Reflective account for Assignment 4, Part 4:Environmental Interventions

Finding the energy to go outside and create site specific work was a challenge for me. I am on a low energy ”mode” and I prefer spending my time inside mostly reading about art, thinking about art rather than creating art. However I faced the challenge and I managed to apply my creative ideas. At the same time I had to find a way to make this in cooperation with my children so that the work of this assignment becomes part of the parallel project. I considered the projects’ aim and methods in relation to the parallel project. I adapted most of the work to the theme of my parallel project which is the exploration of family relationships and the formation of my identities.

The first project was not directly related to the parallel project. I was supposed to search and capture found images in natural environment. It was very interesting and I realize how found images could provide source material for further drawing exploration as well as finding ways to present naturally created drawings in a creative way as works of art. I came up with the following exploration of my found images.

I could use this approach in my parallel project. I could find photographs relating to family relationships trace over them on transparent paper and make this part of the drawings in a narrative way.

The second project which was interacting with the environment was directly related to my parallel project. I had my children to participate following my conducting. The interventions happened on a significant place for our family, a place we share and have common experiences. We experimented with different interventions in a progressing way which lead to the third project (installation) and finally to the Assignment. The total of the work is the assignment.

Creating site specific work opened new possibilities for me for artistic expression. The same thing can be told in different ways, including installation and spatial drawing. After this experience I am thinking more openly about the course and the outcome of my parallel project. I was able to see the question about the relationships and identity from different angles. I gained a more general understanding of the conceptual and the narrative way of approaching the project and how I could apply this for the final piece or pieces of the parallel project.

Project 3: Installation, Part 4

Aim: Explore how an installative drawing relates to the environment so that the viewer perceives the work in a different way than if they viewed a traditional wall hanged drawing or a painting in a frame.

Method: Make a drawing that creates an interesting dynamic between the artwork and the space that is created and exhibited.

My installation project derived from the work of project 2: Interacting with the environment. One of the ideas explored was the use of mirrors which is an idea that I explore in my parallel project regarding relationships and identities.

Method: I used a mirror film cut in the shape of leaves and attached on leaves. This project also took place in the same place as the previous project which is our family place of gathering in our yard. Ι  wanted to make a work that would evoke an experience while one or all of us are in our shared place. I actually lay on the hammock and checked which leaves should I attach the mirror film on, so that I could see reflections of me on the hammock. I then attached the mirror on the specifies leaves. I lay down to check the result. I realize that the reflections are not very clear and I can hardly see my self in the reflections since the mirror is very narrow and the leaves are keep moving by the breeze. The most prominent reflection is the one of the colourful hammock. However  the play of reflections creates a playful interaction.

In order to meet the projects aim I thought of a way to make the installation more comprehensive and be viewed as an artwork that relates to it’s environment. I came up with the idea to put frames around the manipulated branches.

Background research/associations:

In the exhibition On line (http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2010/online/), it is referenced how the artists see drawing to its core elements and line becomes the subject to be extensively explored. In the Line extension section we see works where line is extended beyond flatness into real space. For example the work of Eva Hesse Hang Up. 1966 and Lygia Clark  Caminhando (Walking) (1 of 6). 1963–64 show how line can be differently percieved including the action of creating it and sculptural elements.

 

Eva Hesse (American, born Germany. 1936–1970). Hang Up. 1966

Lygia Clark (Brazilian, 1920–1988). Caminhando (Walking) (1 of 6). 1963–64

The element of the empty frame in my work affiliates to the way Eva Hesse relates the frame to the line in the work Hang Up,1966. Also the cutting of the mirror film simulates the way the line is being perceived by Lygia Clark. The action of cutting, the path that the hand follows with the scissors is a way of conveying line.

Edward Krasinski used his characteristic blue line to extend his drawing into the environment. This line is considered as the connecting thread between the work, the space and the viewer. (https://frieze.com/article/edward-krasinski-2, http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/edward-Krasinski-five-things) In my sensation, in this way the line becomes a depiction of a state of mind and emotional perception of human dimension.

As in Pierette Bloch, the line is constructed by three dimensional elements and not with a traditional drawing media. In my installation I use natural ”material” found on site with the addition of a man made material (i.e. mirror film). The work of Pierette Bloch is exhibited in gallery whereas my installation is site specific and cannot be transferred to a different place to be shown unless you cut the branch off the tree which would remove an important element of the work and would be detrimental.(http://www.artcritical.com/2009/05/11/pierrette-bloch-at-haim-chanin/, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IajBO-Dnpww)

Regarding Louis Bourgeois, spider, 1995 (mixed media), I would argue that it could be considered a drawing, as the definition of drawing and line specifically has moved over the simple tracing with a drawing media on a paper. Drawing is expanded to all working methods. (The Drawing Book, a survey of drawing:the primary means of expression, edited by Tania Kovats, black dog publishing,2007)

Reflection:

I consider my installation an interesting one. Their is an interplay of the elements (frames, branches, leaves, mirrors) and an interaction of the viewer with the artwork. The viewer could take part in a performative way. The viewers movement on the hammock becomes part of the artwork since the reflections on the mirrors can be manipulated by the participants movement and position across the reflective leaves.

Using frames was something I did years ago when I started painting. I  used frames mostly for decorative reasons and in certain cases I did still lives of those compositions.

Assignment 4

For  Assignment 4 we are asked to find a place of significance and create a site-specific artwork.

The assignment for me was the development and assemblage of the previous projects of the part 4 in a progressive way. It also relates to other projects that are relevant to my parallel project.

For the assignment I aimed at creating narrative ”portraits” of my family members while exploring our relationships and identities, in a significant place that we share as a family in our yard.

Using as background the palm prints that we created during Project1 : environmental interventions, I interwoven thread in the paling. I used pink thread over my daughters’ palm prints and pale blue over my son’s palm prints on the paling. I also placed mirrors in accordance with relationships and identities theme of my parallel project and put ink to colour the thread. aiming to convey the sense of flow.

The same thread I used in the narrative project and in the drawing machines project that resulted in a narrative drawing for parallel project as shown below.

Below is the work relating to my daughter.

The work relating to my son is the following.

Further I aimed to make a more complete statement by creating a narrative ”portrait” for me and my husband to explore more the relationships in our family. I only had my own palm print on the paling. Beside it I placed two mirrors representing me and my husband and I interwoven wire of two colours.

The work should be viewed as an aggregate. This refers not only to the three narrative ”portraits” but to the total environmental interventions and installations that happened to that place of significance for me as the artist and my family.

The following video was recorded in order to convey the total sense of the site specific work and should be viewed along with the photographs since the sounds are also important.

Part 4 Contextual Focus Point: Emily Kame Kngwarreye

Emily Kame Kngwarreye was an aboriginal Australian artist, lived in Utopia distant from the world outside her community. She started painting on canvas at the age of 80 and until her death at the age of 86 (1996) she produced thousands of paintings and she is considered one of the most important contemporary artists of Australia. (http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/utopia_the_genius_of_emily_kame_kngwarreye/emily_kame_kngwarreye) (http://www.mca.com.au/collection/artist/kngwarreye-emily-kame/)

 

“Whole lot, that’s whole lot, Awelye (my Dreaming), Arlatyeye (pencil yam), Arkerrthe (mountain devil lizard), Ntange (grass seed), Tingu (Dreamtime pup), Ankerre (emu), Intekwe (favourite food of emus, a small plant), Atnwerle (green bean), and Kame (yam seed). That’s what I paint, whole lot.” Emily Kame Kngwarreye

Deriving from her own words, the importance of the place on her art is apparent. Her subject is the land along with her dreamings. Those two elements do not seem to be separated in her viewing of her own world. The yam plant was her primary inspiration. Even her middle name is the meaning of the yellow flower of the yam that grows above the ground. From here I see the connection of her own existence with her environment.  I do not see a trail of hesitation and doubt in  her brushstrokes / touches. I get the feeling that her painting was an immediate and spontaneous impression of her inner world that can not be separated from her experienced life which is interwoven with the environment and the life of her community. The lines, the colours, the application of paint, the brushstrokes are not only descriptive and representational of her surroundings, but also depictions of her relationship with her environment. At the same time her work goes beyond the shared knowledge of the body art of her community. In my opinion this is what gets her beyond her community to the more broad definition of art that is a part of the collective perception of the art.

Regarding the relationship between drawing and painting in her work, I think there is no differentiation. Her paintings are drawings at the same time as they have the quality of directness that a preparatory drawing would have. Simultaneously her drawings-paintings are complete statements as the traditional definition of painting would suggest. However as mentioned in the definition for drawing in The Thames & Hudson dictionary of art and artists, 1984, in the art of China and Japan, there is no differentiation between drawing and painting since the medium for both actions is the brush. I think this applies to Emily Kame Kngwarreye’s art. Works that she made on paper are similarly executed as works she made on canvas. Her medium is acrylic applied with brush in both cases.

Emily Kame Kngwarreye Medium synthetic polymer paint on canvas, framed Credit Museum of Contemporary Art, donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Ann Lewis AO, 2009Untitled (body painting series), 1996

Emily Kame Kngwarreye Medium synthetic polymer paint on paper Credit Museum of Contemporary Art, donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program in memory of Rodney Gooch, 2011 Untitled (Awelye), 1995

Critical Review: Notes, planning, ideas

I have already started working on the parallel project, which is about relationships and identities as they are modeled in family life. As me and my tutor agree, the theme of the Critical Review could relate to the parallel project in a positive, additive and interactive way. Subsequently I am seeking for a theme that will allow me to apply my research findings of the one project to the other.

My tutor suggested to start my research with Post-Partum Document of Mary Kelly, 1973-79, which is an exploration of the mother-child relationship (http://www.marykellyartist.com/post_partum_document.html). The artist literally documents the path of her son’s language acquisition and her own response as a mother and an observer. I have read Documentation VI, Pre-writing Alphabet, Exergue and Diary, 1978 and I felt like we spoke the same language. She talks about daily matters of being a mother and I get a sensitivity that I am very familiar with. I get the feeling that it is like a confession or apology for the ”failures” of mothering. It is like speaking about her speculations to a fellow mother. Then how those motherly matters are becoming art by a mother who is an artist. I think of how the identity of mother meets the identity of the artist. Those two identities are both present in a persons personality simultaneously. Those two identities are connected and probably affect each other functionality in one self.

In my critical review I intend to explore how different artists including me would document the configured relationships. What is the role of the formed, changing  and new formed identities? What are the means, media and methods used to depict certain aspects of the relationships. Up to which point there is narrative. How could those identities formed through relationships could be presented conceptually? Are there also symbols used in the depiction?

When Mary Kelly was interviewed by Mark Sheerin (07 March 2011 http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art349280) she mentioned that there were three things that came together to make Post Partum Document possible. That were the beginnings of the women’s’ movement in 1969 that questions gender and sexuality,  her interest in the conceptual movement and language theory and the fact of having her own child. She was trying to understand the process of socialization, the division of labour in the home, and the relationships of women with their children. I intend to compare this with my background for exploring family relationships and identities in my parallel project. In a first speculation I think that my work is more personal in the way that I do not make direct associations with social or political matters.

Additionally she mentions that the work became much more psychological than she anticipated. In my case, with my university studies in psychology, I do understand ahead and I am completely aware of the complexity of the issue in a psychological way and that this can be seen from many angles wide and deep. Having said that I find the similarity of the avocation with psychology as Mary Kelly was interested in such issues and specifically in the Lacanian theory.

Regarding her methods I would discuss about the use of found objects as memorabilia. I think that the objects are associated with the formation of relationships. I was too thinking of what I would do with all these staff that belong to my children, like their first clothes and toys, that I do not want to waste. How such objects could be used in artworks so that they are preserved literally and figuratively. This could also apply to objects that are documents of life events like travel tickets, souvenirs wish cards and more. How could these become part of artworks related to relationships, identities and life narratives.

I could use my children drawings, which I have kept from their early years, by incorporating them into artworks relating to my parallel project. However, since this is happening afterwards, there are the elements of after-documenting and the role of memory and retrospect documentation in opposition to Kelly’s documentation which was synchronous to the experience.