Week 3: Tues. Jan. 26
Notes:
Process:
These are the few passages from https://canadianart.ca/essays/dirty-words-interesting/ that caught my attention:
- Originally, I had decided to use letters drawn on painter’s tape but later decided to cut out the letters from water-colour paper. The plain drawn letters on the tape didn’t have the amount of I wanted to incorporate colour, thinking it would add some depth to the assignment. The letters display out-of-the-tube acrylic in colours that are closest to the primary colours.
- The decision to use these colours are based are kind of mocking sensibility, to make light of a roommate situation (Which I’ll elaborate on later).
- The dots and lines drawn on the letters were another way to bring painterly/mark-making elements to the assignment. At first, they were decorative, which they still are, but I wanted to keep it in line with the childish tone and idea of unresolved looping in a pictorial sense(?). So i kept it in mind to have a pattern of dots to represent a presence of consistency. Then cover them up with lines of other paint, and bare with me, as if the dots are not completely resolved to the Beholder.
- The change from the tape banner to the cut-outs also had an effect on the text. With the tape I found it was efficient at creating longer phrases, complete sentences even, while the cut-outs took up a lot of time and space.
- I liked the possibilities of what could be “Unresolved looping”. It’s not exactly a complete thought but an descriptive action that could be added to a subject.
- The green tape reads: “the sign from shopping malls and commercial strips”. I was planning to hang this outside one of the main doors at Stone Mall, here in Guelph.
- I did try to hang up the final cut-out letters during the day but the back light was too intense. I would have to wait to it was dark enough to hang them. At night, It was much easier to photograph with out the back-light that was obscuring the the layers of paint on the letters.
Make a banner, hang it.
For the last year, my partner and I have experienced unresolved issues with a roommate who has a habit of letting their dishes pile up. For this exercise, I wanted to make a joke about it. The happening for this situation is silly, and shouldn’t be a big deal, but this kind of negligence takes a duration of space that can become an inconvenience for anyone who does need the sink. The banner employs a craft aesthetic, with an emphasis on a kind of primary material that I hope projects a sense of irony, as if the piles of dishes had become a meme. But also, the idea of “looping” refers to a pattern of chores that are taking place in this place with whomever decides to show up.
Hi Justin!
Week 1:
Katchadourian notes complete and lots of reflection and engagement, 3 Book stack images complete and more – I find them a bit puzzling (you seem to use a very personal, idiosyncratic symbology) but I see lots of thinking and processing, and a genuine investment in the materials and compositions.
Week 2:
Notes on two text works complete and epic! Sometimes you are joking I think? Is it all absurd? But shows general level of understanding of critical ideas at play.
Week 3:
Text banner exercise and description – so much process and thinking, and close consideration of the article. Great choice of found words – but your materials/colours/and context are puzzling – again – sort of a very personal symbology that isn’t available to viewers. Oh man, imagine the possibilities with “looping”! You could hang it in a circle, where it loops, or other choices that really relate to the meaning of the words. Think more about how material, form, and context all expand meaning for a wider audience – and not just a personal story.
Week 4:
Nature video- I’m wondering if this is also a bit irreverent? Or earnest? Either way is fine – but I’d love to feel one or the other more strongly, as your explicit intention. I laughed watching it – and wondered if you might stand there and be a tree as long as you can? Or showing somehow the absurdity, futility, and gap between the human and the arboreal – in some new and affecting way…and why a cellphone video in the vertical frame? No tripod/fixing of camera? Think about all these choices, especially in a subtle work like this – they all matter.
Notes – did you really dig into these pieces? A bit thin!
I know the works we look at together are surprising, and sometimes even absurd. But trust these references and give them serious attention. Art is a conversation, and you have to listen to other practitioners from the past, and now, in order to participate.
In your own work, think about experimentation (not knowing what will happen) and risk – push yourself but while being safe to make something with more complexity and seriousness.
Thank you for your attendance and engagement in class discussions and activities. We’d like to see and hear more from you!
If you would like to talk with me about your work in progress, readings, exercises, one-on-one comments on your work, and grades – send me an email in the morning to book a 15 minute appointment during the optional in person hours: Thursdays 2:30 – 4:30
And you can show up to a zoom meeting with Nathan anytime during these hours to ask your questions, and get tech support for using software and finishing your projects:
Mondays and Thursdays 1-4pm
Hi Justin,
Thanks so much for the dedicated work looking and reflecting on the readings and lecture materials, and the Yes No video worked out so well, I think you should all show it next year for Zavitz or in JAS. Thanks for your participation in class too – and contributions to all the exercises, baking, discussions etc. it’s wonderful to have you in the class and I hope we’ll see you again in Experimental 3!
Diane