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!
0 Comments
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. 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.
In the studio I grow my ideas into the physical language of the world
A bubbling of life breathed into material movements togethernesses combining relationship joining in the tradition of puppetry as an external poetic study of body movement to movement rigid to fluid holding letting go setting objects free to become another thing fluid nature of identity explored through materials reflecting a wish for freedom divergent ways to bring together form shape being idea fits idea sits the physical expression of my self in many forms and ways these are selves these are expressions reflecting through material moving in ways which are unusual and ways which are recognisable bodies I make bodies expressive bodies finding the limits of communicating body and self (this is my journey from the figurative) this with that forms colours joined parts parts which are not joined shifting and moving moving without purpose bodies of non defined fluid purpose my understanding of mechanism is modelled on the living body which I am holding feeling inserting embracing absorbing uniting expressions of unity unlikely joining growth in my fascination in the fragile/the weak - holding/supporting - the solid/the strong completely still absolutely dynamic The RA Summer Exhibition runs until 21 August.
My art work 5 6 7 - blue harnesses the energy of air displaced by passers by to generate its movements. The form is a continuation of my homage to the adaptive ingenuity of this nature of which we are all a part. Fittingly my sculpture shares a room with architecture and structural ideas as well as other art works. This room is rich in concepts, colour and also significant and practical solutions. Here in the Large Weston Room there is so much to experience and yet miraculously there remains a sense of spaciousness, so that 5 6 7 - blue can breath and relish in the good company it is keeping. Congratulations to Rana Begum and Níall McLaughlin on their selection and hanging of this hive of brilliant ideas, and thank you for allowing me to be a part of this. This room is featured in The Guardian within an article specifically about the architecture rooms in this year's Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. |
April 2024
|