My new moto of everything experimenting

I keep getting frustrated and stuck. It seems to me to be contradictory to plan and theorise before creating. Creating should come from an instinctual engagement with stuff. Just stuff - anything and everything.

I also think that everything should be tried. All areas should be approached openly and with a positive learning attitude. There is so much to learn and absorb and the only way is to grasp and participate in anything and everything. And so,... I am beginning to engage myself in the art practice of people that are willing and interesting. So I am not limiting and narrowing myself to the formal elements of sculpture...

I am going to expand and take on anything that I am able to put my hands to. In this way I can only develop a greater understanding of things that I dont understand, and stir up the norm with some unexpected experiments. I am not allowed to be scared to try and to have a go will produce a result which shows whether something worked or not.

Costume, biology, chemistry, performance, social interactions...

And embracing new things will hopefully enable me to understand and input new elements into my own practice. Everyone is constantly 'developing a practice' so to define a practice at such an early stage of my career seems crazy.

Grass experiments

I have been experimenting with grass and planted grass seeds in a form similar to previous experiments using stockingnet and weighting the end. Here I have created five weights hanging all connected to make one form. The ends are full of compost and grass seeds. Within two weeks the grass grew.


Inspired by Louise Bourgeois' 'Cells', I want to develop the idea of space. I would like to work on private places that are nothing. No relevance or purpose. Useless spaces that are in existence just to be space. I am working on the idea of these places being natural or having strong elements of growth and plants. Living spaces.

going green

I have recently started to experiment using seeds. So far I have planted grass seeds and cress. I have little experience in gardening so this has opened up an area of the unkown, which I am finding exciting. I like the idea that it will input colour in the forms and allow a natural growth to determine the work. It will be freer and the work will become more like my creations as I will have to nurture and tend to their growth over a long period of time.
It is teaching me about the natural world and the fundamental biology makeup of our physical world. There is the planting, growth and death. There is colour. There is chance and unpredictibility. There is discovery and education. I am not sure what will happen or how it will turn out, but the experimentation with a completely new medium is exciting.

Statement

I want to learn about the world we live in and the physical things that we are surrounded by. Through playing and exploration I am constantly developing an understanding for the mediums I use, and engaging with the world around me on a physical and instinctual level. The materials are from the world, and I want to discover and display their limitations and possibilities. The materials are my only starting point, and working through their processes I make forms that explore these physical properties. Stretching, tension, weight and length are a constant theme that uses the height of the architectural space, hanging from the ceiling, drawing attention to the environment that the viewer and the form share. During the making I am in a reality where my concentration is fully absorbed by materials. The objects take form through an intuitive engagement that almost becomes an extension of myself, or my ‘offspring‘. The obsessive repetition involved in the procedures inevitably forms a strong relationship between myself and the work. They are tactile, concrete forms, and I want them to exist on their own, referencing nothing other than themselves. I see them as individual characters, with their own strengths and weaknesses.

White- hope house gallery, Leeds

Here are a few photos just to give an idea of the exhibition. It was an exhibition of four artists working in very different mediums and with very different interests. The experience was great to work with others at putting on a show, and it seemed to go ahead without much difficulty. It is a great space, but difficult to find, which limited the number of visitors. I found it incredibly useful to see my work installed in a space and to watch how people interacted with the work. There was a lot of touching and squeezing. Overall a valuable event for me.

I want to learn about the world we live in and the physical things that we are surrounded by. Through playing and exploration I am constantly developing an understanding for the mediums I use, and engaging with the world around me on a physical and instinctual level. The materials are from the world, and I want to discover and display their limitations and possibilities. The materials are my only starting point, and working through their processes I make forms that explore these physical properties. Stretching, tension, weight and length are a constant theme that use the height of the architectural space, hanging from the ceiling, drawing attention the environment that the viewer and the form share. During the making I am in a reality where my concentration is fully absorbed by materials. The objects take form through an intuitive engagement that results me seeing them as almost extensions of my Self, or my ‘offspring‘. The obsessive repetition involved in the procedures inevitably forms a strong relationship between me and my work. They are tactile, concrete forms, and I want them to exist on their own, referencing nothing other than themselves. I see them as individual characters, with their own strengths and weaknesses.