Having received the new Studio Practice brief on Monday, today I think I may have had a light bulb moment…
For the coming semester I want to incorporate my other skills in working towards the end of year show, that’s not to say that performance has been shelved, but I want to extend my practice and discover who I am in terms of my other abilities.
Viewing my new website it does appear a bit ‘jack of all trades and master of none’ so in order to build a page of current work, I am full stream ahead with experimentation.
My practice last year focused on plastic, not only the devastation it causes, but also the question of; How can we learn to live without it? To reflect on this, from a ‘materials’ point of view, I have always liked the idea of using everyday items, to make work.
Recent practice in my Skills and Techniques Development module has seen me encourage others to up cycle materials in an attempt to create work – see recent Skills blog. To prepare for one of these sessions, twenty 6ft pieces of unconventional collage were made, using brown paper and old newspaper as well as the help of others, for students to work on. As luck would have it, there were several editions of the same newspaper available for use and this provided a pleasing consistency, knowing that every piece made used the same material but they were all very different – I noted at this point how differently one person can make a mark, compared to another (even when placing bits of old newspaper).
Back to the point.
A few factors during the last two weeks have contributed to my recent eureka moment. Firstly, I was very inspired by two Mixed Media artists at the London Art Fair; Chiara Williams; working with print and illustration onto napkins and brown paper bags, and also the work of Sebastian Bayet who paints but incorporates all sorts of materials in his work. Examples of both artists are available to view on Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/victoriaburch/39897350743/in/dateposted-public/
Secondly, drawing class this week pushed us to create a business card, where I made the conscious decision to move away from the conventional and created an example out of a clay mono print on fabric (created with a rolling pin) and collage. Also available to view on Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/victoriaburch/46862112951/in/dateposted-public/
Thirdly, in creating more collage material - to create marketing material for the Skills module, I realized how versatile the material actually is.Very long strips of collaged brown paper can be made easily from a roll, with a packet of wallpaper paste and some old newspaper. This is then ironed, to make the material flat. This in itself is a pleasing process.
In studying the material more closely, I began to think about what newspaper is and what it means to me. In my lifetime I have worked for a newspaper as an artist and layout technician. I have seen many changes in this industry and morn its gradual disappearance. In placing the pieces down on the brown paper, its randomness is similar to that of today’s political climate – on one page we are fed the exotic sights of far off lands, on the next page is an advert for Betway, on another the Business section. Randomly placed – sometimes ending up next to each other, these begin to almost tell a story.
Lastly, working with this material feels like I’m giving the newspaper another chance. In addition to this I am making the most of an old commodity whose days are numbered – not really sure where I’m going with this, but it’s a starting point!
Although not intentionally, my Skills module has clearly feed my Studio Practice and how this develops moving forward is so far proving to be quite exciting – all I know is, I like making work with unconventional materials, unconventional everyday tools such as the iron or the rolling pin and where this ends up remains to be seen...
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