Images – Framing Statement – Details of Work and Reflection/Evaluation

Images – Paintings

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Images – Clay

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Framing Statement

The work reflects on ideas of home, aside from the physical structure, the collection of materials, brick, cement, and wood, ordered in a specific way to function as a shelter but the manner in which we order our environment to be psychologically ‘home’. Home is the setting where personal histories and the self are represented physically by the gathering and placing of objects in our constant place. Objects can be the catalyst which transport one to a time and place experienced before, revisiting the past through the tangible in the present. A lost or discarded childhood toy or former school room or childhood home can uncover feelings of joy, melancholy or reflection. This unexpected impulse of remembering is distinctly unique, unlike conscious memory which seems more fixed and constant. This work seeks to describe this ambiguous, fleeting moment, almost subconscious as may be experienced in a dreamlike state.

The making Process reflects this as it is intuitive pulling on tacit knowledge, environment and cultural experiences, some of which is conscious and much not, blending ideas with process. The act of painting is a process of covering and uncovering revealing and abstracting forms which pushes and pulls with past and present actions. The clay has a tangible sense of interior space, pushing the material to breaking point where it can no longer hold itself and inside space breaks out. In the layers of process the materials reveal something which could not be described otherwise transforming subconscious into solid and tangible objects.

Research;

Bachelard – The Poetics of Space. Boston

KRASNER, J –  HOME BODIES.

Solnit, R –  A field guide to getting lost

Turkle, S –  Evocative objects. Cambridge.

List of submissions  

Paintings: 5 x Oil on birch panel paintings measuring 40 x 40 cm square. These will fix to the wall using nail/screw/mirror fixing.

Clay: Sculptural pieces three in number. Materials: Porcelain, Jesmonite and paint. Measurements (max dimensions): Largest 15cm High x 15cm Wide – Medium 8cm High x 18cm wide – Small 18cm Wide x 5cm High.

The clay and paintings can be curated and displayed and hung as suits the exhibition as a whole.

Evaluation and Reflection

Notes

What have I made?

Porcelain/clay/jesmonite/oils/canvas/birch panel/ collage

Intuition theory from year one is present. Mark making has developed, introduction of collage materials/stencil and wider range of colour.

The theory (Bergson/Duration/Coussens – Elements of creativity) have formed a foundation with which to introduce new content. The longstanding interest in home/memory and place have been reintroduced to the intuitive work. Links have been made to my tacit knowledge/environment (home)/ culture which I bring to the work combined with a more thoughtful context underlying the work. This underlying content is to do with home, specifically interior space which came from being forced to internalise in every way during the pandemic. The visual inspiration here came from objects and my surroundings. There was an urge to attend to what was at home and I found myself sorting through the house. Uncovering but often recovering with a sense of being the keeper of objects which have little use or monetary value. The research which developed from this focused around ideas of memory/objects/home/

The work which developed loosely explores ambiguous objects and the grounding of the abstract forms which I was already producing. They became internal to me placing them into spaces where there were floor/walls/corners. This has a nod to still life and the interior spaces of Caravaggio’s candle lit biblical scenes but remains open and unclear. Unclear to me also as well as the viewer as they are still very much led by my process and the materials.

The painting is born for me, it develops and fails, develops and succeeds or it continues on and on in a state of development. All of the work in the Karst exhibition represents the latter. They are ongoing, pure work in progress only punctuated by the need to have a pause to reflect and display for the MA. They sit alongside the essay piece for me as a kind of story telling which shares my thinking and  seeks to extract the viewer/readers own experience of this dreamlike remembering which I believe we all experience.

The clay seems to be more abstract. Perhaps this is due to my limited understanding of the materials or the fact that it is three dimensional and not limited to the surface in the way that paint is. There is a way which we read paintings as a collection of materials which are bound by the frame or end of painted surface. There is an orientation, usually a wall fixing etc. Clay seems to negate these limitations other than the tendency to resemble and form into a vessel.

I have affection for my materials of choice; there is a need to return to them. Oil paint and clay both have this quality which draws me in like nothing else. It’s a love affair. I think about it when I am not with it, considering what I may do next when we are reunited. Is that Strange?

What went well?

Grounding – Subtle ambiguity

The work is unintentionally dark as a result of over glazing repeatedly. I am undecided as to whether this is good or bad.

The work presented for Karst is a precursor for the pieces which I am undertaking presently. I have upscale again to a metre square canvas and am combining the elements of interior space with colour and form working from sketches which I have made. There is a lightness and speed in this work which is absent in the Karst pieces. The Karst work although ongoing feels like a sketching process, it reaches a conclusion and then heads towards a new one. The old painting is left beneath the surface and lost. I think this is something to do with my lack of confidence and uncertainty as a painter, knowing when to stop picking away. There is a need to have a two things going on, a piece to pick at and a piece to be confident and minimal.

What went less well?

I have a tendency to think about logistics and practicalities. Perhaps this is a negative as it can change my work. I may stay smaller if I am thinking about moving multiple works to a space or am simply limited by the studio space which I have. This is often the case. With the clay I have to arrange firing etc although this has been less of an issue whilst ant uni.

How would I do things differently?

Moving forward I would like to filter my areas of research to a specific area. This is likely to be either Object or Home, both relating to memory and the remembered and will be tied firmly with process and materials. I will spend the summer exploring areas of research and continue with painting. In terms of the clay I have arranged to spend some time with Gabby in the ceramics studio next term. I would love to upscale to something life size, not sure if this is possible but is an aim.