space matters - making some new work - experiments with first aid items

Since my MA project is currently entitled 'Space Matters', looking at the need for breathing spaces, I took a first aid space blanket to the woods this week and laid it out on the ground.

As you do.

If you are an 'artist' you can do almost anything and call it 'research'.


And yes, I did watch carefully to make sure there was no one else around.

Having photographed it I used as the base for a double exposure.

Space/space blanket/first aid/station were the words in my mind.

I placed it in the air, up a tree, on the ground.

It felt good to be making something new.

Over the pond.

I am not sure what I was trying to achieve.

Just playing. Which is how my work usually evolves.

Keep trying different things until something catches my attention and feels right.

When I got back and looked at the images I was initially excited, and then felt that I was not really conveying the message that was intended.

I seem to have a desire to wrap things.

I am often taking photographs of bits of string.

What does this mean?

I really don't know.

But I did label one series of images of electric fence tape  'Don't fence me in' which should tell me something.


I took the 'blanket' to Dungeness. Plenty of space there. And lots of wind too. It was very difficult to pin down. I used stones.


 I found it difficult to make anything work, but a video of it blowing in the wind was more successful

.

The wind put me off using the space blanket a the beach, and when I returned to the woods I tried taking photographs of it wrapping a tree.



Such a different feeling. I felt as though I was trying to keep the tree safe.

I enjoyed this too.


Again nobody was looking....

Having tried a space blanket I felt obliged to try a bandage. I wrapped it around the branches of a tree.



And then overlaid it onto another tree.

I am not sure about the twigs from the first tree showing up.

I like the random colour overlay in the colour version of double exposure.

Now I need some more authentic bandages, preferably gauze or open weave.

I don't know where this is going, but I am enjoying the process.

And yes I am a bit mad. Probably have been for some years....

It reminds me of collography and using some open gauze tape as my subject matter for printing.

Themes that come to mind;

tape /wrap/fence/protect/enclose/confine

what do these have to do with 'space'?

It seems to be more about lack of space and being fenced in or enclosed; the opposite to what I seek in the landscape.

So how could I represent this opposite more effectively?

hmmm. I will sleep on that.

last night's transient  middle of the night idea was wrapping twigs.....

what is book art?

I have been trying to explain to friends what a  'book art' course is about.

They are bemused, and I am lost for words to un-bemuse them....

• is it book binding?

yes, but so much more than that

• is it illumination?

no, I am not a medieval monk

• but what about your photography?

• have you given that up?

The questions are generally the same.

The answers vary, depending on how brave I am feeling.

Book art is about the book as an art form. It explores what the 'book' can be, and will hopefully offer me  new ways for me to present my photography.

I hope to learn a lot about art, printing, leterpress, words, research and to develop a critical framework for talking about art.

Something more intelligent than

I like it

I don't like it

It makes me feel cross

I love it

I want to make work like that

what are they on about?

that is ridiculous  (OH uses that one)

c-r-a-p ( OH uses that too) 

but I am not a political animal

I don't understand any of this, but I like the sound track......


So here is a link to my 'reflective diary' if you have any interest at all in what I am getting up to at Camberwell. It is requirement of my course to write one, so I am not going to bore you with it here.

BUT

in case you are interested, below is an example of research in progress.... and an example of what an artist's book looks like when the creator has only just begun the 2 year course.

        ***************************************************************


I am trying to make a small book that represents the sea wall at Camber sands; homework again.


from Scissors, Paper, Stone

 I have been looking at flag books and thinking that this might be a better format for my Sea wall book.

Lots of small images that move in relation to each other could give a better feel for the many differing views that one can choose to look at when walking on the wall

sea
wall
sky

in any combination that you choose.


All of the images come from the wall itself, but some are more like the sea, some like the wall and some might represent sky.

I created a mosaic on A4 paper of 9 images, and then printed this on both sides of A4 paper.

I cut the images into strips and laid them out roughly with the ones that look to me like waves at the bottom.

I marked up another piece of paper with fold lines and made a concertina spine.

To this were added the image 'flags' in alternating directions on the spine.

 I didn't spend much time looking at the front and reverse of images for my mock up, but will need to pay more attention to this if I decide to take the structure further. I need more blues in the upper ( sky) line, and ideally a bit more variation in the images. I have others that I can use. I don't want to repeat the same image in any individual spread next time. Or I could use a lot of the same image with occasional interruptions of contrasting colours. The possibilities are endless.

I then made a very quick cover with another sheet of A4 printed with a single image; the one that I feel represents the wall and the sky.

You get the picture.

And no, I haven't given up photography!

What a question!

curl custard and placenta powder; some beauty treatment back at the ranch

 My other half is away.

swanning around the world apparently doing some 'work'

meanwhile back at the ranch the buidlers are here again.

A new loo.

It is progressing slowly, as building always does.


I need cheering up.

It is lonely in the empty house . Even the mice are dead.

I have decided to attend to my hair......to spruce up my ageing locks a little.

Give OH a bit of a surprise on his return.

Starting with curl custard.

Everyone loves custard.

 then some placenta

 so much choice

what colour shall I be?

and who do I want to look like?

a bit of fertilizer of course

and a dash of mayonnaise

I hope I look happier, and less disdainful than these ladies by the end of all this. Some of them have a nasty case of alopecia.

I will have some luscious curls

locked in with some gel

and maybe a bit of orange too

or green..... goes with the fertiliser

and then some lovely nails

so that when OH returns, I can open the door and fill him with wonder at my new look,

and fetch his pipe and slippers.