorks, Universtiy of Montana.

Ingold, T. (2012) ‘Toward an Ecology of Materials’. Annual Review of Anthropology, 2012, Vol.41 (2012) pp427-442

Hodder, I. (2012) Entangled: An Archaeology of the Relationships Between Humans and Things. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Margulis, L. 1998. Symbiotic Planet. A New Look at Evolution, New York, Basic Books

Cohen, J.J. Ed & Duckert, L. Ed. (2015 ) Elemental Ecocriticism. Minnesota. University of Minnesota Press.

Irigaray, L. , Marder, M.   (2014) Through Vegetal Being Columbia. Columbia University Press.

Jane Bennett lecture  Artistry and Agency in a World of Vibrant Matter(2011)

Jane Bennett lecture Material and Visual Worlds

Gregory B Sadler  Philosophical Reading of Heidegger with ……  – The Question of Technology Pt1 and Pt2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rzYhOOOw40

New Module: Semester 2.

What strange times! There is a Corona Virus pandemic. This first week of ‘lockdown’ has been spent preparing a new proposal. No clue how this is going to work out while University is shut!!!!! There’s not an inch of space here in which to work as the house is full of all the babies for the allotment – every table top, windowsill etc. and it’ll be some time before it’s clement enough to put them in the poly tunnel. Hey ho. Nevertheless, some ideas have been placed in the obligatory PowerPoint presentation and perhaps rather ironically, we kicked off the new module with online presentations on April Fools Day – you have to laugh.

Allotment Babies

And, as if lockdown isn’t bad enough, this appeared outside the house….

‘Lock in’ in addition to ‘lockdown’

The proposal aims to build upon the assessment feedback and other critical inputs about the book project which include introducing an element of movement to the work and/or exploring materiality as a way of articulating mineral and biological interconnectedness concepts better – rather than merely illustrating them – more babble from the alien lexicon perhaps – but I am determined to get my head around this distinction!