MFA Dossier

[lucienballard]

Cy Twombly

[matthewmarkart]

JOSH SMITH

American painter, Josh Smith paints his name as the subject and upends what a ‘signature’ painting is. Smith gave me an idea as to signature paintings and given me a perspective on interpreting my own name..my label..my signature and what it means to me. 

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Mapping out my mind

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Margo Woloweic Advisory  2018

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Key Words

Confliction

Disruption

Contradiction 

Inversion

Collision

Since my last dossier, (as I slip through abstraction to representation), I was told that it may be beneficial for me to look outside the realm of painting. This lead me to reflect on different ways to see. the discovery of seeing from a perspective of It is less about paintings themselves. But the discovery of the eye, in constant movement and recording one movement to another. This inspired me to work on a new series, based on translations from cameras, whether it be inverting colours and creating movements that activate the human eyes. The concept of inversion as a process and translated into a painting by abstracting, stylizing and painting familiar things in unfamiliar ways. I have been attempting to organise connotations of painting mediums to create states of feelings contrasting with the meaning of these mediums in contemporary society. Please refer to my previous posts of my current works as I think the best way to approach this dossier submission is with progress shots of my work and accompanying pictures that explain the narrative and thinking process that I am building through the act of painting. 

Isabelle Graw’s reading is an analysis on what painting stands for in our contemporary society and that it is constituted in everything. She proposes that “Painting is a form of production of signs that is experienced as a highly personalized semiotic activity.” Taking this quote further from Isabelle Graw and creating conditions for myself in which materials are made to perform and react. Relying on chemical nature of chosen materials, elements are laid down in layers and subsequently worked with techniques that dictate what is removed and what remains. Hoping to create depth and emotion as opposed to a reaction to space and time. I’ve learnt to further explore the idea of painterly paintings through a systematic approach to stick with to tell a visual narrative and through the energetic contrasts of medium application

The series (in previous posts) that consist of mutable forms; as spliced, coiling bodies and undulating folds, like abstract graffiti and a collage of paints are a  removal from precision and contemplating the relationship between repetition and difference. These fields are a collage of movements inflicted onto the surface, this action of quick, destructive applications of paint is the act of re-creating. My practice has shifted to looking at the act of destruction and disruption to RE-CREATE new forms. Its about organising states of feelings to be experienced simultaneously. The medium of plywood allows me to carve and sculpt into these panels, physically altering this 2D plane into a 3D plane. 

The addition of these fluro ‘lighting bolts’ feels right, a minimalist and my gestural approach to ‘zip’ up my paintings. They are connotations of superficial disruptions, an almost digital experience. I hope that it automatically draws the viewers towards this element, and in fact, takes them awhile to look away before transmitting to the other aspects of the paintings. This signifies the distractions in modern society we face before we get to notice the other re-created new forms. It also captures a moment of time, the neon sign used as an element to stand out from the crowd which signified landmarks and city life. I hope to further explore this concept and incorporating such elements that disrupts, yet distills the painting.

Another revelation that has occurred to me is to be more conscious of my use of materials, not just letting the materiality of paint create a visual narrative but also acknowledging the fabric more rigourously to speak to the paint/subject. 

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Suicide Zips x4

897cm x1200cm

series on plywood, acylic, aerosol, alkyd and oil paint 

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Matthew Mark Fung Untitled  700cm x 1000cm Brocade fabric 

Ways to see - Inversion

The contrast of manually producing an artificially manipulated photograph and approaching the canvas with digitally manipulated eyes.

Upon looking at mediums outside of painting I have realised that my paintings had a variety and range of subjects, from abstraction to representation, cubism to figuration, hard edge to natural edges. It was always composed of a mix & match of layering, compilations of nuances and contradictions. Whether this is conveyed through different techniques, colours, perspectives or irregularities. I realised I was doing alot of critical thinking visually. Taking a photo, putting into a digital medium and playing with possibilities, I started inverting the images, completely flipping the atmospheric qualities of the images inside out, certain qualities were enhanced and it suddenly became mystical and artificial. Whilst painting the subject in oil , the subject matters became secondary as I was thinking in opposites and focusing on the details of what the colour of the subject SHOULD of been. Thinking inverted created a greater depth and understanding of the microcosm and I noticed plenty of things from images that I otherwise would not.

I am quite happy with the outcome as the oil paints which has connotations to a traditional medium of painting creates a conflicting feeling to me. I have also been marvelled with neon lights as ZIPS that represent the modern world dissecting my artworks as a disruption and collision, It was my intersection of seeing the contemporary world and questioning the adaptability of the painting medium today.

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Inversion - 

Upon looking at mediums outside of painting I have realised that my paintings had a variety and range of subjects, from abstraction to representation, cubism to figuration, hard edge to natural edges. It was always composed of a mix match of layering, compilations of nuances and contradictions. Whether this is conveyed through different techniques, colours, perspectives or irregularities. I realised I was doing alot of critical thinking visually. Taking a photo, putting into a digital medium and playing with possibilities, I started inverting the images, completely flipping the atmospheric qualities of the images inside out, certain qualities were enhanced and it suddenly became mystical and artificial. The subject matters almost became secondary, and THEN painting it, especailly with oil paints which signified a traditional medium of painting. It was another way of seeing the world, understanding the details and I noticed plenty of things from images that I otherwise wouldnt. The contrast of manually producing an artificially manipulated photograph   Approaching the canvas with digitally manipulated eyes. 

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Teelah George Ghosts of what we were 2019-2020 46 x 40 x 3cm Oil Paint, embroidery, canvas, thread 

Teelah distills and condenses TIME and is interested in the stories behind objects, and how objects are collected, archived and ultimately canonised. Her process of consistently re-visiting her archival works and adding and subtracting is similar to Sterling Ruby (another huge influence on my work). Her exploration with the relationships of materials leads to physical responses like embroidery and sculptural elements found in her work. , 

Teelah regards herself as a painter and thinks about her materiality from a painting stand point. She works with a range of materials but there is a coherency throughout her materiality. 

Recently, learning technicalities of painting to portray what I envision and translating it to something tangible has been weighing me down. Something I also try to do simultaneously, however, my painting instincts take over and overrides my focus to showcase my interest and negates the exploration into materiality. Teelah enlightened me when she talks about working with material and unhinging from the burdens of painting history as a medium.

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Critical thinking approach outside of painting medium 

This clip with John Berger called ‘Ways of seeing’ from BBC gives perspective on ways to see paintings through ourselves and the situations we are living in.

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Mack discusses adaptability and transience in the present moment. His interest in an autonomous performance, engaged with movement and space. I’m also attracted by the memory of the body that stays with the textile. Known ready-made materials meeting fleeting gesture. 

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I have always been very fond of Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs. Feedback from my last critical dossier was suggested to explore mediums other then painting to understand why I want to paint and channel into visual art. I think I have been unconsciously been trying to do so, from ‘collaging’ and stitching the things I see that resonate with me (Alot of film shots have also been inspiring me). Upon feedback I have been digging through my archives and I think a general atmoshphere I want to capture with my paintings (regardless of the subject) is the same austerity and melancholy in Mapplethorpe’s flower series.

His flower series possess an elusive, unsettling quality to them. Capturing an ephemeral moment but also with a twist of sadness and contemplation. I guess its how Mapplethorpe describes his on flower series as ‘Beauty and the devil are the same thing.’ 

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Liu Wei Microcosm 2019 Aluminum, glass, wood, LED lights, PVC

“Microcosm is the building block for a new future or a new world, almost like an idea of what a futuristic quest for a place might look like.” Liu chose the title because he wanted to convey atoms colliding in a microscopic world. He says, “We can’t truly experience this micro world. But somehow, we are unflinchingly convinced of its existence.”

This work by artist, Liu Wei is called Microcosm forms a futuristic spectacle of spheres and curves, Liu’s approach to artworks is more then just the visible but a care about a spiritual sense of power, a struggle of some kind, a decision made. He says: “Art is about these struggles, about questioning reality. Liu’s practice speaks to me in his approach to creating a formal language with chaos, creating forms that burst into its occupied space, bringing the microcosm into existence and creating awareness to our own existence and the underlying attributes that compose our reality. I think that eye-contact moment is very important. It’s not about expression, but more about triggering things. 

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Conceptual art

Sol Lewitt Sentences on Conceptual Art

Conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach.

Rational judgements repeat rational judgements.

Irrational judgements lead to new experience.

Formal art is essentially rational.

Irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically.

If the artist changes his mind midway through the execution of the piece he compromises the result and repeats past results.

The artist’s will is secondary to the process he initiates from idea to completion. His wilfulness may only be ego.

When words such as painting and sculpture are used, they connote a whole tradition and imply a consequent acceptance of this tradition, thus placing limitations on the artist who would be reluctant to make art that goes beyond the limitations.

The concept and idea are different. The former implies a general direction while the latter is the component. Ideas implement the concept.

Ideas can be works of art; they are in a chain of development that may eventually find some form. All ideas need not be made physical.

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These paintings are made in such a way that they accept order only very reluctantly. Eventually there is some form of order, but they strive against it. 

—Albert Oehlen

I find myself revisiting Albert Oehlen’s work, especially his works at the Gagosian gallery in Hong Kong in 2019. Oehlen approaches painting as a perceptual challenge, a puzzle set within the unpredictable arena of the picture plane. He often imposes specific rules or limitations on his work—keeping to a certain palette or beginning with a straight line—as a way to interrogate the infinite possibilities that the act of painting presents. By continuously flipping between chaos and control, he opens up new relationships between pictorial space, color, and gesture.

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Affect theory can be applied to materials 

‘Textures have a context, they invoke softness or a safety, hardness or danger, they also have a history, the way we experience materials in the world say more then what we appear to on the surface’. 

‘Affect is an embodied sensation resulting from the body's connection with other bodies and materiality’ quoted from Hicky-Moody triggered me to think about contrasting aspects of my subjects and the tangible perceptions. Materials are signifiers for our bodies, however, when our bodies have associations 

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Late night thoughts:

My practice is becoming a murder wall. Maybe collages is the wrong assemblage. Its about my displacement, piecing together clues to plot my practice. Investigating another consciousness and self through clues, senses and techniques to find MY motivations and connections and contrasts.

1. considering such things as motives, words, actions, political agendas and relatable information