The inner ear

Thinking about how I can make work during this homebound time, and I started to think about making sculptures that are vaguely referential of the inner ear- but seem like a distant memory of it rather than an anatomical version. I have access to clay and willow right now so might try to start working on some sculptures. Maybe then I could embed speakers in the sculpture and have them play some of the nonsense sound pieces I have made. I like the idea of the sculptures functioning as some kind of trumpet or amplification of the work, as well as a visual representation of it.

Grey Dyed plaster

I wasn't sure about the white and gold combination of the previous laster sculpture- it felt a bit sterile and maybe referential of something that I didn't intend. The grey feels more stone-like, older, less modern, but is still made from a modern material with its own cultural referencing. The stone colour of the plaster even looks heavier. I carved the drawings in and painted using a barely pink white. I like the idea of collaging together a selection of portraits onto a scenic drawing. If I get to continue with the plaster sculptures I will do so in grey instead of white. The Corona Virus jeopardizes my ability to make sculptures using plaster- I can't work with it at home. I have a cough so I am self isolating for the next seven days which means that even with the workshop being open I can't make work in that way right now.  

More plaster carving

I liked the results of the blind drawing in plaster, but I feel like I can't really tell if it would work as a larger piece without expanding it a little. I cast 16 more blocks to try it out on a larger scale. I'm interested in the idea of making such a large piece that it would dominate a space, but could still be dissembled and reassembled to create different drawings.

 This is a rubbing taken from one of the carvings. I like the idea of working with rubbings more, extending the process, like a kind of print.

Rachel Whiteread

Thinking about the meaning of using plaster, and the history of it. Plaster has been used to replicate greek marble statues to provide people with cheaper imitations as decorations, it also has a context with buildings and housing structures. Rachel Whiteread is interesting to me right now because it feels like she reveals an interior which is usually hidden, and she creates something beautiful from something which is usually a functional and mundane part of life. 

More plaster carving

I wanted to explore plaster carving more, still thinking about the interactive quality that I want to bring into my work. I cast some bricks of plaster (after a long boring process of making wooden boxes of exact proportions to set them in) and carved a blind drawing into it before gilding, and then scrambling the image. I like the idea of maybe doing this on a large scale and inviting viewers to rearrange to form their own drawing. I wonder about the gold though- is it gaudy? I also potentially have a problem with the whiteness of the plaster. It's like a new page, with mobility, but maybe that's not what I want to evoke. I would prefer it to be terracotta but this has its own problems, because if it's presented unfired it may pose health and safety risks, but firing it will make the whole process too long and potentially very unreliable.

Carving in plaster

I want to still explore the idea of the monolith, so I set some plaster and carved a blind drawing into it, and then selectively gilded some of the marks of the blind drawing, like some kind of ancient language, indecipherable. I also took rubbings of it which I really like. I love the idea of a piece of art that comes from a many step process. I think that I like it but I need to sit with it a while and see what potential it has.

Returning to blind drawings

Something clicked in my head the other day about blind drawings- blind drawings are a perfect visual representation of the loss of meaning. They are like a guitar going out of tune whilst it's being played. Blind drawings have long been a part of my practice but I didn't know how I could refine them into something which suits an exhibition. Realising how they fit into the concept of devolving meaning feels great, like it's bringing a constellation of elements together in my work. The poetry, the drawing, the sound work and the humming may all only exist separately but as a form of research they all enrich the project. I want to experiment with finding ways to physicalize the drawings and combine them with language or sound-either finding some kind of language inside the drawings, or turning them into a sculpture somehow.

Helena and I, mincing our words

Helena and I sat in the life room for a few hours last week and wrote poems together. We wrote streams of consciousness, tore them up, and mixed the pieces together in a pile. Then we picked words out of the pile at random, and built new poems from them. After that we played a poem building game with Ella, writing a small phrase, folding the page and passing it on. It was a good experiment in the process of devolving away from meaning driven use of words. 

Swinging each other,

Galloping, galloping ,only one opening.

Closeness to someone or something

having nothing but everything

unattached

connected

demonic

can she hear me

process come

my legs pushing back to her hand

like something pressed

filled

dissolving

bird like

bent, melted

fold

gutless and mystifying

Bless life between 

forboding onto comfort

whistles, wings out

much

and up the

where the sound feels louder

come

packets melted of my trust

skin on coldness crowds

cacophony that am light 

and peas a cold

round that

through but open with danger

oceanic and reproductive assumption

fortune bearing processions build

like minding fractions with or

brushing hands across immediately

proximity fifth breadth

smell like in documentary

for and brow back entry deep

speaks, embodies, she is over

from associate with and gusts

our baby from hopeful under turns

this can feel back elastic

life container bread germinate

ignition lighting dimmed feel

did I notice if filled hunger

breadth pulling warm me limiting

stopped fill you your hands other and 

unknown only one of a this nose

the door land five-floor

in a fractal ache someone pulling

shattered terrain

monogamy

angelic, slowly pushing the swinging

we would throw words in unspoken words

screaming with no sound

the tiny bells seem insignificant

obeying without

feeling grains into a pan 

sour to the of which 

two three opening

the air break birds

filtered wish strings in the

in the weighted

at the same time with like

back step

light should and one will sing up expressing this

journey if to the island teeth of envy

in a place

like to light scalp slice express

weighted knees

unbalancing the toe

shrew waiting in a crowd

human

professional brown 

spill petals from body doors

commotion

be gentle

generously

through to only one 

teeming guttering fullness

fruit terrible that the

pressure on plan became ours

Different ways of being interactive

The piece by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller got me thinking about different ways of being interactive. There are pieces which influence witnesses to DO something, and there are pieces which respond to the presence of a witness. The latter interests me because of the gentleness of it, the idea that someone just being near, looking at a piece of work would activate some kind of response from the work. This gives the impression that the pieces are alive, breathing, responsive. I would love to make work that brings people into a meditative space, without the need for action from the viewer.

Experiment in F sharp minor

I love this piece by Janet Cardiff and George Buress Miller. This is the kind of interactive work that really inspires me- It is gentle, unexplainable and connective. It is with companionship, populace, that the piece becomes harmonic and resonant, and without it, the table of speakers is inanimate and silent. I love the simplicity of it and the idea of simple but harmonic music that is influenced by the presence of witnesses. I would be happy to make something like this, but with a sculptural element, and perhaps moving parts.

Lngue and Parole, Saussure

Thinking about the inner ear

I've been thinking about sculpting impressions of the inner ear as a source for sound, maybe even as some kind of instrument. Naomi Pearce's performance piece, "Osteon" works with the idea of the inner ear, with a large sculpture of the osteon bone central to her three day long continuous spoken word piece. 

https://www.naomipearce.co.uk/OSTEON

I've been drawing idea's of inner ear landscapes, I hope to start making maquettes this week.