I’ve got a few ideas to work on today; I am slowly building a visual vocabulary, and actually understanding it. I can see links and similarities in the exploration of themes, with some of my “tricks” I have acquired. I understand it’s why the tutors want to see me use things they know I am good at (graphics and computer skills), but, I also think I make interesting sculptural objects too – so I am going to use everything I feel I can – because I can.I paint the trumpet red and I like the fact it’s got resonance with my “viewing a newspaper through a red light” idea (in sketch book). It’s great to see things turn out different to that which you expected it to (solid red, nope!).
I decide to film myself in the corridor reading the Independent newspaper – I want to merge the work of my paper exploration, with my recent “my problem” video. I think that this work could be the perfect way of “starting the show”, to have me projected outside the room, as if invigilating the show. I like the sense of time if conveys, the lack of clarity on “what paper” I am reading. I can envisage the projection next to the same chair I sit in, in the video, with a newspaper (of the day) on it, to create some weird “waiting line” – offering a sense of camaraderie – sit with the artist, in silence and contemplate the contents of the newspaper (dictated) on the seat. This “work” takes a matter of a half an hour to film, capture and project back into the space. I show the guys (Susie, Mary & Jonathan), and they all see to engage with it, a sense of awareness of the institution, this work is running on several parallels, the critique of the uni (waiting for news to happen), the sense of time wasting and the sense of gaining news (nee fact / opinion) from a single newspaper (the body of my questioning). I like the confusing sense of the work – you can’t see the paper, you don’t know what I am reading, why I am reading, am I reading? – it’s all coming together for me, I think…all my work seems to knit together to create a large body of varying informative practice. I am interested that some of the work, makes me think of “my practice”, and not the “obvious” sense of “questioning news”. This (I think) is the work that might seem obvious (in a practical sense), but is invaluable for me to question why I made it, is it helping me gain a deeper sense of visual vocabulary? Am I just “making something that looks like art?”
I also create a “speech bubble” out of the P&J, I mask (censor) names, genders and information I am not interested in (sport, mostly). It’s not as rigorous as It could be (I’d blank the whole sports page out), but it’s only a start, a sketch – I can see lots of speech bubbles, from many papers, all with lots or little “editing” on them, hanging as a work – It’s the deconstruction of the “overloaded” trumpet idea I have, disassemble the trumpet into parts that have more strength on their own. It’s funny to think that Joanne seemed to see things literally (or expect to see them) as paired down ideas, which are still open (it’s that hook that is required – to retain interest), but simplicity to allow the work to breath and not overpower, or unnecessarily confuse the viewer…certainly a difficult task, and I guess that’s where my practice needs to be, a removal of the need to “tell”, and let something “just exist”, which happens to also inform the viewer of my position (be that confusion of what / where news is, or anger at tabloids etc).I keep thinking that it might be nice to have a large metal trumpet in the room, with all the video feeds of recorded news (ideally live sky / bbc / itv / channel 4 / fox / cnn / aljezeria etc (not all news progs are 24/7) – so recordings they will have to be. It’s that mechanical / over simplified broadcast, of a complex, turbulent, confusing cacophony with a metallic ring to it that would be quite powerful…. I need to make all the “possibilities” and then edit and compound my decisions to keep or discard.
I also decide to resurrect the “mind map” of my days, but to make them individual mind maps (more manageable sizes – the previous “14 day in one file” took ages to load in, and will be a nightmare to print). Anyway, I’ve decided to try and mind map all of the ideas I have (of merit) during the day, and to try and expand them from physical activities, as well as “fired off ideas” from developments…At night, I head back in to paper the “full stop” with the Guardian.
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