5 May – Decision making

Made some major decisions – decided to focus on light – how it changes, how to represent it, how to develop it almost as though it were a picture and how I can manipulate a space with light.

NEW PHOTOGRAPHS OF LIGHT AND SHADOW AND A NEW IDEA

I have a few crazy ideas that I plan to expand on over the next couple of weeks – unfortunately they are dependent on sunny days however I will also be experimenting with natural light.  

I want to leave shadows where the light has gone – so I will mostly be leaving my mark in the form of masking tape or chalk – stay tuned !!!

here’s the shape of the light shining on the bedroom floor after the light has gone 

 

 

The best weekend yet – sunshine wise – and I was working at the Printmakers – never mind I still managed to take photographs at each break much to Alastair’s amusement.  This is the light shining through the door of the Printmakers making a tiny shape on the tiles – ahhhh!

STONE LITHOGRAPHY – LIGHT AND SHADOW

Printmakers Workshop phoned me on Friday to say a place had come up at this weekends workshop and would I like to do it now rather than November – I should coco!!

I have been developing some of my photographs in my sketchbook, cutting into them and adding to them etc – I had been playing with the streaks of light in one photograph I took in Nice and decided to work that up on stone litho, doing a two colour print.

The final print is a very dark warm brown with a blend of flashes of yellow and transparent yellow – really pleased with the results.  The photo has a peacock in it, I kept it as it broke up the photograph tho it is not the focal point of the work.

LIGHT SHADOW AND REFLECTION

GRADED UNIT ACTION PLAN 27/4/09

Part 1: Theme/Brief

LIGHT, SHADOW AND REFLECTION

Look at different ways of interpreting light, shadow and reflection in a contemporary art piece.

LIGHT:  Something that makes things visible or affords illumination:  All colours depend on light.  A particular light or illumination in which an object seen takes on a certain appearance.

SHADOW: A dark figure or image cast on the ground or some surface by a body intercepting light.  A reflected image.  The representation of the absence of light  on a form.

REFLECTION: An image; representation; counterpart.

It wasnt until I looked at my huge file of photographs that I realised I am fascinated by light, reflection and shadows – I have taken hundreds of pictures of shadows and reflections – also used my camera phone to film light moving across surfaces and numerous short films of shadows.  I want to research the history of shadows in art and create a body of work on the theme.

Sources and Resources

Research shadows in Art , the history of the shadow representing the psyche and soul.  Visit camera obscura. Plato’s Allegory of the cave. Internet and library.  Look at the work of Dan Flavin, look at neons.  German Expressionist film and the use of light in artists Films.  Print out a selection of my own photographs.  Use resources available to me include Sculpture Workshop for exhibition, Printmakers Workshop for stone litho, Stills for printing.

Techniques and Processes

Using photography (dvd and printed media). Sketching ideas and making maquettes – final pieces in welded iron.

Timescale

Week One
21-26 April PLANNING AND RESEARCH
Thursday 23 April – Hand in – 1st draft action plan
Sat 25 April Visit zoo to take advantage of the sunlight for photographing shadows
Sun 26 April Look at my own photography archives

Week Two
27 – 3 April INITIAL INTERPRETATION
Mon 27 April Photoshop photographs and print them to put up in my space, finalize first draft
Tues 28 April Download my films from phone to YouTube and publish them on WordPress
Wed 29 April Taking outdoor photos
Thurs 30 April Sketchbook work
Friday 1 May Research
Sat 2 May Printmakers Workshop Stone Lithography course
Sun 3 May Day 2 of Litho course

Week Three
4 – 10 May EXPANDING ON WEEK 2
Mon 4 May School closed – updating blog with photos
Tues 5 May Mentoring Session Development Stage – finalizing ideas 
Wed 6 May Working with projections from photos
Thurs 7 May  Working with fabric and light in college for DVD
Fri 8 May  Working with fabric and shadow in my studio for DVD
Sat 9 May  Upload work onto YouTube
Sun 10 May 

Week Four 4
11 – 17 May START ON FINAL CONCEPTS
Mon 11 May GROUP CRIT
Tues 12 May Draft business cards and cv
Wed 13 May  Final artwork for business card sent off/cv printed
Thurs 14 May Developing 2 
Fri 15 May  Iron sundial made – leave outside to rust in rain
Sat 16 May Website design
Sun 17 May  Website update

Week Five
18 – 24 May DEVELOPING FINAL CONCEPTS – Bruce Nauman talk at Stills
Mon 18 May School closed – work at home sketchbook etc – letters for publicity based on last night
Tues 19 May School closed DEVELOPMENT SESSION 
Wed 20 May  1/2 day photos / afternoon sketching/collaging 
Thurs 21 May  Day of photographs – very sunny
Fri 22 May  Print out final 2 sets of photographs – website now live – sarah-ewilson.co.uk
Sat 23 May In London
Sun 24 May Home – mounted photos

Week Six
25 – 31 May PREPARATION FOR EXHIBITION
Mon 25 May  Finalising paperwork
Tues 26 May EVALUATING
Wed 27 May Paint space in ESW
Thurs 28 May
Fri 29 May EXHIBITION OPENS 6pm
Sat 30 May
Sun 31 May EVALUATION SESSION AT ESW

THE FINAL TOOL BOX / ANYONE FOR JENGA

VIRGO INTACTA – EVERYTHING IN ITS PLACE

The box I found is just a box – it became a tool box when someone decided to store tools in it.

My project is nothing to do with the tools but the space they take up.

After death objects take on more significance.

Everyone has a box or drawer and each one contains space.

I cast the space that you cannot touch – and now you can.  My final piece is an alternative record and it interests me.

Rachel Whiteread’s sculptures solidify space.  Casting directly from known, familiar objects, the artist makes manifest the space in, under, on or between things.  Her casts hold and occupy space, central to her work is that the materiality is also an index of absence.  In the casting process the original, the recognisable object which the work seems to be ‘about’ is lost.  What is left is a resude or reminder, a space of oscillation between presence and absence.

Rachel Whiteread – Shedding Life

The only piece of furniture, among all that he possessed, for which Carre-Benoit felt real affection was his solid oak filing cabinet, which he contemplated with satisfaction whenever he passed in front of it.  Here, at least, was something that was reliable, that could be counted on.  You saw what you were looking at and you touched what you were touching.  Its proportions were what they should be, everything about it has been designed and calculated by a meticulous mind for purposes of utility.

The Poetics of Space

IF I HAD A HAMMER …

So, I am in the process of cataloguing the contents of the tool box, layer by layer and box by box and photographing, measuring and sketching each item.  

I have been reading An Anecdoted Typography of Chance by Daniel Spoerri – this appeals to my Fluxus appreciation – where four artists (Robert Filliou, Emmett Williams, Dieter Roth and Roland Topor) list and comment on everyday objects.

In connection with a one man show of his snare-pictures at the Galerie Lawrence in Paris in 1962, Spoerri wrote his Topographie Anécdotée du Hasard (Anecdoted Topography of Chance). Spoerri was then living at the Hotel Carcassone in Paris, in room number 13 on the fifth floor. To the right of the entrance door was a table which his wife Vera had painted blue. Spoerri drew on a ‘map” the overlapping outlines of all the 80 objects that were lying on the table on October 17, 1961 at exactly 3:47 p.m. Each object was assigned a number and Spoerri wrote a brief description of each object and the memories or associations it evoked. The descriptions cross referenced other objects on the table which were related. The Topographie Anécdotée du Hasard was printed as a small pamphlet of 53 pages plus a fold out map and index and was distributed as an advertisement for the exhibit. 

Been looking at “Shedding Life” – Rachel Whiteread and my favourite – Bruce Nauman and the castings of the underside of chairs.  I chose to cast the inside of the tool box – the space required to contain the tools catalogued.

Filled all the holes with dental mould and vaselined up the inside of the box so the plaster doesnt stick – it did leak a bit out of the edges tho - 

Had to whack the box about a bit to loosen the mould but the results are great.

 and the delicious irony – I fixed the broken box using some of the nails from its contents – but there was no hammer so I had to get one from my tool box!!!

SARAH FINDS A TOOL BOX AND HAS AN IDEA

When I was tidying a cupboard at my aunts house I found a wooden tool box that belonged to my grandfather and my dad.  Its a sturdy old wooden box that once had a leather handle and hinged for the lid, it must also, at one time, have allowed for the front to fold down but that now no longer works.

The contents are a typical pre war mentality mish-mash of things that may come in handy at some time or were kept just in case.

The box was full of stuff, and also 4 little metal boxes containing random screws and hooks – I used one of the boxes to try and reproduce the contents – I have to give the box back!!

I cast a little tray of drill bits and one of hooks – once the clay dried I built a wall round the tray and poured in resin – unfortunately as the wall hardened it also cracked and a load of resin leaked out – the result is a rather crap sheet of resin with clay stuck to it and a lot of holes!

I want to have an archive of this tool box so I’ve started listing the contents by layer and by contents of bags/boxes.  I have been taking measurements of each item and sketching it then photographing it – I don’t plan to cast any more of the boxes contents.

FIDDLING ABOUT WITH THE SCULPTURE PROCESS

EXPERIMENTS IN CASTING

I want to make a sculpture but I haven’t actually decided what of – so I got all the casting stuff I have at home and had a jolly good play about!

I cast a rope by pressing it into clay then poured plaster in it to make a copy.  This is too flimsy.

I also made a series of casts from my sons Lord of the Rings characters 

I made latex moulds of a horses head from my carved incense box and also of my old Sindy doll’s head.

Tried making flat reliefs from a latex mould I’d made of a carving from the incense box but the resin was too thin