MA Fine Art Student Exhibition
Date: January 15, 2020
Title: Monotony of Balance
Materials: Multimedia installation
Size: 7 feet tall x 15 feet wide
Year: 2020
Words about the work
After all these years
You still make handmade toys
And play with them in artificial spaces
Within nature
Broken by time
You have forgotten most things
But you still remember
Your nightmares
Reflections
Fears, motherhood
Light in darkness
Searching for realness through surrealness
Hidden in plain sight
Description of work
Two paper paintings.
- The large one is 7 feet tall and 4 feet wide. The smaller one is 3 feet wide and 2 feet wide.
- Both inspired by Mark Bradford's paper paintings even though the larger painting started as bad Rauschenberg combine imitation. I appropriated personal photographs, handmade toys, found objects, wire, trash bags and acrylic paint.
Trees
Reused or appropriated trees from previous work and added added them as extra noise and projection cover for this exhibition.
- Tree and tree stump are made out of chicken wire, discarded fabric, paper, glue and acrylic paper.
- Small tree stump was used for the purpose of creating a visual anchor for rope, yarn and fabric pieces.
- Large tree was used as a barrier to separate my section as well as a cover for the projector.
Video
One video split up in two parts
- Videos were created using green screen.
- Programs used: After Effects and Premiere Pro
- Props were of handmade toys, handmade costumes, green painted paper mask, handmade trees, and two glasses of water.
- One portion of the video was shot in the John Lennon Art and Design Building, one portion on my living room floor, and the other back ground shoots were videos taken at Crosby Beach, fabricated tiny worlds in my living room, small spaces at Make, and trees outside of my apartment.
- The video of me pouring water from one cup to another was inspired by hanging out with BA students as they were researching instructions created by Fluxus Art movement. I was inspired by artists doing boring things but with a serious face to create art. Apparently, anything can be made into art if your face looks bored enough.
- The video represents motherhood, fears, and monotony.
- Video of trees was manipulated to look neon pink to create a surreal and artificial atmosphere.
Extra thingies
Extra objects were added to fill space, to add colour and sparkle.
- various materials: seaglass, fabric, fake hair, hard clay etc where wrapped in cling film. At the time I thought of them as shiny rocks. But Chris said the looked like Christmas presents. I'll accept that.
- Neon, fury hand made stuffed animals were curled up and tied up with rope made out of trash bags and different coloured tape.
- Neon yarn was added to get glimpses of artificial colour in order to tie in the artificial colouring of the tree branches in the video.
- A small number of sticks with coloured tissue paper were thrown into the mix to mess with the idea of what is real and what is fake.
- There was a battery powered neon light resting in a hand made woven bowl.
It's positioned in a corner
- I'm interested in the refraction of light and how it obscures the images, making them change depending on where you are standing. Creating another layer of deceit because it does not tell you which area is the best area to view the work.
The following pictures were taken of artwork before slight change. They reflect what the piece was before the exhibition.
Below is a photo taken of various wrapped bits that were discussed in the description section. As you can see they do resemble Christmas presents. Here they are in all their shiny glory next to trash bag rope, facing the bottom of the tree trunk which is hiding the projector. Here you can get a snap shot of what that little detail looked like.
The following are photos of alterations of work which was presented during the night of the show.
Detail of corner section.
Issues and what would I have done differently/What have I learned by doing this piece
- The video did not cover the large painting. It would have made for a more successful piece if everything was covered.
- The video did not cover the floor and create sparkly colour noise as I would have hoped.
- I need more projectors.
- My work was too close to Serah's work. People were confused as to where mine stopped and where her's ended. Her real tree and my fake tree didn't really work. My tree was talking about artificial objects trying to look real, hers was about her metaphoric interpretation of a tragic real life event (Fun fact and bragging alert: I'm gonna start bragging right now. My sister helped Daphne Anne Caruana Galizia find the damning bits of information describing offshore corruption which ultimately got Daphne killed).
- I needed more objects on the floor.
- I love the look of battery powered neon lights. I may have to get more to use in future projects.
- I would like to manipulate the yarn more. Using glue and creating a more dynamic space like the works of Chiharu Shiota.
- I need to make more paper paintings as screens for projectors. I liked that the videos would morph on certain areas.
- My video would be more successful if I knew how to projection map instead of just winging it.
- I need more fake trees so that they don't look so out of place.
- Video imagery needs to go to a dark and scarier place. Right now they are too in the middle. There is no emotion. Needs more cowbell!!!
Video clip of needing more cowbell. Taken from an old SNL skit.
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