Tutor: Angela
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Reflection on outcomes since last tutorial
> I am feeling a little more relaxed about the course, though I still don´t feel completely au fait with the “big picture” of this year´s units.
> I have started to build an online relationship with some of the other students, and I hope that we will start feeling much more like a community soon.
> I have done lots of reading (I love the Tápies library), but I need to start writing more reflexively about my own work.
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Current projected aims and outcomes:
1. To write much more, much more reflexively, about my work.
2. To continue to experiment with Abstract Heads, and to document this carefully.
3. To plan and execute some “shows” of my work.
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Discussion and recommendations
Take Two Influences: Technical - could have used tape cut thinner, or double width stuck together, or made circles, curves, balls. Good to use an influence that I don´t like (Bridget Riley). Need to photograph a sculpture from different angles to document it in 3D. Likes the gawky, new-born lamb feel to this work.
I guess the reason I didn´t manipulate the tape is because I see the lines on AHs as being monogeneous. Not irrelevant, but not needing form of their own. I can see that this might change as I start to use the lines of AH, rather than the planes, to create work, especially “Calders”. I certainly need to document work more carefully, and to reflect on it. I´m certainly not frighted of using influences that I don´t like, but of course I discovered while looking at Riley´s work that I do, in fact, like it, and it has possibilities for finding the visual language I need for my “Mies” series.
Abstract Heads Experiments: think about the difference between relief and 3D sculpture. How do you show 3D, by reference or reality? (by reference = making things smaller that are supposed to be further away). One of the most successful experiments could be described as derivative but that may be why it is successful. It engaged with 3 dimensions in a more dynamic way then the reliefs and the surfaces were less uniform. Am I too dependant on Abstract Heads?
I certainly need to explore dimensions more in my work, but these are early days, and this will come out of a natural playing with the subject. The works are very derivative. As I mentioned in the tutorial, this is a series of work that I started some 5 years ago, and it is something that I will continue to explore for the next 50 years. Having the constrictions of the square, the size (though I have a feeling this may change as I try new materials and sculptural forms), the question of what to include or leave out, but the opportunities of use of colour, material (wait until I do my first bronze “Abstract Head”!!) there is a whole life of work just in this series.
Think about what kind of risks could you take, what might feel unsafe?
Concrete Sculptures (Untitled Series): These have integrity, completeness, materialness, mass.
Which is a very different perspective to Emma´s! I´ll choose to see them very positively, and to display them on plinths in Barcelona as Graffiti Sculpture.
Writing about my own work: not deep enough. Need to look at all aspects, and write reflexively about them.
Get out of the library, and start writing your own! Post tutorial conversation. You could use the questions you identified to look at others work to reflect on your own work.
Exhibiting work: organise an open studio event. Talked about “graffiti sculpture” possibilities. Look at the work of Lulu Allison just because she places her pieces outside in public and they have a temporary existence.
There is an “Open Studio” planned for May, but I might organise a dinner in the studio when I complete another series of “AH” paintings.
Consider being more intentional or pro-active about the role of the gallery and audience in your practice. Post conversation, look at artist Rirkrit Tiravanija and his events based around giving people food and hosting meals.
