Alicia

[aliciacorbettart]

25/04/24

This is my final piece of work of the module. A sculpture and installation piece, connected together using a water pump. The pump is positioned in the water and when the water pump is switched on, the water travels up from the water in the tray and to the top watering can. Then travels through every watering to be poured into the umbrella and drip through the holes in the umbrella.

This piece is a representation of my practice and everything I have been attempting to achieve through my performances. Throughout this module I have been looking at ways I can use mundane everyday objects and use them in an alternative and interesting new way. Using process and elements of chance and failure in my work I have been exploring pouring and transportation using these objects.

This is the first piece that I have made that actually works as a stand alone sculpture. When the pump is turned on the water is being poured automatically, without me having to stand on a table and pour it myself. This is what I have always strived to achieve throughout this module as I never wanted myself to be a part of these processes. Hence why when I record the process, I'm always stood to the side and almost out of shot.

[aliciacorbettart]

Watering Cans and Umbrella Sculpture

19/04/24

When creating this piece, I was exploring processes of chain reaction. After putting together the piece with the 5 watering cans, I was experimenting with how I can expand this piece and add new elements to make it. So then I added the umbrella.

[aliciacorbettart]

16/04/24

This was a different kind of process that I tried out. I added water to the sand and made some sandcastles. Mainly for the purpose of seeing if they would fall after a while. When all the moisture left the sand, would the sandcastle still stand or would it fall?

This is what I was testing and when I came back 3 days later, all the sandcastles had fell naturally as the water evaporated from the sand.

[aliciacorbettart]

Sand Through 2 Buckets 2

16/04/24

I have been focussed on transportation of natural resources such as water and sand, based on the how they connect with playful processes, especially with children, as they are playful on a day to day basis. As I work in a nursery, I see how children play with sand and water and using methods to transport these resources.

When children are playing with sand, they are often exploring how they can pour or transport the sand from one area to another. That I what I have tried to replicate and demonstrate with this performance. Watching the process of the sand falling through the first and second bucket before reaching the tray.

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Making a Cup of Tea 1

Making a Cup of Tea 1

16/04/24

For this piece I made a cup of tea using these 5 watering cans, all conjoined together, with a teabag in each of them. Using hot water in a kettle at the top I would pour it through the first watering can and down through the rest of them. Sitting a cup in the bottom of the tray and catching some of the tea as the watering cans swing around.

The objective of this piece was to explore processes that we do on a day to day basis, such as making a cup of tea, but finding an alternative and more time consuming way to do it. Inspired by Roman Signer who uses everyday objects to demonstrate processes that could be created in a much simpler way, but he explores different ways of performing.

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2 Buckets with Ink

09/04/24

For this piece I have used the 2 buckets that I have positioned in the studio. Instead of just pouring water through I decided to experiment with black ink inside too. This is a technique that I have used for other work in the past. However, after trying it out, I don't think it works as well with my current work and the direction my practice is heading in at the moment. I have realised that using ink encourages a focus shift onto the work being about drawings and drawing machines. Which is something that I've done previously, but not the focus of this module.

Since this work, I am not going to use ink in work for this module, as it takes away from my work relating to the concept of failure, chance with processes and using natural resources.

[aliciacorbettart]

Watering Cans

02/04/24

[aliciacorbettart]

12/03/24

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John Baldessari - Conceptual Artist

John Baldessari is a conceptual artist, who's work is driven by allowing for failure. He said “art comes out of failure. You have to try things out.” Success first came to Baldessari when he accepted failure in his work. Wondering if something will succeed or fail before performing the process will limit the work and possible outcomes. John Baldessari’s Wrong (1967), is a series of photographic images, most of them poorly executed, out of focus or unconvincing, violating the classical rules of composition. Wrong is a photograph of Baldessari’s, with a palm tree directly behind him, so it looks like the palm tree is growing from him. This is a photography error that was intentional by Baldessari, for the purpose of creating something that goes against the rules of professional photography. He deliberately allowed for this to happen as he was performing for the photograph.

Baldessari has talked about how “I’ve often thought of myself as a frustrated writer,” he explained. “I consider a word and an image of equal weight, and a lot of my work comes out of that kind of thinking.”

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Conceptual Art

I've been looking into Conceptual Art and the work of Conceptual artists. This is the idea that the concept is more important than the actual work itself. Conceptual Art was most active in the 1960's

In 1967, Sol LeWitt wrote in his essay “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art” that “the idea itself, even if it is not made visual, is as much of a work of art as any finished product.” Conceptual artists used their work to question the notion of what art is, and to critique the underlying structures of artistic production, distribution, and display. The idea, concept, process and preparation of the work is just as

This is something that I can relate my work to because of how my work is more predominantly focussed on the process rather than the outcome of the work.

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Roman Signer: It's Not Forbidden to Laugh

Swiss artist Roman Signer’s work explores the relationships between sudden energy releases and calmness, between order and chaos, and the existence of form in the apparently formless. He describes his work as a game, “My work is like a game. A serious game.” He produces dynamic sculptures and installations

“What fascinates me is that a force makes my sculpture. I only arrange things, and then a stone might fall, or the bike hits the beams, and then the sculpture is finished. A force has manifested itself in the sculpture.” His sculptures are known as "time sculptures" for their pre-occupation, transforming materials and objects through time. Signer creates a humorous twist using cause and effect and the scientific method of experimentation and discovery. He uses everyday objects such as umbrellas bottles, tables and chairs, through a process guided by curiosity and discipline. Like the director of a thriller, he uses tension and surprise.

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Failure

Artists must learn to embrace failure. The concept of failure is a natural part of experimentation. Not everything will always be a success and work that would be considered a failure can also be some of the most successful.

This led me to consider how failure can also become the objective of the work and the importance of failure, uncertainty and instability. Roman Signer allows room for failure in his work. There is room in his work for success or failure to happen. And even when failure does happen in his work, it doesn't make it any less of an impactful piece, but actually makes it more interesting. Fischli and Weiss also create room for failure in their work. In their photographic series Equili- bres/Quiet Afternoon (1984), objects are photographed in dynamic positions, just before the point of collapse. Using failure in this way is engaging because you know what is going to happen after those photos are taken. You know that those objects are going to fall, unless they're being held up unnaturally. In this case those objects are balancing naturally, but can't stay upright for long.

Failure is engaging and drives the work into the unknown as the failure of a piece can still lead to success, as it can lead you as the artist, down a different path.

The opposite of embracing failure, is aiming for perfection. If you were to produce the perfect work, then there would be no need to produce anymore work and no need for you as an artist. By embracing failure in your work as an artist, you are accepting that there is no perfect work and there is always room for continuation. If you work was perfect, there would be no need for you as an artist anymore. This is like people, if people were perfect, there would be no need for our creator.

John Baldessari states: “Art comes out of failure. You have to try things out. You can’t sit around, terrified of being in- correct, saying ‘I won’t do anything until I do a master- piece’.”

[aliciacorbettart]

Embracing Failure

Since reflecting on my work using the catapult, I have been exploring and looking into how this work hasn't fully fulfilled it's purpose. For example, when you look at the catapult I made, it looks like a weapon of war, a weapon that can cause destruction. A mechanism that can catapult objects of weight far.

However, after trialing this catapult out, it is clear that it doesn't work to its full potential. It only really catapults light objects at a short distance. This was somewhat successful when I was catapulting plastic balls. Then I tried catapulting a brick, to see what would happen, if the catapult would fulfil it's purpose with a heavier more destructive object. But the brick was so heavy that it outweighed the tension of the bungee cords and the catapult barely moved, the brick just fell to the floor. Through this experiment I was able to see that the catapult did not work as planned and was experiencing some failure in the construction side of this piece.

This helped me to consider how failure is involved in my practice, how it is a key aspect and not everything works out as planned. But how failure should be embraced and recognised as a feature of the practice.

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Roman Signer

01/03/24

After finding out about Roman Signer's work, I am inspired by his performances. He courts failure just in case success un- expectedly turns up – if not, though, it really doesn’t mat- ter. His “accident sculptures” use experiments to test things out, with the proceedings documented as evidence. In 56 Small Helicopters (2008) he sets off a swarm of insect-like model helicopters in a room far too small for their move- ment to be unimpeded. One by one they collide, and fail in a joyful choreography of not working. Or in Bottleneck (2000) a car was driven between two wedge-shaped con- crete walls, the architecture arresting movement and the moment of failure marking the point where the event be- comes sculpture. 

[aliciacorbettart]

25/02/24

Equili- bres/Quiet Afternoon (1984) Photos from Photographic series by Fischli and Weiss. These objects have been photographed in dynamic compositions shortly before collapsing.

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Group Crit with Gass - 20/02/24

Discussed the work of artists, Roman Signer, Erwin Wurm.

Creating sculptural performances using a variety of objects, also the possibility of using the body within the performances.

Using buckets (inspired by Roman Signer) and using watering cans.

Using multiple buckets and suspending one after another. As a means of pouring water through all of the buckets, through the holes, before reaching the tray at the bottom.

Discussed possible exhibition ideas. Creating sculptural installations, using mechanisms and objects for performances.

[aliciacorbettart]

21/02/24