Kick Start Project
Photo graphical Observations
The first part of the project invited us to document the space around us and make work from our observations. I chose to focus on the whiteness of the space, as it seemed strange to me to find nails and wires all white washed over almost as if they were being erased. I was curious how the plainness of the space around me juxtaposed the vibrancy of the traces of paint and glitter stuck onto my allocated desk.
The second part of the project called for us to make work for someone else in our assigned groups, taking their current artistic practice and exploring the themes and questions they were grappling with in our own style. I swapped ideas with Charliii, who had previously told me that she was interested in the workings of the human mind and how one action could cause different emotional responses in a range of different individuals. Staying with this theme I decided to create her a series circuit board that would be wired up differently but all do the same thing, highlighting the way we all have our own ways of processing. However looking into this in more detail I quickly discovered that learning the skills necessary to create this work would take a lot longer then the week we had been given to complete the project, therefore the concept needed tweaking. I then came up with the idea that I would focus on one circuit board alone, and consider in more detail my use of metaphor in the work ( pictured below ) entitled 'I cannot resist you' in which I soldered many resisters onto the circuit board plate and wrapped red thread around them, to depict an addicts brain circuitry. The poetic nature of the work is far more consistent with my usually thought process in making a work. The sculpture is obscure enough to allow the viewer room to impose their own reading of it, yet is decode-able enough to insure that the main theme sof the work survive.
Displaying our group work
When displaying our group work it was apparent that the same colour pallet had been used throughout all of our work, this intrigued me as we didn't confer with each other in advance about this. Upon reflection I realised that politics had been a strong theme amongst the majority of the group so it was not overly surprising that certain colours such as red and blue had been used. The work was all on a small scale so that it was easy to arrange on a table top and look consistent throughout. If I had to develop my piece further, I would look into the science of making a circuit board and create a series of differently wired boards in order to demonstrate the variety of ways human beings can be wired up and still function. This concept ties in with mental health awareness which was important to the practice of Chani, who I was trying to work in the style of.
