Art Academy open crit: July
To document July's Open Crit, we decided to ask the 3 Art Academy members presenting work to write something about their experience of the critique:
Sarah Hill showed some recent film works constructed from found footage on archive.org
The group crit was an opportunity for me to introduce some of my semi abstract film work in relation to ideas I'm just beginning to develop for a a new commission. This will be a visual accompaniment for a 40 min soundscape made up of extracts from various electronic compositions for radio/t.v by Delia Derbyshire who worked for the BBC radiophonic workshop in the 60s and 70s. The invitation is open for my personal interpretation of the work, free from the original contexts/intentions of the music.
We discussed my interest in collaboration as a comfort zone. I became aware of the fact that despite working with musicians on my films, the process is still fairly isolated and lacking in conversation. This has since led me to consider how I might like to instigate new projects differently in the future, perhaps working with other filmmakers. The team appeared to view the D.I.Y nature of my films as a positive thing, which I found very encouraging. I touched on early ideas I've had for the project, which include manipulating found footage. The source/original meaning of found footage was discussed as an important conceptual factor; not something to be overlooked. Additionally lots of interesting names were brought up in reference to my ideas, such as Douglas Gordon and Chris Marker, which has helped to kick start my research.
It was great for me to have fresh eyes on my work. I also found that having to articulate my ideas, as well as put a narrative on how my ideas have led to this point, has since shed light on the ways in which I perceive/approach my work, which will help as I begin this new project.
Lorna Mollart gave us an overview of works in sculpture made during the past year and presented some small plaster and drawing wall-based works:
The crit group discussion was greatly beneficial to me and has opened up some new possibilities that I had not thought of. In my studio space I had started to feel that maybe I should revert back to painting, struggling for space and feeling the restrictions of this, I had decided to stop making sculpture. During my presentation Rachel Goodyear suggested that I should think about space, location and places I could go to make new work. This led to the group making some interesting comments about the possibilities of taking my work into public places, abandoned buildings, doorways or derelict areas. The crit helped me to make a working plan for new ideas and how I can expand on my progress. In the upcoming months I will explore outdoor spaces, making sculpture in public places, documenting the experience through photography and possibly film.
Jackie Haynes presented some new fabric works, including a stretchable 'tape measure':
The image (pictured above) shows testing the physical rigour and ideas behind 'The Empiricist' - an outsized stretchy tape measure for metaphorical measuring. The crit group discussed the performative possibilities of this and other allied ideas, centred around the premise of inventions created behind the shed door. Lorna's idea of using the markers against the photographed background, in this picture might indicate the attention span of Jenny and Rachel, taking the heatwave into account!
