Installations

Uv Spiral, 2007. Various Dimensions.
Mixed Media.

I've always had a love for works that involve installation and an element of site specifity. I have found James Turrell as my installation idol. No other artist has made as big an impact on my experiences in a gallery space as his works. He takes you to another level of concious, and makes you question your experiences of the world and his work As a maker who is interested in process being able to create works to install into a space is incredibly challenging in a variety of ways. Through this process of problem solving and installing I end up having the opportunity and time to be creative it is always a vehicle for new ideas. Working in new spaces is always rewarding, I always relish the Image making through photography with Installation work as quite a different work can be represented which is intriguing for me, the way in which you can reimagine a work.
I have taken from Turrell his playfulness and the interactivity of his works expecting the spectator to become part of the work. But also importantly his use of coloured light within some of his works.

The Images above show me looking back to paper cutting again as an influence but working with installation like with Waterfall(2006). Specifically becoming interested in the relationships between nature and mathematics, particularly that of the Fibonacci sequence. As I looked at naturally occuring spirals in nature through my own photographic explorations. I had always wanted to use UV light with paper, the fact that UV represents something clean and pure interests me with the colour it produces.

Paper Cuttings

I realised that using paper and other two dimensional materials to carve (early in 2007) was a very fulfilling and creative way to work. Yet its success was due to simplicity and restrictions of the material. Which is something that I need to work hard to remember. It was during this period that I once again looked at origami, and chinese traditional paper carving and also the scissor cut paper work of Hans Christian Anderson.

(Interweb. Cut Paper. 2007)

The Importance of structure

and repetition within my work...
Lost wax model for a bronze medal - a tear drop made of tears.

Not listening to advice.

One of the first pieces that I made at Stafford is Give Paper back, an installation at Cannock Chase.(One of the reasons I love to practice in Staffordshire, the huge amount of natural resources and forests) I had a huge interest in Land and environmental art which I believe is something that still influences how I practice and think.


I decided to do a HND in Fine Art Sculpture, I was told not to by quite a few people and tutors as a degree would be better for me. I was told to go for the best Art College or University, but I was intrigued by what I had seen at Stafford College, no other University that I had been to had students working on imaginative sculpture. I had the opportunity and the means and funds to experiment in every medium and material by going to the small college I went to. It truly allowed me to be myself, and learn a huge amount of skills in drawing, clay, stone, metal, and ceramics as a basis from which to spring to other materials and ideas. It also allowed me to be involved for the first time in an artist community and feel part of a group, and gain the criticality and interaction of other students, as well as meet local respected artists and see how they made their living.

I'm glad I didn't take that advice, as I now see my time at Stafford as fundamental to who I am. After later studying in London and being disappointed it made me realise how my education there really allowed me to see how to make a living where I want to live, studying in London never would have shown me that.

Independent thinker

I've been thinkimg about creativity again. In a lecture I went to today one of the speakers a PHD student said the important moment for her was when she realised that she was "an Independent thinker" at an early stage of her education. I thoroughly agreed which this epistemology for anyone who wants to explore progressive thought and education, as a creative person its one of the biggest assets that you possess.

I realised that there is an earlier work that I did in 2005 that was a very first material exploration that really got me excited to start exploring sculptural forms - the Wire Dress works above.

Interlude -Lets be pragmatic for a while...

Recently I've been reading other artists blogs particularly those on a-n the website and publication is a life saver for me and many other artists, as I look at how to practice and earn and a wage, while putting this expectation for artists to be able to make a living against the actual realities.

Trying to face this reality is so important for any young artist. I have recently been trying to analyse the problems of having a imagination it allows me to be creative yet also cripples me at times to the realities of the art world. I've recently written a manifesto for myself based on being pragamatic and my own problems with the Art Institutions and Academys. Which seemed to echo many statements that I found in this recent artictle in the guardian and some of the reasons that a London art school education didn't work for me.

Pragmatism

The Manifesto

Pragmatism looks to the present Art and Cultural climate and sees the void and depressing disquiet of such times. In the wake of increasing Economic catastrophe the world begins new wars of energy and economy. As the awareness of Post Modernity infiltrates all consciences leaving a gaping void of beliefs and direction we believe that the “truth” and “meaning” of the pragmatic movement offers honesty in times of unrest and proposes five key concepts.

1. PROPOSITION ONE: Art school = Macbook:

• The need to Re-learn how to think
• The need to Re-learn how to create.
• The re-engagement of the mind is key.
• The death of criticality makes Arts institutions obsolete.
• Nostalgia en masse is undesirable.
• The individual of now is as undesirable as the masse.
• The art institution and academy should be disbanded, through making money rather than engaging and teaching they are invalid formats of learning.
• Increase in the value of practice based working as a process of dealing with changes and as an alternative to the academy.

2. PROPOSITION TWO: Truth and meaning:

· Pragmatists believe that Art cannot be about just the individual experience.

· As artists we have to believe and hold up the ideals of meaning and truth.

· As Pragmatists we believe in making our own truth.

· In Pragmatism we value truth and see it as the foundation from which to regain control.

· We must see adaptability as key rather than duplicity.

3. PROPOSITION THREE: Death of Criticality:

· Criticism as we have known it is dead.

· Criticality relies on making informed judgements, not just making it up as critics see fit.

· Criticism has become lethargic and created its own death.

· The death of criticality makes Arts institutions obsolete.

4. PROPOSITION FOUR: Cultural conscience:

· Cultural saturation is not enough to create true culture.

· Art academies should be disbanded to allow for new cultural value to form.

· Death to neo-nostalgia.

· Utopia is catastrophe.

· The rise of Neuroaesthetics will shape our future

· Pandering to the lowest denominator is dangerous.

· Individual consciousness is just part of a mass unconscious thought process.

· Advertising is not art and art is not advertising.

5. PROPOSITION FIVE: Technology and war:

· War creates true innovation.

· Technological exploitation will not take the place of great ideological advances.

· The importance of sciences impact on the arts should not be underestimated.

· Political and economical unrest is the only way we can create change and increase medical and technological innovation.

· All artwork of now should be conscious of the ecological implications.

· We will find values again in ‘system’ ‘structure’ and ‘process’

As I look to my past work and tie together this web of what makes me an Artist I think its important to relate this to how I feel now about my practice and the simple issues of the fact that being an Artist is hard work if you want to make a living, very few manage. However its a reasonable expectation that my education will at least stand me in good stead for a career somewhere within the creative industrys, or in other industries where critical and lateral thinking is appreciated as a very postitive attribute. If not then perhaps I should ask for a refund for all my tuition fees over the last few years at college?

l
l

Waterfall 2006. Paper.

This blog I hope will be a way of engaging with other people and artists about what I do, and how I do it. I hope I can explain what I feel, what I'm interested in and how it all links together to produce my work. I'm really hoping that it will help me to mature as an artist in this period of change for me as a student who has found it hard to be happy in my education. Having chopped and changed from one institution to another always craving more knowledge and sense of place and opportunity. I find myself back home where perhaps I should have always been. The place in which I feel the most inspired and I believe the area that needs art desperately as it lags behind culturally.
I have put down what I see as the beginning of my practice the time in which I began to realise how my creativity was something beautiful to be explored with a passion, fervour of inspiration and application helped me to achieve my first installation - Waterfall in the summer of 2006 and the first bold step in my work that I still believe stands me in stead.

I intend to look back over my work of the last few years in this blog. To try and tie down what is in my mind and to clarify the links that I'm now beginning to see. It seems as if all my works, my life happenings are tied to fate and if I can only begin to believe again in my own intuition I will flourish again.