Current Studio Practice

This was my presentation (https://oca-wp-journals.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3554/2023/08/Current-Studio-Practice-smaller-David-Wright.pptx), but not really how I presented it! I was expecting some people for another cohort, so I put in some background, but only one was present. I wrote a bit for the other cohort, and here it is, but I didn’t read it out, just improvised.

1 First Page

Hi, I’m David Wright, I’m a retired physicist and passionate photographer. In the MA I’m continuing with photography, and also working with acrylic paint and forms of writing. I’m showing my various workspaces; Photoshop for editing and creating digital composites; an architect’s table where I do my work with paint and extraction poetry; a table on a train for reading, writing and observing; and another table, this time in a pub, again for reading and writing.

2 Themes, Context and Practice

At the beginning of the MA I had no definitive idea of a theme for my practical work. My background is in scientific research, which can seem very different from fine art, but I wanted to discover if there could be some overlaps.

I had thought of using my photography and writing skills, maybe some others, to explore some themes in a fine art context.

In terms of themes I have always been interested in time. Using photography on a beach, for example, an image can reflect the effects of different amounts of time passing, and on things related to the beach, as I walk on local beaches most days.

In the third week I was introduced to artists who championed the use of everyday objects and/or events into their work, and Georges Perec in particular challenged us to observe the ‘infra-ordinary and the mundane in our daily lives. He also was interested in memories of simple events in the past. Perec’s work particularly rang a bell with me as I had just discovered a wallet and box containing artefacts from a period in my life in the mid-1970s when I had spent a few years in Canada doing a MSc in Physics. Discovering the wallet was like Proust’s character recalling a past interlude through tasting madeleines, and for me the wallet, its contents and a camera I bought at the time in Canada (and still use sometimes) gave me the material for exploring my interest in time, memory and photography in a different way. This is a new and exciting direction for me and one where most of my practice has been concerned in this module.

In addition, I am concerned with various aspects of time. I have tried to show some of them in my work, but I think more research needs to be done to see if I can tease out any more interesting aspects. The wallet and box represent a large period of time in the 1970s, but photography can be used to portray much smaller ‘slices’ of time. There are so many factors here e.g. dogs on the beach, living in the now; abstract images concerning movement of dogs; minimalist images from very long exposures which obscure wave and cloud motion; small details produced by wave and tidal motion. I have done quite a bit of work on these ‘beach and time’ ideas prior to and during the course and I hope to explore these further at a later date.

3 Photoshop Composite Work

Currently I am making composite digital images in Photoshop. I put images taken from artefacts in the wallet or the box on one layer, contemporary photos on another layer, and perhaps my MSc thesis pages on a third, as an example.

I put each image on a new layer, then using masking techniques, produce selections of that layer, then employ different blending modes to introduce them to the other layers and get the desired combination.

Lubaina Himid says, “My work isn’t about being distant and admired. It’s about trying to broker a deal, open a conversation. It’s not about making something that is grand and mysterious. There’s plenty of mystery in the everyday. The more you know how something is put together, the more you can marvel at it, really. I want to make something that is sort of incredibly ordinary. And out of that comes some mysterious and special things.“

I wonder if that’s what I am doing, creating something mysterious and intriguing out of quite ordinary artifacts? And what about my memories? And the change in memories and condition of the artifacts with time?

4 Hybrid digital and analogue media and erasure/extraction/cut-out poetry

I wanted to progress from purely digital composite editing to a hybrid of digital and analogue work, so I began to use a gel plate to introduce some acrylic paint marks to the digital media.

I have been experimenting with extraction/erasure poetry, where I take my base text as a page from my MSc thesis and try to find new meanings from the dry, scientific text.

Recently I have been using diluted acrylic inks on crumpled tissue paper to make collage paper, which is torn and place over the work.

I’m always looking for new (to me) ways of exploring the infra-ordinary, such as writing overheard conversation snippets or observing everyday scenes from my train journeys and memories of similar in the past. I’d welcome any suggestions for broadening or improving my work.