Art Studio IIIA - Week 10, Crit Week

 Week 10 - Crit Week

Here, Now and Close. 2023.

Unfired clay, string, wire, plasterwrap.

Making & Presentation Tests

I wanted to test out presenting the unfired urn with the neuron structures around it.  The idea was the reconnected/remap the neurons around the urn.

I wanted to convey the sense of memorialisation and importance of the urn, so I felt that by using a plinth, it would play on traditional ways of displaying items of significance and elevate the importance of the object. For me, this was key to the display of the urn - in a similar way that you might display items of importance in the home in an area that is a raised focal point, such as the mantelpiece, the plinth does the same job. Because this was key for me, I opted to make a plinth that was the size and hight that I was wanting.

To Secure the lid on the urn, I was wanted to use braided natural material. For the purpose of the install I have gone with a garden twine, but ideally, I would be looking at using flax or other plant material form our garden to secure it.

Test Install

I wanted to set up a test of the install at home, before taking it into the studio. I really wanted to neurons to be hanging in space, as for me it would chance the communication of the work if they were to be coming out of a wall or placed of the floor - it would ground the objects, whereas they needed to feel more transient. The other option I looked at was to bring the neurons out of the plinth. This would make sense in the way that the reconnection comes from the event - which the urn represents.

Interaction

For me, a key part of the work is to remap the neuron structures. I felt that the best was to do this, would be to retie the neurons together in slightly different formation to show to remapping that happens during the grief process. Performance isn't something I have done as part of an artwork before - I like to think of it more as interacting with the artwork,

At this stage, the urn is unfired. For the final handin, I am not sure if I will glaze the urn or keep it unfired and look at incorporating a living structure, a memorial tree. The crit will act as test, as to what avenue I want to go down.

Glazing Tests

For glazing, I am looking at using standard bought glazes, or raku firing.

The idea behind using raku firing would be to utilise natural combustible plant material form around our property or local areas that we spent time at, such as the beach, lake and river. For  the tmebeing I will focus on testing bought glazes

On Wednesday I fired the glazed maquettes. This time I managed to fire the kiln to 1000c as per the instructions for the low fire glaze.

Below is the Mayco Elements - Malachite

Left - Mayco Elements - Malachite over the top of a previously bisque fired terracotta pot.

           Centre & Right - Mayco Classic Crackle China sea

Alternative forms for urns

Depending on how the crit goes, and how the work is read, I am thinking of changing the form of the urn to something in the form of a seed, which would act as a vessel for the memorial tree to be planted in. The plants and seed I am looking at are ones form our own garden - plants that Glen has selected and grown.

Presentation

For the crit week I presented the unfired clay urn, placed on a plinth that I had made, with the neuron structures surrounding it, suspended by fishing line. I then interacted with the neuron structures, reconfiguring them as a performance piece (Video below)

The work explores the idea of here, close and now - how our brains use neural maps to track our relationships with our loved ones along the dimensions of time, space and closeness (or attachment). Our brain maps are used to find our loved ones, track where there are and predict when they might return. These maps are built up over years of lived experience. When we experience grief, the map in our brain which we use to locate our loved one, no longer matches our new reality. When a loved one is missing, our brain predicts that they are somewhere else and we will find them later. The idea that the person doesn't exist anymore and cannot be found in time and space, doesn't correspond with the rules that our brains have learnt over a lifetime. As far as our brain is concerned, this means that our loved one both gone and everlasting, which is a painful problem for our brain to solve. Therefore, grief is a process or relearning our new reality and updating our neural maps to reflect this.

In this work, the urn represents the loss, placed on a plinth, raised up in a central place of importance. The remapping occurs around the grief. The remapping is expansive, taking up all the space, with the loss being central to the experience.

Feedback from Crit

The viewer noted the connections being put together around the central sculpture. It was mentioned that they would have liked to have seen the performance carry on for longer. They also enjoyed the way the hanging sculpture moved/swayed once I had finished connecting the neurons.

The pottery was noted, being a sealed clay vessel, urn like. The fact that it was unfired was talked about - and how that made the viewer what to touch it to feel how cold it would be, and the make an imprint on it. There is a desire for tactility - particularly with the design features of the toggle and braiding.

The vessel was talked about as having some Asian cultural contingency to it - feeling like a Buddhist temple, offering their relationship rather than a classic urn you would see in a New Zealand context.

They wondered if the hanging structure was protecting the vessel, or holding it in place, they weren't sure what the connection was. It was noted that the structures reminded one of the viewers of neural pathways - the connecting, and reconnecting of memories, the pathways are broken, and loss was talked about.

They read the neurons as symmetrical, but also erratic forms, with erratic energy coming from the vessel. They wondered if I was trying to get what was going on inside the head in relation to the ceramic. The ceramic seems connected to the body - with the braiding, and the shape of it was reda as bodily.

They felt that the action at the beginning could have been pushed. They said it was powerful, and the vessel could have been removed completely with more time being spent in the space executing the action. They felt like it was a really curious performance but felt cut short. One viewer thought of it like a brain, and like it was learning, still being malleable, changing. 

The fishing lien was noted as being distracting - the objects are meant to me magical and floating, yet the line is always there. They wondered if there was another way to present the work? They also talked about the plinth - acting in the same way as the line, being in the work but not part of the work. A standard convention - I am in the work, but pretend I am not here. There felt there was potential for the structures to build bigger. It was discussed about sculpture and the engineering of it - how does the work touch the ground, how does it interact with the site.

They wanted to extend the conversation to the performance - how you come into a space, what you are wearing, how you exit. Do you come in and interrupt the space or is it something ongoing? They are very different connection. Where does the artists interaction sit within the work. The twisting of the material, the artist is already present in the work. They talked about the residual energy of when I stepped away, it was in some ways more exciting than the actual performance - leaving a trace of a trace. There was also shedding of the material on the ground, which was mentioned, along with the nervous energy.

I mentioned that I considered attaching the neuron structures to the plinth - the response was that this then makes us questions what the role of the plinth is.

Response

I felt that the crit went well, and the feedback was really helpful. I think in this case, a title would have been really helpful to give a bit more context to the work.

The talk about the plinth and line was interesting and expected. I did consider attached the neurons to the plinth, which I think I should have done, as it would have made it much more obvious that the plinth was an integral and intended part of the work, rather than being a traditional display convention.

The flip side to that, is the response to the line and the discussion around it being there but pretending it isn't, was not really interesting and is a concept that could be played with, particular with this subject matter. The whole concept is your brain telling you something is there, as that is what is have learned, when it actually isn't there anymore. For me this, feel like a really interesting area for further exploration, although possibly in another project.

The performance and reconnecting brough some interesting discussion, and lots to think about there. If this piece was in a gallery situation, I would be wanting to change small parts of the neuron structure each day, so over a period on months the work changed form and the maps were updated.

Research

Vivian Atkison - The R Matrix — The See Here

Above - Vivian Atkinson, The R Matrix. The See Here, 2018.

This work was interesting to me due to the slow change that takes place in time in the artwork. The performance work lasted over 100 days. Each day the silver teapot was cleaned with a new cloth. The weight of the teapot at the start and the end was noted in the diary with the weights sewn onto the cloths. Details of thoughts were also noted in the diary. At the end of the 100 days a total of 3.4 grams of silver was removed from the teapot.

I think what I find particularly interesting in this work is the slow gradual change that takes place over time. It's something that is hard to see and hard to measure and would normally not be noticed or acknowledged. It also talks to the history that we acquire over time, or in my work our memories/neural maps and how these change over time in a slow, gradual process.

'As an artist not a highly trained physicist, I have understood the concept of Superposition in a non-scientific and simplistic way. Working with vintage silver-plate over some years I have acquired objects with many surfaces –tarnish, dust and grime, nicotine, patchy and worn to the base metal from repeated polishing. These vessels carry potent histories and are the starting point for ideas about the changes that occur over time that underpin this work.' Atkinsen, V. 2018.

Further works - Vivien Atkinson - HANDSHAKE project