you shoddy human

It's been a fairly mild, contemplative sort of a week. There's been a good amount of time spent in the library looking at more of Dennis Oppenheim's work. Nothing too revelatory but it was get some more information on Oppenheim and see how his practice has evolved over time.

From presence to the performative

Late on Friday i cracked open Where is the photograph? by David Campany (ed) and read from presence to the performative: rethinking photographic indexicality by David Green and Joanna Lowry. Bit of a mouthful but a fascinating piece of writing. All sorts of interesting ideas came and many of these will surely be discussed here at various points.

But for the moment what really struck me were the comments made regarding the aesthetic qualities of photograph. Green and Lowery suggest that images that are purposefully poor in quality (possibly out of focus or badly exposed) testify to the bodily presence of the photographer. Where as images that are immaculately executed emphasise the role of the camera over the photographer.

The reason this struck me is that many of the images i have been looking at by Smithson, Long and Oppenheim often seem a little poorly taken. But the significance of this aesthetic strategy suddenly became clear to me. By making the image poorly the human element of the process is emphasised. It becomes clear that a person once stood in front of this outdoor work and pressed a shutter. So when viewed in the gallery these images are clearly referencing a site outside of the place in which the image is seen. This corresponds to these artists desire to take art out of the traditional contexts and broaden our ideas of what art could be. Although this style of production may not explicitly make this point the photograph again is being used in a very specific if subtle way. 

To the south

Marce Duchamp the apprentice in the sun 1914

In a sudden departure from theoretical work i'll be on road this sunday having a practice run at a project i've been meaning to do for sometime. Simply put this will involve me riding from Marylebone Station, London to my home in Brighton and taking photographs along the 60 mile journey. Each image will be taken at 3 mile intervals with the camera facing South.

This is very much an experiment but ties into my investigations into the process of documentation. Should be interesting and hopefully not too tiring!

should i be here or there?

This has been a tiring week and i feel a bit jaded as i roll up to the library around 2 p.m. I had a few hours so it seemed like the ideal opportunity to read journal article or two. After 30 mins though i am literally falling asleep. At one point i even rest my head on my hand only to awake with a start as my head plunges towards the desk. A change of tack was needed.

So the heavy stuff goes down and i pick up a mighty tome that promises to offer a comprehensive survey of 'Land and Environmental Art'. The move appears to work as i remain awake and seem able to concentrate on what i am doing.

Negative Board 1968

What i end up focusing on is Negative Board by Dennis Oppenheim. This was one of Oppenheim's early works and consists of a line cut in snow with saw dust placed in the resulting trench. All this makes for quite an intriguing image. But what really interested my was how the work was exhibited. When shown in the gallery we have the image but also a map of where the work was executed. Why have a map? Unless you were fleet of foot the work would have changed or disappeared completely by the time you got there. So it is not a practical object that directs us to the art. Instead it has a symbolic function. The map, and the image too, are referencing an external site. The gallery is not the focus of attention but the outside world. No longer is the gallery the centre of the art world and neither should the artists be confined to its white walls.

The issue that i was really trying to get my head around was how does this differ from the way Orozco uses the photograph. It came to me that the fundamental difference is the artists view of the gallery space. For Oppenheim this is a negative place and is mainly used to refer to somewhere else. The possibilities of the gallery itself are not explored. But with Orozco the gallery space is seen more positively. This is a space that can be used to converse directly with the viewer. While the action may have taken place elsewhere Orozco recognises where we encounter the work and privileges that interaction. As such we are not left caught between two places as we are with Oppenheim.

This isn't to say that one is right and one is wrong. It is unfortunately not that simple and the issue  still seems a little confused in my head. But the basic dynamics are becoming clearer to me and it feels like this difference in approach could form the central debate of my work. A heart warming thought indeed.

the prestige of detonation

Right i am back in the library. Once again i arrive promptly and i'm the first one through the door. I hastily grab a pile of books and pick a well illuminated desk. Lets get into it

Gabriel Orozco


Orozco was an artist who had been recommended to me and elements of his practice certainly fit in with the type of work i am looking at. From the outset it must be stated that his practice is extremely diverse. Orozco works across a wide range of media and in a variety of ways. As such he has a body of work that is seemingly quite divergent. For instance works like the atomist sit alongside the yielding stone.

the yielding stone 1992

For my project it is the latter style of work that really interests me. The initial intervention is transitory in nature and the only record of it are the images taken by Orozco. For example the yielding stone involved Orozco pushing a ball of plasticine (equal to his weight) around New York. The only evidence of this were the photographs taken. So, as we were with Long, we rely on the photograph to inform us about the event.

Another similarity with Long, and one which i am very grateful for, is the role of the photograph is regularly discussed by Orozco and those commentating on his practice. After a few hours of reading it became clear that the photograph is used in a very particular way for specific reasons. For example Orozco suggests we are able to 'forget' the photograph and concentrate on the phenomenon itself. So in the image of the yielding stone it is not so much the photograph we consider but the act of rolling a giant ball of plasticine around New York. The simplicity of the shot certainly downplays the photograph and emphasises the act.

One of the most interesting statements was regarding how Orozco differentiates his work from 70's conceptual artists. For people like Smithson the photograph was very much a end point. It was the last relic of a work done elsewhere. In this case the images main function is as information. It tells us about what happened in a convenient, albeit greatly reduced, way: it is not a work in its own right. But Orozco gives the image equal status and his photographs should be seen as an individual piece of work and not the leftovers of something else. So with the yielding stone the initial intervention is done and all we have are the images. The simplicity of the images evokes this act without literally describing it. So the image privileges the act over the documentation and becomes more than just a record of an event.

Looking at Orozco was a genuinely exhilarating experience. This was partly because i had found some relevant information that will possibly feed into my dissertation. But so it was fascinating to see the photograph being used in such a carefully considered way amidst work that is playful and inspiring. A really good morning session.

Roland Barthes

Barthes is one theorist who comes up again and again. For years my brain has been trying to come to terms with his ideas regarding semiotics and this afternoon a few things finally clicked into place. No need to go into details otherwise you may never finish this page. But simply to say the asertion that the 'photograph is a message without a code' now makes sense to me. I know longer have to keep telling myself this stuff as i seem to actually understand it - finally.

So the afternoon was also pretty productive. It really is a good feeling to make progress and actually understand things that have long baffled you. I finished up satisfied with my days work and eager for more learning

What the F*** is happening now?

the slightly inflammatory nature of this post's title is not an attempt to provoke you dear reader. And i have not had a breakdown after a bad session in the library. Instead it directly replicates the name of an art festival i was taking part in this weekend past.

As well as working hard to get a dissertation together there is a practical side of my course (50% in fact). Not only that there is life beyond University and as such i have tried to get involved with as many projects as possible this summer and see if my work has any relevance to the outside world. So i wrote a proposal, sent it off and the organisers of the festival were kind enough to accept it.

The event took place in an old Manor House in Falmer, Brighton. It is a fascinating place and rare to see somewhere that seems so rural in such close proximity to the city. I was quite struck by this and wanted to do a piece of work that encouraged people to not look at the work itself but the space in which it is located. So i decided to hang a piece of string the length of the property with the Manor House itself at the centre (a distance close to 400m). This was to be the first time i had ventured away from photography so it was a little daunting. But after a prolonged battle with all sorts of vegetation the string was finally up.

On Saturday 14 August the festival opened and unfortunately it was a rather wet day. While this was a bit annoying it was still a great day. In true British style people weren't perturbed and plenty turned up to enjoy the myriad of events such as: secret cinema, music, sculptures and cake.

From my own point of view the string was rather interesting. The main reason being the difficulty i had photographing it. It was hard to pick out from its surroundings and any wide shots often saw the string obscured. Close ups were better but the sense of place was lost as a result. Video might have been more successful as some of the movement would have been detected. Ultimately it seemed that this was a piece that had to be experienced in person and the documents were always going to be poor substitute. Still hopefully this will encourage more people to go the next one!

Overall it was a fun day and nice to be back doing some practical work after a few weeks of being confined to theory. Especially as it relates quite closely to much of the reading i have been doing. A welcome lift to the spirits.

fully buried

We are now recounting the events of Tuesday 10 August. A day that promised to be like the one that preceded it: lots of reading and stimulating intellectual thought.

From the outset though the signs were ominous. I awoke to the first rain storm for months and decided to work at home rather that risk pneumonia with a bike ride to the library. This didn't seem like much of a problem as i had a shelf stacked with books many of which promised to offer vital clues in the search for a dissertation. As with the week before i decided to pick an artist and consider their work rather than getting too mixed up in theory first thing.

The man under the spotlight was Robert Smithson a figure whom looms large over 60's/70's conceptual art and continues to be a major influence for contemporary practitioners. Indeed Smithson had been a figure i had referenced many times and was relatively familiar with his earth works and particularly Spiral Jetty. Such work, as Erin Hogan tells us in the rather enjoyable Spiral Jetta, can be hard to see first hand. So like Long Smithson's work is rarely experienced in person and we rely on the photographs of the work for information on the piece. So the photograph is playing a very prominent role once again.

But the crucial difference is the level of transience in the work. Long's work is fleeting in the extreme and without the camera would often exist for no one but Long. Where as Smithson's work can still be visited (albeit with a degree of difficulty and ideally a 4x4). For this, and surely other reasons, the significance of the photograph doesn't seem to crop up in the writings on Smithson. Instead the writing i encountered focused on the existential nature of work and grand themes such life, death, entropy and religion. While undoubtedly interesting this was not the sort of information i was interested in. After ploughing through essay after essay i began to be throughly disheartened and a bit frustrated. The photograph is the very thing through which we encounter this work. That this goes unrecognised left me feeling a little annoyed.

books books books

By the time the afternoon rolled in i was done with Smithson and the morning had been far from productive. A change of scenery was badly needed to i braved the conditions and headed to the library. This was a little more productive. I read some good essays by Criag Owens and Rosalind Krauss. Owens' discussion of the social nature of art production was interesting. By the late 60's artists are beginning to recognise that exchanges between art and the viewer do not just take place in the gallery but in society as a whole. It is this recognition that art does not just take place in galleries that led to Smithson, Long et al to venture out into the wild. This is oversimplified but Owen's writing did help give a bit of background information on the emergence of site specific practices

Krauss discussed sculpture generally and some of the key features of Modernist work. As far as i could tell this roughly comes down to modern sculpture being an object that takes no heed of the place it is in. This is an object is isolation and does not attempt to reach out and engage with any issues beyond it's immediate confines. This is clearly quite different to site specific work

All this was useful but rather served to set the scene for what i will be looking at. So while definitely useful it did not leave the library feeling enlightened and content. Instead i had a lingering feeling of frustration. I've had this a lot over the 3 years of study and such days are inevitable but still disappointing.

why should i use my imagination

it's been a busy week so i'm a bit behind in giving you all an update on how things are progressing. but i've got a few posts coming up that should sort that out.

On 7 August i had the afternoon free so nothing seemed more natural then spending it indoors reading books and looking at photographs.

My enthusiasm still high i delved further into Long's oeuvre. Over of the course of the day the conceptual significance of Long's photography became more and more apparent. What in particular came out from this session is how much information Long omits. So while we are often aware that his walks take place over a number of days or weeks there is no visual evidence for this process. The documents we do have, whether images/text pieces/installations, do little to literally represent Long's working process. Instead Long produces work that is far more evocative and asks us to actively use our imagination. Long does not attempt to tell us everything but rather instigates a process of reflection within which we can draw our own conclusions.  

I also managed to watch TV and legitimately call it study. I had got hold of a copy of Philip Haas's film that documents Long's walk across the Sahara. It was on VHS and after dusting down some gigantic machine i realised that this cumbersome black rectangle actually contained visual material. The film itself gave an interesting insight into Long's practice. While this was not a revelation (unsurprising Long walks, makes sculpture, walks some more) there were some insights. Such as Long, after making a stone circle, and photographing the results stands the stones down leaving no evidence (other than the image) of his presence. Long also discusses controlling the 'visibility and invisibility' of his work which pretty much sums up what i had been pondering earlier. But it was fascinating to see that Long is conscience of how much of his working process remains obscured.

Another productive session and i'm gradually gaining a bit more of an insight into Long's practice and the significance of his work.

the passage is the thing

so it's tuesday morning and my intellectual regime beings in ernest. i leave the house in spritely fashion and head to the library on my valiant stead Fleur (a refined road bike from a by gone age). My eagerness betrays me as i arrive early and spend a few moments queuing to get into the building. Once given access i rush to the stairs lift and pick a well lit and ventilated spot on the fourth floor. I'm ready to learn.

at this juncture it would be useful to set the scene a little more thoroughly. My reason for being in the library was to begin research on what will eventually become a 10,000 (give or take 10%) word dissertation the parameters for which were roughly established a few months ago. As such my general area of investigation is the role of the camera in documenting site specific art. A little more precisely it is art which is temporary in nature and, without the camera's testimony, would be seen by little or no one.



Richard Long

a line made by walking 1967

I spent the morning going through the work of Richard Long. I had been familiar with Long's photography for a while. also i'm particularly interested in conceptual art of the late 60's/early 70's with which Long's work is often, arguably mistakingly, associated. So i was familiar with it in this context.

But after a few hours the depth and variety of his practice became startlingly clear. Photographs, while important, form only a small part of his output which also comprises of text pieces, installations and wall drawings. 

Stone Field Allotment One Liverpool 1987

With this taken on board i began to reconsider my pre-conceived notions about Long. Before i had seen  Long's camera as being an expedient tool with which to record his fleeting interventions in nature. While it does achieve this it also embodies many of the ideas and concepts that run throughout his work. For instance Long emphasises how his work is done impulsively and quickly. This is not the product of a master craftsman. This point is crucial as anything more complex would leave us concentrating on the creation itself to the detriment of the place in which it occurs. Long's simple, straightforward images do not leave the viewer dazzled by the quality of the camera or composition. Instead technical consideration take a back seat and it is the work itself that comes to the fore. Ultimately then Long's deceptively simple images articulate the balance between nature and the intervention from the artist.

Miwon Kwon One Place after another: notes of site specificity 

I had decided to split the day into two chunks. So after spending the morning with Long's work i moved on to more theoretical work and in particular Kwon's essay (which can be found in: Suderberg, Erika, 2000. Space, Site, Intervention: situating installation art. Minneapolis, The University of Minnesota Press.)  

Kwon's ideas really challenged my own notions of site specificity. Up to know i had, logically enough, considered a 'site' a physical thing. But Kwon has a much broader definition that allows the term 'site' to be applied to a certain area of practice or investigation. Therefore a practitioner whose work deals exclusively with race could be said to be 'site specific'. The site here being the issue itself rather than any physical place. A challenging notion. 

Kwon is keen to point out that site specificity is not a chronologically evolving concept. But rather the various approaches to working site specifically all exist side by side and can even intermingle. Basically this is a vast subject and, under Kwon's definition, incorporates practitioners i would never have thought to look at.

So a lot to think about and the breadth of the subject area has, rather frighteningly, been revealed to me.  Before i get to deep into this i will really have to concentrate on defining which area of site specificity i am going to focus on.  

Overall a problematic but thoroughly revitalising day. I've started

and so it begins.........

welcome to the first post from Practical Plans for art 


i come to you as a part time photography student about to embark on the final year of a 4 year degree.


3 years of hard work are soon to culminate in a degree show in Brick lane and a dissertation. this blog is dedicated to documenting this journey. along the way we'll encounter all sorts of practitioners and grapple with critical thinking related to visual culture and art. this is sure to be a perilous journey and this blog will give a glimpse into how i overcome these problems. i'll also be discussing the planning, thinking and practical work that goes into graduating University.