{"id":981,"date":"2023-04-28T14:12:35","date_gmt":"2023-04-28T14:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewordsthething.org.uk\/?p=981"},"modified":"2023-09-12T15:14:15","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T15:14:15","slug":"a-language-of-contemporary-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewordsthething.org.uk\/?p=981","title":{"rendered":"A Language of Contemporary Art<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(As reflected in relevant articles, books, texts and exhibitions)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This exploration into the language of contemporary art has a number of origins and was done for several reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its origins stemmed from my decision, several years ago, to delve into contemporary art: in terms of trying to understand it better; in terms of trying to get a sense of how it was being talked about in articles, books, exhibition texts etc; and in terms of wanting to test out my own capabilities in \u2018doing art\u2019 and \u2018making art\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The starting framework for this was also a deep interest in modes of learning, and how a particular outcome might be got to by various routes \u2013 including putting together my own art curriculum (culled from the Foundation, Degree and Masters curricula of a range of universities in this country and elsewhere \u2013 selecting the elements and approaches that I felt most interested in personally pursuing in my own ways and against my own timescales). This is described elsewhere. One unit of my constructed self-learning programme was a better understanding of the language of art, in general, and contemporary art in particular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A further driver was an interest in language and its uses. My own inclination was less in terms of looking to establish precise dictionary-type definitions, and more in terms of the flexible (and often contradictory) ways that words were used in practice. This looked for an opening up, rather than a defining down, of understandings. A specific example of this was my doctorate in sociology, which looked at the ways the concept of Community was constructed by various groups (residents, community workers, local politicians, national policy makers, academics, writers) and how various elements of meaning were differentially strung together as chains of understanding by these different groups \u2013 and how these understandings could form broad constellations of sense-making at different times or in different contexts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In practical terms, I had to hand 50 pieces of written material from art exhibitions across the past 25 years; more than 100 newspaper and magazine articles from across the period from 1990 to the present; more than 100 books on art since 1945; a watch-later library of more than 40 YouTube videos on aspects of contemporary art –  ie a rich and varied source of ways that people wrote and spoke about late-modern\/contemporary art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The job was to make some sense of all of this, for my own better understanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was primarily done to fulfil part of the learning commitment I had made to myself, and also for the sheer enjoyment of attempting to think through some new topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A second reason emerged the more I thought about things. This was to see if the various statements gleaned from the numerous wide-ranging texts could suggest any recurring categorisations that could be used as headings to make some initial sense of things, The headings I used thus arose out of the thinking being done. These broad working categorisations, which were by no means mutually exclusive, were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artistic Approaches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contents and Intentions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artistic Mechanisms<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curating and Exhibitions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Identities and Portraitures<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Narratives and Meanings<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ambiguities and Realities<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cities and Places<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Memories and Histories<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fragments, Layers and Multiplicities<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each section contains numerous phrases that were things in the articles\/books that struck me as interesting. These are fragments and part-phrases rather than full sentences. These listed phrases-of-interest are not in any specific order. A number of the phrases could equally be relevant to other headings. Sometimes phrases clumped together, more often they did not. They are certainly not intended to form a linear narrative, but simply to sit as fragments, any of which might trigger some response in the reader. There are many fragments, so many possibilities for thoughts being triggered \u2013 so any reader might begin to construct their own chains of ideas, building into a potential narrative that begins to make some sense to that person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fragments and the headings then became some kind of Thinking Framework \u2013 something that would spur further intellectual exploration \u2013 or that might trigger ideas to inform my own making of art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is my interpretation of the information from my particular set of sources. Others may construct things differently, from other sources. Another approach might throw up different headings, different ways of selecting and arranging phrases, different chains of meaning and different constellations of understanding. This is my constructed thinking tool It is up to me to make of it what I can. As I scan through it from time to time, certain things catch my eye and set trains of thought going. Similarly, it is up to other people to engage or not; and to make their own connections, linkages and uses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What follows is my first attempt at putting the Thinking Framework together. It can be considered as an act of creativity at a number of different levels. It is a work in progress. As I read more, more ideas will seem worth including, but I don\u2019t aim for it to go on forever. I am more interested in getting to a sufficiency level, where it can be something adaptable, yet fit-for-purpose, for me to use in various ways in order to progress my own learning about contemporary art and, potentially, my own practical art working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Readers should feel free to use this Thinking Framework in whatever way they may find helpful. Its source should be quoted whenever it is shared with others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Note: The source of each phrase is not listed. This is a personal exploration not an academic article requiring specific references. Nor is it an attempt at originality, attempting to pass other\u2019s words off as my own. The whole basis is that these are fragments of words as used by many others \u2013 few of which are specific insights unique to that writer. In a small number of cases, the artist source in included in brackets, simply for interest).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

ARTISTIC APPROACHES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018What\u2019s the point of it?\u2019 \u2018It is what it is, and nothing else\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art must be good for you<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art can take you anywhere; Getting lost in art is no bad thing, so long as there is some glimmer of escape<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art offers particular ways of seeing the world; Visualising alternatives; Open to different perspectives; Entrances to other worlds; Draws you in with its rich and powerful intimacy; Strangely, quietly seductive<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commitment is not to Knowing but to Not Knowing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art is about things you don\u2019t know, that haven\u2019t been noticed; So familiar we no longer think about them<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art is about what is absent; left out, left unseen; Interrogates what it means to be human in 21st<\/sup> century<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artworks are Manifestos, in a way<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contemporary art is not just bits of flotsam and jetsam \u2013 criteria do exist eg Does it pose interesting questions? Do material, form and conceptual element work well together? Does it achieve (on its own terms)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018There are only a few people who can say something about art\u2019 (Anselm Keifer)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art is not necessarily for all; but for those who think it is for them (Bismuth)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can make art out of anything; Anything can be art<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Anyone can be an artist\u2019 (J Beuys)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you try to become an artist, then you become one<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every artist is a human being<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artist as prankster; producing toys for the world<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a glut of art, with only the flashiest surviving \u2013 yet it is not really about insider-recognition, sales\/prices etc; May be about what leaves some lasting imprint on others<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contemporary art can only be defined through multiple concepts since it is not a singular phenomenon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contemporary art is a multifaceted, complex and contested phenomenon. So many artists making so much art in so many different ways \u2013 no one can possibly make sense of it all<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brings together diverse practices; A confounding diversity of modes; constantly on the move. Doesn\u2019t have to be stylistically incoherent; Can stick eg to figurative painting, but with some extra element in it \u2013 allowing for a myriad of narratives<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maintains a fluid approach \u2026 keeping the practice open \u2026 making each body of work different from the last<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An expansive way of working; demonstrates the range of her practice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Less about \u2018heroic\u2019 artist \u2013 succeeding or failing \u2013 more about how art gets culturally produced (recognising the agency of the artist \u2026 cf death of the artist)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no isolated artist: are part of a mesh of exhibitions, curation, academia, enthusiasts, other artists \u2026 which leads to complexities and contradictions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A growing ambition to deploy art\u2019s capacity to be multiple things at once (aesthetic experience; civic proposition; philosophical enquiry; luxury commodity etc)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there no end to the cultural references thought to be appropriate for art?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multipotentialities<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Embraces the potential of collaboration (across artistic boundaries)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Works are bound up with the matter of thinking and talking, and a certain way of looking at the world; Creating an entrance for the imagination<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things not looked at closely; more glimpsed \u2026 with art as a way of seeing the world<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art is on a spectrum (too simple\/too difficult)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Society changes, and art changes with it<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art\u2019s meaning keeps changing, as its (expandedly globalised) context changes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offers works that are as provisional and unfixed as the futures she imagines<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art has histories but not fixed definitions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some art, you need to know a whole backstory in order to understand it<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine what art might be, in relation to all history and all culture; compared with narrow identity-based art<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Relationship to art itself \u2013 its contradictions, the way it is structured. Art as a living organism. Art that elicits dialogue<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elusiveness and complexity can come across as willfuly obscure and self-regarding; or can act as an open-ended diagram of real-world complexities<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seems to be speaking a private language that only the artist understands<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art is the simple expression of complex thought ; Art is a way of thinking things through; Art is the means by which life reflects on, transforms, and indeed creates, its values<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I see my work as participating in a cultural discourse; another position from which to engage with asking questions about art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artist can turn their referential gaze inwards, revisiting own creative history, as a strategy for moving forward<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Desire to communicate a direct experience, rather than create a mere representation of it<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art is a way of exploring the world, a form of thinking in materials \u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much contemporary art is concerned with social commentary and the primacy of idea over object<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art makes us appreciative, aware, think, connected, intelligent, curious, expressive<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artists don\u2019t think as we do<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The way meaning is derived from the work is closer to poetry than to prose<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heightened awareness of how we respond to immediate (and imagined) situations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creative for 30 minutes\/day; rest = doing what\u2019s needed to make that creativity visible<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Value the specific experience of a work; not what ought to think; or some theoretical premise<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My paintings are fragments of the world and I\u2019m simply digging them up and presenting them<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Institutional critique is an influential tendency. Performances that intervene directly in the art world\u2019s various structures, rituals and routines ; Guides for hire adopting authoritative voice to give (fake) gallery talks<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exploring the quirkiness of British culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richly inventive; It has to have strong ideas otherwise we would get bored with it; turning improbable ideas into art<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belief in the alchemical power of art to transform things<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politically-engaged art does not need to enter the world of politics; can be provocation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outlandish and confrontational projects\/ activities. Is it really about trying to be more shocking than others \u2013 confronting taboo subjects? Push beyond the limits of conventional taste\/comfort and achieve some kind of freedom (often by working on own body\/ other person\u2019s body); Issues of viewer complicity<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Awkward territory \u2013 where ugliness, irritation and shock are legitimate, even necessary components of meaningful work; Art that circumvents narrative and conventional logic, to communicate on a gut level<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No arguments to make; no axes to grind; no theory to elaborate; no statement about the state of art today \u2013 just there in its own right; just the art itself<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Separate from popular culture, but draws from it<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nuanced ways of rethinking cultural histories<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accentuating some aspects, whilst softening\/disguising others<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subtle interventions, contingent on the circumstances of their showing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Makes quiet references to the outside world; Preferring the subtle statement to the grand gesture<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflects the artist\u2019s identity (and helps shape it); Reflecting the diversities of artist\u2019s practice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emphasis on processes; Work that is (always) in progress\/in the making<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it is the journey not the arrival that matters \u2013 we are fortunate, because we never arrive \u2013 we pause, we are held in suspense<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exploring the line between \u2018being\u2019 and \u2019performing\/creating\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traces the dance between thought and action<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between the idea and the reality \u2013 the shadow falls (TS Eliot, The Hollow Man)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Viewing the commonplace world from an unprivileged position \u2013 seeing self as part of those social structures, rather than as separate from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People educated to expect artwork to carry a meaning\/message \u2026 but can be an expression of something \u2013 don\u2019t have to know artist\u2019s intention; have to engage with the work – glance at it, study it, photograph it\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The questions that the work addresses and the inventiveness with which they are realised<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to secure funding an art activity has increasingly been expected to satisfy demands re \u2018success\u2019.  If there is no money, there is no expectations around success<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not done to fulfil external expectations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I just wanted to do it and get it over with so I could go home and watch TV\u2019 (F Stella)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An artist\u2019s practice is a space for conversation rather than a mode of producing an object (Micheal Krebber)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fusion of aesthetic exploration, autobiographical reflection and state-of-the-nation commentary<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stripping away aesthetic pretentions to focus on the role and question of art itself<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contemporary art used to be presented defensively; now confidently presented, no matter if viewer-hostile, on assumption that it will be accepted as a worthwhile endeavour<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anything we may wish to contribute has already been done<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You think everything has been done, but it\u2019s about new approaches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing what has gone before, we are freed to transcend established formal and conceptual limits; Traces of past thoughts and activity are re-enacted\/reanimated in new\/unexpected ways; idiosyncratic practice, methodologically and conceptually nomadic; Drawing on the innovations of past movements to kickstart a number of possible futures (Julie Mehretu)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Post Movement\u2019 Art: styles\/schools fall away, leaving the artist freed\/condemned to steer independently \u2013 even if ideas recur; pushing outwards<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A theory is meaningless without an initial problem \u2013 art has theories, but does little work on resolving problems<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Navigating my own position; Acts of self-actualisation; Developed a practice known for \u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Value placed on the way the work is produced. Constructivist: function determines form<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conceptual: Uses art to propose certain ideas; Before conceptualism, art meant \u2018things\u2019. Object -> Process -> Concept -> ??<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Idea of gaze, control, impact of looking<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Various turns in art; Turn = impact of key events\/activities on artistic approaches \u2013 there is a before and an after \u2013 artists respond as people in those changing situations, but through the art-based ways they know<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should be something of the real world in the art; should be something of the artist in the art<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art invites scrutiny at micro and macro levels<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concerned with the discernment of \u2018difference\u2019, in various forms and degrees<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Narratives of struggle and longing; Art that is some sort of anecdote; No consistent voice; the unreliable narrator<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studio = research laboratory in which experiments are done aimed at making discoveries about art<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artistic process of creating memory from research, ideas and studio-work<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speculations and imaginings and improvisations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artworks as thought experiments<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experimental, emerging, challenging, Innovative \u2026 Field work; Forensic \u2026 collecting trace evidence<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reimagining art\/artworks as an ecosystem \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Envisioning a whole new cosmology with metaphoric complexity and on an epic scale<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deriving credibility from a painstaking attention to detail<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modernists wanted to strip the world of mystery and emotion; Postmodern \u2013 reproducibility gives more versions, that makes it more famous<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bulging with connotations, the forms never quite settle on a fixed meaning<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Questioning central elements of painting \u2013 stretched canvas; hidden supports; actions of painting; subjects chosen etc \u2013 challenging the function of the work and what\/how it was meant to communicate<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deconstructs contemporary conception of art making: re-examine constituent elements; disrupt contemporary conventions \u2013 by playing with triviality\/fragility of its assemblage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Problematic white guys clogging up the artistic canon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it time to cancel the \u2018great artists\u2019 (of their time) now being held to account \u2013  their art shifted things in the history of art, which needs to still be recognised: making their work more palatable for Generation Z
<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONTENTS and INTENTIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Themes relevant to today (belonging; inhabiting space; construction of language and cultural traditions; how we relate to each other; what structures hold power etc)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seeing contemporary landscape and the history that produces it; Contemplating the way things came to be the way they are; Questions the assumptions we make; Raises a number of cultural questions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exploring obsolete structures; How did we get to where we are now?; Looked at again\/afresh through different lenses; Providing some lessons to what is happening now; Interest in social structures and the roles we assume within them<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contemplates change in a progressively complex world \u2026 How art can intersect with current social concerns (and integrate into strategies for change); concerned with social injustices; Transformative potential of art<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art trying to express concerns under threat from digital technologies, the power of unchecked capitalism and the dangerous rise of ethno-nationalism<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modernisation and the global contemporary moment; Taking the temperature of contemporary culture in instructive and premeditated ways<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using the tangible to make concerns visible<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A holistic exploration of place, memory, migration and identity within a decolonial project<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reinterpreting enduring themes for a generation caught in the whirlwind of \u2018progress\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New orientations towards issues and themes; Creating works that grapple with enquiries into issues of control and empowerment; of control and resistances<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ongoing dialogues concerning time, consumption, work, money etc<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ties to the impact of our actions on the environment; Problematic nature of the Anthropocene \u2013 focus on materiality; significance of actions; fluctuating relationship to place; use, reuse and adding to \u2018stuff\u2019;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A process of accretion over time \u2013 themes revisited; It proposes that facets of the work can be understood in relation to \u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chance, Order, Change; Everything and Nothing; The ordinary and the uncanny<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Precarity = permanent instability \u2013 sense of collective social anxiety; Questions the fragility of \u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considerations of the gendered and the contested<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concerns with bodies, stress, class, gender, anxieties, boredom, meeting of public\/private<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflecting consumerism\/ postmodern simulacra<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concerned with: Appropriation, detritus, cities, concepts, collaborations, everyday (quotidian), facts\/fictions. Identities, installations\/arrangements, loss, maps (internal; leading nowhere), memory\/reliability, projects\/projections, series, sensemaking, sampled<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welfare state; housing boom; permissive society; educational change; motorways; city redevelopment; shopping centres\u2019 TV adverts; new forms of celebrity \u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collapsing distinctions between work and leisure in late capitalism; role of artist as producer in information\/cultural economy;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Themes of emptiness and fullness<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving between the observational and the speculative; It is the small differences that count; Negative spaces; blanks<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decoded activities; Visual metaphors abound<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think of them as ideas taking physical form that allows them to cast shadows; Drawing from theory and philosophy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Permeability of abstraction into daily life<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Telling us some answers, leaving us to make up the questions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offers no answers: delighting in art\u2019s openness to interpretation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Injects resiliences, resistances and hope into the communities in which we live<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Different forms of learning; structures for learning<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still in the process of learning what might be of significance<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agora = spaces of public debate (in era of post-truth)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employs language and strategies of corporate branding; mainstream news cycles; social media; self-help manuals<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naming of things that don\u2019t yet exist \u2013 is a form of embodiment (and can have power to bring them into existence)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

M Creed \u2018My work is 50% about what I make and 50% about what other people make of it\u2019
<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ARTISTIC MECHANISMS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Complex immersive installations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hyperrealistic sculptures of people, who then populate the art space<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sculptural potential of everyday objects; intricate arrangements of worthless things; imbues them with character; engineers a composite picture of a society from which they are drawn<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flimsy sculptures made from unstable materials \u2013 soil, powder paint, detergent liquid, Plaster of Paris; Slight sculptural interventions; Sculptures of branches\/frames with coloured material strung between<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Constructions that are chimera \u2013 part animal\/ part machine etc; imaginary beings<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bringing fresh energy and vigour to traditional genre of Still Life (Still life is not a realistic rendering \u2013 it is a system of objects \u2013 a contrived fiction)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ability to manipulate materials in ways that address the messy realities of life, and expose the world\u2019s underlying fragilities<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obviously machine-made models; testing fears and phobias<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incorporate material that surrounds the works production and use<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uses found objects, images, audio recordings, photos, text, in order to reveal a strangeness in everyday life \u2026 fallibility of language, gaps in communication \u2026 words (including quotations) as art objects<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Found objects\/ furniture reshaped. As walk round, from different angles, become aware of different dramas being acted out<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distorting and twisting found objects; Objects in a constant state of flux; things twisted, distorted, exploded, flattened, stretched, melted, mlashed, coated. disintegrated \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collections of objects laid out as grid on floor\u2013 plastic items by colour; contents of parents\u2019 house \u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use of humble materials (plastic bin bags, chewing gum)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transforms everyday objects into artworks that feel precarious or threatening<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reconfigures\/repurposes commonplace materials to give sculptures that subtly demonstrate the mutability of everyday objects<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selection, collection, assemblage<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things made of practically nothing; Presented in ways that show how they were put together \u2013 what enables their creation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salvaged items; recycled items; reclaimed items; liberated items<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City dump = treasure trove. Tiny fragments became his theme and modus operandi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abstract works formed from dense aggregates of painted grit and dust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something made out of fragments of something else\/ other things<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incorporating subject matter from immediate surroundings; emphasising the first-person realities of the individual<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disintegrating previous ways of seeing the world; leading to paying more attention to smaller, more personal, aspects of life; taking a fresh look at the ground beneath our feet; you can find plenty of material with a radius of 1 metre around you<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dragging something magnetic, on a walk, as a way of collecting metal detritus<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Till receipts as evidence of commercial transactions; use of prosaic domestic items to underscore a point<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reorganising the everyday world to make us look again at what is taken for granted<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyday objects converted for artistic use \u2026.. Trying to make something that doesn\u2019t look made; Using what is at hand; Things repurposed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reproduces\/manipulates everyday objects turning them into theoretical conundrums or playful propositions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transforms mundane, industrial materials into swathes of colour<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Combining epic and banal; objects considered trivial and insignificant; Detritus of mass consumer culture; Recycling the detritus of consumer society to make abstract art but also as a critique of society<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pathetic nature of everyday materials can be a strength \u2013 not pretending to be anything more grandiose than it is<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can banal no-longer-needed objects be reconfigured so that get rejuvenated?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Locally found materials make each installation unique<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plastic sheeting as a thin membrane between walls, canvases and viewers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Focus on dust on surfaces – reveals its status as an object<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Approaching the Web as a medium with the potential to create endless mischievous\/disturbing interventions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simulations eg of online, or other format, games<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use of software to produce art; computer graphics to create spatial works \u2013 places one would like to go to but never can<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The moment when old technologies began to fade into obsolescence; Interest in technologies that have become obsolete<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use of cheap, disposable technologies to create images that separately may not qualify as Art but collectively form an art work<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spins an associative web between Google searched images \u2013 juxtaposed, spliced together, scarred, rescanned, photographed and rephotographed — acts of continual reproduction \u2013 distancing the image even further from the object it supposedly indexes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Empties images of any meaning; Makes powerful statements about contemporary image culture<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Animations constructed from photographs, scarred images, single frames from video \u2013 all blended together; Videos as sequences of stills<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interpolates several scenes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Real-life footage, interwoven with staged scenarios; suggests the set of an imaginary movie; enigmatic tableaux<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tableaux; highly contrived settings made to look superficially simple\/normal; can have an atmosphere of creeping menace<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfolds with an eerie\/suspenseful slowness; quiet formal beauty with an edge of anxiety; moody ambiguity \u2013 leaving us to ponder the ultimate role\/purpose<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intimacy of the images conveys a sense of the artist as an active participant rather than an objective observer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Action ebbs and flows; images are not sequential; fractures in time and space \u2013 turning what appears to be documentary into something more open-ended<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Video\/ film\/ photo capturing transient events (eg breath condensing on a piano)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use of mirrors; mirror ball, shadows etc to reallocate the image to create something more dramatic\/theatrical<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contemporary images recontextualised by putting them alongside historical images<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photography can easily be misunderstood as random observation\/lucky moments, or as bits of documentation\/photojournalism, rather than be seen as Art; intimate with fleeting moments of ordinary beauty<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photos from unusual angles, to produce strange images<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of photograph, enlarged, rearranged, coloured, photocopied<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simultaneously present us with combinations\/recombinations of same objects<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coupling an image and an object (as a pairing on a plain background)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hybrids of elements taken from different sources (photos; pin-ups etc)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The images can be static, with the accompanying soundtrack providing the momentum<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employs the language of cinema, filmic, in an expanded artistic field<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OK to have things out of focus<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A series of interlocking vignettes; a set of parallel projections\/ multiscreen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photograph of workspace exploring documentary\/abstract monochrome; There is a desk, with a single lamp, and a book that is read from time to time<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Performances that then only exist in participants\u2019 photos, videos, written\/spoken testimonies<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things emerge via improvisations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The artist activates the installation with performances<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surveillance and propaganda \u2013 presented as unfiltered reality, as documentary<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Explores and challenges the capacities of the medium<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uses a repertoire of artistic gestures in dialogue with the materials used; Motifs and gestures \u2013 springing from myriad sources; With references made to artworks, artists, art histories<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A powerful, concise aesthetic vocabulary\u2026 that gives shape to the work<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visual syntax; marks that carry enormous narrative weight<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A pared-back, minimal aesthetic<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poetic use of form and material<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deliberate use of chance \u2013 or reducing the element of chance<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stochastic = pertaining to chance; randomness; conjecture; Gives the work a recognisable edge<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visual language that swings between representation and abstraction<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abstract explorations into colour, line. Form, texture, mark making \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abstract works have own criteria, through their degree of inner coherence<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fusion of aural and spatial experiences, complicated by including recorded sounds (eg coughs, shuffles, comments)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A dreamscape of music, speed and noise<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An audio-walk, with photographs to be used  at various points<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being inside sound machines\/ sound suits\/ sound rooms \u2013 sound installations in public places<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loudspeakers embedded in object; triggered by audience movements or interactions; Speakers arranged to focus sound at a particular spot; creating soundscapes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hundreds of tiny speakers hung as a swarm, in a darkened room<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incorporating a live broadcast, a published broadsheet, a blog \u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Explores the political properties of sound; using sound effects to help victims of violence to describe their memories \u2013 in a process that spans artmaking and activism<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Droning voices \u2013 as of those giving lectures on art or some other topic<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think he chose collage because it\u2019s a method that breaks what we normally see or how we normally see, deconstructs it and puts it back together in a way that makes new meaning\u2026He found a way to talk about diversity and a way to talk about fractured cultures, all in collage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Layered both flat and textured paper, cutting paper to create fractured spaces and forms<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using mass media; Stacks of daily newspapers \u2013 signifiers of the intrusion of corporate reportage into our lives; news feeds; drawings inspired by lurid daily headlines<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transform\/modify magazine adverts; manipulate surfaces of eg postcards; collages from tech manuals; altering discarded books – reworked to create city landscapes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Texts from journals; books; references; quotations; Text for people to edit; to add to<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art and writing \u2026 writing as art \u2026 writing art Using extracts from journals\/ photo albums\/ home movies<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written confessionals; written pleas; banners\/placards; requests<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Role of documentation; detailed documentation of various kinds of transformation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instructions; recipes; algorithms<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diagrams and blueprints; Maps\/diagrams reorganised along new lines, to create different understandings; Mapping out a territory<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Invented fonts, languages, signage systems \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geometric prints paired with texts<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Makes, manipulates and recontextualised books, paintings, objects, posters<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Books slashed\/ burned\/ torn\/ incorporated whole\/ embedded<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lists of instructions for performing off-beat tasks<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bizarre, absurdist activities; civic Dada, resting on the nature of collaboration<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humour as a tool for asking questions; Approached with a knowing wit<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copies, replicas. Approximations; Take existing artworks and do alternative versions of them; Appropriation from disparate sources<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Different ways of painting: a projection of light; a rivulet of rope, twisting and turning like a huge brushstroke across the floor<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Focus on forms, lines, colours, textures, composition and tone; Dynamic rhythms, equilibrium, variations, emphasis, contrast<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warm = near, cold = distant. Gives depth; Vertical = stability; diagonals = emphasis; horizontal = calm<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Balance visual weights \u2013 tones and colours and contrasts; Point of symmetry\/ of equilibrium \u2013 needs also variation to give interest<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Empty frames; invisible paintings<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monochrome prints of objects on a painted background<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scribble things onto  Post-It notes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Put print\/ painting behind eg chicken wire, as a barrier<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drawn from several different angles at once<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drawing\/ painting half-dipped into solution (eg paint\/oil\/soil)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caricature drawings emerging out of photographs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Colour (art?) is not a certainty, but a circumstance\u2019 ; \u2018Colour evolves continuously in time and space\u2019 \u2013 (Carlos Cruz Diez)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspirations come from incidentals eg colours\/textures on street<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Explore the acts of looking, points of view, dreamy landscapes \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pictorial language all of her own<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Filled boxes become toolkits for artistic thinking<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Handmade folders containing small artworks, notes, photographs, documents etc<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organza\/Voile dissolves\/blurs the distinction between figure and ground<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enormous tapestries, representing things to scale; weaving references into absurd\/playful loops and voids<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Painting without paint; using a range of alternative materials<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wide range of materials seen as artistic: concrete, foam, papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9, latex\/resin, silicone etc<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graphite rubbings that map an entire surface in multiple monochromes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rendered in unconventional substrates \u2013 eg scraps of metal, laminated floor tiles \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latex used to bind, protect, encase \u2026.Expert in certain chemical processes; Plastic rubbish remodelled (eg via 3D printing)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interest in duration and entropy \u2013 things slowly burn away, rot away, decay<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using weathered materials; alluding to the passage of time; A dramatic sense of wear and tear<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanding the surface; using bleach to alter colours; scraping the surface away \u2013 then adding text, colour, shape \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Auto destructive art: spraying acid on it; works that consume themselves (cf preservation\/permanence)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using science as part of the work; Setting up a research station; Field studies; field guides; instruction manuals<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best conceptual art comes up with ideas that continue to develop richly in viewer\u2019s mind cf being just an idea, with no kind of resonance \u2013 doesn\u2019t need to be rarefied<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conceptually-driven work that engages techniques of copying, repetition, reenactment \u2013 often coalescing in materially sumptuous objects.
<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CURATING and EXHIBITIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transient events are still events<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can be spectacle and entertainment or ritualistic and ceremonial displays; but has to keep a place for things that refuse to fit neat templates – including the \u2018This is an exhibition\u2019 template. Problematise W. European\/US models of the \u2018exhibition\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aim of exhibition is to create something both visually stimulating and thought provoking<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digging out stories from previous works\/ previous exhibitions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each show made afresh each time because of different locally-found contents<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building a rigorous structure through which to explore the works; or knocked together; lashed together<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work is deliberately fragmented and non-linear, rejecting a sequencing of history or uncovering of a single truth<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost algorithmic in composition<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A range of modalities<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Combines artistic, discursive, curatorial practices \u2013 as distinct from thematic curated shows with works selected to illustrate topic\/theme<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A thread that runs throughout; A tone is established; Have a lens through which to view the exhibition<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are always decisions about what to exclude. Art is all about you \u2026 your brain; your world; the tensions between things \u2026. Allows people the chance of having an idea of something they may never realistically think about <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Better have something to say; better than having nothing to say<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thrown away the rulebook that governs museum-style displays<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to invade the museum. That\u2019s the whole treason I make my work<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not a sales pitch or a lecture \u2013 more a series of dialogues\/ extended conversations around specific topics<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dual role of artist and curator; Carries the career of the artist; Implications for own artistic practice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea of the curatorial; The curatorial field; The curatorial discourse<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seemingly modest exhibition bursting with a range of \u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Series of installations that intersect the gallery space in different ways to create bespoke environments for consideration of each idea<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Focus on deconstructing\/reforming the mechanisms through which art is administered\/shown; not displaying art as discrete images\/objects, but intervening in the real\/public world (reshaping the space). Making the display mechanisms visible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remodelling of gallery space \u2013 as swimming pool (Elm green & Dragset), as snack bar (J Deller)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Changing the layout; opening hours of gallery etc<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exhibition: leaving the walls empty; hanging everything elsewhere; Exhibit the gallery wall as a work of art; or the empty gallery; or locked gallery \u2013 directing visitors elsewhere<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exhibition piece made by drilling into, digging up, transforming the gallery floor, walls etc<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Constructing space as a cave or landscape \u2013 surfaces plastered with images or filled with monitors<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Light that emerges through cracks in surfaces<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Probing the cracks in \u2018reality\u2019; prompting viewers to question our own role in its construction\/existence<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A dense and forbidding labyrinth of rooms\/corridors, furnished with a range of locally-found objects; looking as if assembled by some long-gone resident<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A meandering complex, rife with intimations of \u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strange artefacts stacked up against other paraphernalia, without evoking any specific narrative, it has an atmosphere of a permeable border between reality and simulation, public and private, the ordinary and the occult\/eerie\/ uncanny<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stretched ropes, to break up interior spaces<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Installation of large-scale machinery; slides\/ rollercoasters; twists of wood\/ metal. Fabric that fill the space; Barriers erected that have to be negotiated<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A suite of new and recent works; first major solo exhibition; extends his ongoing investigations into \u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Large, rambly installations; Work that surrounds and subsumes the viewer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A degree of flexibility that allows the work to be reconfigured each time it is shown; reappearing in different versions of itself<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Works presented as components in a grouping of systems; a totality that is not about balance or a final idea \u2013 but something in which things are happening ,slowly; aesthetically<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A number of works that, taken together, seem to describe a scenario resulting from violent disorder, or the aftermath of a crime\/conflict\/disaster; a vision of a world where objects, images and ideas do not seem to fit together yet are forced into close proximity<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sequencing and layering of icons and stories; Trace connections between images, objects, ideas, people and moments in time<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each work\/part has an equal role to play \u2013 no hierarchies of motifs; Non-hierarchical gathering of things \u2026 the commonality of objects<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work here is stuff, and is treated as stuff \u2013 you pick your way through the assortment \u2013 all in the spirit of curiosity<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A territory where questions may be asked; ideas explored<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Titles for works\/ or explanatory texts? Or fictions? The work is complicated enough, without the misdirections of accompanying texts<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art is a discovery, not an invention, so artwork titles are observations more than anything<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work activated by the movement of the viewer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An art object occupies the space of an actual thing \u2013 viewer has to engage physically in relation to own body<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Space divided into rooms\/ carriages \u2026 A niche is transformed by putting work there; Filling an empty space gives it new meaning; Creates a strong sense of presence<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How an object occupies a gallery; how the environment surrounding an image can influence how it gets experienced<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using sculptural installations to activate a room; Making a viewer more aware of \u2018looking\u2019; Coaxing the viewer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Composite multiscreen installation that makes you feel as if you\u2019re inside the work<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dispersed through space; relation with neighbouring art works; Put stuff in front of people and let the art ask \u2018What If?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drama of viewer not being able to take it all in \u2013 has to keep turning ones head<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dominated by the juxtaposition and interrogation of binaries \u2013 cultural, sexual, ideological, religious \u2013 placing the viewer between two opposing views (and maybe not being able to view both simultaneously)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visitor plays role of detective to solve mystery<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Questions about space \u2013 How it gets used\/ who uses it \u2013 Viewer gets pushed\/led\/placed in position; layout raises new ways of experiencing\/ interpreting\/ expressing space in art<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audience invited to take things away<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Viewer there to be entertained? to be educated? to witness? Why Have You Come??<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each artwork viewed as an embodied experience; Viewer becomes aware of own body moving through spaces, moving towards a work to see it, colours\/ textures\/ objects surrounding each work give it a context<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Questions of Figure and Ground: Viewers become the figures and artworks become the ground (against which viewers become aware of themselves)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work that unfolds; invite viewers to engage with different forms of communication and understanding<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Works mounted in random groupings; or in linked groupings<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thoughts grow over time; require time and interaction from the viewer to reveal and unfold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investigates language and perception of materiality \u2013 not how the object is presented but how sharing a space with the object varies \u2013 testing viewers\u2019 responses;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transporting the audience into fictional settings<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Homing in on things, sidestepping something else; Things slide out of mind as you move on \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immersive installations that resonate with personal histories \u2013 embrace the viewer as an integral part of the experience<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sensibilities regarding framing, viewing, picturing through apertures\/openings\/structures; Putting chairs in front of something \u2013 inviting people to sit, to stop\/slow down, to refocus<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musical element; audible in gallery at different times \u2013 further enriching the experience of moving through\/engaging with the work<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People surveying visitors about what they think something (eg Progress) means; Some gallery visitors are in fact actors<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decision corridors; Words on walls; Art so densely packed that each piece doesn\u2019t have space to speak on its own terms<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time to learn together; seminars; Set up a temporary organisation \u2013 an Institute For \u2026.. Certificates of ownership; of attendance (with competences etc) \u2013 as INSET<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IDENTITIES and PORTRAITURES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vehicles for the rhetoric of Identity: journal, memoir, poetry, travelogue, report, essay, film, statues, portraits \u2026..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Study in frailty and transience (of human flesh\/life); Capturing sensation, feeling, understanding human condition: Capturing images of a lived experience \u2013 with some strong sense of reality<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reimagining the human body\/ the human condition<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excavating identities: Identity investigated from intersectional perspectives, taking account of multiple identities that coexist<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deals with the personal (memory, adversity etc) and with themes of social agency\/control\/identity etc; How memories, images and objects situate and define us<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Memorials to people, to places, to events<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How identity is articulated in private places and public spaces; Sparking a dialogue between public and private<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proprioception: 6th<\/sup> sense, that enables us to understand our body in relation to things around us<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Identities that form a core \u2013 or that can be picked up, tried on, put down<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fluidity of identity<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adopting alter ego personas as a way of exploring identity; escaping into another world; use of disguises, playacting, role taking, self-parody<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multitude of identities can be constructed by building\/taking away\/ rearranging<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Impermanence of the changing self \u2013 Where do I come from? Where am I going? \u2013 Capturing how things\/ places\/ people change: Yesterday\u2019s \u2018I\u2019 is different from today\u2019s \u2018I\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Autographic\/ Allographic<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personal memories as triggers; capturing and preserving key details about an individual<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Confronting personal and cultural stories<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Permeable\/subjective divisions between people; between past and present; between home and abroad<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examining personal and collective experiences and beliefs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Built on foundation of shared histories, stories and cultural narratives<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Identity shapes the Why and the How, but not the What (of what I make as an artist). History and Identity are not the subject matter \u2013 the work concerns itself with formal explorations, feelings, materials etc<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presenting poignant life lessons informed by artist\u2019s\/subject\u2019s lived experiences<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lived experiences; through disparate references; Each represents different autobiographical narratives and areas of research (such as history of female hysteria; Identity and whiteness; one particular version of masculinity\u2026.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Explores cultural identities and belongings, through multi-layered narratives that use found images, texts and documents alongside own photographs; Scavenging other people\u2019s work, newspapers, etc<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Snatches of autobiography; memories from own life<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slowly reveal elusive, barely legible images that merge \u2026. Based on photographs of self (as form of self-portrait)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portraits overlaid with symbols; Portraits rendered in \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imaginary portraits \u2013 evoking precarious states; filtering the past through a contemporary sensibility: abstract figuration<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portraits on a monumental scale, that tell stories of a monumental nature, whilst maintaining tenderness and intimacy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evokes the vulnerability of the human body and the precariousness of power structures<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stuart Hall: Identity of Being (Communality), Identity of Becoming (process of identity formation) \u2013 more than one identity<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NARRATIVES and MEANINGS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artist is no less a creator of narratives than a writer can be<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have nothing to say to others. We just fool\/convince ourselves that we do<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Small everyday objects, put next to each other, create a narrative \u2013 the interconnectedness of things; As if he\u2019d just tipped the contents of his mind into the gallery and tried to make some sense of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can be read as a series of short stories, between which there is a certain continuity \u2026 recurrent themes and narratives \u2026 episodes and questions \u2026 echoes and fragments<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Able to create a new narrative from narratives that already exist; invented complex stories\/ narratives; Narrative fragments sourced from anecdotes, found texts, newspapers \u2013 provide a starting point<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fractured narratives through construction of place, character, action \u2026 in site-responsive ways<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Texts which offer content and create space for multiple readings of the work; Texts can offer different possibilities. The environment can subvert the text or activate it<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reuse\/reappropriation of texts\/materials, disconnected from productive purposes, \u2026 able to generate new\/speculative narratives for the materials\u2026 contingent nature of information; how it is subject to chance and processes of decay\/destruction<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ongoing narrative, as if all these images will one day turn out to be part of the same story \u2013 a story of growing up, rites, families etc \u2013 stills in a baggy novel; Subjects, plots and subplots; Metanarrative devices; with some truth to tell?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rhetoric played out in different registers; Free play, chance, invention (make up your own story \u2026); Narratives that come together<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philosophical \u2013 encouraging us to challenge the distinctions normally made between reality and imagination; in context of collective cultures, sustained, embedded in present<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attempts to use words to disrupt literal\/romanticised interpretations of what is being photographed\/ portrayed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Viewers\/readers create their own meanings;  Shared subjects, repetitions (of words, objects, ideas, experiences) echoing throughout \u2013 Where they lead is up to each participant; Each work may pose similar questions but, as move on from one to the next, don\u2019t always get the same answer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A terrain of research; retranslating and reinterpreting<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things\/rooms set out \u2013 visitor decides on the narrative story \u2013 from evidence pieced together from clues, boxes of possessions etc<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Series of objects\/images that are like stories or journeys that don\u2019t get anywhere. They construct an open-ended narrative space \u2026. Start forward, but then get diverted \u2026\u2026 a slippery sort of state where transitory connections are made through a mix of accident and dubious intent<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanings are made in other people\u2019s minds \u2013 Can\u2019t control that (or be responsible for it); Concerned less with clear narratives than with seeping atmospheres<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spaces to try things out; asks people to reflect on the process of decision-making<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AMBIGUITIES and REALITIES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contemporary art (like contemporary life) is a jumble of messages, hidden agendas, redactions etc \u2013 inbuilt ambiguities \u2026 a slightly chaotic nature; can seem otherworldly, yet familiar<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Out of favour: Truth, objectivity, disinterestedness. To know a situation, one has to be in a position to know \u2026 only by standing at a certain angle to reality can it be illuminated to you<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art\u2019s troubled relationship to truth and truthfulness \u2013 capacity to lie creatively \u2013 to say what is not there \u2013 to imagine possibilities rather than describe what\u2019s there; making oblique references to real life<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caught in a cacophony of irreconcilable truths in an unacknowledged fear that truth can never be anything more than a creative fiction<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So much is uncertain; Inhabit a thin space between real and imagined<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ongoing concern with ambiguities and ambivalences<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No fixed reality or literalness; Shuttles between complexity and simplicity; Deftly addressing the ambiguous boundaries; Ambiguity is the essence of what one does<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fiction and reality appear superimposed; Smudged line between reality and artifice; Hard to know what is real and what is staged, producing a sense of disjuncture; some drift to modelling of chaotic situations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018A language of authenticity\u2019 \u2013 images appear unmediated\/spontaneous, even when carefully set up; Notion of Authenticity doesn\u2019t have much critical currency at the moment \u2013 but holds some sense of something<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dichotomies; cause\/effect; correlations; realities\/fictions; presence\/absence<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ambivalent boundaries that influence our existence \u2013 forgotten boundaries<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evoking various states of uncertainty; leaving only traces<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Complexities of representations and abstractions \u2013 but things are deceptively simple<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Differences in scale producing ambiguities<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The benefit of doubt<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foregrounds some inevitable divergences between \u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marshalls a range of disparate references \u2026 harnessing references that straddle multiples times and places<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How we understand things depends on where we draw the lines<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fascinated by the idea of dualities; Background and foreground deliberately confused<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boundaries are indeterminate and fluctuating; Blur boundaries; upend expected functionalities – putting found objects in new contexts<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things have two\/multiple names \u2026 are never what they seem; Same words, phrases, sentences occur here and there with different emphasis; Things getting somewhat lost in translation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interest in how an image\/object can be transformed to change its meaning, through shifts in scale or materiality<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photos that purport to represent something\/record something; Hard to know what one is looking at \u2013 enigmatic; things not quite what they seem; odd perspectives; one has to shift back and forth to see what fits together (and what doesn\u2019t), where and how; things are uneasy; almost narrative in that they imply some back story<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Illusions and realities; distortions of seeing through mirrors, liquid surfaces, screens etc; Intuitive, enigmatic images that have a potential to change our perception of reality, but defy reduction into a few lines of analysis<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Struggle to see round things and it becomes a structure not a sculpture<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things that sit at the periphery: small objects of life that we sometimes overlook existence of; that may not always be what they seem<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spectral apparitions seem untethered by gravity and trapped in some interstitial zone of being<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alternative versions of the everyday<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A refracted remaking of \u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, A Time Machine; A fluid tour; changes as moves across venues or times; A curious space between perception and interpretation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broader, more contextualised view\u2026 Proposes a type of dialogue within a tightly directed framework \u2026 to explore the boundaries between the authentic and the mediated, the lived and the archived<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Entanglements with history; ideas of authenticity, forgery, replicas; imaginary lives<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Convictions that are ours to fabricate<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artworks that have some uncertainty about what the subject is; reversals of figure and ground<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Appears to be an object in one material, but is actually a casting in some different (unexpected) material<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No attempt to make visitors believe what they are seeing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not about understanding, but about being open to experience<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is going on remains obscure, plots remain unresolved<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You find yourself wondering if the nondescript , portrayed, hold bigger secrets: Are they crime spots, murder scenes, places of particular importance to the artist?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CITIES and PLACES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Urban space as a key subject for enquiry \u2013 taking various positions (critical, observational, participatory, performative \u2026.) \u2013 to get series of open-ended propositions about the contemporary urban environment, the way it is experienced, and how it affects us<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exploring the environments we are making for ourselves; environments seemingly built up and then abandoned by obsessed and tormented individuals<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interrogation of visual language of urban identity; Metropolis: Reflections on the modern city; Processes of urbanisation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Explores different types of \u2018space\u2019 \u2013 investigations focusing on photographic depictions of places that have been forgotten\/overlooked \u2013 images often imbued with a psychological charge, hinting at traces of human presence\/activity in evocative settings<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work comes out of curiosity \u2026 interest in historical\/emotional significance of sites and objects; Impressions of an urban landscape<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notes for\/from an Unknown City; Imagined Places \u2013 with their own logic, their own myths etc<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In search of the essence of the city \u2013 an essence that often lies in the overlooked and the everyday, the makeshift and the mundane; On the hinterland between the real and the imagined<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A frontline, a place of disruption and confrontation; Things at the edges; secretive, intense, claustrophobic; Overlooked, peripheral city spaces; Not occupied, vacant, free, empty, available; The uncomfortable middle ground; the in-between<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erasing the landscape; degrading the urban surfaces<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People at odds with their surroundings<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notions of interior space; places that seem empty but on close inspection reveal details\/traces\/associations \u2013 disturbances, detritus, makeshift partitions, frayed edges<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dark corners\/alleyways; uncertain\/overlapping images of places; dim corridors; relections that disorientate<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any empty space can be thought of as a negative space<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Urban photography in ominous shades of black and white<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not real places \u2013 constructed from various photographic sources \u2013 more like \u2018portraits of landscapes\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collages of images using the whole space. Not labelled separately but with annotated maps\/leaflets<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exploring psychic connections to landscape \u2026 generic things with ability to evoke personal\/collective memories \u2026 in detail \u2026 at once familiar and unnerving<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Derive, drift, psychogeographies \u2013 enriched by feelings invoked in individual by surroundings \u2013 specific effects of environment on emotions\/behaviours of individual<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walking; place; locality; time; distance; measurement; marking; mobility; freedom<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Place, placement, displacement, transpositions of place\/space. Walking\/thinking as art practice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Linking experience of place through gestures, mapping, mark-making; consideration of locality, place, space \u2013 and asserting a continuity between these forms and our experience of everyday life<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baudelaire\u2019s flaneur (observant wanderer) = passive engagement with city\u2019s textures; cf parcour \u2013 alternative ways through city; reclaiming space for human agency; Places we think we know; Uneventful, meandering days<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City encodes both past and future \u2013 a palimpsest; a stage; a politically demarcated zone; a generator of obscure visual codes and languages<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A map and a space to be navigated; Territorial gestures that form boundaries between public and private<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Archivist of Urban Waste \u2013 recording humble\/everyday \u2013 images in grids \u2013 loose thematic groupings impulse to document changing environments<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finds threads between people\/ places\/ things \u2013 and weaves narratives to create complex installations\/assemblages<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rooted in the textures and typographies of a homeland<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A product of the landscape he grew up in<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city as a form of readymade<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interested in responding to architecture etc of city, to make us more aware of it<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Urban landscape can be scrutinised as a context for exploitation of people under capitalism  – there are people hardly ever shown, whose existence is testified by the landscape itself<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Explored in a critical dialogue with the city\u2019s cultural history<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A living document constructed from the very stuff of urban life<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A manmade landscape is a cultural inscription that can be read, to better understand who we are and what we are doing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intersections of rural or urban landscape and psychological space<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mapping; using plans of institutional\/public sites as readymade framework on which to hang personal narratives<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ways that built environments reflect the individual and collective identities of their (current\/former) makers and inhabitants<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concerned with the complexities and frustrations of life in a modern city; Embody an experience of organised chaos, centred on the postmodern city<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Depicts places that are largely imaginary, but which feature real-world architecture, topography and history<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MEMORIES and HISTORIES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Themes of loss, memory, mass experience socially constructed identities \u2013 in an image saturated age\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concerns itself with overlooked histories \u2013 mining archives and forgotten documents \u2013 each piece of evidence translated into a discrete form<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Entanglements of past, present and imagined futures<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traversing memories; slippery relationship between memory and truth<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Structured within a loose chronology<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Representations of Time<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going back home \u2013 to resolve\/understand childhood \u2013 realising attachments to pasts and places; Revisited \u2026 experiencing something (again) as own projected memories<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excavations of memory (of a place) \u2026 for the person he used to be .. what has been forgotten, lost, swept away \u2026 as well as remembered \u2026 changes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A trace (looking back); Bring traces of complex and personal pasts into public visibility<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Centring a memory, perception, time\/space<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traces of past events ; critique of urban life; sinister bleakness , or warm optimism of regeneration plans<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Familiar displaced by time \u2026 going away\/coming back \u2026 remembering\/forgetting \u2026 passage of time<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Empty spaces \u2013 reawakening memories \u2013 layers of time\/history pulled back and self being reinserted<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contexts and histories embedded in the site\/location<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evocative embodiments of memory, community and place<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The universality of change and the primacy of experimentation; dynamism that signifies constant change: developmental, regressive, cyclical and entropic<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open to the present; manner in which it responds to today\u2019s world; built as a network around different discourses<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things collected and collated; Plundering the past; Work back from things to work out the rules<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So much current noise, focus on Now \u2013 things from the past can be lost\/ invisible\/ overlooked<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By looking at the past and the future, attempts to illuminate ways in which our local and global words are fundamentally linked<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alternative\/ imagined\/ re-imagined pasts \u2013 possible\/ imagined futures; Partial recollections of imagined histories\/ historical images<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concerned with hidden histories; Folklores and stories from the past; Collective and individual histories; Troubled histories; Industrial histories<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intersections of documentation, representation, cultural memory<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grounded in historical research \u2026 around the narration of history\u2026.. and how this impacts on the present day<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Replication can be reproduction rather than transformation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incomplete erasure of memories over time<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plundering the past; collected\/ collaged \u2026 as theme of an idea – History Is Now<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Celebrating; referencing; evoking the past but avoiding nostalgia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Locating the works firmly in the present<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And What It Became Is Not What It Is Now; Suggests an unpredictable future of being left behind as rapid advancements in technology loom large; Uncertainty about future is a current unifying feature<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anthropology \u2013 investigation of language; archaeology \u2013 finding new meanings in familiar things (sifting through things eg memories)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A strange archaeology \u2013 with recurring motifs \u2013 seems to make no sense then a rhythm starts to emerge<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aesthetics of disappearance: Minutes later; hours later; years later; 15\/30\/50\/75 years later<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Archive as conceptual framework \u2026 carry traces of process of creation – Includes an archive of its own production<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking a cyclical view of time\/history cf a linear progressive one \u2013 recurring themes \u2026 understanding relations to world \u2026 passage of time through a life (and passage of a life through time?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using materials associated with historical\/urban poverty; using talismanic objects that have communicative\/ritualistic potential<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Objects that carry the (unstated\/written) wishes\/ desires\/ secrets of members of the public \u2013 visitors can adopt these in exchange for their own<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using materials that come with specific histories (clay from a certain site; blood from particular people; metal from particular bullets)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONFORMITIES and CHALLENGES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studies in indeterminancy and assumptions \u2013 meaning being constructed through context<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Containing the traditional, the expected \u2013 but also the unexpected; Proposing that we remain open to new discoveries<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expect The Unexpected; Attempt to destabilise and liberate audience from the dictatorship of the predictable<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Captivating drama from everyday struggle with rules and ideas<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An everyday struggle with rules and ideas; particular fit between ideas, theories, rules, codes \u2013 and the people who have to live with them, to conform, to follow the lessons, to abide by principles \u2013 trying (absurdly) to break free<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Running counter to \u2026..; Things turned inside out<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resisting an identifiable style; range of media \u2013 some constants occupy the thinking that underpins diverse activities \u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gently mischievous undertows
<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FRAGMENTS, LAYERS, and MULTIPLICITIES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gathered elements; fragmented and luminous; Mirroring a fragmented nature of contemporary society<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diversity; heterogeneity; multiplicity – the transient, the fleeting, the contingent<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Complex; threatening; energised; confusing; vital; – but also fragile, transient, terminal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a fragmented world, things don\u2019t happen all at once \u2013 the various formations\/ locations etc of the artworks are different facades of this kaleidoscope; Balance of chaos and precision<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work represents, or comes as highly fragmented narratives<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fragments can be reconstructed to make different objects each time<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meaningful units of ephemera from life and work; reworked\/reformulated as assemblages; Presence of anything should be to add something<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interrogates the meaning of objects by collating\/assembling them \u2013 finding narratives in their shared existences\/histories; Collage: allows for abrupt jumps of scale; shatters juxtapositioning<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A giant tangle of influences; Entangled processes; entangled complex relations. Entanglement of race, gender, sexuality and power; Odd entanglements of the real and the imagined<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An investigation (of sorts) in a world where so much is competing for attention<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unexpected juxtapositions; jarring combinations; Awkwardly conjoined; Sampling. Looping; Configured and reconfigured<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the working parts\/ mechanisms made visible\/ exposed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Putting trial fragments together, just to see what might work \/might happen; Using\/creating pieces of evidence; Seeking to construct from first principles<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything planned; Work governed by some precise ordering \u2013 spatial or temporal; \u2013 but then chance allowed to intervene; working with contradicting impulses<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investigates cycles, potential of change\/ decay\/ regeneration .. presenting traces of processes; subject\/ground interplays across layers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Constellations of things \u2013 written into a script; built as an assemblage<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Individual components take on a narrative spin and suggest a progressive, rational, approach to problem solving (or not)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offer a wealth of resonant relationships; Things resonate with associative linkages; Allows all sorts of associations to be made; Allows\/encourages tensions to emerge\/ to play out. Similarities emerge: Unexpected frissons, correspondences, associations \u2013 from composite view of the whole\/all fragments: themes\/links = connecting threads that become apparent but in changing ways<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interrelated series of opposites: dynamic\/static, authored\/auto-generated, monumental\/ephemeral<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uncovering connections between the dominant and the repressed; the venerated and the dismissed; the high and the low \u2013 across a diverse array of social, cultural and aesthetic realms<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Complex imagery \u2013 archival photographs, film stills, textiles, books, magazines, ephemera \u2026 densely layered monochrome collages<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Images juxtaposed (in scale\/format) reflecting view of life\u2019s complexities<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Images\/text suggesting that reality is an ever-changing concept \u2013 constantly revised and corrected<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Synchronicity \u2013 relationship of two unrelated events<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Windows and doors; wall protrusions and indentations; things unfolding and closing back up<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using the grid as an organisational structure; A dense matrix that appears both constructed and organised; Deceptively simple grids, squares, spots and stripes; Grids laid out vertically or across floor; or bent round corners\/objects<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interested in the taxonomy of things, the conventions of classifying and displaying works of art; Archives and taxonomies \u2013 with strange, miscellaneous objects \u2013 an unfulfilled narrative<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under-recognised objects and sources arranged as constellations\u2026.creating a space for ideas to exist between different fields of enquiry;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rhythms, repetitions, layerings, juxtapositions, inversions, elaborations, stresses and pauses (as spoken word; as monologue; as music); Cycles and spirals \u2013 beyond linear communications<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each thing a bit out of kilter \u2013 things lean, abut at an angle, hang askew .. compellingly alien<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Platform; complex space; manifestations; concepts; metaphorical; imagined; engaging; provocative; inspiring; acclaimed; intersectionality; referencing; commenting on; commitment to; making sense of; changing how we look at; appeal; different audiences; different spaces; the power of art; obligation as an artist; aesthetic; recreating; reimaginings; gesture; ways of reading; practice; reappropriating; imbued with a certain poetics; metaphor; lexicon of belongings; assemblage\/bricolage; representations; interplay; connotation; themes; resonate; transcending individual experiences; circularity; decoding; sublime; reflections; distillation; triangulation; distancing; referential; nature of the productive process<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resembling finds from an archaeological dig or a beachcombing expedition \u2026. Made from natural materials (shredded bark etc) or manufactured materials (shredded tyres from roadside etc) \u2026 assembled on wall or across floor \u2026 individual parts engage with, and activate, empty space around them \u2013 sometimes repeating, copying, mirroring each other \u2026. Plays with elements of scenery (focal point, foreground, background\u2026.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things entombed; Things lurk, barely seen, merely intimated \u2026. Things behind things \u2013 horizontal and vertical layerings<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employing techniques of layering and translucency; Addition, erasure, reversal \u2026A fascination with reduction, erasure, absence \u2013 conjoined with an interest in the passage of time \u2013 giving it emotional heft; the fleeting nature of human experience<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Layered and malleable structures; Multilayered projects; Layers of constructed meanings; A stratified approach to making; no hierarchies \u2013 all elements are as important as each other; generating a space of uncertainties; all a bit of a fantasy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(As reflected in relevant articles, books, texts and exhibitions) This exploration into the language of contemporary art has a number of origins and was done for several reasons. Its origins stemmed from my decision, several years ago, to delve into contemporary art: in terms of trying to understand it better; in terms of trying to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordsthething.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordsthething.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordsthething.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordsthething.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordsthething.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=981"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thewordsthething.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":991,"href":"https:\/\/thewordsthething.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981\/revisions\/991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordsthething.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordsthething.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordsthething.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}