I began the week feeling slightly overwhelmed by all the things which needed done, which included two extracurricular exhibitions I’d submitted to or planned to submit to. Student organised Exhibition – Controlled Entropy opened on Wednesday, so needed an artist’s statement and the work hung, by Tuesday. And the members exhibition at Generator, needed equipment hired for it, as I am submitting my performance video.
Over the holidays, I have been looking at several artists and keeping a note of various ideas in sketchbooks. I also worked on a sound piece and video which I started on New Year’s Day, cutting up, layering and looping Charlie and my voices from the video recording I took while walking along what we call the velvet avenue, at the wind farm. I made two versions and may use one of them to submit into future exhibitions and as a starting point for my course work.
I have also begun to think about collage, again, making marks and brush strokes on paper then cutting them up, painted some simple watercolours forms, and sketched some ideas using famous paintings as the compositional base.
Working from a collage made up of some of the above methods I worked the idea up into a painting. I see the collage and painting as a process working towards another performance possibly, with more characters this time.
Had been planning on trying to move away from Jung’s shadow archetype but having done a bit of reading for one of the essay questions I liked the sound of – Freud and fetishism – I have realised that Freuds Id is possibly an even more accurate metaphor for what I am trying to convey through the particular shadow character I am investigating. So, I might want to stay on this subject matter for a bit longer.
Saw the film screening of Gillian Wearing’s film about George Elliot which was very interesting and enlightening. Odd, grubby, gritty and kind of ugly but poignant style.
went to the artists talk by Chloe Lum and Yannick Desranleau and opening exhibition talks and performance at the cooper gallery – ambiguous becoming. Loved the aesthetic and the words used in their performances but wasn’t sure about the audio presentation of it. Though liked some of the vocal renditions of the words and some of the sounds. Found their work inspiring though and it has helped me consolidate some of my performance ideas.
Went to the Lamb Gallery’s closing talks of their urban architecture exhibition and found the talk about the tenements particularly poignant because of my grannies death last year and the end to my visiting her in her tenement flat in Paisley. I took some photos of her house and stairwell the last time I went and wonder about doing something with them. Also found the architecture students maps of the student population of Dundee, surprising and interesting.
Found the book ‘100 painters of tomorrow’ and particularly liked Mark Nader, Gorka Mohamed and Alon Kedem for starters. I feel like a kid in a candy store with lots of new techniques to try.
Met kate our new tutor, did another library sweep and found a book on Cecily brown, liked her mix of landscape and figurative; sexual acts half hidden in the visceral mess of roughly and loosely applied paint. Didn’t find the paintings pleasing to look at as a whole but liked the shock of finding hidden themes and have taken lessons in paint application and subject combining from her.
Ended the week by visiting the DCA exhibition, which I will talk about next week as we have a curated tour on Monday.
Rachel Bride Ashton 