Work In Progress Wednesday!

I'm going to admit straight away that I'm a little nervous about posting my work for you all to see. I know not everyone will like it or 'get it', but that's okay - that't not what I'm worried about. I am nervous because this post is important in that it directly pertains to what has brought me here: art. I'm here in London to study art and make art. A lot of money, time and loneliness (not just my loneliness, also the loneliness of those I left back home) has gone into this endeavour, so the end product should be able to justify that. If it seems I'm just flopping around with a spatula of ink in one hand and some masking tape in the other, then what's the point of all this? I feel like the work I produce needs to say 'hey, I'm worth all this!'. That said, I personally feel that the project I'm working on now is a strong body of work that resonates with me on an aesthetic and intellectual level. I'm excited by it now, and where it will go over the rest of the year. I think it's worth it.

Late last year I was writing an essay for my Modernism class when I found a quote in a journal article by Emily Hage. The article was titled: "The Magazine as Strategy". This is the quote:

"The words in Picabia's mechanmorphic sketch further blur conventional divisions between text and images and the perpendicular printing adds to the disjunctive nature of the page."

The text in bold is what struck me there: 'blur conventional divisions between text and image'. I thought '...how does one do that? I WANT TO DO THAT'. I started thinking about how I could print text in a way that would ask to the viewer to see it as an image, as well as (or maybe instead of) text to be read.  From my visual diary: "I want to explore how recognisable letters/text can incorporated [not the right word] into an image in a seamless fashion - the text becomes the image. < This last sentence is the starting point for a larger, more specific and articulate artist statement that I plan to have developed by the time I get back to Perth and start second semester in June (aka: my final semester for this degree, oh my!). 

One of the first issues I thought about was readability. Did I want viewers to look at my word images and read the letters and understand them as words and sentences... or should it just be gibberish - a random collection of letters? 

skftjfxcnhmlikbmhaaaa

vs.

I just got maple syrup in my hair. [fun fact: I actually just did]

On one hand, if it was gibberish it would challenge the notion that letters are to be 'read', and on the other if  the viewer wasn't able to understand what was written, then they would be quicker to disengage with the work - so maybe readable sentences would be best? I did a quick 'sketch' in my visual diary:

On the left is a random assortment of letters, written over the top of each other, and on the right is a sentence that I intended to be a little whimsical/nonsensical, done in the same layered fashion. I personally found when writing these out that the sentence came more easily. It allowed for a more repetitious flow, my hand got looser as it moved down the page and the writing began to take on a very pleasing fluidity.

I think it was after doing this exercise that I decided my project would have two 'slightly different by related' projects within it: one involving handwriting, the other printed type (which is where screen printing comes in, which is good because I like to think print media is my discipline of choice, with other practices revolving around it). Both bodies of work are related by common themes such as repetition, layering and monochromaticity (hey, I like black, what can I say?).

Now I'm moving on and experimenting simultaneously with sentences that don't really make sense (I'm doing this by piecing together sentence fragments from exhibition catalogues I collect when going around town) and sentences that I've made up myself that have a more personal meaning. Here's what I did today in the print workshop:

 

This one isn't actually supposed to BE sideways - for some reason my picture folder and Blogger won't communicate and realise I've rotated and saved it multiple times - but perhaps I should consider it a useful glitch and start considering which way my word/images will be read.

 

This is an underneath shot of the stencil while it was on the screen, midway through printing. As I printed, moved the paper and reprinted, the surface around the stencil gets covered in ink, which results in repeated 'ghost prints' as I continue the process. It's a deliberately messy technigue that I really like and will continue to do within this project. Also, it was really, really nice to be back in a print room, getting my hands messy and feeling productive.

 Stencil making. This was definitely the most time consuming part. I spent 2 hours cutting out the stencils, then less than an hour actually printing them.

Eventually I would like to combine the handwritten and printed images, by writing over prints. I also intend to play around with formatting a bit more. At the moment font isn't of a huge concern to me, but that maye change.

Artists I've noted and find inspirational for this project so far: Aida Tomescu (whose work I love and admire, regardless of it's relevance to any project I work on), Cy Twombly (in particular, his blackboard drawings), and David Shrigley (I went to his exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, which really got me thinking about my use of words). There are many, many other notable artists who work with this sort of subject matter but for now this is my top three.

Thanks for reading this everyone :)