Parallel Project Appraisal

My Parallel Project ‘final’ piece is the outcome of a multifaceted investigation throughout the course. From the first assignment I got the idea of exploring self identity and how this identity is formed by the relationship with the significant others (https://drawing2blog.wordpress.com/category/assignments/assignment-1/). In Part 2, I started exploring this idea in a narrative way (https://drawing2blog.wordpress.com/2017/04/06/part-2-material-properties-3/). At this point I started including my children and husband in the process. Their participation was crucial in part 3 – Project 1: Drawing blind (https://drawing2blog.wordpress.com/2017/06/16/part-3-physicality-gesture/), in part 3 – project 3 Drawing machines (https://drawing2blog.wordpress.com/2017/06/16/part-3-physicality-and-gesture-3/), in part 4 – Project 2:Interacting with the environment (https://drawing2blog.wordpress.com/2018/04/20/project-2-interacting-with-the-environment/)and assignment 4 (https://drawing2blog.wordpress.com/category/assignments/assignment-4/), where I also explored the use of mirrors. In Part 5 I tried to condense the different elements. The footprints, the traces of the bicycle, the hand prints that had emerged during the interacting with the environment project and assignment 4, became direct traces of the shadows in Part 5-project 4: time and the viewer (https://drawing2blog.wordpress.com/2018/07/26/project-4-time-and-the-viewer/) and Assignment 5(https://drawing2blog.wordpress.com/2018/07/31/assignment-5/). Traces are also associated with part 4 – project 1 : found images (https://drawing2blog.wordpress.com/2018/03/27/part-4-environmental-interventions-project-1-found-images/). The blind drawings became part of one of the artists books. The use of mirrors in the interacting with the environment project and the assignment 4, became part of the Part 5 – Project 2: An artists book as well (https://drawing2blog.wordpress.com/2018/07/26/project-2-an-artists-book/). The thread that was element from as early as the part 2 – Project 3 (https://drawing2blog.wordpress.com/2017/04/06/part-2-material-properties-3/), was also incorporated in one of the artists book. This interplay of these elements gave me the ingredients for the  final piece for Parallel Project.

More specifically, I decided to use the form of an artist book in order to retain a narrative element. However, the narrative does not have a form of beginning and end like a traditional book. The pages are bind in a way that by folding and unfolding the pages interchange their order.

”Ingredients” of the Parallel Project:

• Footprints: This was an element I wanted to retain on the  final piece. I consider the act of each family member actually providing a print on the paper is a documentation of the relationships in the family. It is the imprint of a moment of time, a documentation of each family members presence on this shared experience of family life and relationship.
• Thread: The  thread is an element I used in Part 2-Project 3: narrative. I also used it in one of Drawing machines drawing relating to my son, where the thread also represented the course of his life. I associate it with the connecting thread, as an umbilical cord, that holds the relationship of the family members, and the parallel journey of the family members life, which at certain points meets and overlaps.
• Traces made following shadows: In assignment 5 I was exited by the outcome of tracing shadows on paper under the sun with mostly continuous lines made with pen. I consider this as a unique record of time and an interplay of constant change while seemingly remaining the same. A cloth of each person was selected so to trace the shadows relating to each person while, me- the artist mother/wife is present all the time, and my figure shadows are also traced on each member’s page. This way, the mother/ wife artist is present all the time, without direct representation in a similar way Mary Kelly is present in PPD without a clear representation.

For the final Parallel Project piece I decided not to include the elements of blind drawings and the mirrors. The adding of those elements on that piece would give excess, repeated information and would overload the composition. However, I consider my final piece as a starting point for further exploration. I could  create more similar books, with different binding. As my tutor suggested I could make ”free-standing” books that could be also folded in all sort of directions. In that case I could use the elements of  blind drawings and mirrors along with other elements that might occur in a future exploration of the relationships subject. Also this kind of work could be applied for different themes, concepts or art subjects.

Generally, I think that despite any shortcomings and imperfections at this level, my work has potential conceptually and visually and I could apply my ”findings” in my  future artistic endeavor.

Parallel Project

I started working on the Parallel Project from the beginning of this course. This way I had the opportunity to do the course exercises with the underlying subject of the Parallel Project where this was applicable. The subject derived form the first Assignment regarding Exploring Compositions.

Maybe because of my Psychology Degree and my subsequent way of thinking and probably personal needs I wanted to deal with self related explorations. My initial ideas was to explore self identities by placing my half portraits on environments and then completing those half self portraits with portraits of significant others and explore relationships.

Before having the opportunity to try out those ideas, I differentiated the subject after doing the projects for Part 2. In Part 2 I introduced explorations of relationships in a different way  through the work for the Narrative Project.

I specified my parallel project theme to be the relationships with my children and husband.

Through the following projects and exercises I experimented in many ways of approaching the relationships theme for my parallel project.

Part 3, Project 4: An emotional Response

Part 3, Project 3: Drawing ”machines”

Part 3, Project 3: Drawing ”machines”

Part 3, Project 3: Drawing ”machines”

Part 3, Project 1:Drawing Blind

Through my experimentation the work was becoming more conceptual and possibly affected by the Post – Partum  Document of Mary Kelly, that my tutor introduced me to, as her subject is her relationship with her son.

My work became more abstract. The connecting thread that related the diverse pieces of work was the tracing. The directness of the instantaneous and spontaneous recording of the prints that implied the search at a different level beyond the drawing of even a very expressive or symbolic portrait.

For creating a drawing or a set of drawings that could be a coherent statement I aimed at incorporating the main elements that is the tracing of time as it has emerged from the time related Assignment 5 and the actual imprints of the persons that I am exploring relationships to, that are my husband and my children. Following the paradigm of Assignment 5, I chose a piece of cloth belonging to each family member. I placed each cloth on the drying loft under the sun separately and did the shadows tracing, including my own shadow while drawing the drawing, on four consecutive days, at the same time of the day.

On the back side of the four drawings with the shadow tracing I asked my children to step on with their feet covered with charcoal. To take my husband’s footprints, I asked him to place his feet on a piece of paper and I traced the outline. Then I cut out the outlines and used them to trace the feet outlines on my drawing surface. This corresponds to his presence in the family which is sometimes conveyed through me towards the children because of the practicality of being away to work many hours of the day. To be more specific I take the role of replenishing his presence spiritually to overcome the physical absence. For The actual imprints, made by our own bodies are seen as documentation of our presence together on space and time. Me as the artist manage the action of producing the imprints on the drawing surface. Additionally, as the artist and part of this relationship that is being explored, I am the conductor of the procedure and the final outcome. This explores my identity as an artist, wife and mother. The red thread connects the four drawings and has references to the umbilical cord that connects and reconnects affinities. The artwork takes the form of an artist concertina like book that can be unfolded or folded and be seen by different views apposing two, three or four pages each time.

To my view the final piece of artwork that I did has visual interest. The line drawings created by tracing with marker the shadows on paper have a continuous movement, energy  and flow. I feel that I was able to transmit those attributes that I experienced while creating the marks on the paper. The softer imprints that I added at the back contradict the boldness of the marker lines on the other side. As both sides can be viewed simultaneously, this contradiction creates a visual interest. The red thread I added makes the work more lively and creates another texture, besides the practicality of connecting the separate sheets of paper. Taking also into consideration the conceptual underpinnings of the work I believe that it makes a complete artistic statement, that satisfies me at this stage of my artistic development.

Appraisal for Part 5

Through this final Assignment, I intended to take the opportunity to combine work of the Parallel Project to the exercises of Part 5 in a way that would help me to draw conclusions on what I want my final work for my Parallel Project to be. So far I managed to combine the exercises of all parts of the course to the Parallel Project. I created a big collection of raw material relating to my Parallel Project. This, time related Assignment would be appropriate to engage with the time issue regarding my Parallel Project which I have been working for a long time, since the beginning of the course,  which is actually almost two years!

As my Parallel Project refers to the relationships with my family, so most of the exercises include those family members. For example, for the Changing Scene exercise, my children were participating in the scene I tempted to draw. My surrounding is the subject of my drawings, is my reality and my external inspiration. Simultaneously, my relationships to my surroundings including environment and people is my internal inspiration. My drawings have reference to my surroundings and my own conceptual and expressive reflections on it. People and places meet on my drawings through my own interpretations and my own lived experience. This was also very obvious on the  actual Assignment 5 work. It is a work made on my daily environment. I traced shadows of objects we use as family in our yard(watering pot), placed on a specific spot by one of us without the intention of drawing the specific object. It just happened to be there for me to draw it! Me, with the identity of artist-mother, I captured this scene and transferred it in my art. Additionally,I incorporated my own shadow in the drawings to reinforce my presence in a time passage context. The making of this final assignment lead me to the decision of my final Parallel Project artwork. I intend to combine this drawing method with other elements to end up with four connected drawings as ”narrative” portraits of me and my family members, that document our presence in our environment and our interconnected identities as part of a family and the experiences we share while being separate persons.

 

I plan to combine those the element of thread and the traces of my shadow and the shadow of each family member’s piece of cloth hanging on the drying loft on four sheets of paper that I will connect with the thread giving the form of an artists book as the sheets of paper are folding. At the making I will decide whether to put also writing on the drawings, that would be poems I write in my diary relating to me and my family.

A second idea is to make another four folded sheets connected with thread. In this case, each sheet would have a blind drawing of each family member, and also a mirror where each member could see him/herself along with the portraits of the other family members. This would be related to Lacan’s  theory of intersubjectivity, which was explored in Mary Kelly’s Post – Partum document that I deal with in my Critical Review.

Generally, I feel that I am finally going towards a final statement that would have context and structure. That should be supported by well executed work and qualitative artwork.

Parallel Project,redefining

Working through Part 5, I realize along with my tutors feedback that is time to reconfigure my work for Parallel Project. During all parts of the course I was able to explore the subject of my Parallel Project, which was suggested as early as after Part 1 Assignment.

In Assignment 1 I started exploring the idea of  self identities through the relationship with oneself, by drawing self portraits.

 

From that I extended the idea about exploring self identities through the relationships with others and this came in practice in Part 2 Narrative project, where I explored my children narrative ”portraits”.

Also in Part 2 I had the opportunity to explore my self portraits in the exercises about space , depth and volume, which was the starting point for exploring identities through self portraits in subsequent projects and for Parallel Project specifically.

 

After my tutors suggestion I allowed my children to take part physically in this explorations by working with me after my guidance. This took my exploration a step  further and I tried new methods of interacting with the children and my husband in the exercise of most of the projects of the course and aimed at relating most work of the projects with the work  for Parallel Project. The work of Part 3 opened new possibilities on how to investigate my subject.

 

Part 3, Project 1:Drawing Blind

Part 3, Project 1:Drawing

Part 3, Project 3: Drawing ”machines”

Part 3, Project 3: Drawing ”machines”

Part 3, Project 3: Drawing ”machines”

Part 3, Project 3: Drawing ”machines”

Part 3, Project 4: An emotional Response

Part 3, Project 4: An emotional Response

The meantime between starting and finishing Assignment 3 I was facing a difficult emotional situation and I took a study break. During this time I produced several self portraits, that I connect tot eh parallel project as they are explorations of relationship to myself and they have a narrative and autobiographical element. The following self portraits precede the final projects of Part 3 and they actually were raw material or preparatory work for Part 3 Project 4 : An Emotional Response.

In Part 4 my exploration became more conceptual and more playful with the participation of my children.

 

The exploration became broad, which up to a point was positive. However, as my tutor also suggested I should eventually be able to bring all the work back to structure and do something concrete that would consist the Parallel Project final piece or pieces.

The exercises of Part 5 could assist me in this endevour to coalesce the raw material that came out of my experimentation relevant to my Parallel Project throughout the course.

Project 2 of Part 5, regarding Artist’s books allowed me to put the general concept of the project into a context. I was able to dot his because of the nature of the book as book and the way I chose to approach it. The two artist’s book I did are inspired by some of Mary Kelly methods, and even though they are at a primal level, it could be a precursor to the final approach of the project.

 

Parallel Project: Towards Conclusion

Following my tutors suggestion, I place all the main work that I did for my Parallel Project around me. Indeed that was more than I thought I actually produced.

The work appears so diverse like is not related to a specific subject. Indeed the exploration of my parallel project did not follow a straightforward path visually. At the same time the subject was quite clear from the start. The first idea was to explore my identities and self states of mind and feelings, which came out through my very first Assignment (https://drawing2blog.wordpress.com/category/assignments/assignment-1/).

While started exploring this self related idea, inevitably my closed relationship revealed requiring to participate and take their own place. This was apparent in the work of Part 2 (https://drawing2blog.wordpress.com/2017/04/06/part-2-material-properties-3/). In that project I explored narrative portraits of my children which lead to the idea of exploring my identities through my relationships with my children.

From that point the subject remained clear. However, there was a certain point that I focused on exploring self psychological states mostly in self portraits. I could say now that this was a necessary stage for me to clear my view of my self so to be able to see how I am connected to my significant others.

After exiting that stage, which actually coincided with a difficult psychological stage that I was going through, I was ready to move onto to exploring relationships a such. This is when I had my children to take part  in the projects  which I found a way to connect with my parallel project (https://drawing2blog.wordpress.com/2017/06/16/part-3-physicality-and-gesture-3/). Their participation was also incorporated to Part 4 (https://drawing2blog.wordpress.com/2018/04/20/project-2-interacting-with-the-environment/) regarding environmental interventions, where I reintroduced (I used the mirror before on one portrait I did of my son exploring how I see myself through him) the mirrors that finally became an important part of the Parallel Project.

By placing the work all in front of me I aim at finding what works and what’s not. I try to find which works follow a path and have a connecting thread between them.

I see a few elements that have connections and could be part of my final Parallel Project piece or pieces of work.

I intend to combine the elements of thread, mirrors, imprints and blind portrait drawings with the more  conceptual element of shadow tracing that came up in my last assignment in an artist book form. I made a simple preliminary drawing to decide on how to develop the project.

How to be an artist and a parent at the same time

In the following link, several artists pose their perspective of what it is to be an artist and a parent at the same time. They talk about their personal experience of being a parent and an artist.

https://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/guide/how-to-be-an-artist-and-a-parentat-the-same-time-55464?utm_source=social&utm_campaign=facebook

I have heard that there was a common belief that being an artist and a parent do not go together. However, I considered this very absolute and therefore not very artistic. Art for me includes great sense of freedom and acceptance of diversity and a notion so absolute and unilateral would not fit the qualities of art. I believe being an artist is something more than being at the forefront of the artistic community on its business side. At the same time I do not believe that being a parent would prevent you from succeeding in this sector of art. As a student of art I do not have the experience of a professional artist, but I have the experience of a mother that art is a part of my daily life at the same time that motherhood is. On one hand I face the practical difficulties of having to take care and nurture little humans while practicing art even as a student. On the other hand I experience that the identities of artist and parent function additively and complement each other. They have a dynamic relationship. What if no artist was a parent at the same time. How would this important part of human existence would be represented and evolved through the artistic creation? Also, how a possible artistic gene would inherit through generations?

What if Mary Kelly, who offered art such an extensive artistic exploration of motherhood, and so many other artists-parents, didn’t become a parent? Wouldn’t art be poorer?

 

“Women house”

I found an article about an exhibition called “Women House ” on view March 9–May 28, 2018 in National Museum of Women in the Arts (https://blog.nmwa.org/tag/women-house/). I thought that this might be relevant to my parallel project. It also brought to my mind Mary Kelly’s “love songs ” work.

 

Ana Vieira’s Ambiente/Sala de Jantar (Environment/Dining Room), 1971, showed in the “Women House” exhibition is a room size sculpture or three – dimensional painting. It was made at a time that women rebelled against lack of space for work and exhibition as well as symbolic space for recognition. The artist states that she did this work 3 dimensional so that the spectators experience the work also with their bodies. The sculpture is inviting spectators with clues to connect but they are not allowed to enter. This way it raises questions about the differences of public and private space. (https://blog.nmwa.org/2018/05/26/women-house-construction-as-self-construction/,  http://anavieira.com/en/work/1971-1980/sala-de-jantar-ambiente-13/,  http://anavieira.com/documents/anavieira_entrevista_hans-ulrich-obrist_ENG.pdf)

 

 

Ana Vieira’s Ambiente/Sala de Jantar (Environment/Dining Room), 1971

Mary Kelly’s Love Songs, 2005-2007

Mary Kelly’s Love Songs, 2005-2007 refers to the same period of time although the work is afterward. This work explores sexual politics which is the artist ongoing interest. This work contrary to Ana Vieira’s Environment, invites the viewers to enter the work and participate to a dialogue between the past and present referent to 1970’s activism and today’s condition on that matter (http://www.marykellyartist.com/love_songs.html).

The information I got from researching the above two works was interesting and widen my options on how to view this kind of works, that are not merely sculptures. I perceive this kind of works as multi dimensional works and could be called drawings with the wide definition that we explore in Investigating Drawing course. In ”The Drawing Book, a survey of drawing: the primary means of expression edited by Tania Kovats” it is mentioned how “This re-evaluation of the special attributes of drawing and their application to all manner of working methods is key to the changing and elevated status of the medium” (p 15).

Regarding any associations with my Parallel Project I didn’t find direct relation with the works commented above. The methods I use so far are mostly two dimensional and my subject is mostly about relationships and identity rather than feminine politics. Despite that, I realize that feminine politics might be present in a way as my identities  and relationships are not formed in a a vacuum , but within the social circumstances of my time and place. Ana VIeira’s work as well as Mary Kelly’s work both explore art from the woman perspective which is also true for me and my liminal artistic explorations  and quests.

Narrative art

In my research about narrative art I found the following article written by Paul Barolsky. (www.bu.edu/arion/volume-18-barolsky-narrative-art/)

It starts with the words of Ludwig Wittgenstein “What can be shown cannot be said.”

Generally the author states that artist do not narrate stories in the same way that writers do. It is also stated that reading literature is a linear procedure, on the contrary we  view a picture or a sculpture in multiple ways  following the different directions in which the image directs our gaze.

In my parallel project I aim at showing in a depicted way states of mind and feelings in a rough , raw, un-wrought way. For me it is a philosophical and psychological exploration of my identity through the relationships that interplay in everyday life and the course of family life. It is not a telling of a story in a progressive chronicle way. It is as I understand it a different way of narrating. What I try to put in images I could not tell in words. however I have a few poems that I write that I could integrate in my imagery in order to give some clues on what I try to transmit visually.

 

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.

 

 

Being a mother and being an artist

I am so glad I found the following article while searching the internet about artists exploring relationships and identity in their work!

https://brooklynrail.org/2008/12/artseen/neo-maternalism-contemporary-artists-approach-to-motherhood

The author discusses how for many years being an artist was perceived so consuming that couldn’t coexist with parenting especially for mothers. During the feminism women gained the opportunities to exhibit their work. Despite they recognized how motherhood could positively inform their work in an aspect that was not represented respectively in art, however their political awakening and sense of freedom in many cases lead them to the decision of not having children in order to avoid bourgeois conformity.

It is also mentioned how with the passing of time and the cultural changes that followed artists are now more open to have children.

She refers to how contemporary artists “...in fiercely honest work, apprehend the entire messy process of creation, birth, and childrearing as raw material for their art practice. ” and she gives the example of Mary Kelly’s seminal 139-piece Post-Partum Document. 

In the authors words “Raising a family and making art can, in fact, become one seamless activity.”

This is relevant to my parallel project and I have already repeatedly been thinking up to what point do I want to ”invite” my family to my art. My art is for me my sanctuary, a place to escape , to be alone. However, even when I am alone I carry ”my others” in me. Through our relationship, through their impact on me and my identities, which one of them is my artistic identity that cannot be separated from my unity, they are always present.

I am also thinking that the mother identity is part of us and as such could be in our art. It is no less important than any other art theme that could be explored by any artist of any gender. It is not only ”woman” art in a way of separating man and woman art. It is an aspect that shouldn’t be missing from the art as well as fatherhood could be explored artistically by male artists.