Hanging

I  nearly finished putting up all my work today, with only the finishing touches to complete tomorrow. I'm really happy about how it's all turning out. Overnight the paper that hadn't stuck down properly yesterday had magically stuck down, which was a relief, so I re-painted some of the parts as soon as I got in and will only need to put on one more coat tomorrow.

I then started putting up the actual sculptures, the process was quite simple, measuring where the middle of the board was and then 2.6cm down (the length between each sculpture). I would then place the sculpture and micro shelf on the wall, making sure it was straight using a spirit level, and use a glue gun to stick the shelf onto the surface. This technique was simple, but took a while to accomplish.

Whilst I was doing this I put up my lectern type shelf, which I'm having my books displayed on. This was simple to put up too, drilling into the shelf from the other side of the wall and then painting over the screws on the back.

Finally I attached my paper holders to the wall. I first had to decide on the order that I wanted them to go in and then make each of them level. Then I, once again, used a glue gun to put them on the wall. I feel that I have undertaken enough experiments with the glue gun to be confident enough that the work won't fall off the wall during the next few weeks.

Tomorrow I only have a few little things to do. First of all I will rub out any pencil marks that I made today, as well as finishing off all the painting that needs doing. I then need to print out this blog and make it into a book to show to my tutors, but even though this project is slowly coming to an end I think I'm going to continue to write this blog, as it motivates me to make and do things on a regular basis. I also want to make my evaluation into a book to show to my tutors as it's part of my main body of work. Finally I have to make sure to bring in all my work from this project, including all my sketchbooks, so that they can be marked over the next few weeks before the exhibition.

Today I also found out the date of the private view; which will be on the 9th of June, with the exhibition continuing onto the 12th of June.

Painting

Today was centred all around painting the exhibition spaces. This is obviously one of the low points of putting up your art work. The whole experience was made much worse by people not coming into paint their spaces, valuing their time more than other peoples. So the people who came in were tasked with painting other people's spaces too. This was incredibly frustrating.

Luckily my space was made up of two new MDF boards, so was easy to paint, with no sanding down necessary. Unfortunately after applying lining paper to the sides of the boards to reduce the sharp sides, I didn't let it dry long enough before painting over the paper. This triggered the paper to curl and not stick to the wall properly, so tomorrow morning I have to re-do some of the space, taking up valuable time that should have been used to install my work.

Later on I looked at some interesting books. One was about Barbara Kruger and her conceptual work which addresses the cultural constructions of power, identity and sexuality. I then read a book about Tess Jaray. I really like her seemingly abstract prints and public commissioned pieces.

Tomorrow I will start putting up my work, which will hopefully be easy to achieve. The only aspect which I presume will take time will be measuring out the exact locations of where the sculptures will go on the wall.

London and Dedomenici

On Friday I went to Butley once again to continue my internship. It was an enjoyable day, in the morning I was shovelling grog and transporting all kinds of rubbish to the skip. For the first time I also cleaned up the bronze after it had been cast into a mould and bathed in water. The process involves wearing layers of waterproof clothing and using a high powered hose to wash away any fragments of plaster or concrete that are still clinging to the bronze. As you can imagine this is a very messy process and the water gets everywhere. It also takes a long time, or maybe that was because it was my first time doing it.

In the afternoon I got to make a plaster mould for a head and help to attach together the wax body parts that I made last week. This was also something I hadn't done before, but hope to do again in the future, so that I can learn how to make a mould by myself without any help.

In the evening I went to see a live art performance by Richard Dedomenici, which consisted of him talking about his art work and  his on-going series of films called "The Redux Project". For this he takes a short clip of a Hollywood film and makes a no-budget version of it, using volunteers and unique props. The results are hilarious, especially when both scenes are being shown at the same time. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

Over the weekend I went to London to see a range of galleries. I first went to the Saatchi which had an exhibition of new art from Africa and Latin America. This was my least favourite exhibition of the day, as the majority of the space was taken up by uninteresting paintings. The only work that I was vaguely fond of was a variety of abstract ceramic pieces by Pia Camil that were colourful and simple.

After this I went to the Whitechapel Gallery. This was a far better exhibition by the photographer Christopher Williams. Although the images displayed were interesting, I was much more intrigued by the way he used the space, exposing walls and re-using placards from past exhibitions. The whole of the lobby area was a reference to Daniel Buren and his work with coloured stripes, which was fun to see. The use of space also reminded me of Trisha Donnelly's exhibition at the Serpentine last year, the way in which she subtly manipulated the gallery by painting parts of the wall in an off white colour and cut back the wall to show its interior workings. William's was a much more obvious manipulation though, making it impossible not to notice.

I then visited the White Cube which had an exhibition by Theaster Gates. This had some really great work in it, binding aspects of Gates' personal life alongside political themes to be visualised as a range of minimalistic sculptures and paintings.

From there I went on to the Brewer Street Car Park, that was showing work by Ryoji Ikeda, who is an electronic composer and visual artist. The exhibition involved a lot of sound and flashing lights,  and is quite hard to explain. It was an amazing experience.

Tomorrow I'm back at Wensum Lodge to paint the exhibition spaces, and then on Tuesday I start to set up my work. I presume I will be able to put my work up vaguely fast, as I have planned it well and know exactly what I have to do. I am looking forward to it.

Finishing the Project

Today was all about finishing things off with the project. I started by printing the last book that I finished designing yesterday. This was easy to do as I've made a lot of these now. I like how a lot of the quotes I have used could be random people talking about my own work, which the use of first names suggests, this is another interesting aspect to the fifth and final book.

I also printed off 50 or so of the maps which will be given away. I feel that this is a good amount, bearing in mind that the exhibition won't actually start for another couple of weeks. So I have plenty of time to re-consider this, which I probably will, just to be safe.

I looked  over all the smaller sculptures to see whether they needed any extra sanding done, just as a precaution. This was a good idea as some of them needed urgent attention.

As well as this I also read over my evaluation again, changing a few things and making it within the 750 word limit. It still isn't completely finished yet as I will be writing a short ending paragraph about how easy/hard it was to put up the work, but I will do that after I have done put up the sculptures.

 Towards the end of the day I started to re-think the shelves, considering whether or not I should actually have them or not. It's good that I have made and numbered them, as well as the work, so that when I'm putting up the work I can make a decision about whether or not I want to use them then. I intend to talk to my tutors and peers about this on Tuesday when I start to set up the exhibition.

I also played a truly beautiful game today called Hohokum. In terms of its aesthetics and mechanics, as well the simplified story telling system that enables it to tell a range of interesting short tales without uttering a single word.

Numbers and Displays

I began my day by printing off the large scale sculpture book, I think it looks professional and fits in well with the other books I have already printed. I also finished designs of the last book, deciding to have quotes from famous artists about the importance of emotions within art, rather than including short facts about the meaning of my own work. Even though it would feel good to display how much work went into the thinking behind the project, as well as explaining what every little aspect of the work means, I think it was a good choice to go with the quotes, as it allows the viewer to make up their own mind, making the work more personal to them. With the quotes I simply wrote the artists' first name, rather than their full one, adding an aspect of humour to the book. A sort of guessing game of who said what.

Later on I re-thought how to display the small sculptures, looking at how I could put each of them on their own shelf, but keeping the same layout. I then proceeded to build these shelves, making them 4.5cm x 4.5cm, so that the pieces fitted perfectly on top. I did this because I realised that, after reading my project evaluation, touching the work is a truly important aspect of it. The shelf enables the viewer to reach up and take it in their hands, feeling how smooth or rough the sculpture is.

After making the shelves I noticed that when the viewer came to put the work back (if multiple sculptures were being looked at) they wouldn't know which shelf to put it on. It would be a shame if they were to put it on the wrong one as the layout is very important to the meaning. To combat this I experimented with putting numbers on the back of the sculptures as well as the shelves. I tried using rubber stamps, die stamps, and simply writing the number with a pencil. I eventually decided on the metal stamp, because of how subtle and simple it looked.

I also made the paper holders today for the pamphlets, maps and business cards. This was an easy process, but took a while to accomplish. After creating these I realised that I would have to make the shelf that the books will go on as well, so that the different woods wouldn't clash, as I was going to use one provided by Wensum Lodge. After making it I was glad that I did, as I was able to make quite a big one, about 80cm in length. This will enable multiple audience members to read my books at the same time.

I decided to not paint any of the wooden structures that I made today, allowing the different wood from the sculptures and the holders to have a conversation with one another. There was also a time issue.

Tomorrow I hope to completely finish the project, printing off the last book as well as the maps and rest of the pamphlets. I'm really happy about how everything is turning out, and hope that putting up the work is a simple process.

Sculpture Placing and Book Making

Today I drove around the world (not literally) to place my sculptures in a range of different places. Overall I feel that the experience was successful, but a couple of things did happen that I hadn't really planned for. I had originally thought that the wood poles would go into the ground easily, but unfortunately in some of the places this was not the case. To combat this I had to use water to soften the earth, as well as utilising a knife to make the holes a little deeper and sharpen the doweling to pierce the ground easily. Fortunately this worked well, but the sculptures did move a little when you pushed against them slightly. This is obviously something that I didn't want occurring, but it can't be helped, unless I were to drill the work into the earth or use concrete to weigh the pieces down. Another downside was that some of the wooden poles hadn't finished gluing properly, so were slightly loose, this couldn't be helped because of time issues, but in a perfect world I would have waited a few days for the work to dry completely before putting them in the different locations.

Tender                                               Angry

Happy                                                    Sad

When I finally got the work into the ground, I photographed them and got their co-ordinates using my phone. Unfortunately in some of the places I had no access to 3G, but I was able to find the exact location using maps when I got home, so it turned out that it wasn't that big of a problem.

I then added the edited images into the book design, as well as the co-ordinates. I also changed the layout of the different word emotions, allowing the feeling to be reflected in how it's shown on the page. For example, angry is in a huge font, whereas scared is tiny, crawled up in the corner. I feel that this adds a unique aspect to the book, making you stop and look, rather than just flicking through.

I also finished making the sheet that will be handed out during the exhibition, showing people where the outside work is and the co-ordinates alongside a map. These will be A5 pieces of paper, map on the front and co-ordinates on the back. I'm happy about how this turned out, how simple and easy it is to understand.

In the next few days I need to finalise my evaluation and decide whether or not to have the last book contain facts about the meaning of my work or quotes from other artists. I also need to print off the book that I finished making today as well as print off the map handouts (about 100) and finish printing the pamphlets I started on the other day. On top of all of this I need to make business card, pamphlet and map holders out of wood. Hopefully I'll be able to finish this by Thursday evening, as on Friday I'm going to Butley again and over the weekend I'm going to London to look at a range of galleries.

Evaluations and Doweling

Over the weekend I finished the first draft of my evaluation.  I feel that it hits all the key points of the project well, but needs to flow better, rather than having paragraphs of different thoughts stuck in at random points. This is the first draft:

Final Evaluation

I began the confirmatory stage with an idea that slowly developed and changed throughout the project, slowly being formed into a final exhibition piece. I came up with the concept of conveying different people's views about what happens when you die, through affecting contrasting materials in a range of ways. However I quickly dropped this idea as it almost instantly became too big a subject to delve into for the three months I had to do it in. I also wanted to make the project more personal to me, so I decided to try and convey my own emotions through transforming wood (a material I had prior knowledge about) in different ways.

I started by researching different emotions, and then created an Excel chart to document my own. I did this so that I would have primary research about emotions, and when I started to make the sculptures I would be able to portray my own feelings through the work. After experimenting with changing wood in a variety of ways I eventually chose to only use sandpaper. I did this to build up a stronger concept behind the work, the sanding down of the wood representing how life blends into one journey, where there are only a few significant points that stand out. This can be seen in my final piece, with the majority of the sculptures being subtle, and the bolder ones standing out from the crowd.

As the project continued I experimented a lot with colour, but I eventually decided against using it, as the grain of the wood was severely distorted after painting the sculpture. I was disappointed that I couldn't use colour for the final piece, but the grain is an important part of the aesthetic and meaning behind the work so I didn't want to lose it. Taking away the layers of the wood to reveal the grain inside reflects how you open up yourself to be examined by people you're close to. It's also what I'm doing by displaying my own emotions in the sculptures.

Throughout the unit I went to a number of galleries and did a lot of research about the relationship between art and emotion. Through this I discovered a lot of important information to do with symmetry and the use of artwork descriptions. Through doing this, and experimenting with many sanding techniques, I also decided that touching the work is an important part of the work.

I then started to think about how I would display the work, and eventually came to the decision to display a month of emotions, with the different sculptures attached to the wall, slowly moving down as the days go on, eventually filling up 245cm of wall. With this layout, you can't quite discern where the work starts and stops, this is reflecting how your emotions are constantly changing, and that there is no start or end to them.

As the project continued I put together a range of books to go alongside the work, looking at the concepts behind the final piece as well as being artworks themselves. These were complicated to make, but the eventual result was worth the time and effort. Talking with my peers about the content, and whether or not they understood the work was a critical part of the book making process, as well as the project as a whole.

 I also put together a pamphlet of all my previous work from the foundation, to be displayed beside my work at the exhibition. This was so viewers of my work could gain a better understanding of my thinking and making process.

Towards the end of the project I decided to make five sculptures (displayed outside) to be companion pieces to the small sculptures that are inside the exhibition space. After thinking about where these sculptures should be placed, I decided to put them where I had felt each of the emotions being conveyed in the different pieces. This was a breakthrough moment, as up to this point I was just going to have these pieces in a random space, with no meaning tied to it.

The making of the final sculptures went relatively well, apart from having to re-make a few of the sculptures that weren't as aesthetically pleasing as they could be. If I had access to a disc sander and band saw the process would have been simpler. I chose to use pine wood, as it's easy to sand and a material I had a lot of.

Putting up the work was a relatively smooth process, using glue to attach the pieces to the wall and placing the sculptures in the ground using metal spikes.

Today I started writing the small essay to go in the third book, explaining what the work means. I initially envisioned it to have a narrative, but it slowly turned into a book of facts, where each page tells you a key part of the meaning behind the work. I'm not sure whether this is a positive or a negative development, but I need to think about it quite quickly. So that I can make changes if necessary. It was also suggested that instead of talking about what the project means, I could have quotes from other artists who have made work centred around emotions, and what it all means to them. If I were to do this I would need to do some research into a range of different artists. Tomorrow I'm going to consider each option and choose the one that I want to take forward. This is the beginning of my short essay:

This book hopes to look into the meanings behind "Emotion" the sculptures, from the obvious to the unknowable.

Each sculpture represents a day of my life. And for each day I felt a different emotion, which was visualised through sanding the wood. There are 30 sculptures within the main exhibition, depicting a month of my emotions.

The five sculptures that are displayed within Norfolk and Suffolk portray the main emotions that people feel, and are placed in locations where I have felt those emotions in the past.

The sanding process symbolises how life blends into one long journey, where there are only a few significant points that stand out. The layout of the work reflects something similar to this, how ones emotions are constantly changing, that there is no start or end to the process.

Each sculpture is sanded with different tools. The change of equipment represents whether I was hiding my true emotions on a given day.  As the tools I used to affect the wood got more complex, the feeling starts to become hidden, moving further away from using a piece of sandpaper.

I also bought some wooden dowel to act as the metal spikes attaching the large sculptures into the ground. I chopped and glued the wood into the previously made holes in the sculptures. Unfortunately I didn't turn the dowel into spikes before gluing them in, so it will be much harder to push the sculptures into the ground. Hopefully it will still work though, I'll just need to bring along a hammer.

Tomorrow I intend to place the pieces and photograph them to put in one of the books. So on Wednesday I will be printing off the book along with the maps to be given out during the exhibition.

I'm also going to London for the weekend, so I need to completely finish the whole project by Saturday morning. I hope to achieve this goal.

Butley and Printing

Yesterday I went to Butley again for more work experience. A lot of my day involved painting the insides of plaster moulds with liquid wax, a similar process to what I was doing last week but with a different material. I also shovelled some grog (as always). It was a really good day, and I learned a lot from being a part of the process.

Today I finalised and printed the main book, filled with images of the small sculptures and their individual names. I think all the books so far have turned out quite well, if a little similar to the books that I created for my last project. I am a little worried that people will find it hard to understand, as a lot of the books have no real explanation at the beginning, just a definition. Hopefully the book with the actual explanation for the project (which I haven't created yet) will be read by at least a few people. 

I also began printing the pamphlets off, I started with around 50, and I think I'm going to print off 50 more, which will probably be enough. I doubt 100 people will actually visit the show, let alone pick up my pamphlets.

Tomorrow I hope to continue writing my evaluation and the essay that's going inside one of the books. I also want to go and put the sculptures in their locations soon, so that I can photograph them and make the book/map.

Making and Photographs

I managed to create the last two sculptures today, so over the next few days I will hopefully go to the five locations and photograph the individual pieces, as well as leaving them to be observed by people walking past. I feel that if I had access to better equipment (for example a disc sander and a band saw) I would have been able to make the pieces faster and to a higher quality, but unfortunately I did not.

Tender                                                       Happy

I have also continued to write my evaluation, slowly looking back through all my past blog posts, picking out the most significant points of the project to write about. I also realised today that I still need to write a short essay to go in one of my books for the exhibition, talking about what the work is all about. I will do this soon, so that I can then print out the book.

I am currently taking photographs of all the small sculptures, and putting the images into the first book. Hopefully I will have finished this by the end of the day, enabling me to print and put together the book tomorrow, which would leave me only two more books to finalise and print.

After thinking more about it today, I also decided that I would simply put my website address on the sculpture, gluing a piece of laminated paper to the bottom of the back. Then the address would direct people (if they looked it up) to a page on my website showing the map and talking about the work. I prefer this option, rather than putting a whole map on the back, as I don't want to ruin the general aesthetics of the sculpture. Unfortunately this does involve more work for the viewer, but I don't mind too much about that.

I'm really happy with the progress that I'm making with the final pieces, and hope to be finished and ready to put up my work next Monday.

Sculptures and Pamphlets

Today I made two more of the large sculptures, leaving me only two more to create. I think these look really interesting because of their simplicity and the relationship that the sanded wood has with the grain. I'm really looking forward to creating all five of them and going to the different locations to leave them there to weather away. I will do this when I have made all five, so I can place them all on the same day.

Sad

Angry

I also started to think about how to inform people who come across the sculptures that there are more out there to find, as well as that it's my artwork. Be it by simply attaching my business card to the back of them or by printing off the map with the coordinates and attaching it to a nearby tree. I need to think more about this in the next few days whilst I continue to create the sculptures, as it is an important feature for me.

As well as this I began designing the map handouts that I'm going to be giving out during the exhibition, and started to think about how I could incorporate the map into the pamphlet that I have already made. So I don't overwhelm the viewers with paper to pick up. I need to think about this soon as I intend to start printing the pamphlets over the weekend. I also began to write my evaluation, which I will continue to do over the next few days.