Thoughts leading up to the seminar:
Install images:
- Thinking about ways to display all the items and objects I bought into the space.
Install and Ngahuia Harrison's meeting
Talked about how the objects have a relationship to each other in the space, and what kind of space does the work operate best in. What I want to get out of the install. What elements are important to convey the project- the whole project, as was my intention. how each element behaves in the room. Editing install. Work vs research. I decided I wanted to play with the relationships of all the objects in the space, not just the main works. Previously I had discussed with Balamohan how I wanted to integrate the objects through a democratic display in the space, to be able to talk about their equal presence and importance to my project.
Crits with peers
Response was themed around layout and ideas in the work. The video projection and bike works were responded to as the main artworks in the space, and all the other works were mostly seen as secondary. The space was very much perceived as divided into two spaces, one with main works and one with all the research surrounding the install eg. the photographic works. There were some interpretative responses to the install too, such as the appearance of the photo prints resembling amatuer landscape tourist photos. I felt that the connections of each of the elements in the room was difficult/a bit too complicated to get to for my peers/crit audience.
Assessments
Verbal feedback in the assessment - What is seen as successful work and what confuses the viewer. What is work and what is just research. How do i want audience to perceive the install? It is very much separated into two sections in the space. I am pretty generative in making work but need to think about audience reception and install. How much is too much - at what point does my ideas gain or lose meaning in the space. What type of presentation space or platform is best for this style/method of working? What are my norms of working and what are things I have not considered. Video seemed like the main work and everything else was irresolute.
Talk with Dan Arps
My one-on-one talk with Dan Arps was really helpful and constructive, we talked about installation and the treatment of the objects in the space. How the bike operates in the room. What install strategies include all the objects in the space, but in a considered way that makes connections to how i used the bike and the objects in the outdoor sites, eg. bike hanging from ceiling with all the objects attached to it.
Dan recommended the below artists/resources to look at:
- Roman Signer
- Robert Smithson - 'Site-Nonsite' essay
- Isa Genzken
- Eric Wesley
- 'Weekend' - film, Dir. Jean-Luc Godard, 1967. (16 mil film, no editing)
- 'Gerry' - film, Dir. Gus Van Sant, 2002
These artists, works and more are blogged here: https://gitanjalibhatt5.wixsite.com/mfablog21/post/artist-research-as-a-continuation-from-midyear
Debrief with Balamohan Shingade and Ngahuia Harrison
Discussed seminar/assessments and my takeaways, talked about install strategies and further research in terms of a holistic approach of viewing materials and aspects of the project in the room.
How else might i communicate my project through different delivery methods and mediums, especially the images and other documentation--related ephemera. Book/brochure/online/projector etc. These modes can change and evolve as i work through my project. How does my work interact with audience in the space...think through my install intentions, revisit ways of displaying - take references from museums, and other display methodologies that have similar display approaches to my 'objects.' Places the objects in a different context, questioning their roles/act of reusing, revisits what they are and their significance in the space.
Summary and debrief of overall seminar
I am happy with my work output and being able to travel to locations in order to carry out my ideas, but I also want myself to be more involved in what i'm trying to say and how i am exploring/extending my themes further/into a deeper understanding. Why those specific sites. What makes me want to generate these works. What is the significance of the site. Materials chosen. What narrower and wider themes am i responding to and what are the new themes i can bring it/or are there but i haven't considered yet/addressed through my work.
My takeaways
To consider layout and install more, as well as what to include and what not to. How to communicate my ideas in the best way possible through an install strategy. Need to start thinking about that from now for my end of year installation. I do feel encouraged and keen to keep making so that's helpful, and also helpful to understand a bit more of where I stand in terms of progress/ strength of the project. From now, i think it's just really thinking hard about my ideas alongside installation as i have realised install is/could become a very active part of my practice. I need to work out a way of sharing with the public that's best for the reception and realises the intentions of the project.
My next intentions, ideas and actions
I want to look at honing down my ideas into particular aspects to explore. Until now i was very invested in generating work and doing practical research into site and materials, exploring how my materials interacted with the site and how i created objects in response to the site. It was very much a generative process. Now, while continuing producing work, i want to cover more contextual research, think and explore further into how my work addresses different ideas in a more harmonised manner, rather than being disruptive that perhaps tries to cover too many different ideas. I would like my work to become experienced through interwoven and continuing layers of ideas that explore my perspective and thinking of the landscape as part of current art dialogue, rather than crowded things and ideas in the exhibition space, which i felt what my midyear install was more closer to.
Making wise i am keen to break away slightly from the bike's current structure, and investigate how landscape and materials could convey notions of my research ideas - how land can be seen as a part of humans, how i can distort the landscape into mere visual 'noise' and also audio through constructing/deconstructing apparatuses and objects. What else can sit alongside/what other elements might i discover that i can use in the exhibition space eg. something that sits alongside the 'main' work. Are there some other themes that i want to address as well apart from my so-far researched ones? Or other themes that lie within my project that i had not realised before that i could look at untangling? Such as my own relationships to the sites/me as a performer in the space/the female body or female ideas -- outsider view. Immigrant perspective. Where i'm from vs where i currently am. My ideas in opposition and conversation with western perspectives and approaches to land - i mean i'm already doing this but in what further ways can this be stretched out.