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Friday 25 March 2011

New/Experiments

I have realised that recently I have been making things for other people and thought that I was uncertain about what my work is about and this made me question myself, my work, my method. I made a video in the woods of myself walking naked, holding a lantern and wearing a mask covered in bird seed. This received a somewhat mixed response. Following that I confirmed to myself that my intention is to make work that has the notion of the artist/housewife going or gone mad, this caused me to pose as a life drawing model in the life drawing room (clothes on) and to dance in the room. These actions as spontaneous as they were actually caused great relief along with notification that I do know what I am doing (sometimes) and not to feel cornered by what others may be concerned with...









Thursday 17 March 2011

College Reservoir


Here is an example of some of the boxes that can be seen around the reservoir, this one is for minks!


Maybe I will...

Fishing Hut


Argal Reservoir has a strong fishing community and also a fishing hut to go with that. I saw this space at the beginning of my CEP when I first moved to Cornwall and have frequently found myself thinking about it, but couldn’t place it within the project in a contextual way. Even now it’s difficult, but I know I am close, especially with the bird pictures they have in the hut, alongside the reservoir information for both Argal and the College Reservoir on the boards.  


Here is the board, with information regarding both reservoirs.


And information on the birds!



And of course fish!


Here are some warning signs from the board that I found interesting...


No taking the fish, no eating the fish, no killing the fish...


Water


I recorded the sound of the water falling today, as well as doing this I also recorded the sound of a swing going back and forth. I think I had a bit of a ‘sound artist’ moment with that one! Though it really does sound fantastic, the connotations scare me somewhat though!


Argal Reservoir have a number of streams that I find beautiful, this is a view of one of them, this particular one runs side by side another, creating an interesting landscape. 


This man made waterfall excited me today, mainly because of the structure beside it. Below are images of an entrance on the roof and underneath an image of the interior. 



Bird Box


I visited Argal Reservoir today which is next to the College Reservoir; they are both described as wet woodland areas. The difference is that the College Reservoir has been left alone to allow it's ecosystem to develop whereas only part of the Argal Reservoir has, both are being monitored and there is evidence of this throughout the area.

Above is evidence of researcher’s presence, as an artist who has recently worked with birds as a material I found this space particularly intriguing. Maybe a potential performance space...


Wednesday 16 March 2011

Birds

I have also been continuing to paint and draw but have moved on from Still Life and onto Birds, here are a few:



Water

I am very drawn at the moment to this space; I feel it is as a result of my present research into Fairy Tales. This investigation is both new and old and I feel that I haven't pursued it the past in an engaged way as I have been worried that it would potentially come across as being a little predictable, immature, and maybe with a lack of depth. However, the reason I am looking at this again is because when working in the woods, the aesthetics of the space has a strong resonance of Fairy Tales. The winding paths and the arching trees are clearly reminiscent of the illustrations made frequently for such stories. I am going to record the sound of the water, I fear an obsession developing...



Sunday 6 March 2011

Walk and Rabbits 2

The group I took out on Friday certainly found the situation humorous in comparison to the previous group. Perhaps humorous isn’t the correct word, but at this moment in time I am uncertain how to explain the difference. Here are some images of the second group:




State

Two out of the three rabbits remain; the one to go first had not been gutted and so was heavier. However upon observation of the string it looks like it had been cut, but maybe it did fall. What fascinates me is the lack of evidence.

The two remaining are so much thinner than when I first put them up. Some suggest I should knock them to see if there are maggots inside, but I feel like I have come so far to view them naturally decay in their own way that knocking them or tampering in any way would be speeding up the process and also manipulating it. I quite like the fact that these dead rabbits are determining when the project ends.


Walking and Rabbits

The responses have been varied, from emotional to finding the event humorous. I am hoping to do the same again next week, as the want to go has been surprisingly supportive. Here are some images:




Invitation

In order to show people my feelings on my recent works with the rabbits, I decided it would be valuable to take an audience for a walk to visit the rabbits in the woods. Here is the poster:

Books

Recently I made some books as a means of presenting a text I had written for Textual Practices. The text is a description of a work I made of a video and sound installation. Interestingly the art work itself is in my mind not as good as what came after. The reason I am posting this piece though is because as a result of this work I have decided I would quite like to made animal books, for instance if I make a bird there would be text in between the feathers.
Here are some examples of what I recently made:


Below the text has been separated in order to manipulate how the reader reads it, in between piping tobacco has been placed with reference to Magritte’s, Ceci n'est pas une pipe!