Progress???

Okay so this week has been a bit of a disaster! My home pc is playing up so cant get much done on it, then my hoover broke, now my darn camera is broken just when I had gone and done loads of work at the site….no documentation, grr!! Anyways, I have a lot going on just now and am beginning to regret starting a project that is so personal and so difficult but hey, I will persevere, 4 weeks left to complete the work so hopefully things will improve!

Okay so when I was down yesterday, I made some drawings with chalk, I drew arrows leading up to the bench, on the trees and the pavement, I also drew a cross and the words YOU ARE HERE on the fence behind the bench and again on the bench seat. I like the fact that these drawings are not permanent, the weather is crap this week so I’m guessing all the work will be washed away by the time I return to the site.

I also took with me a large white sheet and covered the entire bench with the material. I tied it down with rocks and string and left it there, I want to see if it is still there when I go back. It changes the site entirely and I like the fact that it draws attention to what is underneath, people will wonder what is happening, will they have noticed the bench before?

North Berwick

First Visit to site

So I made the first trip down to North Berwick yesterday to visit the site and get research material. I took lots of photos of the site and I am happy that the bench is still there, although the scene differs quite a lot from my memory of it. The bench itself is old, unused and deteriorating. It is obvious that it is hardy used, its been left to rot and the varnish is peeling, there is mould, moss and the wood is rotting. I took pictures of the bark on the trees and find that this can be compared to the peeling varnish on the bench.

I took the bus down and while I travelled, I documented my journey in the back of my diary. It was something I did at the time because I was bored and cold but I’ve realised that the journey to and from the site is actually just as, or even more important than the destination. The site is on the edge of the town and so I didn’t actually go into North Berwick yesterday, I took the bus direct to the site, stayed for a while then crossed the road and got the bus back. I think this is an important aspect of my project and I’m considering documenting every journey that I make to the site and never going into North Berwick itself. Perhaps I could get the exact same bus every time I go down and document the journey and it could end with me making some sort of mark, performance or sign at the site.

Site-specific Art can be subtle…

I came across an artist called Specter and found his site-specific art very interesting and very different from other works I have been looking at. It made me realize that site-specific art can be very subtle, it is not public art where the artist is trying to interact with the public in an obvious and positive way, here the art can blend in or stand out, can be made from a variety of processes and can subtly allow the viewer to interact and respond with the art and the surrounding environment. Specter allows his viewer to reconsider their surroundings, his work makes the viewer question their surroundings and perhaps respond in a different manner.

In the first Image, it may take a moment to figure out where the art is, as it blends into the urban environment so well yet, on closer inspection we can see that it is completely out of place. This site-specific installation changes the urban landscape and makes the viewer see the site differently, it is subtle, interesting an there is a sense of humour which I like.

Here, the artist has fitted hand made signs to the fronts of abandoned shops changing the way the run down streets are viewed by passers by.

Site-specific Art can be fun…..

Rossana Martinez

Martinez is a Brooklyn based artist who’s life and art are interconnected with one and other. Her Art & Life Blog is very interesting and inspiring to see how the artists draws inspiration from her everyday life. She aims to create experiences through performances, installations and viewer interaction and often the audience play an important part in creating the work. Her site-specific works are playful, fun and interesting and she concentrates on the interactions between people, between herself and her work and between an artist and their space. It is interesting to see how contemporary artists deal with site-specific work, the movement itself  has not been around for that long yet it seems play a vital role in many artist’s practices.

Heart on Fire, 2006

Performance and site-specific installation at H29, Brussels, Belgium
Collaboration with Matthew Deleget

Heart on Fire consisted of a short run through the Parc de Bruxelles Warande, during which we wore monochrome running clothes — I was in orange and Matthew in red. I started from one point of the park and Matthew from the opposite side. We ran towards each other until we met and ended the run with a kiss. Documentation of the performance — maps, photos, etc. — were exhibited in the gallery. We also created an installation/performance consisting of a runner’s aid station, which is usually a long table filled with cups of water. In our installation, the aid station consisted of a table with a grid of cups filled with the drinks that were consumed by the public during the opening.

Glow, 2006
Performance and site-specific installation at Hunter College/Times Square Galleries, NY
Fluorescent orange spray paint on wall
Edition of 1,000, fluorescent orange spray paint on white paper, 4 x 6 inches each

Glow is a hybrid project where performance and architecture are transformed into painting. To create Glow, I wore a black dress and heels.  Starting in one corner of the space, I walked around the perimeter of the room holding a can of spray paint while continuously spraying paint on the wall until the can of paint was completely empty.

The visual result was an installation consisting of undulating and overlapping orange lines.  The intention of the work was to question what is considered a contemporary painting or what is a painted object.  As part of the project, I created an edition of 1,000 works on paper consisting of fluorescent orange spray paint on white paper. The edition was stacked in the center of the space and made available free of charge to all visitors.

New Site-Specific Brief

Statement of Intent

Theme

I have chosen to make a site-specific artwork at the following site; Corner of Direlton Avenue and Stratheam Road, North Berwick, East Lothian.

I have chosen this site as I have a personal attachment to the site and the town of North Berwick. I spent my teenage years in North Berwick yet, I no longer have a connection to the place as my mother has now moved out of the town. I have good memories of the town but also a lot of bad memories and I want to make an artwork here as the last thing I will do in the town, once this project is complete I do not plan to return to North Berwick again.

The specific site within the town is a corner between the main road and a side road leading toward a house I lived in as a child. On the corner, there has always been a bench and some flowerpots; I used to sit on the bench in the mornings to wait to be picked up for school. A few hundred yards from the site, on the main road leading into the centre of town, there is a line of trees. I plan to use this site in conjunction with the bench to develop my artwork.

The site has many possibilities for producing an artwork, it is accessible easily seen by passers by and the space and size are appropriate for many different outcomes.

Taking photographs of the site and creating collages, drawings and visual research will make my initial visual response.

Sources and Resources

I will research the history of the site; it’s purpose, why and when it is used, and historical and modern purposes of the site. I will use this research to help me develop my ideas but will also draw upon my own memories of the site as part of my research. I will consider my personal influences on the site, the influences of the local community and also of tourists to the site. I will use the learning resource centre and the Internet to research the site and site-specific art.

Techniques and Processes

I will develop my ideas using both 2D and 3D processes in the studio space; I will also work on developing ideas at the site itself.

Photography, collage and drawing will be essential to my visual development as well as a through knowledge and understanding of the site itself. I will source equipment such as computer software, tripods and cameras from my own means or through the college.

Timescale

I will designate time both in the studio and at the site to manage my time effectively. I will draw up a week-by-week timetable to help me meet deadlines.

Week 1: Research the site and demonstrate knowledge of the scale, environment and space within which I am working.

Week 2: Make visual responses through collage, drawing and photography.

Week 3: Continue to develop themes in relation to the site

Week 4: Work towards one theme to continue on to a final outcome

Week 5: Continue working toward final artwork for site

Week 6: Complete visual proposal for site-specific artwork using machete/ 2D drawing.

Week 7: Make artwork at the site

Week 8: Complete site-specific artwork

Evaluation

I will evaluate the artwork’s strengths and weaknesses through its research throughout to the final outcome. I will do this by asking myself the following questions:

Is the final work specific to its site?

Is the artwork relevant to the site?

Does the artwork get across the artist’s intentions?

Was my research thorough enough?

Is it a successful artwork?

Final Outcome

So after obsessively carving the soap away to nothing, I then took the product (the soap shavings) and melted them down to reform them back into a perfect bar of soap!! The reformed bar is not perfect and could never be so but I like this as it alludes to the concept that religion is not perfect.  My work still has the act of washing, water and cleansing yet as it is a sculptural object and not a video piece, the viewer has to visualise the act of washing and perhaps bring their own ideas to the work. I also wanted to get accross the negative aspects of religious ritual hence why the objects are placed low down on the wall, it is hand basin height for adults but also low enough for a child to reach, religious control and punishment begins early on in life and I wanted to draw attention to this. Overall, I’m quite happy with the way this project turned out!

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patterns of religious guilt

Bill Viola, Nantes tryptych, 1992

Bruce Nauman, Raw Material washing Hands, 1996

Both these works have a strong religious element to them and I find them both to be very powerful artworks, I would love to see them in real life as you cannot get the experience of an installation through a photograph.

Bill Viola’s tryptch looks directly at life and death with a newborn baby, his grandmother dying and in the middle is the artist showering in water. The pattern of 3 has obvious religious connotations but also the water. Water, and washing is a strong religios symbol and very powerful when used in these works. The monotomous act of washing hands as Nauman does in his video can be seen as a symbol for washing away sin, cleansing, it is seen as a spiritual act to become closer to God. I am very inspired by both these works and they relate well to my own project so I am going to continue to develop my ideas with the use of soap and perhaps do some more experiments with video.

Carving Soap

I have been looking at the idea of OCD in comparison with religious rituals. Rituals such as confession, prayer and baptism are all done through fear of God/Hell just as a person who has OCD carries out rituals such as washing hands or counting things through fear that something bad will happen. I want to draw attention to the obsessiveness within religion and the negative aspects of this, if you spend your life obsessing about the negative things that could happen, you miss out on the positive things happening everyday. People with OCD are thought of as mad and unreasonable yet a person who says their hail mary’s 6 times a day is just dedicated to their faith…???