Construction

The weekend has been spent on some productive construction activity. After a disastrous bout of unconvincing customer service at Homebase on Friday (who, as a result, I shall not be using again), Saturday was spent laying the groundwork to my first work of note since leaving University approximately twelve months ago. Today, the supports have been completed to the standard pictured above and will require some kind of sealing before its inaugural coat of paint.

This latest painting is numbered 163, titled 'Do Not Obstruct', and is intended to be a 'return' to the cellular structures that had been previously explored. I'm aiming for a dark vibrant red cell in off-white/yellowed surroundings, but there are no guarantees of the future. Hopefully, it'll contain a hint of humour, but in a deadpan Paul Merton style. I once saw Paul Merton taking a tour of Tate Modern. He's very tall.

Degree Shows: RCA Sculpture, Slade BA

Our recent visit to London took in vaguely work-related tours of the RCA Sculpture Show and the Slade BA Fine Art show. Immediate impressions of both, but especially the RCA, incorporated a vast sense of ambition. I'd like to equate this sense to my impression of reality through spoken languages that have limited names for colours. Or not entirely this, but coming to notice the subtle differences between Universities, and understanding what seems like varying student attitudes. Essentially, I'd not noticed the differences between resultant exhibitions from different Universities until this point.

Particular highlights included, from the Slade, painting by Michael Armitage, Gemma Nelson and (for Rule) video work by Jack Strange. At the RCA Sculpture Show, Rule was particularly enamoured with odd kinetic/video/light based deals by Daniel Pasteiner, whilst I plumped for the carefully constructed painted brick spheres by Thomas Winstanley. Also can't ignore (literally) Jodie Carey's 'Untitled (Monument)', a giant wedding cake constructed from cast bones.

Process

"It's a moot point whether the act of making or the photographic record of it is the true "work". "
Guardian Arts

The nature of the conflict between the act of creation and the creation itself is seemingly somewhat overlooked in my experience. Questioning the importance of process over that of production was picked up at College during critique sessions in which fellow students seemed disinterested whilst I claimed that the finished work doesn't matter as much as making it. This ideal stuck unhindered until the point when I realised that the works I had completed held weight for me visually. It's worth the possibility of debate to dredge it up to be considered once again.

A painting is an artwork completed to communicate some aspect or combination of ideas, situations or moods. However, the artistic satisfaction comes from the act of creating the work, and its validity is decided by the individual participant through a period of consideration inspired by the visual connotations of the work itself. In these areas, the process forms an experience of the work, for which the work is a catalyst. The work cannot exist without the actions required to make it, and it is reduced without the experience of its participation. The experiences and processes can and do exist without the necessity for an artwork, and therefore the process is of more importance than the physical outcome.

* * *

A small portion of today has resulted in becoming aware of how often I switch off at the mention of certain references. For instance, throughout University I completely ignored anything said about Duchamps or Beuys simply because it happened so often. Today's realisation of this was caused by reading Matthew Collings in Modern Painters (June 2007) considering an essay he's writing:

"It's about Picasso in the early 1960s dissecting his own art, redoing the same format in endless repetitions as if he's asking what painting is and coming up with repetition itself as the answer. Process is the point. Perpetual agitation is the mood. There is no culminating work preceded by a series of studies, just the studies. Every picture... is the work."

I realise that I'm expecting myself to elaborate on these points but, having nothing more informative to note than that I find them inspiring, I won't. The emphasis I wanted to make was on ignoring things when they might come as some use in attempting to clarify any desired objectives in the field of painting. Perhaps it's just that Collings has a viewpoint that doesn't just reiterate everything I've ignored in the past.

The process of creating work has become, or is becoming, a series of realisations on the considerations of others. It could be possible to construct a practise from curating and editing ideas already realised by those others.

New Studio Floor

I finally managed to construct myself a suitable surface on which to build paintings. The only real problem is the storage of paintings once they're done. Or the problem of transporting them to places with space to store them. Also, next step is shelving for the collection of items affectionately known as 'junk' that occupied the space beforehand.

I'm quite excited about the possibility of making some paint this weekend, or at least experimenting with the process. Shelving should be out of the way by the end of the week, and then I'll formulate a plan to complete an incomplete work known as 139. I have a series of unresolved ideas that also may need to be explored.

FE Show, UCCA Farnham

Not sure whether this is of much note. Rule and I visited after work on Monday 14 May and had a cup of orange juice each. Much of the work was certainly unimpressive and the display was generally shoddy, but I'm not sure whether that's what should be concentrated on. The Foundation course is mostly eight months of deciding which skills to hone in the future, rather than working on actually improving, and therefore the show works on showcasing potential. Rule and I didn't view using these terms, and were subsequently disappointed. Thinking back, there may have been a few candidates whose display suggested a tempting line of inquiry, though somewhat incomplete and unresolved. Perhaps they'll do something in the future.