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My Degree Show Piece 2017

‘Owning the streets’

#art #barrier #barracade #degree show #uca

The Bargehouse OXO Towerwharf ‘Iris Turns’ A UCA Third Year External Exhibition.

ROOM 7

Our Iris Turns exhibition brings together the works of the third year fine art students from the University for the Creative arts. Showcasing a wide range of mediums, including painting, sculpture, film, photography and performance. Touching upon themes such as the everyday, identity and the body, senses, equality, and materiality. Iris Turns encourages people to change the way they view the world, subverting expectations and moving away from the traditional white cube setting. This self-curated exhibition represents the development of our individual practices and marks our turning points from students to artists.

The oxo Tower space is a riverside landmark since the 1930′s. During its industrial heyday it was owned by the makers of the OXO brand and has had numerous and varied uses since. By the 1970′s it had fallen into disrepair and was largely derelict.

The space consisted of 10 large warehouse sized rooms which varied in sizes. Each student was assigned an appropriate room for their proposed work. The requirements in regards to the room I needed was that it needed pillars, this would allow me to utilise my tape in an interesting way, meaning that my work was a site specific installation.

After installing this piece I had realised that in future I will wrap the pillars before the install so the work would then look more finished and then the gaps and the shape would be accounted for. I planned to wrap the tape up to the ceiling, but because of the lack of available ladders, time ran out for install and this resulted in my work being incomplete. This was a disappointment for me because it wasn't the way that I initially had envisioned and it would have worked better if I had finished the piece.

#OXO tower london #artschool #art exhibition

My Degree Show Piece.

The Journey of My Ideas.

The questions I needed to answer and to continue to consider in the future and for new work started off as a list.

What do i want to say about my subject?

What is special about my material?

Why Barrier tape?

What do i want the audience to feel?

What do i want the audience to think?

What do i want the audience to question?

What is my subject?

Concerning my material, what are the possible interpretations of my subject?

Do I want to control the audience?

How will I control the audience?

Do I want to obstruct the audience?

Is it about protest?

What am I protesting against?

Is it about the people?

Is it about the state?

Do i want this piece to be decorative?

Is it about pattern?

What pattern?

How does this impact psychologically on the viewer?

How can these questions interpret into forms of display?

Answering these questions lead me on to consider a number of possible options. Talking with different tutors about my ideas only resulted in suggestions that reflected their speciality, which was helpful and not helpful, but at least it would allow me to consider my subject from another angle and from another medium.

#ARTSCHOOL #art

My Degree show piece.

The journey of my chosen idea.

Part 1

Thinking about my degree show piece was probably a longer thought process than for most. I have been coming up with ideas long before year 3 even started, because I was that unsure about what I was going to build. I wanted to create something that would be perfect and worthy enough to go down stairs. i had had my mind set on having my work placed downstairs for the degree show for a longtime but this studio space to me means that as a student you have a big responsibility to create something that owns the space. Your work is in the space to which the audience encounters first. This added pressure alone made me prematurely nervous even though there was no guarantee about where I would be placed.

My first initial idea started with something that was inspired by Chris Burden’s lamppost installation in Los Angeles. My idea would be similar in display but I wanted the lampposts to be city signs. For example, no entry signs,one way signs, no stopping signs, stop signs ect. It was planned to source the signs from an official supplier, so that the psychological impact would be as effective and familiar as possible. it was important for the signs to be as genuine as possible as I didn't want my piece to come across as a parody or a mimick. After the back and forth of emails it was apparent that the company wouldn’t allow me to use the signs, because they decided that they didn't loan them to the public so it was time to initiate a plan B. After deliberating this whole process I decided to come up with a way to make this idea still happen, I began brainstorming the required processes to consider if i decided to make them myself.

Sourcing genuine traffic control items such as barricades,road signs ect was more challenging than i thought it would be, the metal for the signs, the stickers and the fittings would amount to an expensive price for a piece that I wasn't familiar with and unsure about. The drive to create this piece slowly dwindled over time.

Because I had unexpectedly been working with Barrier Tape throughout the largest part of the year, it would have been foolish to continue my initial idea with all its predicted issues and therefore not change the idea accordingly to the current material. Another new brainstorming session was required and this went on for sometime. The main problem for me was the fact that I needed to consider the reaction I wanted the audience have, how I want them to think and feel, what i want them to question and what they see when they look at my work. Considering all of the previous pieces I had made, which express many different interpretations and explore the different qualities of barrier tape. It was important for me to answer these questions in order to decide on what to create.

#Barricade #art

My Practice: Defined.

My practice.

Making sculpture wouldn’t have normally been my forte, if I was to look back at the time before I started university. Painting was typically my strong suit, and so for convenience it was always the go to medium. University encouraged me to push the boundaries and explore the methods I wasn’t familiar with. Creating Conceptual work with sculpture was never a strong point for me as an artist. I found it difficult to create something that was based on an idea, and then backing up the work with theory. I overcame these hurdles by looking at my work like a puzzle. Researching into what theories, history, culture and other ideas fit into mine and then utilising them to inform the work I create.

I look towards the world around me for inspiration and have been focusing on the different elements of the urban landscape since starting year one.Initially creating work that surrounds the subject of skateboarding, and then progressing by looking further afield to important elements such as architecture, and the obstruction.

I am interested in how our immediate environment impacts on our day to day lives, from the micro to the macro of the geometry in the architecture, to the systems and signs, rules and regulations that govern our movement. I get influenced by the different elements that usually get overlooked, making it my mission to discover the beauty within it.

My current work surrounds the different forms of obstruction. I am working with hazard tape as a material, exploring its different properties not just in regards to the obvious meaning that is already embedded within it, but also the ways that it could make the viewer feel psychologically when it is used as a medium for a piece of artwork. I have experimented with the material in many ways, which results in different forms of display and effects.

The first piece explores the work of Barry Flanagan, an artist who focuses on the material as the main focus for the work. For this piece I chose to allow the properties of the red and white barrier tape to do the talking, by displaying in a similar way to Barry Flanagan, which is simply propped up against a wall without any fixtures, concentrating on the fragile property in the tape. The piece of work could be considered as durational because over time the metal poles would eventually ware away at the tape. This element of the work particularly fascinated me.

For the second piece I explored the spatial, decorative element of the tape. Creating a space that was hung from the ceiling, taking inspiration from artist Do Ho Suh. I wanted to change the usual way of encountering the barrier tape, which is traditionally below eye level, by doing this I decided to create a space that would be looked at from below rather than from above. I regret not creating more of an interesting structure as it was just a generic hanging cuboid, but I think that the effect once inside, was quite striking, making the challenging process of hanging it worthwhile.

At this moment in time of the project, I was visiting the exhibitions of many installation artists and one that especially stood out for me was the Yoyoi kusama exhibition at the Victoria Miro gallery titled Sculptures, Paintings & Mirror Rooms. The spatial installations really inspired me so I wanted to create a similar effect with my barrier tape in some way. The effect of the mirror rooms always stuck with me after that experience and it made me want to include that similar element in my work. The participatory element would be extremely important in order for the viewer to experience the same overwhelming effect I felt at the exhibition. Remembering this experience was a memory I used to drive this piece, making sure that Mimicking this process was exactly right. This idea resulted in the manifestation of my metal barrier tape cylinder sculpture.

The Bargehouse oxo tower exhibition was a point where I took the barrier tape in a different direction creating an architectural intervention installation. Using the tape as an invasion of a space, like it invades the urban landscape. For this type of artwork I looked towards Duchamp’s mile of string installation exhibited in a large nineteenth-century Italianate mansion in central Manhattan 1942.

For my degree show piece and from exploring different ways of using the tape for a year, using this material for my chosen idea was quite challenging. I needed to decide what the desired experience was that I wanted for the viewer to receive, when looking at my work. I wanted to do something ambitious and was willing to spend a long time on making the work perfect. Thinking about what I was going to make for the degree show started earlier on in the summer break, before the start of year three. I would have never thought that barrier tape would be the medium I would end up using. After exploring and perfecting forms of wrapping, spatial effects, sculpture, intervention in year three it was no wonder I had a difficult decision on my hands. Deciding upon a piece that would be really effective, and therefore creating something that I could be proud of, was quite stressful for me. After much deliberation, and conversations with tutors I had decided to create a beautiful barricade, which would be wrapped in barrier tape. Which explores the obvious purpose of the barrier tape and that is to create an obstruction. A barrier to a traveller of a space. An obstruction could mean and be made of anything so my current understanding of the different ways I could do this, consisted already as a very big part of my research. Considering the different ways I could create an effective barrier, resulted in the decision to create a barricade inspired by protest.

Barrier tape as a material is so versatile and has so many different possibilities for an artwork that I still want to explore, I realise that this could become quite repetitive in its use but I really enjoy pushing the material to its limits, investigating the different kinds that are available, its strengths and weakness and therefore discovering what this material is capable of as a material for a work of art.

#barrier tape #art

Yayoi Kusama

The kusama works that inspire my cylindrical piece, are her ‘ Infinity Mirror Room’ series. These works first burst on the scene in 1965 when she created the first perceptual experience for the audience consisting of her sewing and stuffing fabric tubers and then moulding them into furniture or objects. The artist found this process quite physically exhausting and mentally draining because of the repetition. she collected all the things she had made and placed them in a room and due to the labour intensity of this work she explored the use of mirrors in her work to create an illusion of many more than there actually was.

This work was the first of attempt at making the audience her subject, and over the years there are many different ways she creates this effect.

This piece, the Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity made in 2009 consists of flickering lanterns creating a contrast to the blackness. For this piece Yayoi explores death and afterlife reflecting on the Japanese traditional ceremony ‘toro nagashi’ where the Japanese push paper lanterns down a river to guide spirits back to their resting places. With this work she questions the impermanence of life and the imminence of death.

Yayoi’s experiential practice creates immersive virtual spaces for the audience to enter into; Whether it be a mental immersion through a peep hole or a physical one creating a bodily experience for the viewer. These spaces are intimate and personal, not just because of their size but also because of their exclusivity where only a limited number of people could enter at any one time.

This piece is the first test piece where I have very briefly recycled a large reflective sticker somebody was getting rid of in the studio, placing this on top of one of my pieces got me thinking about how I could utilise mirrors in my own work, and the results could hopefully be quite spectacular.

#yayoi kusama

My Cylindrical Sculpture.

Due to the lack of stability in the previous structure for the hanging cube spatial work, the issues within that lead me on to create a space that the viewer could still enter. Keeping the same goal, which would be participatory, but because of the size requirement I would therefore have to compromise on a few elements in my previous piece.

In order to create more of a permanent, sturdy structure I would first of all have to compromise on losing the element of fragility, which the previous piece originally was inspired by artist Do Ho Suh; and in order to create this sturdy structure I had no choice but to change my material.

The structure is made of an iron rod and flat in order to create the sculpture we first had to roll the iron flat into a circle shape, which would require us to weld the two ends together, making sure that the shape is welded completely circular in the process. Once the two rings were welded together, it was then time to weld the sides, the iron rods allowing the piece to stand on one end.

The next stage was to finally wrap the structure to give it some shape. This was actually a lot more work than originally imagined because I didn't take into account the ways of wrapping the piece. At the top of the Cylinder which would be the ceiling, could only be wrapped one way which would mean that you couldn't therefore wrap the other way, changing from vertical wrapping to horizontal wrapping if that makes sense. so if I wanted to wrap what could resemble the ceiling i would have to then create a separate metal circle, and then attach it to the top of the structure. The potential effect this would give wasn't desirable or spectacular enough for me to go through with the process so I left the top open for the time being and it would be developed later.

Whilst wrapping the piece I found I had to elevate it off the studio floor in order to access the bottom. This was the most problematic it gets for the moment because as i wrapped the piece, I would have to turn the cylinder round, it was also one of those jobs where you need assistance.

This piece was to encourage the viewer to enter the piece through the tape but this became quite unsuccessful because people weren't really accessing the inside of the piece, maybe due to the tightness and fragility of the tape, or they would see it as a decorative sculpture rather than one that you could enter. This forced me to change the sculpture by hanging a metal door on to the side of it which would allow me to still wrap the piece, but it would become more encouraging for the viewer to then walk inside and close the door behind them.

The next task at hand would be to source a large amount of reflective mirrored plexi-glass which would hopefully allow me to create a similar effect to YaYoi Kusama’s work. The mirror would create a secret unexpected wow factor inside the piece, because i want to give the viewer a reason to go inside and placing the mirror inside on the floor below and on the ceiling above so the barrier tape would be all around; considering this I am aware that I would have to limit the amount of people who access the sculpture at one time.

This project is on going and in order to continue with the adding of mirrors, I will have to develop the piece even further. I will be updating this piece in the future with another post.

#art #barriertape

Do Ho Suh

Do Ho Suh is an artist that questions the notions of identity and migration by creating colourful fabric installations, replicating architectural spaces that he has lived and worked. Each installation consists of a sequence of passageways that joins onto another section that runs throughout the whole gallery, encouraging the audience to walk through the translucent weightless structures.

‘The space I’m interested in is not only a physical one, but an intangible, metaphorical, and psychological one,’ -do ho suh

These pieces inspired me because the work really got the viewer thinking about the work in relation to their own head space. The fact that these works had created not just physical memories but it at the same time creating an emotional connection through a physical encounter with the work. This really inspired me within my practice because barrier tape has many psychological connotations surrounding the material and creating spaces would make the viewer feel something; it was a direction that i decided to explore.

The fact that the work is hung, and forcing the viewer to look up was an interesting element that I wanted to explore in my work creating a ‘stain’ in the meaning and therefore sparking questions about why its hung and not displayed in the usual way. The reason for this would be to represent a rebellion against social norms and the controlling nature of the tape. By placing the tape above the viewer the piece would lose its properties.

The failures within this, could be that by displaying it in a way that removes the main element of the material, it could then become decorative, which I am aware of. I’m not sure of the fact that it is decorative is what it is, the fact that this tape is made to be noticeable and vibrant, and to represent danger or a hazard. The red and white partnership is repeated in many things in our urban landscape such as road signs, it seems to me like these colours are used side by side in order to be direct and clear.

I think that when making work in the future, to be aware about how the tape is wrapped and presented because the tape has a tendency to become more of a pretty optical illusion.

The Hanging Cube Spatial Piece

This particular piece started off as an idea inspired by the work of artist Do ho Suh to create more of an opportunity for audience participation in my work; so therefore considering the viewer in this case was quite an important element for me. I began researching and brainstorming many ways I could do this and the simplest and most effective idea that I came up with was to create a spatial piece. Do Ho Suh is an artists that creates spatial pieces out of fabric.

To do this required a lot of logistical planning in regards to the grid measurement calculations in how this piece would hang. My previous piece was on the floor below eye level, which is the usual way of encountering the tape in the landscape so I wanted to create something that was above eye level for the viewer.

For this piece I wanted the viewer to be engulfed and immersed into the space, by the decorative vibrant aesthetic to the barrier tape. I have also considered the size of the space, as my intention was to make the space personal and intimate, to promote a reaction in the audience.

The grid was made from a recycled piece of metal,which was then fastened to two pieces of wood and attached to the surface of the ceiling. Each individual side contained two layers of tape, making the piece quite heavy and once hung from the metal grid above with invisible string I eventually ran into a problem, where gravity would make the tape sag in the middle once hung, so I needed to fix this in order to get clean lines for the desired shape. The structure was strengthened with aluminium rods which were light enough to not be too weighty, but strong enough to hold some shape.

I dont feel like this piece was particularly successful because it was quite high maintenance in its upkeep. The structure was also quite unstable and it was overall quite fragile so I then went on to draft ideas that would make this piece more effective.

#barrier tape art

The DeconstructedReconstructed Barrier

The Deconstructed/Reconstructed Barrier

This work was developed for the first annual crit show of year 3, the process was developed from the test piece mentioned in the previous post. I made the decision to extend the length of the barrier tape so that the piece resembled the actual height and size of a barrier. The tape is normally tied at waste height so this element was important for the display of the work because I wanted the viewer to not just be able to read into the material but be able to interpret the properties of material in the display.

The intention for the abstract display was to create a challenge for the viewer, forming an element of ambiguousness, therefore making room for interpretation and forcing the audience to spend time with my work. The construction of the piece consisted of metal rods which required the fixing to be at the bottom as it leans against the wall.The rods where secured in the ground by a nail hammered into the gallery floor, and then the base of the rod was adjusted to slot directly into the nail securing it, preventing the chance of them slipping.

The feedback I received from the tutors consisted of mainly questions challenging my reasons for the way I chose to display; they ask why I chose to place it against a wall and that to them, interprets in the same way that a painting would read, such as the intentions to be decorative. They also suggest that by displaying it against a wall in this way, it tries to become ‘art’ and that I should use the tape focusing on its basic properties and its purpose, because there is no need to over complicate barrier tape when its already loaded with enough content; therefore I should become more problematic in my work invading spaces and actually causing problems by creating barriers with the material.

This feedback I will take forward and take into consideration when making work in the future, because these points will allow me to take my ideas further. I will use barrier tape as a material that will invade or create a space, I want also to create more of an experience for the audience, so i intend to somehow create a space where the viewer has to navigate the barrier tape or be immersed by it.

This piece overall i thought is one of the most successful more refined gallery ready pieces I have made over the three years which makes me feel quite proud. I think that the reason my work looks like this, is because all elements of the piece were intentional and thought through.

Barry Flanagan - June 2 ‘69 1969

Barry Flanagan experimented with materials that were considered at this time, unorthodox. He would carefully select particular elements of materials and use these as the focus for his sculptures, allowing these basic raw components to speak for themselves and become the main focus of the work. In order to emphasise the materials, he chooses to display his sculptures in the simplest formation.

This piece belongs to a series of works he made in 1969 where he uses flax fabric and branches to create abstract arrangements in a gallery space, he places the work propped up against the wall allowing gravity to effect the material.

Once I had finished placing my barrier tape work in many different places in the studio space, I felt unconfident about it each time because I wanted the display to be intentionally considered so the work was adequate enough for the crit show. By hanging the tape in these previous ways, they didn’t look finalised and polished enough so I needed to experiment with other forms of display,so I looked towards these works by Barry Flanagan for inspiration.

In regards to displaying my barrier tape in this way, it forces me to not just consider the material as the focus for this piece, but also how this particular arrangement would effect the interpretation of my subject. This got me thinking firstly about the material, the fact that I had chosen to include the typical materials that would normally be seen with barrier tape in the world and then because of the arrangement of the materials, the effect of the metal rods upon the fragile plastic should wear it slowly away over time, so this juxtaposition was quite interesting for me.

This arrangement allowed me to think about what this display would mean for my subject, and it occurred to me that this organisation was like a deconstruction of a barrier, and it reflects Barry Flanagan in such a way because of this unorthodox positioning. The fact that the barrier tape is propped against the wall,it immediately removes the materials purpose.

Creating all these squares with layers of barrier tape was a time consuming process because I was at it for two months straight just layering measuring sticking and then on to the next square eventually i had to give myself a time limit because it was having repercussions on my body, giving me back ache and pains in my knees so a limit of 3 hours a day was enough.

It had occurred to me after a while that this could be the material that could be perfect for my subject, although this material seems to have its limitations with fragility and from using this, I have come to find out that its because of its impermanent purpose; its only purpose is for a temporary obstruction so working with these two concepts within my practice will be a good place to start informing my work.

After thinking about how i could display this barrier tape I began by considering its properties and its purpose and how i could use that as a frame to create work. For a starting point I began building a barrier in the studio which took over peoples studio spaces, creating exactly what i wanted; an obstruction for them, limiting their space by half.

The Control of Movement ; An Archive of Systems and Signs in the City.

#control of movement #city #archive

My first Piece of Year 3.

The first piece of year three consisted of an experiment with the barrier tape I had been given for free over the summer and i had been anticipating to get going with it, and waiting anxiously for a space large enough to hang it in, upon considering the size i wanted to make it because my intentions are to take over a whole room, creating spacial interventions and social interactions with it, whilst confronting political and societal issues at the same time.

The ways we are controlled within society and the city, in our streets and on the roads for whatever reason can come across oppressing for the city dwellers and commuters; because we live in an age where privatisation of public space and the control of movement within contemporary society is becoming more of a widespread issue.

It is where public space is brought as a commodity and then governed by the public space protection order, a set of rules which are enforced by councils, corporations and their private security.

Capitalism controls the lived experience through the mode of production; according to Guy Debord in society of the spectacle, he considers capitalism to be a ‘method for taking over the natural and human environment’, urbanism is a recent technique used to protect the power of the classes within society, ‘maintaining the law and order in the streets’.

These particular regulations are set within certain areas constraining cyclists to dismount to cross roads, and banning simple acts like making a speech, releasing balloons and depending upon circumstances it can lead to prosecution.

#barrier tape art

My First Starting Point

For my first initial brainstorm I decided to create an idea wall, using a very successful strategy invented by Ryan Gander, this was a very effective method to generate ideas, one worded or short phrases, which help myself or anyone to imagine what the work could be. The ideas in bold lettering help you assert your ideas, and approach them with fearlessness allowing room for failure as they are particular but not specific.

Although i had a reasonable amount of ideas already written down during the summer i feel that this technique helped me generate my ideas further in order for me to visualise a dialogue.

my intention was to attempt at incorporating an element of participation in my practice, to allow the viewer to experience my idea with others, through a social relationship generated by the collaborative act that my work necessitates. integrating political and social, societal issues i feel like everyone would have their own opinions already about these issues which allows my work to be available and interpretative for everybody.

I also want to be able to display my work in a number of locations institutional and public, site specific because i feel like my work intends to confront issues generated in the city so therefore could be displayed in a gallery or museum but should be displayed in the street or within the public hemisphere.

The Situationists and the City

Throughout the 1950′s and 60′s a french Marxist theorist Guy Debord lead a controversial group called the situationist international inventing experimental texts based on politics and art. They analysed Utopian imaginings of the city regarding the alienating effects of consumerism, they invented a method which uses site to provoke a form of play in order to encourage the breakdown of oppression from the current capitalist society. Focusing on essential works such as the ‘Theory of the Derive’ a from of constructed situation which consists of groups of 2/3 to travel through the city with no particular direction or destination in order to explore and navigate unknown, overlooked parts of the city ;as well as their experimental outings they created collages in order to record their findings and routes that they navigated.

This situationist international influences my work through their use of the city for their chosen site and subject matter. The similarity is that we both use the city as an important focus in which we build our work on; but also using the city to confront important problems placing the work right into the public domain leaving no room for the viewer to run and hide. Both my practice and the experimental acts and writings of the Situationists intentional confront the ways in which we are controlled within society.

For year 2 it was slightly unclear to me how the situationists relate to my practice however upon starting my work for the third year i am really quite confident on the similarities between the theories of the situationists and my work; because i think last year i was having trouble with utilising theory in my practice and it knocked my confidence greatly but right now at this space in time, i feel like i have found a medium and a way that i can marry my material with my subject allowing me to focus on how I display it each time meaning it could be the only thing I have to keep reconsidering.

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