I think my face is beginning to have a bad reaction to the clay. And I’ve just had a tooth out, so wont be able to do any more with my mouth.
Archive for the ‘My Work’ Category
Seven, and Eight
Thursday, October 18th, 2012Monologue Six
Tuesday, October 9th, 2012I was worried about this one. At the time I was depressed, and felt completely incapable of doing anything, incapable even of thinking about doing anything (I wish I could articulate this better). But I had planned to make a video, just as I had planned to go in to the studio, and was able to do these things out of habit (I guess). Making it I worried about it seeming silly, and shallow, and one-dimensional. I think you see that frustration right away in the way my hands move. Unlike the others this is a series of actions which, again, is a product of that frustration. I cover myself, a throw clay at myself, then I want to bury myself in it. They all seemed so dumb to me, at the time. And the clay always makes my face look so sad! And here I look like a sulking cartoon baby at times. That clay, though! It was wetter than before, and such a lovely consistency!
It’s not the shallow thing I thought it would be, though. It’s sort of funny, too! And, as the videos are being presented all together, the individual piece is not so important: it’s about what it adds to the whole. And I think this adds depth.
I’m still thinking about the title/s. perhaps I’m leaning more toward something like ‘Ritual #’, or ‘Proposition for a Ritual #’; something referencing those aspects.
Monologues
Saturday, September 22nd, 2012
This is what I have been working on. I’m still thinking about the title, but at the moment ‘Monologues’ fits well enough. The first four have been filmed performances: of me either covering myself in clay, or stuffing my mouth with it. The fifth is a series of seven sculptures made by the same process of filling my mouth with clay, but then spitting the clay onto a board. The image above is from a version split across two projectors, showing the four videos simultaneously.
The first three have been posted previously, but I wanted to have them all together here.
I’m still working these out. Still considering other actions, still wondering exactly what they are about. The immediate, practical, goal is to make six of each of the performances, and then experiment with how to show them, and how the sculptures fit into that, too. Key words and phrases floating round my head at the moment include: absence, repetition, ritual, touch/tactility, mediation, communication, production, sensual deprivation, recycling, anonymity, reperformance, frustration, substitution, approximation.
Blimpino
Friday, August 3rd, 2012Drawing for painting
Tuesday, July 24th, 2012I’d been excited about painting again, but the painting wasn’t working. I’d forgotten how to look at people properly, and was struggling with working from a relatively unfamiliar sitter. That had been okay in the past, but now I feel like I need to know more about the head in front of me than I can get by just looking. I need to know how it feels, and how heavy it is, and how it moves, and how thick the skin is and—
So, I’ve been making these drawings of myself (they’re ordered chronologically):
Laundrette
Tuesday, June 12th, 2012Girl with Red Fingernail
Monday, June 4th, 2012
Painting again. This is from a photograph, of which I’ve made drawings from in the past. I’ve wanted to paint this ever since I saw it, and it’s been a nice warm-up before I start painting portraits again. There’s a little bit more to do, but mostly I’m satisfied.
Building four, building six
Thursday, April 12th, 2012It’s been a while since I’ve made any video, but the atmosphere of both these places struck me last night and compelled me to make some recordings.
Pounds
Wednesday, February 29th, 2012Erin and me have been constructing some songs, using bits taken from some droney keyboard/organ things we recorded in Buckley in January. I haven’t made music in this way before—both playing with another person, and using a computer to assemble a song from an overwhelming amount of pieces—and, though it’s been slow-going, has resulted in work I’m proud of. There should be a track or two more later, but mostly we’re done. I add the disclaimer that the tracks lose a bit (and in the case of Stationary a lot) in the process of getting onto Soundcloud. We will be making tapes of them later.
Previously I had made music with very little computering involved; either one-take improvisations, or a series of improvisations layered on top of each other, each played while listening to what had already been recorded as I played. We talked today about trying that method next time, with each of us taking turns to add a layer.
Drawing from Taryn Simon
Saturday, December 17th, 2011
This is a selection of drawings I made from a work by Taryn Simon: A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters. The photographs are terrific, and I think good enough to stand on their own apart from the text that accompanies them. Photography, in the context of a gallery rarely strikes me: a photograph’s objectness and life are what makes them interesting—a framed photo on a gallery wall is too often just another image.