I said in my Proposal for this Assignment that I felt way out of my depth because of the practical/craft skills required. I felt I did not have a non-visual skill set and felt inadequate for a long time, but I knew I had to "bite the bullet" so I reflected for a considerable while on possible projects. I didn't know if they were silly and a waste of time, or if I thought they may have plausibility and if they did, whether I could be successful in their rendition.
However, the first exercise gave me a smidgen of encouragement, as I felt I had pulled together the concept and the expression of it together with subject matter that was relevant to it. It was influenced by the Jean Tinguely work illustrated in the project notes, and I was concerned that it might not look as though I had given much thought to the project because I drew upon an illustration that appeared in the notes. That would have been my only reservation.
The tableaux or Diorama was interesting for me because I expanded it slightly to include text and illustration by way of a Conceptual piece, which I felt added to it as a Tableaux/Diorama. It was also light-hearted, which is something I don't often get to do in my art. It therefore offered an opportunity to create a multifaceted object with crafted apple cores; a found object in the processor and a tableaux incorporating a real life situation. I was happy with the references to Marcel Duchamp, and the Womanhouse by Robin Weltch which I felt worked really well. The idea of Work in Progress was twofold, it referenced the male/female inequalities, which are still not addressed as well as to the piece itself and I felt this was equally effective.
It would have been nice to do the bottle bank idea but I don't have a vice and workshop so wouldn't have been able to put together a frame of the sort I was planning.
The limitations I professed at the outset were considerations I had to overcome by the choice of work, so my options were somewhat limited by my ability to undertake work outside of my inadequate skillset and facilities.
As far as Witches Wood is concerned, I had this project in mind sometime ago so had been taking photographs in various weather conditions. It would have been nice to have uncovered some local history, even if it had only been anecdotal, but my research didn't come up with anything. However, with the link to the Witch-finder General it begs the question and leaves it to the viewer to speculate the existence of the wood.
The final project didn't quite end up as my proposal but metal was the material that persuaded me to pursue the Final Project. I had been reading some Philosophy on the subject of the cosmological argument, which is always very interesting hence the subject matter.
The tying of various pieces of metal with micro thin line was a test in itself and the small pieces of rock were the most difficult. I had to glue the line to them before tying them as the line kept slipping off. I was also slightly uncomfortable with defacing the wall of my studio with the graffiti, it was similar to how I felt when painting the frame in an earlier project.
I think there is a lot of scope with 'objects' that I hadn't previously realized. Indeed the whole idea was completely alien to me, but with the right tools and facilities I can see that this would merit further exploration. Scale is one of the things that is difficult to achieve for the same reasons, and I feel the success of a work is dependent on or constrained by matters relating to this issue. For example one can imagine Space and Time being exhibited in a gallery space with much larger elements but pragmatically up-scaling equals commercial support both financially and with appropriate equipment and labour. Such up-scaling would give the piece more gravitas which may be missing in my attempt.
I could have tried to sculpt Einstein's equation from polystyrene but it would have required a hot knife. I tried with an ordinary blade but I could see it would not work, then I thought that using the wall itself in a graffiti style would add to the piece, by bringing it into the modern world of art. Using spray cans on a large wall would be great. I am thinking of a space similar to that used in John Ahearn's Homage to the People of S. Bronx.
I am still hoping to get some hands for my 'Time-piece', and will have to see what might be available at a car boot sale.
Despite the trepidation with which I started this assignment I feel I have achieved more than I expected.
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