T1-MMT-P5-s6 Loose ends

I’ve reached the end of the time I’d allocated for Stage 6 – Prototype/maquette-making. In Stage 5, Sorting (28-Feb-2016) I set the goal of developing my collection and use groups of vessels in exploring space and presentation. This approach allowed me to keep sampling and exploring right to the end – which in effect makes “end” an inaccurate term.

Rather than “ending” with Stage 7 Reflection, I really want to do another round of Sorting, and then some more Sampling. That’s what this course has been training me to do in my future practice, and fits so well with Ruth Hadlow’s model of practice as a series of strands of investigation, like currents in a river (25-Feb-2016). With on-going exploration / experimentation / sampling in each strand, a particular exhibition represents the state of investigation at that point. Rather than an exhibition I will be presenting the current state of my investigations as part of assessment.

But I’m not finished! This post is to record some strands I want to return to, after all the business of writing up reflections, preparing my submission to tutor, then adjusting as advised for assessors.

Vessels and material exploration: having learnt with Lissa de Sailles to make paper yarn (19-Mar-2016) I am very interested in the possibilities it brings, and started a little basket-based object using some of the plastic horsehair.

Final sample

Final sample version 2

There are connections to coursework in the plastic, the use of wrapping in the initial version (reminiscent of the wooden spoon shape! 16-Jul-2015), the use of basketmaking techniques seen in final samples (p5-5 31-Jan-2016 and p5-10 14-Feb-2016).

The newspaper yarn brings something quite new.

Final sample detail

The look is so textile-like! I want to push the millimetre by millimetre deft wrist spinning technique with lots of different materials. So far it’s only been newspaper and copy paper (marketing from an insurance company). What about spinning a painting or drawing? Or… well not for this course. I’ve called it the final sample, but not allocated a number because really it’s the first sample of a whole new exploration.

I’ve already mentioned that research on Eva Hesse is ongoing. It’s not ready for a neat post, so will miss being presented within this course. Related at least in part to that is other reading – Part Object Part Sculpture, edited by Helen Molesworth. I’ve been writing of my work as vessels and objects. What is sculpture, and is that where I’m headed?

This week I saw a work that attempted sculpture using scent – I think. The artist, Dane Mitchell (http://www.danemitchell.co.nz/) participated in a panel discussion and described his work as showing “non-presence”. He explores the senses as a sculptural material, creating objects that take shape in the brain. He’s interested in making tangible, physical, aspects of the unseen. In a sense in the discussion Mitchell kept his scope contained, unlike the more grand responses to the theme Embassy of Spirits (this was all part of the Sydney Biennale). Is there something for me in this???

Other Biennale work was by Jumana Manna and involved film and sculpture (https://www.biennaleofsydney.com.au/20bos/artists/jumana-manna/). I’m hoping to find time to post some brief research on that within this course. My note here is on the combination of multiple media. My photography / video / lighting skills have not given the results I wanted in this part of the course. This is definitely an ongoing strand of learning and exploration.

With that captured for the future, I now feel able to turn to the important business of reflecting on the recent past – Assignment 5, and Mixed Media for Textiles as a whole.

T1-MMT-P5-s6 Loose ends
Textiles 1 – Mixed Media for Textiles
Part 5: A final piece
Stage 6: Prototype/maquette-making
Loose ends

T1-MMT-P5 Sketchbook update 20-Mar-2016

It’s been a while since the last sketchbook update (27-Feb-2016), although quite a few part pages have been shown with associated sampling/recording work.

p5-sketchpage 061; 20160227

The above page based on work by Eva Hesse appeared at the beginning of stage 6, when I reflected on the power of working with repetitive forms (6-Mar-2016).

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In the same post I showed this work planning some early composition ideas.

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Also in that post was the 3D pen sketch and the simulation of repeated forms. Not previously shown were some tablet-based sketches, done sitting beside a garden waiting for car repair.

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This and the next three pages were recording and thinking of potential developments to my collection photographs, and were shown when recording the original photos (6-Mar-2016).

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I realised that a lot of my attention was being given to the slabs used to provide height and thus precarious situations. Looking for possibilities led to Ursula von Rydingsvard’s work (http://www.ursulavonrydingsvard.net/). Above is a very inaccurate sketch based on a detail of Can’t Eat Black (link).

This helped me to identify my desire for layering with more depth and texture, a need met with broken tiles in concrete (12-Mar-2016).

p5-sketchpage 069; 20160309

A page throwing around ideas.

Photographing pieces in moving water wasn’t attempted – the setup seemed too difficult and I was concerned about the risk to my equipment. However there was a brief experiment with black and white photography (12-Mar-2016) and considerably more with wrapping (18-Mar-2016).

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Sketches of p5-39 and p5-42 (12-Mar-2016) helped identify and extract some elements that pleased me.

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This and the next page were drawn after writing up the second photo shoot (12-Mar-2016) in preparation for the third (written up 15-Mar-2016). I actually took the pages out to the garage with me and referred to them as I was working.

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I mentioned ongoing research of Eva Hesse 6-Mar-2016. A couple of scattered quotes are in the sketchbook as reading continues. This passage linked to my black and white photographs, wondering if the elements of strong colour in my collection were unbalancing or dominating it.

The lower part was working on a photograph – p5-52 – as a way of thinking about what was working and what could be developed. That helped me work on plain paper, trying to extract what I was seeing. A bit more movement, some diagonals, in the main elements could ramp up this image.

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A step back, looking at the collection as a whole. This is based on a still from the video. In black conte crayon (see note on colour above), I enjoyed exploring the different shapes together.

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At the top is a collage planning the wrapping of my collection (see 18-Mar-2015), at the bottom one of the wrapped samples drawn in colour pencil.

In the middle is another quote about Hesse, this time about her “thinking about what an object might be”. That question is really engaging me at the moment.

p5-sketchpage 076; 20160319

Playing around with biro and coloured pencil.

First I drew lines based on the threads wrapping some of the samples. Then I started colouring, with a vague recollection that only three colours are needed to colour a map with no colour the same on both sides of a border. I thought this simplification of the line drawing might reveal an unexpected pattern. It does create some order in what was a chaotic set of lines. This seems quite a good method for beginning an abstract design development, not unlike the design development for printing that I did with Claire Brach (31-Dec-2015).

T1-MMT-P5 Sketchbook update 20-Mar-2016
Textiles 1 – Mixed Media for Textiles
Part 5: A final piece
Sketchbook update 20-Mar-2016