Photoworks showcase

My project notes on blankness has been featured on the Photoworks showcase. Really excited to have been selected by one of the best photography magazines around.

Private View: 6th Terrace Annual

window
lawrence daley

The 6th Terrace Annual

Private View: 27 August 3 - 7pm

Frederick terrace, London E8 4EW


On 27 August the 6th Annual Terrace will open. I will be showing a single photograph entitled window. In keeping with the other work on show the image will be left exposed to the elements. Over the coming months wind, rain and sun will all take their toll on the work causing it to gradually decay.

Map:

This is a continuation of a project I started about 18 months ago called a public view

Hope to see to you there!

Tweet

towards a more interesting tomorrow

This is going to be the last post about things that have already happened. From now onwards all future posts will be dealing with things of the present and those to come.

But before this drastic forward propulsion takes place I just want to finish up what I started and give some insight into the culmination of my undergraduate studies. Hints have been dropped as to what my final piece of work was and how it was shown but as to now these have allusions have been more discreet than they would be in an ideal world.

One that was not so subtle was the fact that I made a book for my final project. Unfortunately we have no images of this as it was stolen. This is a shame as it was the final thing that I submitted and was in essence the focus of my final project notes on blankness. However the kind people at the University of Westminster have allowed me to make another one so it will live again. Once completed it will be subject to a more in depth post.

I was keen that the project not be confined to the book alone. Rather i wanted to expand into other areas and see how the images would function under different circumstances. In this regard i was particularly keen that there be some sort of web presence for the work. So I made a website and this can be viewed here: notesonblankness.com

My web design skills are pretty basic but making the website was an extremely satisfying experience. This is not to say it was not tinged with frustration. In fact tinged would be an understatement. If you had seen my mental state after a weekend in front of the laptop, with no human contact, trying to work out the javascript to make the line drawings disappear you would have agreed. But nevertheless web design offers a fantastically accessible platform upon which to be creative. With a very small amount of money, and a little time spent learning some code, anyone can make their own bespoke website. Not only that the creative possibilities are broad and easily accessible to many people.

As well as being functional I also felt that the website was in keeping with the conceptual aims of the project. In each image we are shown a place where information would appear but this is left blank. This caused to me to think about how we gain information and the processes by which it comes to us. The internet is probably the biggest source of information ever produced and one used by millions. So to put these images amoungst that chaotic situation seemed entirely appropriate. I hope they act as quiet reflective space within the turbulent world of cyber space.

This interest in expanding the core investigation of my work was continued in my degree show. I wanted to display the work in a way that emphasised the presence of the photograph and also the fact that it was a physical construction in a gallery. To achieve the first aim the three images that I showed were on placed on lightboxes. In a purely visual way the lightboxes work well as they illuminate the white space at the centre of the frame and act as even more of a focal point. But also they suggest that something is behind the photograph. They help emphasise the surface of the image and as such the presence of the photograph.

The physical presence of the photograph, and the idea of a space existing beyond or around the image, is further articulated by placing the lightboxes on the stands. I wanted the viewer to move around the work, look at it from various angles and generally not assume a static position in front of each lightbox. This may sound a little trivial but I really wanted to display my work in a way that was slightly more invigorating than the way photography is often displayed at such shows.

Typically the images will be wall mounted and the viewer will move from one to the next almost as if they were on a conveyor belt. Now there is nothing wrong with this and in many cases this is a perfectly suitable way to show. But I felt this would not be best suited to the inquisitive nature of my project. So hopefully by encouraging the viewer to move around the images we have a physical manifestation of the exploratory tone contained in the work.

The last point to mention is that the colour scheme (grey stands with white boxes) was an intentional attempt to encourage greater dialogue with the surrounding space. It was intended to be a sort of reduction of the gallery into a single work. So we have grey floor and white walls represented in the work. It is a bit literal possibly and maybe most people will not pick up on it but hopefully it will extend the work and make it feel incorporated into the space.

Finally much love and respect to everyone who has helped me over the last 4 years. All those who were involved in projects, came to shows or just showed love at any time. Thank you all and hopefully bigger and better things will going on soon xx

RE-wind

Well it has been a while since the last post (which seems to be a theme to how these things start in recent months) and this is a fact that has been nagging away at the back of my mind for some time. The first half of the year saw regular posts and i think i was giving a pretty good ball by ball account of what was going on in the land of academia. But post dissertation this all dropped off. What was expected to be a relatively quiet few months turn into an all out workathon and this meant that something had to give. Unfortunately the blog was the first thing that did.

Admittedly i did rear my head up above the parapet, albeit briefly, to inform the world of the terrible book theft that took place at my degree show (a fact now confirmed by the non-appearance of said book). But that aside things have been quiet. However i am planning to put things right over the next few months and give a few insights into how everything came together and how i got to the point where i had a book at a degree show and 3 lightboxes.

To begin if i think i'll elaborate on some of things that i hinted at in the previous post. To start with was the excitement of having one of my images shown in photoworks. It may have only have been one image in the back to advertise the degree show but nonetheless it is always exciting to see your work in print. Also every such occurrence comes with the hope that someone may see your work and offer your some amazing opportunity that will lead to future success and ambition fulfillment. Unfortunately this did not happen in the case we are discussing but the hope alone can often be enough to encourage you and give the morale a boost.

The image used in the advert was one that was taken quite a while ago and has even been discussed on these pages. It is the image that helped clarify my whole concept and in many ways was the foundation upon which the rest of the project would be based. But if you had seen the final book then this image would not have found in any of the pages.

This brings us on to one of the difficult parts of producing any body of work: editing. This is roughly how the process should go:

- think of idea
- shoot loads of images
- evaluate images
- discard ones that are not successful
- repeat until you have a wonderfully coherent body of work

Simple enough and in many instances this works just fine. You shoot an image that, while related to the project, just does not quite work. This can be good as when you see the direction you do not want the work to go in your original convictions are all the stronger. For example this image was one i shot that i was pleased with and felt made for an intriguing encounter. But formally and conceptually it was too out of keeping with the rest of work that it had to get cut.

So it was not too difficult to take this image out. Who knows it may appear at later a date in another piece of work. But the image in the advert was a much tougher case. Formally and conceptually the photograph was much more in keeping with the overall tone of the project. Once you add in the sentimental connection i felt for it then getting rid of it became that much harder.

But in the end it had to go and here's why: the image is simply too exotic. The idea of having a projection screen on a beach is something quite unusual. This is not a situation people would encounter in day to day life so it comes across as odd and out of the ordinary. In contrast all the other images in the project appear relatively mundane. Most of them give the impression that they are simple documentary shots of scenes that i have found and recorded. In somes cases this is true but in others a high level of construction and post-production has taken place. But regardless the overall feel of the work is one of quiet observation.

This is important to the work as it makes the act of taking the photograph less important than the act of looking at it. I wanted to focus the viewer on exploring the image and the relationship that we have with it. How do we address the photograph? what does it tell us? how do we derive information from it? It is always possible to ask these questions of any image but when you are presented with some outlandish scene they get suppressed underneath an overriding curiosity of how the situation came to be. So even though the image conforms to many of the key features of the project ultimately it struck the wrong note.

Having said all this it works superbly as an individual image. The harsh juxtaposition of the beach and screen makes for an image that grabs the attention. In the context of a magazine advert this is ideal as it will draw the reader in and promote the show it is part of. But for my book it was just not right.

All this reveal how important context is to the photograph. Images, indeed anything, never exist in isolation but rather are in a continual dialogue with their surroundings. It is up to us to not only consider the image but where it will be displayed and to which audience. By doing this and taking into account all the various factors the overall success of any piece will be greatly enhanced. Hopefully this will mean that we get to explore the broader context in which the work appears. But this exploration should be done with the art and take the form of a diverse conversation that will hopefully continue indefinitely.

you be scheming and i be screaming

Friends,

it has been a long time. Far too long in fact. For the last 2 months I have carried the guilt of not posting. So much excitement has happened as well that i need to tell you about. There have been books published, lightboxes built and degrees completed.

The intensity has been such that I have had to neglect my posting and focus on the task at hand. As something of a holding post I had planned to tell you some amazing things. The first was that one of the images from my project can be found in the new photoworks it is in the back as part of the ad for the Westminster degree show. The excitement continued when i found out that the same ad could be found in the freerange festival catalogue. I have also made a website for my project. Then fever pitch was to be reached as I announced to you that my degree show is currently taking place at the Truman brewer in brick lane.

But all these things are foot notes (albeit ones that will be elaborated on in due course) because what i want to tell you about is a most heinous act on the part of some immoral, cowardly and deceitful soul.

This person visited the opening of my degree show on Thursday night along with hundreds of others. While everyone else was enjoying the work and a glass of well deserved wine this disgraceful example of humanity was prowling by the book stand. While there they picked up the book I had made, placed it about their person and left. To put it simply by book has been stolen.

Lets put this in perspective. Theft of such an object is a totally inexcusable act. First of all there is no monetary value to the book. Unless it is a long term investment predicated on my future success this book has little re sale value. You will not see it on an auction site for huge sums of money. The malice of the crime is accentuated by the fact this is not the book of a professional artist. This work, along with all on display, is not the product of a funding grant. rather it is the result of hard work, sacrifice and in many cases extended overdrafts and credit cards. More so than other types of work this is the product of heart, soul and love. To take it represents a callous, selfish act that displays no appreciation for the person who made the work.

I was suitably devastated by the theft and have been left to dwell on it for a few days. Fortunately i have other work in display so if you can get over to London you can still see the results of my hard work. But if you do go spare a moment for what your missing.

Bonhams was founded in 1793

Books continue to occupy a large part of my thoughts and with my mind occupied in such a way a trip to Hay-on-Wye seemed more than appropriate. As fortune would have it a good friend had organised such a trip and a fun day was spent perusing the numerous books shops on offer.

Amongst all these shops I found this catalogue for antique picture frames.

It is a relatively small publication consisting of about 20 pages and is approximately A4 in size. When you flick through the pages you are presented with a series of more or less ornate picture frames. Alongside these we are given some brief factual information and the expected sale price.

Obviously this was originally intended as a functional document intended to give buyers an idea of what they might want to bid on. But what interested me more was the repetition of the empty frame. As I went through this catalogue of empty frames I could not help but feel a sense of absence. The recurring white space seemed to hold the potential to contain something but this is never realised during the publication. Rather I was left to wonder what had been in the frame and what would be there in the future.

I'm aware that I am very much viewing this catalogue through the filter of my own work. As such this feeling of a space waiting to be activated will be more keenly felt by me than by the casual viewer. But nevertheless this is a valid way to respond to these images. Indeed if a similar image were placed in a context that dealt specifically with blank spaces then this sense of potential activation could be accentuated and made the focus of the work rather than a by product. So i will be working on an image that uses the idea of blank picture and see how this can be incorporated into my project. Results to follow soon.

+2.5cm

Keeping on the theme publications I have been experimenting a little bit with books of my own. The results of which can be found below. The book +2.5cm follows in the footsteps of many of the publications i have been looking at recently in that it is fairly minimal in design and simple in content. As such I am not going to make any attempts to explain it but rather just present it before you for consideration.

Open publication - Free publishing - More 2.5

BOOK

One thing that i am always very conscious off is the context in which my work appears. Where my work will appear, how it will be presented and in what form are questions that are never far from my mind. In many ways this contextual awareness is the cornerstone upon which my practice rests. In the project i am currently undertaking the exploration of the photographs ontology is motivated by this desire to embrace the situation that is presented before us.

So how these images will come to be presented is not insignificant. In fact it is arguable that the method of presentation is just as important as the work itself. Simply put without it we would not be able to see the work. Therefore the choices i make in this area will go a long way to defining the success of the work. And the choice that i have made is to present this project in the form of a book.

This is logical enough decision and books are photographs are an extremely common sight. But what concerns me is how can to use the format of a book to enhance the strength of my book. It should not just be a vessel to transport my images from place to place. Rather it should be an event in itself and each page should accentuate the concepts that informed the photographs.

As is often the case it is usually a good idea to see what other people have done so I headed to the library to look at how other artists had used the book. The first problem I had was many of these 'artist books' are not to be found on the library shelf. They are often released in small runs and will usually find their way into collectors hands or occasionally into a libraries special collection. But after some searching i struck a rich vein of literature concerned specially with artists book.

Admidst this i found a numer of wonderful works. One of the most striking was Andre Tot's Night Visit to the National Gallery. In this publication we have what is ostensibly a guide to the national gallery collection complete with illustrations. However as the title suggests this visit takes place at night so, naturally enough, all the images are black.

Maurizio Nannucci produced a number of interesting works but chief amongst these was the book with two spines. As you can well imagine such a feature means the book is impossible to open. Lucian Bartolini Come Fetiche allows us to open his book but when we do every page is blank. However each page has a gilded gold edge setting up intriguing dialogue between the surface of the book and its contents. Herman de Vries' White goes a step further and is completely blank and is nothing but white from front to back.

If I have dealt with all this work briefly that is not by mistake. In each case the artist is making a simple, pithy statement that raises more questions that it answers. What runs through each work is an attempt to draw our attention to the physicality of the book and consider the book as a sculptural object. It is not just a tool to present information but an object in its own right. Illusion is cast aside in favour of revealing the material constraints that are implicit to how we engage with art. There is an honesty here that I find compelling. Also there is a playful, exploratory tone to the work that not only reveals the physicality of the book but also celebrates it. There is the suggestion that the book is actually enough by itself and that we should enjoy the fundamental properties that form any publication.


This tone is in keeping with the concept for my own project. I am trying to playfully explore photography and draw attention to the process of looking at an image and how we derive information from. It seems only logical that this exploration be extended onto the page. After all it is usually here where we see the majority of images. So lets not assume this space as a given but critique it as well.

keeping things moving

So we finished up last time with a sense of direction. The basic premise of the final project had been decided upon and I had some idea of where to go next. To briefly recap my project is going to be about blank spaces. But this alone is not going to be enough to form a body of work as it just too broad an area. So my notions about what constituted a 'blank' space had to be defined a bit more rigorously before I could start making some images.

The decision I came to was that these blank areas had to be spaces where you would usually expect to see information presented. This is why the projector screen worked but the home made screen did not. So I began to think of the sort of places where you could expect to have information given to you. One of the first that I thought of was a sandwich board. These are often outside shops and inform people of the latest offers and other such things. But what set me on course to using a sandwich board was this image from Open Empty Spaces

It helps that a piece of paper has been pinned to the front of the board and it is this I think that really gave me the idea to make my own sandwich board. I thought I could make a similar board but just use a white piece of paper on the front. So that is precisely what I did. After a trip to the DIY shop to buy materials and a few hours work I had my very own sandwich board. With board made the next questions was where do I take it? This is an important question and the locations where I place these objects will go a long way to defining the nature of the work. What I decided to do was to take the board down to the hight street and place it outside a row of shops. I wanted the board to look like it could plausibly be there. Having a blank notice on the board is unusual in itself and i did not want to accentuate the oddness of this by putting it in some location where you would never expect to see such a thing. The reasoning behind this was that i want the viewer to be able to take something from the images that invigorates their perception of reality. If the image felt totally contrived this would direct the viewer somewhere beyond reality. But by presenting a location that is relatively familiar at least one aspect of the image should be easy to relate to.

When I set about photographing the board I initially wanted to have a straight on shot so that only the front of it was visible. This was the composition that I had used for the projector screen and one which I felt worked well. It really helped focus attention on the centre of the frame and blank space found there. But when it came to the board I was initially not convinced by the sraight on shots that I took. It felt like it was not clear enough what this object actually was. With a projector screen we are used to seeing straight on but this sort of board is something we usually view in passing. So I took an angled shot as well that showed the side of the board and hopefully made it clear what the viewer was looking at. But now I come to look at the straight on shot again I am not certain that is should have been discarded so quickly. The conceptual aims of the project may be better served by having a consistent viewpoint throughout. This would reinforce the act of looking at a blank, information free, space and possibly be more effective in creating the relationship between viewer and image that I hope for. At the moment I can't quite resolve this issue and I think it will become clearer once more images are made. Something to ponder.

the beginning of the end

Things have been fairly quiet on the post front recently and with good reason. February has been a big month for deadlines and these have occupied a large amount of my time. First off was the dissertation and this went in a few weeks back. But last week another deadline came and went. This time it was the rarely discussed research module. Briefly put this module has involved doing all the planning for what will come to be my major project and final piece at Westminster University.

A while back i mentioned that this project was going to be take the form of a series of outdoor projections. I actually did a test run of this project in my back garden:

The image is remarkably similar to the digital mock up I had done before doing it for real. Here is where we begin to encounter a problem. My original idea was to pick a series of locations then over the course of a month or so show a projection at each site. Ideally the work was to be encountered in situ and was concerned with creating a dialogue between the viewer

and the space they are in. Ultimately I hoped the viewer would temporarily be given a different perspective on their everyday environment. But when you view the photographs it is no longer possible to have the same encounter. You are not in the place where the projection was shown and it is impossible to have the same sort of reflective relationship with what surrounds you.

In an ideal world this is no problem. People could come and see the projections, or happen upon them, and have the sort experience I hoped for. But the question I had to ask myself is how many people would actually see this work? I am just starting out and do not have the renown required to encourage large groups of people to see my work. But what was more concerning was the fact that this project needed to exist in some form. Either as video of photographs there had to be some form of documentation. Equally i wanted this part of the project to be more than just a document. It had to stand alone in its own right and not just feel like the remnants of something that happened previously. This is where the photographs fell down for me. While I sat in my garden I enjoyed watching the film but the images were just not as interesting.

Before I had even done this test I had had an idea for a related if slightly different project. I knew I would be making a screen and thought that maybe the screen itself would make for an interesting image. This white space in the centre of the frame could act as a sort of void directing the viewers act to the periphery of the frame. What I liked about this idea was that it addressed the process of looking at images. We typically expect a photograph to have its subject clearly displayed in the middle of the frame. Look at newspapers or adverts and this becomes quite clear. So by filling this area with white the viewer would have to read the image slightly differently and consider how they approach the photograph. So before the garden test i headed to the beach with screen to do a few test shots:

As is so often the case there is difference between thought and expression. While this image came close to my original idea there is something fundamentally wrong and that is the screen. Simply put this does not look like a projector screen. Rather it resembles a windbreak but overall its function is not clear. As such it assumes an enigmatic presence and rather than directing the viewer to edge of frame actually becomes the focus of attention. I could not help feeling that something was being hidden from me when I looked at this image. What lay behind the white cloth and why were we not be shown it? As a result I had actually created an image that accentuated the traditional reading of the photograph rather than challenge it!

After spending time with the image it became clear that the photograph was not having the desired affect due to the nature of the screen. What I needed was a screen where the functionality of the object was immediately clear. The viewer had to recognise what the object was used for to prevent it becoming a complete enigma. It would be by giving the viewer a clear and direct answer to what the object is used for that would encourage further exploration of the image. So onto ebay and within days an old fashioned screen had arrived in the post for a bargain basement price. I returned to the beach and did another shoot:

This time i got what I was after. When I looked at the photograph the centre of the frame simply did not have enough information to occupy my attention. This left me with two choices. The first was to explore the space around the photograph. Secondly I could project my own thoughts and ideas onto the white space in the image. In this regard the projection screen acts as a recipient of the viewers imagination. It is this latter part that is of central importance. Having an area of white space is one thing but it is quite another to provide a space that can be activated by the viewer. For example a white door would not work. We would wonder what is behind it and try and see beyond the surface. The reason the projector screen is so effective is because this a place where we would expect to see information. When it is not present we feel a sense of lack and we have to use our imaginations to compensate.

I enjoy photography precisely because it can engage our imagination. Most photographs may not encourage this process but at its heart the photograph is an essentially ambiguous document. It gives us the opportunity to create our own readings and never lets us form a definitive conclusion. This is the relationship that i want people to have with my images and encourage this act of imagination.

So this is the project that will form my final project at Westminster University. It will be an exploration of blank space but crucially ones that offer us the chance to project ourselves into the photograph. It is going to be piece of work that will require much finesse and attention to detail. Throughout I am going to have to calmly consider the images i produce an reflect on what works and what does not. This reflexive way of working is not what i am used to and is somewhat daunting. But i am encouraged by the fact that somewhere in this project exists the potential for a body of work i can truly say represents me and my ideas around photography. What could be a more fitting way to end a degree?

this is the end beautiful friend

The relative quiet of recent times is in part a consequence of the final stages of dissertation writing. This process, that began nearly a year ago, came to an end on 3 February. At approximately 3pm on the aforementioned date two copies of this weighty tome were inelegantly posted through a submission letter box. After a resounding clunk  from the document hitting the floor beyond the piece of work was brought to a close.

It was a strange time and one of mixed emotions. To spend such a long time with a single piece of work inevitably builds up quite a strong connection. As a result the expected sense of relief that I had envisaged was distinctly missing. Instead I had a lingering feeling that something has been taken away from me. On reflection the whole process has been characterised by feelings of enjoyment. To have the opportunity to spend such time with something you love is indeed a privilege. It has also clarified many of my thoughts and laid the foundation for work to come in the future.

Still the end must be embraced and after a few days of mourning we are back into the swing of things. More deadlines loom on the horizon and there is plenty of work to. My desk is strewn with books and previous drafts of the dissertation. They offer one last moment to consider what has taken place and realise that i have managed to write 10,000 words (10,955 to be precise) without going insane.

It can only be hoped that the remaining 4 months of the degree go equally well

following a path

Without wishing to state the obvious one of the most interesting things about the photograph is the subject that it represents. This is not to denigrate a medium that on its own is still a fascinating thing. But what really captivates our attention, and has done so for nearly 200 years, is the what we see within the confines of the frame. It is here in the subject matter of the image where the interest lies.

There are all manner of reasons why this space should prove to be so intriguing. Not least amoung these is the photographs ability to articulate something of what took place outside of the frame. For example lets consider two images with a similar composition and subject matter:

On the left we have a detail from Dennis Oppenheim's Accumulation Cut while on the right we have Wall's Crooked Path. In both images the focus of attention is the path in the centre of the frame. But our response, our mine at least, is quite different to each image. With Oppenheim i recognise that this is a channel in the ice. Also knowing what i know about ice it seems very unlikely that this channel would have formed naturally. So i conclude that this is a channel that has been cut in the ice by a human protagonist. In the full version of this piece (which can be found in an earlier post) the process by which this channel formed is made explicitly clear. But even without such information we are given the suggestion that some sort of intervention has taken place. 

With Wall things are a bit different. We see the path but the location and the material with which it has been made do not immediately suggest the sort of intervention that Oppenheim enacted. While Wall could certainly have made the path himself, in a style similar to Long, it could equally be the result of everyday traffic. In short there is an element of doubt here for the viewer. Is Wall presenting us with a document here or the record of an intervention? With Wall this dilemma is enhanced by our knowledge of his working practices and use of heavily constructed imagery. In short we can never sure if Wall has constructed this image or just recorded a situation as he found it. 

The purpose here is not to provide answers to this uncertainty. Rather it is to reflect on the way the photograph presents its subject and how this leads us to consider a range of processes that took place outside of the photograph. With Oppenheim we have an image that does not privilege the space of the photograph. The nature of his intervention makes for a  less evocative image and it is rather the process of creating the work that we concentrate on rather than the image of it. With Wall though there is no sense that the work exists elsewhere. Instead it is all here in the confines of the frame. And while we find no resolution in this space we are given the wonderful provocation to imagine. 

C to B

On 29 October I took the train to Cosham which is a town about 50 miles from Brighton. My intention was to meet my friend at the train station and ride our bikes back to Brighton. I had done a similar trip earlier in the summer that saw me travel from London to Brighton and came to be the project called South (hopefully that publication will be made soon).

As with South I wanted to create some sort of record of this trip. But unlike South I did not want to take photographs. I had found this quite an interruption to the process of cycling and not particularly enjoyable. Also while the images were quite interesting that only felt loosely associated with the process by which they were taken. In other words they bore little evidence of bike ride that led to me being in that position at that time.

There is nothing wrong with this but I wanted to create something that actually articulated something of the process of travelling. So I decided in advance that the record of this trip would only exist in the form of a very minimal publication. I would record the time we left Cosham and the time we arrived at Brighton. In-between would be two arrows pointing right. These relate to the fact that two of us undertook this journey and that we travelled east.

The main influence on this project was Richard Long. I had been studying his work in the months leading up to the ride and was getting an idea of how he chose to represent his walks. One of the ways he does this is with text:

This text relates to a significant physical act. Long has literally walked miles but all we have of this experience is this text. What I really liked about this is that it gives the viewer plenty of space to imagine what took place. We have these brief, enigmatic pieces of text that indicate nothing off the effort, or even locations, that Long went to. We have to fill these gaps in for ourselves and imagine would took place outside of this basic info.

Long seems to recognise that trying to recreate his walk for the viewer is futile. As it takes place in reality whatever means of representation Long chooses will never come close to the experience of walking. So instead Long focuses on the act itself and this is what is at the act heart of this work: the basic process of doing.

This minimal approach to representing his work is something that occurs repeatedly in Long’s work. Another specific example that influenced my own project is his publication The North Woods. This coincided with a show Long had at the Whitechapel gallery in 1977. The book only has about 4 pages and these contain a brief amount of text and one photograph. So again Long has sought to engage the viewers imagination and ask them to recreate the work rather than present a resolved account.

I wanted to produce a similarly minimal type of publication for my own trip. I think I certainly achieved that and the information given to the viewer is pretty slender. However I think it does give enough to provide an evocative starting point for viewer. It raises questions about what happened in-between the two times and the arrows seem to indicate something but what exactly is unclear. My one problem with it is that it might be too evocative. Possibly the viewers would need a little more information to get them interested. In any case the final result can be seen here courtesy of the marevelous and highly recommended ISSU

Open publication - Free publishing - More trip

a foggy notion

As a member of the 21st Century I have to except certain things. I can contact people all over the globe almost instantaneously. I can rabbit on about my thoughts and publish them for the world to see. And, if I produced the right type of photograph I could sell this for a relatively large amount of money.

Each of these things is astounding in its own right and equally we would have struggled to do any of them  in 1968. With regards to the first two pronouncements this comes as little surprise. But with the final one this may not be so obvious. Nonetheless though it is fairly accurate to say that in 1968 art photography was not a widely recognised practice and proponents of this art form stood to gain little financial reward from it.  

In a round about way this brings us to the topic of todays post: photography in Land Art. 

Isolated Mass, Circumflex 1968

In 1968 Michael Heizer travelled in to the Nevada Desert and cut a curvaceous channel in the ground. That we know anything about this at all is down to the photographs taken of this intervention into nature. From the photograph we get the rudimentary idea of Heizer's work and the basic form it took. 

Isolated Mass, Circumflex is one example of the type of work that would come to be grouped under the banner of Land or Environmental Art. Protagonists such as Oppenheim, Haacke, Smithson rejected the traditional role of the artist and sought to explore new places and new materials. There was a sense that art was being liberated from its traditional confines of the studio and gallery. Now it could exist anywhere and be made of anything. Heizer himself had high hopes for such work and elaborated on its potential in idealistic terms:

'one aspect of earth orientation is that works circumvent the galleries and the artist has no sense of the commercial or the utilitarian...One of the implications of Earth Art might be to remove completely the commodity status of a work of art'

For contemporary audiences such a statement seems tremendously naive. The complete removal of arts commodity status has far from been acheived and all manner of work still sells for huge sums. Land Art is no exception. The photographs taken of these interventions act to commodify what Heizer felt could be un-commodifiable. They take what is site-specific and temporary and give it material form. What's more it is a form that can be easily reporduced and circulated to a wide audience. So while the initial intervention is hard to commodify the resulting documents more than make up for this.

But before we condemn this statement as totally naive we must remember the status of the photograph in 1968. This was not a medium that could be sold for huge sums and the art market had not conferred financial value onto the medium. When Heizer says the commodity status could be removed this is because from his point of view, and of the period in which he was working, the photograph was not a prized object.

Ironically it was work produced around this time that began to demonstrate the art value of the photograph and pave the way for the fantastic prices photographs fetch today. But this was still to come and as far as Heizer was concerned the photograph was a relatively worthless object in 1968.

All this indicates that judging the work and statements from artists has to incorporate more than just the hard facts. We must broaden our consideration to think about the socio-economic context they worked in; contemporary theories in art and the nature of the art market. All these things shape an artists production and if we neglect to explore the influence such things have then we risk being naive ourselves.

i hope i learn something from this

Continuing on with practical matters I have been giving some thought to how art work is experienced. What sort of response do we get from art and what does it leave us with? There is obviously not going to be a single answer to this question. Our reaction to a piece of art can range from anger to joy to deep reflection. But is one type of response that I am particularly interested in and that is how art can increase our knowledge.

Clare Copley Gallery 1974

I was led down this train of thought after reading some of Kirsi Peltomaki book called Situation Aesthetics that deals with the work of Michael Asher. Asher is best known for his interventions into institutional spaces, typically the gallery or museum, that disturb our perception of that space. Early pieces such as the one pictured (all Ashers works have no title) involved Asher removing the dividing wall that seperated the gallery from the office space at the Clare Copley Gallery. This simple gesture directs us to the administrative and commercial aspects of the gallery that are normally hidden from sight.

This was a piece that i was familiar with and could grasp its significance. Many galleries contrive to appear as just places to show art and the commercial side of things are firmly placed behind closed doors. By removing the divide, both literally and metaphorically, we encounter an often unseen side of the institution.

But this was as far as I had ever got and gave little thought to what was actually taking place for the viewer. By visiting this space our knowledge of that institution is being increased. To use Peltomaki's term Asher's intervention is 'knowledge producing'. As an artist Asher does not just evoke an emotional response but actually contributes to what we know about art and how it functions in society. The nature of this knowledge is also important. It is not something that is given to the viewer like a report or history book. Instead it is 'produced' by the viewer after considering the work. In this sense we are given the chance to engage with work and discover it for ourselves. As a result we are left with a tangible insight, that transcends aesthetic of physical constraints, which we have arrived at after a reciprocal dialogue.

Part of the reason I never really thought of this is that I can never experience the work first hand. The production of knowledge relies on such an encounter in situ and no amount of photographs can ever compensate if this is lacking. Asher's initial intervention then is intrinsically site specific: we need to experience it first hand to fully engage with it. However as the work articulates issues that transcend that physical space we do not feel completely detached from it. So even if we get a second hand account the significance of Asher's achievements do not go unnoticed.

between thought and expression

The denouement of my degree is fast approaching and January is set up to be an invigorating if necessarily anti-social month. While the majority of this period will be spent giving my dissertation some semblance of cohesion there is also the small matter of my final project to consider. Fortunately I have been able to do just that over the last few weeks and consequentially I have some direction but also numerous obstacles.

To set the scene it would be worth explaining the basic premise of my project. In essence it is quite simple: show a series of films at a number of outdoor locations. The films will be simple, straight on shots of the location in which they will be shown. They will be projected onto a screen at night so when seen the viewer will simultaneously experience the location in both day and night. Complicated? Possibly but hopefully this mock up will help clarify things a bit:

There are a dizzying amount of conceptual and practical problems to sort out with the project and these will undoubtedly crop up in future posts. But one of the immediate issues that got me thinking is how will this project translate into a gallery space. The question is mainly a contrivance of my course as I need to physically submit something come late May. But there is a bigger question here of how does the documentation of something that is in many ways site specific alter the piece?

In this case the change is going to be significant. When viewed initially the projections will very much be directly related to the place they are shown. I aiming for a sort of gently interruption to our usual perception of a place. This achieved I hope it will allow for a reconsideration of our environment. At the heart of this project then is our interaction with the world around us and reflecting on this space. The artifice I insert into this space is a catalyst to provoke this process and the work itself is not the focus of attention. However once documented the physical site is no longer present. The project becomes seen through an intermediary and this fundamentally alters the premise of the work.

Or so I thought. After taking a walk and thinking these things through I realised that the documentation could actually facilitate the same sort of reflective response I am after. However the viewer would no longer be reflecting on a physical place but the general process of representation. For example if I produced a film there would be a film within a film. This can't help but draw attention to the tools by which we record the world around us.

When this first came to me I thought it felt a bit dry. I was concerned that I mind end up simply discussing the merits of a particular medium and the process of documentation. I want my work to have a broader reach than this and not simply address what I felt were narrow issues. But after a bit more thought I realised within the process of representation there exists the possibility to make a much broader statement. When thinking about this I had David Hockneys Joiners in my mind.

What is initially so remarkable about Hockney's work is the process he has used to record his subject. We recognise the use of photography but the feeling of dislocation we get is not something would be usually experience when viewing an image. In short this is not something we are used to seeing and the photograph seems unfamiliar in this role.

That Hockney is able to make something as ubiquitous as the photograph appear strange is quite an achievement. Our expectations of the medium have been subverted and we are left to reflect on this unusual style of presentation. That are our assumptions are confounded allows us to reflect on how we would usually engage with a photograph. In newspapers, magazines and adverts the image us usually presented as a cohesive entity and is employed to convey a clear message. But Hockney reveals that this is not a characteristic inherent in the medium and the photograph can be put to quite different uses.

So what may initially appear as a comment on representation acts as the starting point for how the photograph operates in society. Such a point seems particularly relevant in a media saturated world and increased awareness of how such media are constructed is surely of benefit.

For my own work then I hope the way it is presented directs you away from the rather dry technical issues of presentation and towards a broader consideration of the media and how it is used.

Metaphysics

Amidst the ongoing dissertation writing process i am consciously making an effort to distract myself. This may seem a little odd but it is a useful tactic in the fight to remain productive. I do this because i know that i will, at some point, get distracted. Armed with such knowledge i will occasionally give myself a small break which allows some respite from the rigors of writing.

Such breaks could involve a walk or household chore but today i decided to take a look at an anthology of conceptual art. One of the pieces that i came across was Metaphysics by Jaroslaw Kozlowski:

Jaroslaw Kozlowski Metaphysics 1972

This is actually the first of the three pieces that formed Metaphysics. In this first part numbers were written on the image and exhibited opposite various phrases (a selection of which are to the left of the image above). In the second part,  Physics (not pictured), the image is now a projection with the same numbers written directly on to the projection surface. In this instance a recorded voice reads the phrases rather than them being written down. The third and final part, Ics 1974, dispensed with the image and projection. All that is left are the numbers on the wall and the recored voice.  Gradually then the physical elements are reduced to a point where there are nearly dispensed with completely. 

It took me a while to piece together in my head how the work took shape. From the information i had it was difficult to get a clear idea of all the elements and what the experience of viewing them would have been like. The main reason for this was that i was viewing Metaphysics in a book and not in the original context. As such many of the key elements are missing for me. I have not seen the second piece, read all the text or heard the voice reciting these phrases. So i am viewing this work in a greatly reduced form and not in the way Kozlowski would have intended. 


But once i had worked it out, and formed what i considered to be a plausible account, i found myself in quite a different place to the one I started in. This place was the relationship between the two photographs. I really enjoyed the abstract representation of the photograph that the numbers produced. Visually the numbers were intriguing in themselves. On the photograph though they act differently and almost like a catalogue of the various items seen there. It encourages the viewer to explore the frame of the photograph and consider all aspects of it: not just what is in the centre. There is clash then between the highly referential photograph and the abstract, speculative nature of the numbers.


After reading the text though numerous other issues come in to play. We have to consider that each part existed at a separate time (there was roughly a year between each part being shown). The viewer may have been aware of these other parts or not. But in either case there is the idea of a serial exhibition with each part relating to others but equally standing alone. This is not something i have come across often. Usually an exhibition is self contained and does not usually refer so directly to work exhibited elsewhere. I couldn't help but imagine a sense of lack upon viewing the work and the feeling that it isn't all quite there. But this is surely intentional. It gives the impression that art does not have to be complete and contained within a single place. Instead it can refer to other locations and situations. In doing so it engages our imagination and asks us to think. This sort of work then exists more in the mind of the viewer than the physical objects presented before us. 


So from thinking about representation and issues decidedly photographic i moved on to curation, institutional conventions and materiality. Such a dramatic shift is the result of context. How work is presented can greatly affect our interpretation of it. This can go as far as to introduce new ideas that radically transform our perceptions.


Ok back to work......

a thirst for knowledge

I love to learn. Personally i find that there a few better feelings than acquiring a new skill or bit of knowledge. It really is quite remarkable that in the space of a few hours you can go from not being able to do something to finding yourself in quite the opposite position. There are obvious practical benefits to such a process but the positive affect on your state of mind can be just as important. 

For example, below is short film i put together this week. I say film, it is more of a glorified slideshow really. But even so it marked my introduction to the world of online video sharing (a process made all the more easier by the beautifully designed vimeo). It undoubtedly took me 10x longer than the average 9 year old to work out how to do this but nevertheless it was a distinctly satisfying experience. The results are below. 

As a footnote to this celebration of learning it is worth briefly mentioning this projects significance in terms of my own work. The subject itself is probably not something i am going to pursue but it was very interesting in terms of deciding what shape a project takes (a recurring theme of late). For example this project has a high level of transience. The water gets bigger, smaller and is a constant state of flux. Ift is the transient nature of the work that i want to emphasise. So this piece need to be shown in a way that helps articulate the nature of the work. The internet video then is quite a suitable way to show it. Usually viewed fleetingly and not existing in any physical form it is in itself a platform in flux. Another suitable way to show this would be a projection as again the light occupies a tenuous physical position. 

4 types of chalk

Amidst all this writing and drafting (and writing and drafting) i have been trying to keep up the practical side of things. So most weeks i have tried to do small, instinctive type projects just to try and get a feel for what i will do for my last project at University. The most recent of these has tentatively been titled 4 types of chalk. 


The project was pretty simple. I went to a nearby chalk cliff face armed with a pack of coloured chalk. Then just below the chalk line, on a man made wall, i drew a simple chalk line. I photographed the results and that was the project done.

I was left with a lot of photographs. They showed all stages of the process and from a number of angles.

The basic problem i had was what to do with all these images. So i spent some time looking through them and the more i looked the clearer it became that most of were not really that interesting. There was no need to have a repetitious cycle of chalk lines and the nature of the intervention could easily be conveyed with a single image. It is this image on the right that i felt was one of the most successful. There is a subtle link between the natural setting and my own intervention. Also the lack of colour not only gives the image a simple feel but also helps establish this link between the cliff face and line. The coloured chalk is clearly brought in to this place but the white chalk could plausibly have come from the cliff itself. As such it creates a dialogue with the site and becomes more about that specific location.  So we end with a single image. It was a bit hard to let go of all the images i had taken and also accept that the project was going to be different to how i had originally envisaged it. But it was an important process to go through and ultimately the work is more interesting as a result.      

getting dissed

Over the last few weeks i have led something of a sheltered existence. My life has revolved around my laptop and getting into dissertation writing mode. Now while this has been punctuated with trips to work, and occasionally the corner shop, the majority of the time i have for school work has been spent typing.

While such a secluded lifestyle is certainly not healthy the writing process has been more or less enjoyable. Certainly there have been days where is has felt like there was no point turning on the laptop. When you've written for 5 hours and got about 200 words, that you know will have to be done again, your heart does tend to sink. But luckily those days have been in the minority and overall steady progress has been made. Until the last few days or so when things started to get tough.

The obstacle that presented itself before me was this enigmatic proposition: how does a photograph work? Not in the technical sense but in the what sort of relationship do we have with the image and how do engage with it sense. Complicated stuff by all accounts. To try and simplify things and get my thoughts straight i made a diagram:

The first thing that i assumed was that the photograph is not an objective document. Regardless of whether we are taking the photograph or looking at one we always bring something to the process. So on the diagram we have the first layer of 'conceptualisation'. This may represent an extensive period of planning with lots of research and careful consideration. Or it could simply be choosing to shoot portrait instead of landscape just before taking the shot. Either way these decisions affect the final image and are one way the author can make known their presence. 

'Photograph' seems simple enough - you take the photo.

'Event gets pointed to' is not so simple however. It relates to Thierry de Duve's essay Time Exposure and Snapshot: the photograph as paradox. In this essay De Duve describes how the photograph will only ever 'point' to an event. It will not make statements about it or literally recreate it for us. Rather all we get from the image is the vague declaration: 'look at this'. 

Once the event has been pointed to the context in which it is displayed further informs the viewing process hence the  'layer of fabrication/more conceptualisation'. This is a space where the photograph is presented to us and this can be manipulated to privilege certain readings. For example the same photograph displayed in the gallery would be seen quite differently to the one in the newspaper. This part of the process can be controlled and planned for in advance so we have an arrow going back to start. Equally the final context can affect what we photograph and how. So we have a double headed line to represent this relationship.  

After all this we arrive at 'almost infinite possibilities'. When we view the image we always have the option to interpret it how we see fit. We may be directed towards a specific reading but this can always be challenged. This is because all the photograph can do is point to an event. As a medium photography in unassertive and it requires other elements to make its statement more forceful (the newspaper caption being a prime example). But left alone the image is a vague and suggestive thing. It hints at much but confirms little. But surely it is this speculative process that makes photography such a fascinating medium.

All this helped to clarify my thoughts a bit but translating all this into academic terms while relating it to a specific discussion is going to be a bit tougher.