Smells, Sights, Sounds.

Having had another chat with Megan, we were discussing how my hallway installation could be added to in terms of creating a more cohesive piece; something that reflects its realism rather than an art student's crappy attempt at building a makeshift hallway.
The talk included minute details that I have really even considered, things like an air freshener, the use of household objects/items such as a bowl of pauperie, or glass coasters. It's all in the small details I guess.

Another important element I was already looking at was the use of a lamp/light in my installation. It was brought up however that the overhead daylight bulbs in the studios would be on for the entirety of the exhibitions. Megan suggested the use of a board to cover above where my installation would be, however I didn't feel safe with that idea- I don't want the responsibility on my head if the board were to fall on anyone. Hence my next suggestion, using material like netting to cover the 'ceiling' on my installation, to darken the space and therefore the light from the hallway lamp would have a heavier impact and also create an ambience.

I should be an interior designer

This afternoon saw a trip into B&Q after College, to look at flooring, skirting board and wallpaper for my installation.

Having measured my floor space to approx 6m2, I initially looked at carpet tiles- NB: I need a flooring that is thin; there is a fire door in my area and therefore as the door would be opening and closing, I need something with a tread of <5mm (the space left under the door) - the tiles worked out at just over £60 for 6m2.. Now whilst I want a quality fit and aesthetic, I'm a student and realistically I really don't have that sort of money to spend.
The next idea was vinyl, again expensive. My total floor area is 1.5m x 3m, and the vinyl flooring came in rolls of 2m x 2m, at £25 each. Firstly it would come to a total of £50, but I would also have a rather unsightly join in the middle of my flooring. Not nice.
The third option, Fablon. This is a product that is basically sticky back plastic with the look of a vinyl wooden floor. Now at £9.99 per roll, that's pretty nifty. Apart from when the roll comes in 1.5m x 0.9m, which then means I have to buy 4 at the grand total of just under £40.. Not so nifty.
I'm not a tight wad, but at the same time I refuse to pay £40+ just for a floor that's only going to be stuck down for 3 weeks then binned.
But alas, a miracle was cast upon us! Mumma Wright came across a dark brown carpet (the type you'd see in a classroom, but hey I can't afford to be choosy) that was about 4mm thick, and the best part? £3 per square metre!!!! £3 x 6m2 = £18, thank you veeeery much and I'll take that nicely.
The wallpaper choosing was a million times easier. Now I'm not saying that I should be an interior designer... But I should. I was going for a generic 'hallway' type wallpaper, but also had the key point in mind that a brightly coloured/ patterned design would just flush my hanging photographs away, their intention and intensity would be lost into the background of a wallpaper style.

Playing Houses

I've been looking further into what my installation could, would and should look like in terms of aesthetics, space and physical ability to work. A couple of super quick doodles show how I'm beginning to think about practicality and how the domestic environment would actually look.

If you can just make out, the above sketch shows the utilisation of a shelf, but on thinking about it- you don't really see shelves in hallways, therefore the below sketch has changed to use a table. The introduction of this household item would allow similar- if not larger- space for storage and is constantly adding to a homely aesthetic; it creates a more natural space to enter into.

Love on the Left Bank

From the previous post this is an example of a pioneer in the Photonovel, Ed van der Elsken, and his photobook Love on the Left Bank.

All I ever do is read.

Yet more reading, reading reading reading! Apparently it's good for you.
I've currently loaned The Genius of Photography- How photography has changed our lives by Gerry Badger, and just been constantly reading through different sections (it's a big book).

I came across the idea of 'Photonovel' yesterday afternoon and whilst in detail it's not so much the same, the overall gist seemed fairly familiar and I could make links with my current work.

Photonovel:
"The 'photonovel' was developed by Dutch photographers in the 1950s. Using photography as a diaristic medium, this type of photo book often employed a stream-of-consciousness style.
And it defined a more personal, spontaneous kind of documentary photography, private rather than public in intention, focusing upon a photographer's own life, rather than others."

Whilst this concept sounds completely alien, I do feel that it sort of works backwards in terms of my own work.. (stay with me) In the sense that although I didn't take the photographs, in particular the ones I'm going to be using for my final major project are like a photonovel for me. They behold a private view of my childhood years, and with the intentions of my publicised work wanting to be kept private, I feel it actually fits in pretty well.

Talking Russian

Илья́ Ио́сифович Кабако́в

I have recently been reading about Ilya Kabakov's theory of the 'Total Installation' and it has been very interesting and insightful in terms of the way I choose to go about the creation, set up and publication of my works. I wanted to do some background reading within the discipline of installation art, as it is an area I have never explored within my own work before.

"One is simultaneously both a 'victim' and a viewer, who on the one hand surveys and evaluates the installation, and on the other, follows those associations, recollections which arise in him; he is ovecome by the intense atmosphere of the total illusion."
The expectations and social habits that the viewer takes with him into the space of the installation that will remain with him as he enters, to be either applied or negated once he has taken in the new environment.

"With a total installation, there is no divide between the artist and the audience. In a way, you create a painting and you allow the viewer inside the painting, which has become three-dimensional instead of one-dimensional." [1]

Audiences are typically saturated by the stories that the Kabakovs tell through their monumental works. They become the characters in the art that is taking place all around them. For example, in The Toilet, above, (originally erected for Documenta IX in 1992) viewers stand at the corner of a house in which they hear intermittent singing coming out of a toilet. Niccolo Sprovieri, who has known the Kabakovs for two decades and showcased their work at his gallery in London 14 years ago, reflects on this powerful work: "You are by the toilet in the corner of a room. You hear the voice of someone, sometimes singing, sometimes laughing. The idea is that everyone has shared rooms in this house and there is only one room in which you can be alone, a place where you can express yourself without fear of being judged."

I'm afraid I can't explain myself, sir, because I am not myself, you see?

After my analogue photography workshop with Megan Wellington, I've been thinking more about moving image- we were able to edit a Super 8 film reel and the aesthetic was something that has increasingly interested me. I would relate these ideas with my own work by using home videos of myself, again with the reference of the readymade and the links to memory (more specifically of my childhood, this again creates a cohesion and unity of work).

I have since been thinking about this further, and in terms of the way I am thinking about the overall look of my installation, I don't think a television would quite fit into it. Therefore... dun dun duuun! I've been thinking a lot about sound!
It's not something I have ever considered before, I have never done my own sound piece, and in honesty I've never hugely looked into sound artists or given much heed towards the discipline.

My idea at this stage is to still use the home videos of little me, but rather than have my audience seeing it, they would be hearing it instead. I feel that this relates back to Freud's concept of the uncanny; something that is familiar but also incredibly alien to us. I would use the sound but hidden within the installation- an unknown source.

hearing but not seeing, hearing but not believing? ...Interesting.

On a serious note.

I was privy to a conversation yesterday between both of my tutors, Chris and Steve, discussing the potential misreading and misunderstanding of my work, in the light of recent events that have occured here.
At the beginning of the year, a little girl called Lydia unfortunately passed away on the College site, and there have been ongoing hearings and trials surrounding this incident.
The tutors were talking about the possible links between the aforementioned tragedy, and my work. Whilst I explore the idea of memory and existence, because I am relaying these ideologies through the use of childhood photos of myself, I can see how people could see my art and think I am making a connection. From this I need to be delicate around the situation; it is my absolute last intention to cause upset or further hurt to anyone.
Chris discussed the idea of writing a plaque of piece of information to go with my art, and whilst I understand the reasons behind this, to inform the public that it's not my intention or purpose to make any relation, I specifically do not want my audience to know the reasons behind my work, so I feel that by making an information sheet, it defeats the entire point of my art.

I do admire your courage. I think I'll eat your heart.

Red Dragon.

From a trilogy of films based on Hannibal Lecter, I was watching the second film, Red Dragon a while ago, and there is a specific shot and sub plot within the murder investigation scene by the police officer- it caught my attention, and actually influenced my work (but not in a weird twisted way, fyi).

The bit I mean is where Will Graham (police officer) is looking and noting the first crime scene in order to reveal particular idiosyncrasies of the killer, and it is where he finds the smashed mirrors in the house of the victims. The bits of mirror are then placed in the victims' eyes. It is this part that was important to me; a famous quote is that "eyes are the window to the soul" and from here I began thinking.

I was thinking about it (long winded, but stay with me) because eyes are a personal thing.. Most of us would be happy to donate our organs when we pass away, but plenty of people I know wouldn't donate their eyes. Why? "Because they're mine, I've seen my life through them.. they're my own". Therefore grew my initial ideas in the pathway stage of covering the [photos of me as a baby] eyes in my first photographs with words. It was a later accident that saw my idea of scratching photos of myself away, to remove the personality of the person. It started with the eyes but then moved into the whole body to create a removal of existence.

The latter idea was also partially taken from a moment in a scene from Red Dragon again; the scrapbook about Hannibal, belonging to The Tooth Fairy killer shows a scribbling out of a photograph with a pen, and it slightly screws the paper up. My work was simply the intentional act of this 'Freudian slip'.

Sodium Hypochlorite.

In initial experiments during the Pathway Stage, I was thinking about the 'removal of existence', and therefore was working towards how I could show this in a physical sense.
It was a concept that had sprung from the idea of pickling and preservation of life- something not dissimilar to Hirst's Shark in Formaldehyde (The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living).

However my idea was the complete opposite, only with the aesthetics of the impression of preserving. I decided to try a quick, crude version- a mock up shall we say. I simply used old glass jars and inserted a photograph (printed onto cartridge paper; this allows absorption of the liquid) then filled the first jar with white spirit. After a week or so, I couldn't see any changes at all so decided to fill a second jar with house bleach. The colour of the bleach is a watery yellow, but actually adds to the aesthetic of "pickling".

I did this around a month ago, and looked at the bleached jar recently. It has eroded away at the paper photograph and has left it looking chewed at, old and worn. I decided that I want this work to become part of my final piece/ installation, so created new bleached jars with more thought and consideration taken this time.

I realise to be creating final work with almost 4 weeks of the project left sounds premature, but it needs the time to 'pickle' and for the bleach to take any effect on the photographs. I chose to use two baby bottles instead of glass jars as on first appearance they seem far less hostile, and can almost just blend into the background of work until the public use their eyes to explore the cruel realities. I have also purposely chosen photographs of myself at slightly different ages, but close enough so the audience can see it is the same little person.

Again, through thought and consideration, I have used two photos that hide the faces of the child (seen below). This repeats the overall ideology that I know the denotation of my work, of the photographs and the people in them, but that my audience does not. I don't want people to know from the outset that every image within the work is of me at various ages and stages of life. If they work it out, then good on them but I'm not one to be giving out a head start.

Hand Grenades.

Susan Hiller. A video /photography /installation artist, she annually holds a "cremation" for her works; she sets fire to the work and later fills the ashes into jars- paralleling the human service.

The photograph to the right is of her work Hand Grenades 1972, whereby each cyclinder contains individually labelled paintings from 1969. The artist describes her annual burning and reconfiguring of paintings in quasi-scientific formats as a ‘ritual’.

This notion adds to the feel of ephemera, and something I want to touch on in a sense, but not for it to overpower the pieces I create.

Back to basics.

I thought I'd write up about the workshop I took part in a few weeks ago just as an extra note.

I was invited to take part in an Analogue Photography workshop led by Megan Wellington as part of her PGCE course. I was slightly nervous simply due to having never academically studied Photography, it's always been more of a hobbie, an interest of mine but never being properly shown how to take a photo. Self taught, if you like.
We were asked about pros and cons of both Analogue and Digital Photography at the start of the session- the obvious and typical points were made, for example: you can take numerous attempts in digital, but with analogue the moment capture is precious; you can't waste frames (film is now *expletive* expensive!).

To my surprise, we were given one of Megan's (many) cameras to explore and play around with, plus a whole roll of film between 2- so 11/12 frames each. She gave us time to get to grips with the depth of field, aperture and light balance of the cameras, testing out variations in each frame to see on development if we could see the differences.
It was something that interested me far more than I imagined; having always used Digital Photography, I had never really seen the benefits with film. Since the workshop however, I have invested in my own Canon AE-1 35mm SLR Film Camera!

Below are a couple of the photographs I took and some annotation. Although they both slightly bled, I love the aesthetic.