Matthew Barney

Matthew Barney is a sculptor, film maker and performance artist...

Quite interesting; the use of the materials, the scale and the space (interstingly, all the things I am looking at!)

 So...I really want to experiment with materials, experimenting putting pieces in spaces and places, and increase the scale of my samples/constructed pieces. I think Matthew Barney has been an excellent  artist to look at in terms of my underlying concept of my project; creating a feeling of fragility (or robust-ness?!)  and/or the feeling of unheimliche by using materials that possibly have these characteristics too. 

Inspiration for the next few weeks...

New Book

The best presents are books. Especially when it is a book of Rachel Whiteread's drawings.

I am a lover of her work (ideas of space/structure, definitely posted about her before) and her drawings are also quite excellent.

I sometimes find drawing a tricky spot, not because I cant draw, or don't want to draw, just often I am stuck as to how exactly it can help me move along, so not just drawing what I have made, or what I will make. So I read a bit of the book at the beginning, and a few things stood out to me;-

-'In their construction, these drawings mirror the thought processes contained within the sculpture' (and I assume this can apply to anything not just a sculpture...)

-'You can worry something through by placing things on a page'

-(Quote by louise Bourgeois, but still relevant and in the book) 'Everything is fleeting but your drawing will serve as a reminder'

I also read that drawing things, just helps to get things out there, out of your head, just as another thought process, serves as a reminder...

Here are some drawings.

(Scanned from the book, as they are really nicely laid out which add to the overall brilliance of the book)

Unheimliche

The Uncanny (Ger. Das Unheimliche - "the opposite of what is familiar") is a Freudian concept of an instance where something can be familiar, yet foreign at the same time, resulting in a feeling of it being uncomfortably strange or uncomfortably familiar.

Because the uncanny is familiar, yet strange, it often creates cognitive dissonance within the experiencing subject due to the paradoxical nature of being attracted to, yet repulsed by an object at the same time. This cognitive dissonance often leads to an outright rejection of the object, as one would rather reject than rationalize.

Thinking about creating work that is unnerving, uncomfortable, uncanny, has that 'unheimliche' sort of charactersitic/feeling.

Reviewing my work, from now I want to think about scale and space, form and feeling...

Using different materials to create a feeling of fragility or robustness, not actually setting out to make something robust or fragile, though I could do, and achieve the other at the same time.

-making things unheimliche

-making a process unheimliche

-making drawing unheimliche etc etc...

Cotton buds...

Colour!

Looking at colour, and colour mixing, much harder than I anticipated to get the exact colours...

Got me thinking about colour and painting and Mark Rothko and feelings...

So, I plan to look of the colours of the objects that I chose (fuses etc) and create some bigger drawings/paintings. I think this could be a platform for further drawings, as they wouldn't be representational and could be more about form and feeling which I have been trying to achieve, or rather thinking about trying to achieve...

Theme

Curiosities.

Definition

-a strong desire to know or learn something,

-a strange or unusual object or fact.

I was trying to think of a theme that combines what I like; layout, collections, odd things, alice, spaces, things, thoughts, thinking.

So this is a thoughtful word that fits in (somewhere) and yet again something to consider...

Thoughts.

Decided on my words. Robust: Fragile ( but no doubt the others will come into it)

I picked my materials to work with as a starting point; so the fabrics-wool, calico, some nice bobbly wooly fabric, scrim; threads -greys, pinks,creams and blues; and I also popped in to sainsburys and picked out a few things I felt were interesting -paracetamol, fuses and matches...

I think I have decided on a theme, as when I starting making (wrapping, stitching, connecting) a few things fell in to place/ started to think about a few ideas.

Started thinking about making 'robust' solid things seem fragile; making things robust so wrapping and covering/protecting; making things fragile. Changing things.

I also thought It could be nice to think about 'Alice' in the theme.

Lots of notes have been scribbled in sketchbook...