Starting MA!

This week I started my MA in Fine Art, I recently graduated with my BA in Fine Art and I didn't feel ready to go into the big wide world yet. I didn't know what it was going to be like given lockdown and months out of a normal routine and I'm not going to lie, it's overwhelming, although I'm ready to give it everything I've got. 

This week I'm going to go over the first task we were given as an ice breaker. It was a collage task, the goal was to create, not think about it, not make anything precious, just make. It was difficult to start with so much in front of me but no idea how to start. However, I knew I was inspired by language, text, form and aesthetics, both in 3-D and 2-D.  In particular, my interests lie in erotica, especially that from a powerplay POV.  For our icebreaker challenge in the first week of uni, we had the task of “Open Cut”. The goal for the ice breaker is to take risks and excavate the surrounding territory of my practice. My instinctual plan was to play with comprehension and texts, using my BA as a starting block. The text and manipulation I used back then was virtual (sound work) therefore I wanted to test it visually yet aesthetically.

 

I enjoy planning everything out first, like a spider diagram, onto a page to get everything out and then picking the bits that are important and here is a snippet of my sketchbook. The section I want to concentrate on is the idea of a mobile of sorts that says “read me” vertically. If it were to hang the wind would blow and reverse the letters to make it more difficult to read. I chose the phrase read me to start off with as, as a standard definition reading is a process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch, but the idea of disrupting this process is interesting to me.

Step One - 2-D

Step Two - 3-D

I find it entertaining that the text says “read me” although through manipulation and editing you in fact cannot “read it”. Having said that, while you cannot read it linguistically, you can read it as an image or a sculpture, changing its dynamic. Seeing a language as an image is not a unique thing when we think about pictograms, emoticons and even ancient languages of runes and hieroglyphs, technically any language that is not in roman letters could be classed as a character or image that represents a text/ word and letter. Being Pagan in religious practice and Scandinavian ancestry the idea of looking at/ reading and using runes is a personal interest of mine as well. Although I understand that my audience may not understand this so I must find a meaning that can be understood by anyone.

This is where I’m excavating my practice and branching out in order to have lots of lines of interest to follow. Even if only one or two ideas get explored fully, in my mind if I don't write things down I can almost guarantee that’ll be the bit of info that I need. Additionally, as far as my interest in narrative and literature, spoken language is the foundation of learning to read (long before children see any letters) and children's knowledge of the phonological structure of language is a good predictor of early reading ability. Spoken language is dominant for most of childhood, however, reading ultimately catches up and surpasses speech.1

In the art world, I believe my through process matches that of “This Is Not a Pipe” (Both the drawing by René Magritte and the book of the same name by Michel Foucault, James Harkness (Editor, translator), René Magritte (Illustrator, contributor). In the same way, you can't read the “read me”, the image would still be of a pipe. But you may start doubting your abilities to get art when you read the words below it saying it is not a pipe. It is not a pipe but oil paint on canvas, which can be filled with tobacco and smoked. The painting encourages the viewer to use his/her free mind to explore the logical shortcuts that humans take in an already put up and well-accepted chain of thoughts and encourage alternative thinking. This is Not a Pipe is supposed to encourage society to take things literally. In his work, Magritte undermines society’s philosophical assumptions about the nature of reality in a witty manner compared to contemporary conceptual artists.2 This is Not a Pipe teaches us that the thing we want is not as unassuming as what we see, but its meaning is hidden behind what is in front of us.

I ended up glueing these word sculptures together to create more of a solid form. Additionally, I ended up painting one of the sculptures black, this was for two reasons; aesthetic and to blur the shapes of the letters. This was an attempt to separate the woodcut letters and a letter inspired sculpture. Which I can build on both critically and physically.

Although it was important to realise that these letters are preconditioned for spelling, they are laser cut as letters and therefore the building blocks of words, they are made to complete their job like a wheel is made to turn. It was a challenge to find a new purpose for very traditional unavoidable objects of our lives. You cannot get away from language or comprehension, it is impossible to read a sentence without understanding and processing it (so long as it's in the language you understand of course). 

These are not my final ideas for Open-Cut merely my starting points to see where it leads me. 

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading#Spoken_language:_the_foundation_of_reading 

2 https://publicdelivery.org/magritte-not-a-pipe/