The Source

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On 16th March Heather Gilderdale Scott gave a lecture at St Albans Cathedral about the stained glass that was excavated 25 years ago from the site of the old Chapter House. Researchers have been examining fragments of glass to try to establish what the windows in the Chapter House may have looked like. Due to the age of the fragments (the windows were thought to be torn down during the dissolution of the monasteries) limited evidence is available to assist the enquiry. Researchers have concluded that the images on the windows were most likely to have depicted either the story of Revelation (a popular theme of the time, with relevant imagery included in the fragments such as claws, hair, foliage) or the story of Saint Alban (a popular theme, relevant to the site). An eye on a 'clean shaven cheek' with a mark resembling a tear may have related to a common illustration of Saint Alban. Heather was extremely knowledgable and showed great respect to the artefacts. However it struck me that her work was rather precarious, as it is really anyone's guess as to how the windows would have looked, and even how the building looked as there are no records that record its image. There's something unique about the mystery of not knowing the answer. Current history is recorded with nauseating detail- all facts, relevant, irrelevant, true and untrue are recorded and reproduced through multiple media and countless images. The fragments of the Chapter house windows can reconfigure in the imagination alone, perhaps the safest place for them to be.

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Museums of St Albans and University of Hertfordshire Galleries Artist Residency

Since January 2016 I’ve been working with Museums of St Albans and UH Galleries to develop new work in response to the Museum of St Albans collection in archive.  I’ve been focusing my research on stained glass fragments (see previous posts). 

The project is developing this year with a series of activities: 

On 20th May 2017 I’ll be running an event at Verulamium Museum entitled ‘Broken Objects’. For this event I will invite members of the public to bring their broken objects to the museum for a sort of Antiques Roadshow of broken things. Participants will have the opportunity to take their objects through the accessioning process and photograph them to contribute to a temporary archive. Broken objects from the Museum of St Albans will be on display and conservator Alison Foster will be giving advice on taking care of broken things. I’ll be using gathered images and stories of the day to contribute to the development of my work for the commission.

In June 2017 I’ll run a series of ‘closed group’ workshops with a community group in St Albans.  During the workshops I’ll work with photographer Inna Allen to create a series of photographs during a stained glass related activity with the group.

In late September 2017 I will have an exhibition at the Clock Tower in St Albans, dip laying the series of photographs and a new series of sculptures.

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Sunridge Avenue Projects 

Sunridge Avenue Projects is a fantastic new Arts Council funded project happening in Luton. Dominic Allen has brought together a group of local and international Artists including Martin Creed, Jasleen Kaur, Mark Titchener and Bedwyr Williams. 

In May I went to visit ‘At My Mum’s House’, and was shown around the exhibition by Dominic’s mother, who was fizzing about the show. I was struck by how blurred the boundaries between art and life, private and public were. The show had a humility to it which was refreshing, yet it remained a respectable collection of art curated in a real-life domestic setting. 

The blurb on the website reads:

A newly commissioned Martin Creed sculpture will sit in the front garden of no. 32. It is un–steal–able. It is the name for this project because the gallery space in the town is used as a crèche and for business meetings. And they charge artists to use it. There's no art programme either. Sunridge Avenue is the name for this project because it shows that anyone can sit at their Mum's dining table and write an arts council application, ask loads of great people to join in and achieve both. It's the name for this project because we don't need a formal gallery space.

The philosophy behind the project echoes some of the frustrations I experience working as an artist in Luton. When I moved out of London in 2010 I wondered how I would survive as an artist in the suburbs. It isn’t easy, but projects like this invite great big glimmers of hope to the town. They show that another way of working and surviving is possible, that culture is needed more on Sunridge Avenue than it is on Cork Street and we have to work hard to make it happen. 

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SHIMMER

Dust, 2016

Fragments, 2016

Turning Words, 2016

Boxed dust, Untitled, Super Silenced, 2016

Framework, Untitled, Disrupted Narrative, 2016

Untitled, 2016

Disrupted Narrative, 2016

I always surprise myself with the works that I make under the pressure of a deadline. Helena and I have been working towards our exhibition Shimmer for several weeks, however my realisation of works for the exhibition came relatively late in the process. I have enjoyed working with Helena and looking for common ground between our practices on which to curate the show. Helena works mostly with figurative painting, she has a strong Art Historical understanding and a rich interest in contemporary philosophy. We are both interested in materiality and the process through which an art object emerges. Object Oriented Ontology formed the basis of much of our discussions when working towards the exhibition and it was a privilege to be able to discuss concepts and share research resources with one another.

Some of my work was developed through the installation process. For example, Dust and Fragments are each made up of three layers: a paper cut-out on top, a cellophane sheet in the middle, and photographs attached to the wall underneath. The depth of the imagery was achieved through the installation. I was pleased that this work commanded several ‘closer looks’ by people at the private view. 

Disrupted Narrative consisted of a photograph that I had taken of the St Albans Abbey glass fragment on a lightbox, printed on acetate and displayed on a lightbox fixed to the wall. It was a simple re-presentation of the object itself, with its status raised through presentation and exposure to a new audience.

During a formal discussion about the exhibition, I shared my attraction to transitory objects. I was encouraged to use melting ice as a metaphor/lens through which to approach my work going forwards. It is interesting how one’s understanding of an object changes the way it is seen/contributes to the melting of the ice.

When I told the story of the St Albans Abbey stained glass fragment a peer reflected that museum objects are at the mercy of the accessioning process. This is quite true. If an object is incorrectly accessioned its history is incorrectly recorded.  In current society we have a vast wealth of knowledge. With access to the internet a great deal of that knowledge is at our fingertips. Some of the objects that I have looked at in the museum store have a power in the not-knowing or disruption of their stories and history.

I will continue to research the stained glass fragment in order to plumb the depths of what it may be able to offer and open up new conceptual readings/interpretations. I also need to think about how to continue making work throughout the research process, and how the ‘finished’ works can hold up in a Fine Art context. For Shimmer, I presented the work in a way which related to archiving. I think the next presentation of the work ought to move away from this. Continuing to make unrelated work and maintain a broad area of research will also help to shape and affect the museum project. 

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SHIMMER

Installation views:

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“Objects shimmer without mechanical input.” 1

Object Oriented Ontology is a philosophy, which states that the essential reality of objects lies in an indeterminate state between their material components (the tiny atoms and quarks of science) and their effects on humans (the constructions of perception, behaviour and society).

Object Oriented Ontology invites a continuing dialogue about; relationships between representation and reality; a non-anthropocentric world view; changes of state, status and location; materiality; boundaries between objects; the poetic and mysterious as alternative realities.

SHIMMER brings together the work of Helena McGrath and Abi Spendlove in the dynamic setting of the Framework Gallery. Taking some of the ideas associated with Object Oriented Ontology as a starting point, this exhibition will display recent work in painting, drawing and photography.  

Helena McGrath

Painting mimics the indeterminate reality of objects by simultaneously representing things and presenting itself as material.  I am interested in using this equivocation to make (art)objects that ‘shimmer without mechanical input.’

Abi Spendlove

Whilst researching for a commission at the Museum of St Albans, I have used ideas from Object Oriented Ontology as a lens through which to view their collection of objects. The status and democracy of objects are brought to the fore through notions of collection, accession and display.

 1 This is Tomorrow (2015) Paul Johnson in conversation with Timothy Morton, Focal Point Gallery 21 March 2015. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdRKYznAMwI (Accessed 10th December 2015).

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Ontological Objects

I’ve been dipping in and out of Object Oriented Ontology for the last few months and have found it an interesting position from which to view objects from the Museum of St Albans collection.

Ian Bogost defines Object Oriented Ontology as follows:

Ontology is the philosophical study of existence. Object-oriented ontology (“OOO” for short) puts things at the center of this study. Its proponents contend that nothing has special status, but that everything exists equally–plumbers, cotton, bonobos, DVD players, and sandstone, for example. In contemporary thought, things are usually taken either as the aggregation of ever smaller bits (scientific naturalism) or as constructions of human behavior and society (social relativism). OOO steers a path between the two, drawing attention to things at all scales (from atoms to alpacas, bits to blinis), and pondering their nature and relations with one another as much with ourselves.

There are a number of philosophers and theorists who have written about the subject. I’ve read pieces/watched lectures by Graham Harman, Timothy Morton, Quentin Meillassoux, Slavoj Zizek and others. I tend to read and digest theory like poetry, taking what resonates with me rather than attempting to interpret the whole subject. I am particularly drawn to the way that OOO moves away from an anthropocentric (people centred) view of the world and places the emphasis on the object. I also observe that a democracy of objects (levelling the status of objects) allows them to be viewed in a more significant/in-depth way by ascribing equal value. Art- with its focus on the visual- already has a way of embracing this approach to objects, which is perhaps why OOO has captured the imagination of several curators and art theorists over recent years. It is also a move away from relational aesthetics, popularised by Nicolas Bourriaud in the late 90s, as it celebrates the autonomy of objects, moving the emphasis away from the context and human experience of the artwork. This is perhaps where my skepticism of OOO begins. I enjoy the non-anthropocentric view, but I feel there needs to be space for relationships between objects and between objects and people as this brings a key dimension to perception, interpretation and experience. I would also question where objects in transition, such as melting ice fit within an OOO analysis- OOO proposes that all objects have autonomy and are thus divided (see Graham Harman’s ‘Third Table’ analogy).

Useful links:

Graham Harman: Objects and the Arts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ0GR9bf00g Paul Johnson in conversation with Timothy Morton, Focal Point Gallery https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdRKYznAMwI The Anti-Political Aesthetics of Objects and Worlds Beyond, by Svenja Bromberg http://www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/anti-political-aesthetics-objects-and-worlds-beyond The Dew Lab Introduction to Object Oriented Ontology http://www.thedewlab.com/blog/2012/07/12/introduction-to-object-oriented-ontology/

What is Object Oriented Ontology? Ian Bogost http://bogost.com/writing/blog/what_is_objectoriented_ontolog/

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A Fragment of A Story

I spent some time at the store looking up the ‘associated with’ accession numbers from the corner of Phyllis’ note. An accession number is a number assigned to an object at its time of donation to the museum. The object is labelled with a unique number and the accession register records the number, along with details of the object- its materials, date, donor, date of donation etc. The accession categories and requirements have changed over the years and it seems that the stained glass fragment was donated before any accessioning processes were introduced. The accession numbers associated with the glass fragment all began with ‘86.’ This means that they were logged in the book of accessions in 1986. In 1986 accession numbers were logged on a state-of-the-art Epsom computer. Rumour has it that the computer was sent to be serviced with a company in St Albans and the company went into liquidation and the computer was taken away by Bailiffs. Only print-outs of the accession register were salvaged.

i find the idea that the computer was responsible for effectively writing history quite amusing. It also highlights the fragility and vulnerability of the accessioning process.

Some of the listed accession numbers related to textiles and none led to the object in question. I went through the Epsom print outs under the category ‘Glass’ and found two items which seemed to match a description of the object: “Window panel, inscription (SABMS: 86.6751)” and “Window fragment with lead, painted glass (SABMS: 86.12075)″

On my third visit to the store I noticed an accession number painted on the corner of the stained glass fragment itself. I don’t know how I missed this before. However, the accession number on the fragment is missing from the Epsom print out. The accession numbers on either side are present, but there is no record accession number 86.6769.

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A Story of A Fragment

On my visit to the store in February, I was drawn to a stained glass fragment in a long narrow box. The fragment consists of a grid of lead work and houses a series of painted/engraved text sentences. The fragment is quite damaged, its lead work is twisted and broken and a number of the words are broken and lost. I was initially drawn to this object because I can see that it has a story to tell, but that that story has been disrupted and is now incomplete.

Inside the box with the fragment were two pieces of paper. One, a note entitled ‘Mr Bond’ appears to refer to the donor of the object. It lists three items donated to the St Albans Museum- the glass fragment, some fossils and pottery.  Of the glass it states:

“Glass- from Abbey- taken when window found removed in Dr. Nicholson’s time”

The other piece of paper is a double-sided note. On one side, a letter from a woman named Phyllis, regarding her retirement from the Museum, and thanking them for their gift. In the corner of the letter is a list of accession numbers that (supposedly) the fragment is associated with. On the back of the letter is an attempt to translate the text from the glass:

‘Persons both of the town and Rector of Hackney in the… Middlesex and of ogeswell     Members of University College Oxford? (Engl) and in this ….. of Doctor John James…Dominus…of this…Dominus? Eleba and…..Eh??ter       Bishop….

On inspection, this translation is not entirely accurate. When the curator and I lifted the fragment from its box onto the light box a small piece of text-glass was loose in the box. The letters on the fragment are ‘mbers,’ its not clear where this fragment fits in the structure of the frame and text. 

With support from the museum, I hope to find out more about this mysterious object.

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Everything turns into dust

The museum have an obligation to store items collected during archaeological digs and excavations. Sometimes several boxes will be deposited at the store. In the archive there are shelves full of soil samples, boxes of wall plaster, glass, pottery etc. 

There are so many samples that some have sat on the shelves of the archive stores for years, transported from one store to the next in their boxes.

I was drawn to a box of medieval glass. Many of the samples were wrapped tightly in tissue paper and stored in small plastic sealed bags. I opened one piece of tissue and the glass inside appeared to be crumbling. 

Furthermore, other bags (which I did not open) had fragments of glass collecting in their corners- so tiny that they could not be held in a secure way.

I started to notice the floors of the archive store. Was this the remains of a Roman pot? Or grit from a workman's shoe?

Some dirt on the floor shimmered.

I placed the box of mediaeval glass carefully back on the shelf.

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Open boxes

Opening boxes at the Museum store was enthralling and disappointing in equal measure. I opened boxes with labels that intrigued me. Some items were a wonder to behold, others were more exquisite in the imagination than in reality. A number of labelling processes have been used by archivists of the collection over the years, along with a number of packaging processes. Some objects were so thoroughly packaged that i was reluctant to open them completely for fear of damaging what may be inside or failing to return it to its box in the position that I found it. Many of the objects would not have been looked at or held since they were first wrapped up and catalogued and placed on a shelf in a box. I felt honoured to be able to explore. 

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Closed boxes

When I first visited the MOSTA (Museum of St Albans) archive store I didn’t open a single box. I was drawn to the labels and their intriguing titles but could only imagine the objects that lay inside.

I have been playing around with some of the words from the labels, creating a taxonomy of mysterious objects:

glass from cesspit

buckles

miscellaneous structures in rocks

depositional features

post holes

fire damaged textiles

carboniferous plants

parachute silk french knickers

watch & clock maker

vacuum cleaners

dictaphone in temporary storage

stained glass fragment

straw sorter

fire pump

bellarmine jugs

framed mud

nobody knows

bobbins

birds eggs

scandinavian calendar

maps

window frames

sign with graffiti

fossilised footprint

angel head

charter chest- locked, keys lost

glass negatives

school bell

bellows

I’m attracted to the way that poetry appears in the chance connections between words and they start to claw at a narrative or grow in the mind of the reader.

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Artist Statement  January 2016

My approach to art making is as a witness. I am an instigator and collector of fleeting moments. I want to open my experience of the everyday by describing the movement within it. I work with processes to loosen my control over the artwork. I find myself editing, framing, redrawing. Finding a focus. Finding sensitivity. I look for alchemy in the everyday.

I am attracted to thresholds, the point of change from one thing to another. The ‘brink’. A place of shifting. A place of place of movement and transformation. I enjoy playing with time and territories, gestures and maps. Revealing chance patterns and restructuring boundaries.

My work in video, photography, drawing and embroidery gathers light through reflections, piercing the surface, attaching works to windows or working with light absorbent materials. Works are grouped through installation to create mimetic or poetic connections between different materials. Layered images play with surface and narrative.  Natural elements such as ice or the weather develop and decompose forms.

Stitched and hand drawn pieces explore the form and shape of language. Embroidered text pieces are displayed back-to-front, showcasing the abstract lines of stitching on the underside of the canvas. The starting point of each letter is determined by the end point of the last, and interrupted randomly by knots in each length of thread. Letters turn themselves into pictures, creating a text-influenced statement without words. The abstract hieroglyphs appear like a new language or code, the energy of their marks bound in a chaotic pattern.

The work embraces that which affects it. Light shines through the fabric or paper, ice and ink melt together leaving a record of their journey on a sheet of paper, the movement of the hand above the embroidery creates the un-seen stitches on the underside. Passed time is present in the remnants of the process.

www.abispendlove.co.uk

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Akerman Daly Part II

I recently attended part two of the Akerman Daly writing course. Prior to the event, I sent AD a new draft of an artist’s statement a piece of experimental writing/poetry. As with the last session, I found the workshop extremely valuable in its contribution towards my thinking and approach to writing.

Some reflections from the day:

It’s important to think about the context and intention of your work. This is true of every piece of visual and written work, but is particularly relevant for artist statements.

It is useful to have feedback from a number of people. Or at least to know your editor to ensure you’ll agree with their direction. Jeremy and Eileen gave different advice to me about my writing and I found both of their approaches helped to shape and develop the work.

We discussed specific words from my draft statement such as ‘incorporate’ and ‘entropy’ to break down what they mean. It made me realise that it is easy to get comfortable using complex words and it’s important to challenge them.

My writing and its form has a strong connection with my practice. The style was described as ‘shifting’. Integration or inclusion of more creative writing in what I do is a logical progression. The course has helped to equip and encourage me to write more.

I could consider putting together a simple ‘style guide’ to ensure coherence in communications (online, proposals etc.) e.g. font, date formatting etc. this may also integrate text artworks.

An artist statement is not an ‘uber text’, you don’t have to live by it. The end product isn’t binding. You’re not in the dock and you don’t have to justify or qualify what you do. When people ask ‘what is your work about?’ it is a lazy question. The questions need to become more sophisticated to open a deeper analysis and understanding of your practice. 

Description doesn’t have to be boring. Push descriptions and challenge the words you use. Write what you want to. If you don’t want to say it, drop it out. Keep the words that energise you.

Try to say what you want people to see in your work, not how they should see it.

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Reflection

I am already convinced of the pedagogic value in becoming a ‘reflective practitioner’ (Kolb 1984). However, I understand that the reflective cycle is a process that requires discipline. This blog has aided a cycle of reflection, providing a platform on which to deposit and analyse ideas, display photographs of the artwork of others and explore my own developing work.  

My challenge as a practitioner has always been my inability to stick to one medium or idea. I generate ideas and concepts with vigour, though sometimes in this haste I can end up feeling lost and ungrounded.

Two theoretical influences, which have helped me to develop a more defined methodology, are Deleuze and Guattari’s theory of the Rhizome and Bourriaud’s writings on Relational Aesthetics. In brief summary, a rhizomatic way of working enables non-linear, non-hierarchical growth, allowing for multiple connections to be made between objects and ideas. Relational Aesthetics values the importance of the context surrounding the artwork, and encourages interactions between the work and the audience, facilitating multiple interpretations of the work through the integration of personal experience. Both of these theories support a non-linear way of working and allow for chance interruptions to move the work in new directions.

As well as connecting with theoretical approaches that underpin my art-making, part of a solution to refine my practice is to identify what connections lie between the varying types of artwork that I produce. After creating an annotated bibliography last month, I challenged myself to create visual collections of works that I admire. By dividing the images into categories for blog posts -Language, Movement & Sound, Water/Nature- interests threading through my own practice are enforced.  

The combining force or philosophy behind the subject matter of my work is a personal interest in ephemerality and transition. This emerges from a desire to remove the ego from the artwork. A focus on fragility and chance is a reaction against the commodification of the artist manifested in art fairs such as Frieze and Art Basel.

I use a number of mediums to create work such as photography, drawing, embroidery and installation.  Methods prevalent in my interactions with these mediums are:

Use of light through reflections, piercing the surface, attaching works to windows or working with light absorbent materials (e.g. tracing paper).

Grouping/connecting works through installation/assemblage/display.

Use of layering as a tool to juxtapose imagery and play with surface and narrative.  

Use of the elements to change or decompose works.

Historically I have always worked best when working towards an exhibition, developing a proposal, or responding to a brief or commission. A challenge for me is to discover how to sustain and push forward my practice in the gaps between projects, and manage the tension of continuing to develop my identity as an artist when responding to set briefs or commissions.

It is fundamentally important to me that my work remains visually and conceptually accessible to a wide audience. I am interested in developing work in non-art environments and with non-art organisations. My work for Art Language Location is an example of this, and my current project with the Museum of St Albans will be an opportunity to further develop my methodology.

 References:

BOURRIAUD, N. (1998) Relational Aesthetics. Dijon: Les Presse Du Reel.

DELEUZE, G. & GUATTARI, F. (2004) A thousand plateaus: capitalism and schizophrenia. London, Continuum.

KOLB, D. A. (1984) Experiential Learning: experience as the source of learning and development. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.

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Rhizomatic working

Image source: http://alternateroots.org/programs/rhizomes/how-to-host-a-rhizome-event/

Deleuze and Guattari introduce A Thousand Plateaus by outlining the principles of the concept of the rhizome:

1 and 2: Principles of connection and heterogeneity: "...any point of a rhizome can be connected to any other, and must be," 3. Principle of multiplicity: only when the multiple is effectively treated as a substantive, "multiplicity" that it ceases to have any relation to the One 4. Principle of asignifying rupture: a rhizome may be broken, but it will start up again on one of its old lines, or on new lines 5 and 6: Principle of cartography and decalcomania: a rhizome is not amenable to any structural or generative model; it is a "map and not a tracing" (Deleuze & Guattari 2004)

I have been looking at the Rhizome as a methodology for working. If the image above were a metaphor for my art practice, the plants above the ground would be artworks and exhibitions, and the structure underground would represent the blog, sketches, research and influences on my practice. Deleuze and Guattari describe the rhizome as having an organic, non-hierarchical, non-linear style of growth. My multi-media, multi faceted art practice reflects this model of growth. The fourth principle listed above denotes rupture. This is something Paul Johnson highlighted in his lecture (see blog post dated 02/12/15): the desire and need to rupture one’s practice in order to challenge and progress the work. I am interested in developing a rhythm of rupture within my art practice going forward, though I anticipate a rupturing to be an infrequent occurrence. 

DELEUZE, G. & GUATTARI, F. (2004) A thousand plateaus: capitalism and schizophrenia. London, Continuum.

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St Albans Museum Project: Visit to the Offsite Store

Last week I had the privilege of visiting the St Albans Museum offsite store.

I have been commissioned by the Museum of St Albans, through funding from Arts Council England to create a new piece of work/community engagement project for the Museum. The work is part of a transition project taking place during a period of closure of the museum, while it relocates to a new site in St Albans town centre in 2017. The project is led by St Albans Museum & Galleries and artist Lyndall Phelps. 

Phelps created an exhibition for the Museum in September 2015 entitled Abundance. The exhibition took place on the first floor of the empty museum. Once the artefacts from the museum’s permanent collection had been removed, Phelps repainted and redesigned the space, filling it with light and curating a new display of objects. She made a series of new works and installations which were exhibited alongside the artefacts, charting historical industries from the town. I was involved in helping to install some of the work, and will be receiving mentoring from Phelps over the course of the ongoing project. 

The work that I will make for this project will be directly inspired by the collection of the Museum of St Albans, all of which is currently located in a large offsite store. 

The purpose of this initial visit was for me to familiarise myself with the type of artefacts stored in the collection, and see if any ideas would spark from what I saw.

I have a few areas of interest that tie into my practice and were sparked by the collection:

Fragments

Items of unknown origin or with an incomplete story

Labelling of the collection in storage

I am reminded of Paul Johnson’s approach in his exhibition, There’s Something About You That I Am Unsure About for the Usher Gallery (see blog post dated 02/12/15). When working with the  Lincolnshire Collection of Art and Archaeology, he was drawn to objects that stirred him due to their unwillingness to give clues to their history. This idea interests me greatly. Many of the intriguing objects in the collection inspire narratives within the imagination. In this way these objects take on a new life/purpose.

The next step is for me to conduct some research into the history/context surrounding some of the areas I’m interested in, and more general research around St Albans and the MOSTA (Museum of St Albans) collection.  in order to bring depth and allow ideas to develop and emerge. I will visit the store again in Jan/Feb 2016 to expire the collection in more depth.