Tuesday 27 October 2009

Plodding onward.


Well, I’ve not actually done another 3D mock-up of my piece for the T.T.A. thingy, but I have glued over 1000 cocktail sticks together into little triangular pyramids.
I’m not sure why.
I kind of came to the realisation that I don’t have a workshop with which to make a huge sculpture with anymore, and trying to bash together a load of wood into something coherent in my back yard with little-to-no tools  would be even more of a waste of time.
General plan remains the same.
Driving test on Thursday. Wish me luck

Thursday 15 October 2009

I've been trying to plan the actual physical construction of my piece for the T.A.A. event, which is proving a little harder than I first assumed.  My work tends be be on quite a large scale, indeed the last piece I did pretty much needed and entire room to function properly, and when it went to Liverpool, it was a logistical nightmare moving it across country. I even had to break one of the sculptures up for the return journey.

For this project, I won't know where the space is until I have to install the work, I don't know how much space there is, and there might not be any electricity. This adds up to quite a bit of practical thinking, which, in all honesty, I'm not used to. My plan was to throw something together, transport it half built to the space, and then stick it together there, but even simple tools I take for granted like a glue gun or drill are ruled out without electricity.

I had two plans, one being some large scale prints, and the other being some kind of sculptural construction. I've been mulling over this idea of the sculpture for a while, as I like the idea of making a sculpture that will decay over time, or will barely support it's own weight, swaying and twisting and eventually falling in on itself, etc. Messing about in SketchUp last night yielded these results;


Which I quite like, although I went a bit overboard with the old Copy and paste there so the finished result might not be so impressive. Alas the scale is way, way out, if this was actually built it would be about 14 metres high, which is about the height of 7 tall people standing on each others shoulders. So I'll be dong a more realistic one at some point. Considering the practical elements I also SketchedUp this shape


Which shows the elemental unit I'd be using to construct this thing, if I used timber as my material. Problems with timber include, it being heavy and thick, and it might end up looking too well made, and I'd lose the spindly aspect I'm imagining in my head.

Something like the B of the Bang, or tatlin tower, Or some beautiful Sarah Sze type stuff
Whose work I went to see at the Baltic last November in April, and obviuosly still haven't gotten over. i'm really in love with the idea of a temporary monument to nothing specific, especially considering the recent debate on the subject in Art Monthly.


I'll upload a more realistic SketchUp later on. Now It's time for some lunch.
 

Tuesday 13 October 2009

Apology+

Eek, It's been like three weeks since I said I'd write a review of the new New Contemporaries Exhibition at the Cornerhouse, and I haven't. I do kind of have an excuse though. I've been busy being asked to make some work for T.A.A., which stands for Temporary Autonomous Arts, and they are a kind of guerilla art movement based in Manchester.

The work they show tends to be of the "underground" variety, Graffiti art, recycled art, large sculptural intervention, small sculptural intervention, etc, etc. I'm working with the lovely Nancy, as part of Chomp TV, which is, in their own words, a fresh, alternative approach to the notion of exhibition space. They use the television as a physical and conceptual device to provide accessible, innovative gallery spaces that can be placed anywhere.

So yeah, I'll try and keep this up to date with any development as and when it happen. And try to write a review of Angels of Anarchy, the new exhibition of work by the women surrealists, which is now on at the Manchester City Art gallery

http://forbiddenartsmanchester.org.uk/ for the T.A.A. guys

http://www.myspace.com/chomptv for Chomp TV