In Week 15 we had to show 3 images of our work for critique by the members of our cohort.
I snuck in an extra one as the title page.
I don’t think I’ve got this composite idea of thesis plus wallet content or photo from that era working yet, but I still want to explore it.
I don’t want to overthink what I’m trying to create. I know this is a common problem with artists and was made clear in a survey of postgraduate arts students (Fisher and Fortnum, 2013). I think I’ll start by showing the infra-ordinary images, then making a digital composite image from a selection of the wallet, my thesis and photos from that time and see what I get.
Fisher, E., Fortnum, R. and Kettle’s Yard, G. (2013) On not knowing : how artists think. London: Black Dog Publishing.
Combining a 70s Photo taken with the H2 and the Wallet
A composite of an image of a totem pole in Centennial Park (now called Richard Pierpoint Park), St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada taken with my H2 camera and the pattern on my wallet from that period. The totem pole has recently been restored. The swirling effect, of the morning mist and/or time, was made with brushes in Photoshop.
Time and the Beach – a Long Exposure
ROAD TO ETERNITY, PORTSTEWART
I love these groynes on Portstewart strand and have shot them several times. I like this long exposure version particularly.
Canon 6D with 28-70mm lens at 70 mm, ISO 100, f11, 125 s. Taken at 7.58 am on 25th August 2014.
This is for my theme ‘Time and the Beach’.
Time and Entropy
I still can’t figure out how to convey what I’m trying to say. I’ll have to write it out to know what I mean first.
This image is from the unboxing of the other contents of the bow which contained my wallet, on Making Day 2. I started to sort the contents, but soon stopped and began to think about entropy, time, order and disorder
Comments from my Cohort
C: – Fascinating that you’ve picked out the chip. Value in what we’re drawn to / select. Not commercial/political/monetary, but personal. Signifier of the passing of time. Chip is visually beautiful. Element of pattern, ordered horizontal & vertical. Letters – we write left to right, system, structure. We have these rules. Do the rules 7 systems come into the way you investigate the contents of this box? Do you look at all letters / all red things / all yellow / all under x grams? Many ways to look at it.
S: – Read the pattern and colour of the chip as fabric or needlework. Interested in Caroline’s idea of setting rules. Letters don’t exist like this anymore. Entropy – degree of disorder – is interesting. But on explanation, Sissel prefers photography to the end of time. Loves the 125s exposure image.
A: – Great photography of box collection. Make compositions and collections, explore it, play with it. Could bring in different materials from the beach. Don’t throw any of it away! Each of the letters preserve memory and energy, full of stories.
B: – Set parameters. Less important to read the letters or content – it might change your approach. Composition of colours? Like a collage. Or can you sit on the beach reading the letters – time, associations with landscape and beach. Will be an interesting investigation. Don’t remove possibilities e.g. I can’t do xyz.
L: – Perec’s postcards? Even if the letters are only describing mundanities, they could be made into / attached to art. I want to see this as an exhibition, fully catalogued. Could also/alternatively be done as a website, really going into detail.
My thoughts on their comments
First, I bought a new set of drawers (£10 on Gumtree!) to hold the box’s contents. It has 3 drawers for the current rows of items. I need to think about how I arrange them.
All the comments were really helpful; positive and supportive. I’ll start to experiment, but I would like to think about it before I plunge in and maybe mess up what I’ve got. I would like to see if I can construct a project that would using all or most of the themes I’m considering. Hopefully it will be Time as the Project with Memory, Entropy and the Beach as threads.
