I've been thinking about what drives me to create. We had a lecture in the recent seminar about practice statements and how to break down what an art practice actually is. The four components of an art practice are:
Process
Ideas
Field of Inquiry
Questions
Today I will be breaking down the first three to begin to understand what exactly I do and why.
Process
Preparing a painting surface is important to me. I think the surface of a painting can add so much to the read. In a way, I find the smoothness of canvass and flat primed MDF almost less exciting compared with a weird, rough surface. Because of this preference, my practice often involves hessian. Although I have recently begun working with coconut fibre mat, which is extremely loosely bound and fibrous. The challenge, the fun part, is making that surface paintable. I tend to use everyday DIY materials to create, (such as PVA, Varnish and clear coating for concrete), using those materials forces me to think outside the box and usually ends with happy surprises. Once the surface is prepared, I use paint-like DIY materials such as wood-stain to paint with. The compatibility of surface and stain often guides the shapes and and layout of the painting in partnership with the ideas I have and my imagination.
Ideas
At the moment there are a a handful of conceptual ideas which guide the images and style of art I create.
Hyperobjects, specifically those which are of human causality
The idea of the Anthropocene
The human centric notion of the apocalypse
Issues that come of the human condition
All of those points guide the making process in my practice. Currently the fusion of natural material and plastic-like material, (varnish and glue), is a play around the 'natural' and 'man-made', and their influence on one another. The motif of trees and figures is also a play on humanities relationship with our surroundings. Thinking about a human centric apocalypse, for my next painting I imagine a landscape of lush tree and construction cranes. In these kinds of ways, my readings and thoughts around these subjects influence the outcomes of the work.
Field of Inquiry
Here are my fields of inquiry at the moment:
Pushing the boundaries of painting
Painting as an object
Process lead making
Hyperobjects
Semiotics within motif
The idea of the 'Narrative', and its place in art
This is the beginning of myself teasing out what I am actually communicating when I create. Its easier to understand the work in retrospect I find, but, I want to be more conscious in the now of making why it is I am making. This is a goal.
Below are some images of the coconut mat I've been working with.
