 Humans have become adept in the creation of robots and machines which fulfil a useful purpose;
Vacuuming the floor Mowing the lawn A car is a machine which, as an extension of the human body allows us to travel in a different way, as does a bicycle. These machines are extensions of the human and articulated with physical interface designed entirely around the human body. The machines which we have surrounded ourselves with allow us to extend the reach of our will. The physical and material world is communicated to through the physical action. Speaking is a physical action. I want to go somewhere. I have a feeling of wanting to be in another place. I want to go to the beach to relax and to slow down mentally. To do this I use my physical body in communication with another invented/created physical body; a car, a bicycle, a train, an airplane. This is a particular point of interest for me; that our communication with the physical is our way of articulating beyond the physical. The communication of the spiritual / religious through physical mechanism saturates the history of automaton and "living" mechanisms.* That the physical is a means by which we are able to interact with all things so as to incorporate and convert these things through the actions they serve and the feelings which we have in response to the physical presence of these things. The subject of feeling is a place which my creative practise is specifically engaged with. This is why I specify that the mechanical exists as a language. We are adept in the subtle understanding of the physical. We are this physical, as well as whatever else we are! Our culture/society prioritises the useful or the clearly useful. This is seemingly common sense, but this favouring of the obviously useful is a limiting factor in our innovation and development. So much is not useful which still can be explored. Feelings are communicated through the physical gesture. A poetic use of the language of mechanism so as to suggest a relationship between us, who occupy a physical body and an invented physical, sculptural, mechanical body. The relationship between a person and this physical thing (a composition of stuff) is where the connection to the practice of puppetry exists. Puppetry is effective by way of a profound connectedness of the will and body of a person (puppeteer/audience/viewer) to the thing (puppet). Through this invented-body-thing feeling is expressed. This happens by the deep awareness and physical expression of techniques of puppetry performance. The specific communication of physical happens also as a result of the living tradition of puppet making which in part aims to give the human a feeling of sensing a particular and living body. Through geometry, physics, material quality and form. most often the puppet is a physical representation my interest is that this language has value beyond representation and that each suggestion can be isolated and combined with another words and phrasing may be used in description and instruction words and phrasing may be used as and for themselves combined to make only a shape only a sound here words and phrasing are separated from their obvious usefulness perhaps in so doing they are set free they may again be useful but no longer must they always be so so it is with the exploitation of previously useful objects within a poetic phrasing a previous purpose contributes even in the poetic all objects and material have a previous incarnation like the roots of words an invented poetic archeology of objects and materials *recommended reading -The Restless Clock by Jessica Riskin
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The invisible
the hand the thing the firmament the environment the mechanical support system the thing that brings life that which allows to move the following the shadow the magician the thief the deceiver the force behind in front around holding embracing the mysterious female the valley spirit being that which is seemingly independent the character which we engage and believe the body of a thing the solid object morphology geometric details the area between points time spirit of change water air airplane wind moving still touching the hairs on the back of my neck stand up I can’t see the thing which is making that move I am alive here alone not alone impossible I am without I am inside inside me I breath through air connection complete in my body all through my whole body this air this food I eat moves me and through me completely I am this I am it the puppeteer this here this one they hiding hide not there unseen so we are convinced that it lives lives and breaths but something somewhere is what it is this that it moves could crush it could annihilate but doesn’t it gives allowing guides follows responding through what is all around focused inside subject solid object treasure a distraction from the whole bird shows air in flight invisible mapped by solids moving we are this of what we are deeply of to be this experience as allow-er to a livingness so proficient at hiding somewhere anywhere in discomfort finding repose calm breath is key in these moving moments when the life which I am is directed projected into another solid body I am collective I am shape shifter absolutely physically empathising spectrum of densities and porosities varying degrees of absorption I travel through sit inside stand in walk through passing through place solid seen not seen liquid gaseous puppeteer is human representative of firmament experiencing being allowing listening loudly to the seemingly weaker following what I can so easily prevail over is this not the giving of love? allowing life to be through another body sharing physically puppetry is by its nature the most intimate of expressive acts I am this body which you believe to be living knowing that it is me I am so totally this body unlikely still it is living letting my living breath through this other physical body also I am un-living without this surrounding which lets me live as is the puppet we are of the same piece of earth the life through this physical body mine yours object physical vessel for life I am a puppeteer in total giving through object I need not hide giving completely to another body renders me that which I have gifted with life neither of us owns this livingness This morning I was witness to the robin
whom I know so well (through summers and winters for countless passings) hold in beak with gentleness and care profound the final moult before the wing a damselfly (this creature I have been as much a human may feel to be) and for both I felt a care towards their sharing Gentle robin whipping tail of adolescence insect form living is here another’s dying (my conclusion in this common mystery) How one may the other become and in so doing undo a path which never was kindness even in seeming atrocity seemingly is this nature’s mystery phrasing in these poems there is such economy of placement whereby parts will communicate with each other anything more will only contribute to lessen my aim is not to finish an art piece rather to feel something through a composition  With so much effort going towards the promotion of an artist as brand competing through projections of (market) success and continuous creativity, I am happy to have an honest portrait of me and my creative practise. This includes an element of struggle, insecurity and the inevitability of an unknown future. Edward Baiduc has managed to capture the human that I am; in my North London studio, at the Royal Academy and within the nature I love and crave at the Walthamstow Wetlands Centre. The winding path of the artist is not necessarily the easiest to traverse. (I speak here for myself) There are dizzying heights and unfathomable descents, such shifts in altitude often take place within an insanely short space in time. I do love being in this creative way as an artist. I am learning all the time about what is possible and also what may not be. One thing I ask is that if you are in a position to financially support an artist please do so. This may be in purchasing an artwork or buying them a coffee someday! I wish to give thanks to all of you who have encouraged and supported me through good times and hard times... and the crazy mixture of both in the same moment! As a unifying concept; that which gives the impression of being alive.
A puppet gives this when performed proficiently with technicality and skill. An object can give this when referred to in a certain way. A mechanism can have this when there are sufficient indications given through design, movement engineering, rhythm and form, so as to inspire an empathetic physical feeling/response in the viewer. The notion of livingness draws together many strands of my creative research. In my drawing this is suggested towards by a feeling of recognition within the composition, once this has happened now it is time to stop. Livingnesses are hard to place, to define and/or to frame. Floating bodies maintain this due to the physical inspiration/stimulus from and through the fluid they are within. We are such a floating body. this year I am thankful most of all to community and people who I have shared with
conversation music art theatre ideas smiles joys cellebrations sadnesses challenges pain disagreements togetherness the friends who have listened to me when things have felt too much too confusing too frustrating too unexpected those who have given to me their time their ideas their stories friends who have let their guard down and trusted me friends who have been by my side those I have known for many years new friends who share smiles and experiences I thank the creative environment which has acknowledged and facilitated my creative practise I thank each individual within any place I have visited for whatever reason perhaps to buy a coffee or a bottle of wine food anything! we are all connected in some way let’s live love and grow deeper togethernesses in 2023! Thank you 2022, you have been a wild year and impossible to pin down.  Process drawing, Bow Down and Very Low - 123 (2020) The principle relationship in the drawing of an idea into the physical/mechanical/tactile is the relationship with my total body
Thoughts and ideas are absorbed and then acted upon The principle ingredient in any manifestation is the human action This is infused with idea and thoughts which grow and alter are born and die forming moving the studio is an incubation place To make from idea like a mother gestation of a received spark intense physical mental spiritual absorption making new out of my body’s energies When I lived in Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand I received traditional Maori Healing (romiromi) and wisdom from Papa Jo Delamere and Manu Korewha. Up until this time I had taken and used whatever I wanted from the physical world to make bodies to form puppets and sculptures. These bodies began to feel strange and frightening and not ‘right’. One conversation with Manu has stayed with me and is of the greatest significance to the process of manifestation I am involved within. On talking about my being an artist and puppet maker, Manu responded that I was a genetic engineer; the different parts of what I make would forever be in argument with each other unless they were each acknowledged and thanks was given. This act by the artist/maker of acknowledgement can be viewed as a form of prayer (karakia). The physical is acknowledged in the most profound sense so that the thing made is new and its constituent parts are content in their energies and so happily act in concert. The conversation of materials is my preferred sculptural analogy as it is inclusive towards the maximum information of any combination of physical/mechanical elements. The place where a thing is from is honoured in the deepest sense and so alleviating the strangeness of the newly made and allowing it to sing, joyfully and significantly in its new manifestation. A living potential expressed through the combination of inanimate elements. Within autonomous sculptures this happens devoid of human contact. This quality is expressed in contact with a human through the ancient principles and techniques of puppetry. The inanimate gains living movement through connection and direct physical contact with the human puppeteer. The multifaceted rhythmic of a living person, never still even when still is transferred to a thing. The observer’s perception is altered. We are experts at detecting “livingness” from “non-livingness”. My thoughts on this; This has come about due to our development and survival as a species over millennia. We need/ed to know if a thing in the corner of our perception is/was alive (therefore a potential threat) or not alive. This has been instrumental in our survival within countless scenarios. I do not believe we can mentally “chose out” of this. It is hard-wired into our total being. In experiencing puppet theatre we ride this ancient perceptive attribute; We experience joy and elation in the mental knowledge that the puppet is not alive all the while unable to switch off the deep innate feeling that it could be. The puppet is both a potential threat and not a threat in the same moment. In my development of sculptures which communicate a sense of their being alive I exploit the tension, holding and release of materials to express “livingness”. I prefer to not rigidly join one thing to another and instead chose dynamic and fluid jointing techniques found within the tradition of puppet design. Although the initial drive may originate from an electric motor, the character of the moving is a composition of certain selected materials and objects, each contributing their unique way of holding and releasing. These dynamic assemblages are an orchestra of these things expressing the desired feeling/s through tension, release, movement and sound. Below is a detail from the sculpture Bow Down and Very Low - 123 developed for Ingrid Pollard. A living breathing stillness is observed here in the subtle pulsation of spring steel saw blades. Perhaps these materials are experiencing physical waves of remembering as to how they arrived here and then onward to continue their dance. Reflections on a fair way to price my art works and why I support price negotiation.
Without price negotiation “price” is accepted to exist as a god-like, solid and absolute value assigned by the seller. Any negotiation of price is potentially accompanied by embarrassment and/or loss of face, loss of honour, loss of respect, on the part of the buyer to the seller and to themselves. The price is the same for all. Another way is; A suggestion of price is offered by the seller, this price sits at the upper level of what they believe the buyer is willing to part with. The buyer has the choice to accept this price or, without self judgement or judgement by the seller, to suggest a price which they can pay and are happy to part with based on their actual personal financial situation. The buyer also knows from the initial proposed price offered by the seller an upper value assigned to the thing being sold. This they will take into consideration when making their suggestion. Perhaps the value assigned by the seller is so far above the buyer’s means that they decide not to continue, or they can take courage and suggest an amount. This may be accepted by the seller or another price proposed closer to the buyer's suggestion. A flexible pricing structure is created negotiated fairly based on both sides. More effort is required for this form of exchange but I believe that the result is fairer and a stronger relationship is formed. By placing what is desirable at a value completely out of reach to most people, this ultimately benefits a wealthy minority and aids a culture where all want is set artificially at absolute and inflexible value. Value is not inherent. Value is assigned. By who? The price is generally set specifically aimed at the societal group which can afford this price and so reserves this content for a tiny minority. Is this a system which will reward innovation and risk-taking-potential in the arts? It would seem rather that this system rewards the replication of what has succeeded previously and also what panders to the fantasies and tastes of a minority. |
June 2023
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