‘Pure psychic automatism ... the dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason and outside all moral or aesthetic concerns’. Andre Breton, Manifesto of Surrealism, 1924
The aim and concept of the project is, to examine symbiotic relationships, connections and automatism within my work and to create a series or a collection of sculptures and installations pieces, both functional and non-functional. I want to analyse my own connections, create collections of objects and develop these works. I propose to create a series of clay sculptures using the coiling/hand-building technique, allowing me to work in an automatic manner. When I am building with clay; an extremely tactile medium, I work in a very automatic manner allowing the forms to create themselves. I plan on creating a series of sculptures using lost wax cast glass, plaster or jesmonite and creating a series of prints (mono prints, photographs and photograms) and mixed media pieces. I want to use glass as it is a material that many consider fragile but in cast form, it is very strong, I believe it will project my ideas well particularly with the absence of colour; allowing no distraction from the form itself. Lost wax casting tends to be a very controlled process particularly due to the nature of glass itself; but will allow me to create multiples of the same form, meaning my initial piece can be created using the unconscious process. I want to experiment with form, creating larger forms, multiples and continue with my exploration of ceramic glaze techniques. I have taken inspiration from collections of objects, my own need to collect, as well as organic forms, patterns in nature and the human form. I would like to explore aesthetics such as seedpods, rocks and pebbles, sea creatures, cocoons, nests, fungi and lichen and how they relate to the project theme.
I have been inspired by my past artist in residence in which I created a series of automatic drawings from music and natural sounds found on my journey. I used these abstract patterns to create mono prints on clay, as well as allowing the patterns to dictate the shape of the vessels. I found when allow in the evenings I almost enter a meditative state when working with the clay and the vessels created became the production of this unconscious state. The shape of the vessels although womb like became a talking point from the staff at the placement questioning whether the vessels' shapes were a reflection of my relationship with my mother. This was not something that I considered however I do believe that the shape is drawn from my explorations and the creation of the unconscious drawings I have created but the link cannot be ruled out and this is something that I had not considered exploring. I did however briefly begin to explore this through mind mapping of what the pots could represent; the female-like quality, a protective place, a place of growth, loss or nurture. I created the pots because of the therapeutic nature of clay and as part of the ‘Journeys’ project, I also knew that given my past projects and explorations I wanted to create a vessel of sorts, whether this was functional or not. I have been recently looking at the work of American Ceramic Artist Maxwell Mustardo who in a recent interview stated that he starts at a point with all of his creations and that is with a function, even though his work is abstract and sculptural at the core of it begins life as the format of a mug, a vase or the notions of a vessel. I felt that the vessels in the traditional sense needed to be containers of items from the day trips I had embarked on for this project; I briefly explored the body as a vessel and regarded the creations as containers and a place to store sentimental items. The vessels become parts of the mapping with varying sizes representing the time spent or frequency of a place visited and they began to become part of the mapping process, the walks; a place to hide the coordinates to a favourite tree or a token from the visit.
I also choose to use clay because of its ease of use and varying firing techniques without a kiln, which is very different from using glass which requires much more regimented kiln temperatures. I began to explore African firing techniques for clay and the relationship between the vessels I was making and those created in African villages used to store crops and water. Their vessels held great importance to them, making the whole process of collecting and processing the clay, making the vessels, firing and storage. In all of these processes, no materials are wasted and any vessels that break just become part of the process again, being used to protect the newly made pots in the open pit firing. As the final vessels provide a safe and clean environment for food to be stored in and this reminded me of what other items are stored in vessels and what significance they have. For example the Hongwe and Kota people reliquary guardian figures. These figures usually made from wood and cooper would sit inside specially created bark boxes or woven baskets to preserve relics of important ancestral leaders; usually accompanied by their skulls or other bones. The shared belief is that extraordinary powers survived the death of the body, meaning that figures could protect villages from evil and bring good fortune.
In my previous residency, my inspiration was initially taken from natural objects and then the collection of natural objects such as seedpods, rocks and pebbles, sea creatures, cocoons, eggs, nests, fungi and lichen. I particularly liked how mushrooms form in groups; either clumped on branches or spread out on the ground in a symbiotic relationship with their environment, this is also seen in other natural forms including humans and this is something that I began to explore within the clay. I began to create pieces using one large lump of clay, that each piece was created from; using this as one meant could not stand or survived without the other piece, and creating this balance and symbiosis.
I was and continue to be inspired by Mark Dion’s artworks and his fascination with how we understand, categorise and collect from the natural world around us and Lenka Clayton’s documentation of objects that were found in her young son's mouth. In past artworks I have created collections of objects such as the ‘brown body’ glass installation where there was a collection of nine life-sized glass bodies, nine being significant to myself and the body was created using my own and based around a series of poems I wrote. ‘Safety hands’ glass installation consisted of 30 plus glass hands inside boxes, again another collection of similar objects that held significance and based on the human form. During the second year of my degree, I created a piece of work which was a collection of objects and memories from my childhood, which included thoughts I had as a child, this work was presented in small jars and was likened to specimen jars.
Comments