This post refers to an art object mentioned in an earlier blog (my Myspace one) that can be found at my ‘old blog’ link at the bottom of the page, Dec 22 06 Untitled. The piece of work is my first visible plaque:
UNTITLED
Anonymous
(Dimensions Unknown)
(Date Unknown)
Destroyed
My exploration of the ‘the absent exhibition’ is in direct response to this work conceived almost a year ago.
The reason for me referring to it in this blog is best explained in the form of an anecdote.
Last Friday was the first day I concentrated all my studio time to making a ‘60x60 Exhibition’ (a system of representation of my own design). As ever the theme or intent was the depiction of absenteeism through sign and symbol of the art world. I made use of some of my ISBN, a processed MA show poster, a storage box, a certificate from the Hayward and pieces of masking tape.
Viv came round and enquired about ‘it all’. I mentioned the above plaque and how I had lost it somehow (a nice piece of poetic justice that occurred two weeks ago). This triggered something in Viv’s mind and he proceeded to tell me that the Tate were selling ‘blank plaques’.
I found this quite alarming. For starters I was annoyed that one of the few original ideas I’d actually had in my life was not original nor mine. But what was more shocking was that the Tate was selling these as merchandise, funny little gifts to give to people. To my mind the plaque, no matter how many times it is reproduced, is a single object, not a commodity. It is a concept and a place around which the majority of my art practise is centred, an object to be discussed, not ‘slapped on a plastic lunch box’.
Michael and I went down to Tate Britain to have a look for this object and were unable to find it. I was going to go anyway to see a Susan Hiller thing, but I think this is more important.
Could I actually sell my work? Would it sell? Who would buy it? And for what purpose would it be bought?
I think it must come down to aesthetics. I have designed a means by which I can turn anything into a plaque and therefore the set nature of my work is stylistic even though I do not wish it to be. Even a practise like mine that is wholly concept lead can find a home within the consumable art world, even if it is in the gift shop.
R B Grange
22/10/2007
15/10/2007
Behind marks
I have been wondering where my current work has come from. Because I do not have an impetus or visible reason for making work it has been a hard thought process (all internal of course). But I have, after three days arrived at some sort of framework into which my ‘absent exhibitions’ may be placed.
On foundation we were asked to me marks. Well, we were first asked to make tools to make marks and then make marks in reaction to music, but this is unimportant. My present concern is what we were then asked to do which was this; to imagine the shapes and textures that were behind the marks, that made up the marks. This was one of the key moments for me on foundation, being asks to look at a two-dimensional splat and imagine an unseen dimension behind the paper, as though what we saw was the base of a tower viewed from underneath. For those of you who know about dimensionality, the concept of ‘Flatland’ comes into play.
This ‘looking again’ at an object; looking around it, at it, though it and as it has influenced a lot of my artistic investigation and finds its latest manifestation in my plaques. Exhibition plaques are seen naturally as what one might call ‘post-object’, meaning they come about in reaction to something that already exists, but this does not have to be the case. I have made plaques and sought out objects to which they are now attributed. So, we have a concept of pre-work and post-work, whether my work is in reaction to something or is something which requires a reaction.
Minutes ago I was singing I am the very model of a modern Major General to myself (I was aided by a MIDI file and the libretto on screen). The song is a con. Major General Stanley tells us what he knows, but neglects the detail. He says he knows what ‘commissariat’ means but does not tell the audience. Now, after some research, it turns out to be a joke but the song overall acts beautifully to illustrate my work – the ‘saying’ of things that may well be untrue, but which are based in a vast amount of rhetoric, to declare one thing as dubious brings all grammar and endeavor into question.
Or as Tom Lehrer puts it when describing Gilbert and Sullivan:
“… full of words and music; and signifying … nothing.”
R B Grange (I don’t actually believe my work to be the ‘saying’ of things etc, but the blog needed an end.)
On foundation we were asked to me marks. Well, we were first asked to make tools to make marks and then make marks in reaction to music, but this is unimportant. My present concern is what we were then asked to do which was this; to imagine the shapes and textures that were behind the marks, that made up the marks. This was one of the key moments for me on foundation, being asks to look at a two-dimensional splat and imagine an unseen dimension behind the paper, as though what we saw was the base of a tower viewed from underneath. For those of you who know about dimensionality, the concept of ‘Flatland’ comes into play.
This ‘looking again’ at an object; looking around it, at it, though it and as it has influenced a lot of my artistic investigation and finds its latest manifestation in my plaques. Exhibition plaques are seen naturally as what one might call ‘post-object’, meaning they come about in reaction to something that already exists, but this does not have to be the case. I have made plaques and sought out objects to which they are now attributed. So, we have a concept of pre-work and post-work, whether my work is in reaction to something or is something which requires a reaction.
Minutes ago I was singing I am the very model of a modern Major General to myself (I was aided by a MIDI file and the libretto on screen). The song is a con. Major General Stanley tells us what he knows, but neglects the detail. He says he knows what ‘commissariat’ means but does not tell the audience. Now, after some research, it turns out to be a joke but the song overall acts beautifully to illustrate my work – the ‘saying’ of things that may well be untrue, but which are based in a vast amount of rhetoric, to declare one thing as dubious brings all grammar and endeavor into question.
Or as Tom Lehrer puts it when describing Gilbert and Sullivan:
“… full of words and music; and signifying … nothing.”
R B Grange (I don’t actually believe my work to be the ‘saying’ of things etc, but the blog needed an end.)
09/10/2007
Sale
What I make doesn’t sell and therefore a website, directly affiliated with my BA programme, set up to sell student’s work is a waste of him for me. I cannot imagine people who purchase art off of the internet wanting the work I do. I know what people buy from the internet and it’s pictures of cats; anyone who’s cottoned onto this (see my friend etourist and Libby’s friend [I forget his name] for details) will be rolling in it.
I believe that a website like this would be detrimental to students’ work, placing ‘hack’ work before serious intellectual debate. It may sound glamourous or, more accurately, accessible to say that one can purchase your work from a website, but what does purchase mean? I’ve never really considered what it would mean for someone to own my work. if it were in catalogue or book form I could easily see someone picking it up in a shop and having a glance. But owning it? What would they use it for? What would they get out of it?
The answers to these questions may be found if I look into what my ‘medium’ is. Medium is a word that is chucked about a lot. You can apply it to lots of things but the key is to use the word itself in an interesting manner. For example: I said last year that I would look into the medium of correspondence, but what I actually did was look round correspondence and applied it to other things. The medium in this context meant a way of reassessing a situation or action.
I do not believe my medium to be ‘word’.
R B Grange
I believe that a website like this would be detrimental to students’ work, placing ‘hack’ work before serious intellectual debate. It may sound glamourous or, more accurately, accessible to say that one can purchase your work from a website, but what does purchase mean? I’ve never really considered what it would mean for someone to own my work. if it were in catalogue or book form I could easily see someone picking it up in a shop and having a glance. But owning it? What would they use it for? What would they get out of it?
The answers to these questions may be found if I look into what my ‘medium’ is. Medium is a word that is chucked about a lot. You can apply it to lots of things but the key is to use the word itself in an interesting manner. For example: I said last year that I would look into the medium of correspondence, but what I actually did was look round correspondence and applied it to other things. The medium in this context meant a way of reassessing a situation or action.
I do not believe my medium to be ‘word’.
R B Grange
08/10/2007
Cultural Quarter
I've lived in Wood Green for a year and have always thought that the sign bearing the words: 'Cultural Quarter" was a joke. I like WG, well, some bits I like - I'm in a more privileged opposition this year as I live more towards Muswell Hill. I can be seen to very visibly make a conscious social choice when I live my house; Go up the hill to Muswell Hill, or down to Wood Green. If I want pretty books, art supplies and to hear children practicing the piano I'll turn left to go up the hill. If I want toilet paper, cheap envelopes and to hear gun shots I'll go right and down the hill.
The above is quite a simple and therefore incorrect analysis of the geography or socialgeography (or whatever Will Self’s column is called in the Independent’s Magazine on a Saturday).
Wikipedia has helped enlighten me on what the ‘Cultural Quarter’ means. It is a development of regeneration by Haringey council based around the arts. The Chocolate Factory seems to be at the centre of this; a large artistic studio that looks quite nice in publicity pictures on its website.
So for my evening walk I’m not going to do the usual Ally Pally stuff, I’m going to go down to Coburg Road and have a look for myself.
Not by myself, obviously. I like walking on my own, but prefer to look with other people.
R B Grange
The above is quite a simple and therefore incorrect analysis of the geography or socialgeography (or whatever Will Self’s column is called in the Independent’s Magazine on a Saturday).
Wikipedia has helped enlighten me on what the ‘Cultural Quarter’ means. It is a development of regeneration by Haringey council based around the arts. The Chocolate Factory seems to be at the centre of this; a large artistic studio that looks quite nice in publicity pictures on its website.
So for my evening walk I’m not going to do the usual Ally Pally stuff, I’m going to go down to Coburg Road and have a look for myself.
Not by myself, obviously. I like walking on my own, but prefer to look with other people.
R B Grange
01/10/2007
Firsts
First day back into college and I decide to collect all the left overs 'objects' from the MA exhibition. I have put these up in a rectangle on my jutting wall space; this was a simple sketch in the grammar of exhibiting. I have an idea that I would like to document to the Degree show at the end of this year, and this seems like a nice piece to get me going on that - looking at what is left after an exhibition.
The debris on the all does not look melancholy, or rueful, or any of the 'supposed' emotional aesthetic of 'things left behind'. The objects state what they are and it is only the fact that there are so few of them that gives any indication that something may be missing.
On missing exhibitions; a piece of mine is currently on at MXXXII (I've added a link at the bottom of the page).
R B Grange
The debris on the all does not look melancholy, or rueful, or any of the 'supposed' emotional aesthetic of 'things left behind'. The objects state what they are and it is only the fact that there are so few of them that gives any indication that something may be missing.
On missing exhibitions; a piece of mine is currently on at MXXXII (I've added a link at the bottom of the page).
R B Grange
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
