Andy Goldsworthy at the YSP

http://www.ysp.co.uk/view.aspx?id=457

Well worth seeing, especially on a day as lovely as yesterday. The YSP has got a weird feeling to it though. Somewhere between the visiting, crafts-fair fanatics and the families who just come to spy on artwork and have a picnic like they would at a zoo to watch monkeys doing their daft little things. For all this weirdness it was pleasant enough. I was gladdened to not hear “I could do
that” once throughout the entire day aside from when I said it to a friend, which prompted a quickly ignored question of how many times have I heard it and it has actually been someone taking the piss? Like me.

Most of the work we saw through the day seemed to suffer from being in a white gallery space and both me and my friend felt that it smacked of “taking something ordinairy and finding the beauty in it” relying completely on the seperation of whatever object/image for it to be successful at all. Goldsworthy to me isn't that superficial and I believe that whilst most of the work looked like it 'fit' in a gallery (perhaps thats the problem), it could have benefited doubly from being out in the wild somewhere. The interior woven from trees for example came in at second place when we went outside and explored an ancient yew tree thats growing in the YSP grounds. Outside it might have had more of an impact.

The cone built just inside the doorway of the main YSP building was built in a space that simply wasn't big enough to be honest. If the desired effect was for the viewer to feel dwarfed by it then I'm sure it was achieved, but for me (being so english) the work suffered from being in a crowded room where politeness and "excuse me"s ruled the day rather than people looking at the cone.

Photography was banned when inside any of the gallery spaces and words wouldn't really do any of the work justice, save to say that this is a show worth seeing. All things aside I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This is one of the largest pieces of work I've ever done and it has been absolutely fantastic. Working large scale allows you to really get your arm into it and allows the process to be a lot more physically vigorous, making marks that you have to walk (or run) around to make. Working on something that is too big for you to see whilst you're doing it has its own inherent challenges and, whilst I'm happy with the result, I know the next few drawings will be even better.

Details:




Approx. size : 6.5/7 Ft tall - 13/15 Ft wide.

You'll have to just accept my apology for the images being in completely the wrong order. This is the second time I've had to upload them due to none of them being landscape format and me not realising that I couldn't rotate them here (watch someone send me a comment telling me how to do it in blogger now... haha). I regret, also, the fact that I haven't been posting frequently at all. I could claim that I've had a family crisis, midlife crisis or third world crisis but I'd be lying. The truth of it is I've been working on the above drawings, going to dinner, reading copius amounts of sci-fi and working on a large scale drawing at college. Said drawing is roughly 15ft X 8ft.

Most of these drawings have been done from the river Aire or from the area between Manchester and Holmefirth (the real windblasted northern plains, haha). The more and more I do it seems that they become more about drawing and less about clouds, landscapes or indeed anything else. The subject matter seems to be a prompt and although it affects the process hugely, it is barely a deciding factor in how many of the drawings look by the end.

Hello stranger!

It is I!

I have returned from a week long excursion into the deep and dark that is Londinium. I won't blather on for too long about it as no writings or photographs can come close to the actual things. I dare say, however, that the Kiefer exhibition ranks among some of the best sights I've ever witnessed. Absolutely breathtaking work. I've been contemplating leaving college and either going to live next to his land in a cabin, my deckchair on the roof and binoculars ever at the ready so I can catch a glimpse of the magician working, or going and begging for a job as a technician. My skills in operating cranes, building pavilions and manipulating lead with acid are, sadly, lacking however so for now I'll settle for seeing his exhibitions. I would scan from the book I bought but my scanner isn't big enough.

http://www.whitecube.com/mailouts/?id=9

The next single thing that stood out enough to be worth mentioning was the show at the Tate Modern. Not for me the Gilbert and George floor (seen one, seen them all springs to mind, but I haven't given it the fairest of chances) but Monet's “Water Lilies” further skyward. Odd that a painting as loose and untameable as the lilies was hung directly across from Summertime: Number 9A by Pollock. I have to admit that the Monet captivated me far more and was far less pictorial, which surprised me greatly. A friend with me in the gallery mentioned that if Monet had lived thirty years more he would have been 'doing Pollock with bells on' and I can't come back at him with an argument having seen the lilies face to face.

Another few bite the dust

A few more drawings here, dear god have they taken a long time. Its great! I've been dismissing out of hand all the concerns that painters labour themselves with (composition, colour etc) as though they weren't part of my agenda before I started doing these drawings and I can't do anything other than admit that, in certain respects, I was completely wrong. To believe that any rectangular, worked surface mounted and put on a wall wouldn't bring forward concerns and questions with regards to the painter's issues was extremely naïve. The 'paintings' I started this blog showing you were far from paintings in this regard (bad paintings maybe). Colours were chosen almost arbitrarily from what I had scrounged and there was very little brush-work or indeed much of anything involving a craft or trade skill. Whilst I think that the notion behind the inquiry is sound, I freely admit that I'm simply not equipped to tackle it yet. The skills of colour mixing, drawing, painting and observation aren't developed enough nor is my experience of my subject. To remedy this I think I will finish out the remainder of my first year at college drawing and nothing but. Maintaining a rigorous work ethic and developing my hand and eye will benefit me no end. Outside of studio time at home I will return to very straightforward landscape painting.

Time for a bit of reading

In other news – I've finally got the chance to start reading The Story of Art by Gombrich. I decided that (with my driving test looming ever closer and my bus-reading time diminishing as a result) the books weren't going to read themselves and that there's no better time than now. Gombrich is an amazing writer judging from the little I've read and from his other book: “Art and Illusion”, HIGHLY recommended. He writes about ancient Chinese landscape painters:

“[Paintings were] ... less for the teaching of a particular doctrine – as Christian art was to be employed in the middle ages – than as an aid to the practise of meditation. Devout artists began to paint water and mountains in a spirit of reverence, not in order to teach any particular lessons, nor merely as decorations, but to provide material for deep thought.”

Since leaving sixth form and going onto foundation I've had a problem with things that are purely decorative that pretend to be other than. I am pleased to have had it explained to me (whether correctly or not) that we are to be about far more than artifice and that we are not at art-school to learn hobby crafts. What I am about to type is almost word for word the things I've had said to me in a discussion about this months and months ago that has only just made complete sense.

The above definition of the purpose of art and painting particularly is pleasing for me to read as, at least for Buddhist artists circa the thirteenth century, painting served as far more than either of the two most common 'purposes' of art. I am not, not have I ever been, religious. I dare say though that from reading more and more landscape artist's writings and seeing more and more of their work that we seem to be using it to fill our spiritual quota. I think that, despite scientist's claims of it being otherwise, people are forever going to be enchanted and intrigued by the world and that some of us vent it in an almost shamanistic ritual. This may be evolutionary hang-over from when art was considered magic. From when (again, citing Story of art) Norse longship captains were asked to remove their terrible dragon carvings from the front of their prows lest they scare the local spirits away. But I honestly think that it goes a little deeper. I believe that despite people not wanting to believe it, you can approach the world (and life perhaps) in a very spiritual (maybe just romantic?) way without needing to hide behind god or science as an explanation. I am happy to admit that I don't believe I will ever find an explanation for the feeling that I get when stood out on a hillside, wind whipping my face and my feet squidging gradually deeper into mud. I think scientists could say “you get this feeling because of such and such a hormone being released from X and Y parts of the brain” but really they're only analysing the results of this unobtainable thing that prompted the reactions.

Sabbatical

I've been rediculously busy for the past few weeks and, short of the odd rant about the education system as it is now, I have had very little worth writing about.


Drawn back in

This drawing project possessed me! Having not taken this much care/time with a drawing since leaving sixth form it was massively refreshing to return to. The drawings are as brain-dead as you like but a bit of aesthetic toss occasionally to keep your hand in isn't a crime I suppose. The disheartening thing is that my tutors unanimously decided that I'd be better off abandoning what I was doing in favour of drawing. Their reason was that they believe it to be the next 'big thing'. Apparently, because you CAN do anything in visual arts now, people do anything to avoid the difficult disciplines such as drawing and painting in the traditional sense. I can understand the logic but I don't see the sense in compromising what I love doing and what I find interesting for the sake of what would amount to pandering to one of the most fickle crowds in the world. Thanks, but no thanks, its not an option.

So, what have I been doing?. I attempted to apply the style and technique I was studying to the figure but the results were varied (due to my indifference about the subject matter I believe). When I started drawing clouds that issue resolved itself and I had something I could really get my teeth into.

Back in the saddle

I have one week to build a machine and get some results out of it before I make a video presentation to the rest of my course. The presentation is fairly important as it is what the decision of who I am to be paired with for a collaborative unit is based on. Thankfully the module isn't as hellish as I first imagined. The tutors announced that the collaboration can be as loose as each pair wants it to be, which suits me down to the ground.

Misnomer

I’ve missed a few instalments and for that I am sorry. Real life issues adding into what was already a pretty hectic weekend.

“Bow down, lowly peons!” Or not…

I think that I may be coming across as slightly more smug than is the case. Talking with the other students and staff at college I always find myself feeling that they’re disingenuous but with almost all the students on my current course, that’s simply not the case. They’re interested in what they’re doing but their overall aim is something massively different to mine. The work I am doing justifies itself to me as with anything else (be it research/whatever I’ve ranted about before). I am not doing the work to get a degree, grade or job – it is of interest to me on a personal level. The majority of students I meet treat their subject matter as a weapon of choice with which to obtain what they really want. What they really want seems to consist of the following:

The gratification that comes from a job well done.
A pat on the back from tutors.
A career that guarantees the happiness they’ve been promised would come with higher education.
Kudos and/or the appearance of being ‘an artist’ (and therefore dynamic, intelligent and mysterious to the lowly outsiders).
Simply to avoid having to get a job or make any adult decisions.

The first is normally found in the mature students and students that have come from design courses. Sacrificing performance to course criteria in favour of something exciting and interesting to you personally is beyond their understanding. When the aforementioned idea is finally conveyed to these students it is met with a kind of sympathetic condescension. “Bless… You’ll realise and get it right eventually” is the vibe I get. This assumption that there is a universal standard of right or wrong normally accompanies the desire to do well in my experience. Instead of discussion you’re told how to ‘do it right’ instead of whatever silliness you’re already engaged in.

I could go on to discuss all of the list at length but they aren’t the focus of what I’m trying to say. I am much more selfish in my activities than these other people. This attitude is almost self-destructive when I think about what possible careers or pathways it leaves me with after I have to leave the studio space. Being this selfish allows me to set the objectives of the work itself take priority over anything else thus giving me access to a level of freedom that is what I can’t help but think anyone working in a creative practise would want. I see it as being on the same level as financial freedom whereby the cost of things wouldn’t be a concern when it came to making work, and who wouldn’t want that?

“The Little Draw”

The drawing project we were set has come to a successful conclusion in my case. I am late handing in my submission (tomorrow as opposed to Monday) and I don’t honestly believe the format that the work is in will be received well by the tutors. The success, therefore, lies in the drawings I shall scan in tomorrow. I won’t go on at length tonight since, without the images, anything I say is pointless. Be satisfied with the promise of something solid to actually look at tomorrow instead of all this babble.

So you thought that was good!

Well watch this...

Sometime today I stopped and read the five sentences above the drawing I was working from. AGAIN (I really need to sort this out) the lack of scanner and googles surprising inadequacy stops me from being able to show you and for that I apologise. And ye did laughter peal forth from his throat. Here I had been thinking “Skilfull bastard! What a wonderfull representation of something so solid and uncompromising” (the image being of a roman building consisting of ornate collumns and decorative masonry). I thought that he had sat down somewhere and set-to with his pen. It turns out that the image was made completely from his imagination. Christ! The skill and sensetivity is intimidating.

The discovery got me drawing areas and buildings I remember playing around when I was younger and the exercise turned out to be extremely enjoyable (if not a little too self-indulgent). I'm not quite sure what the members of staff will make of my complete departure from the brief, but true to my word I've been consumed by my interest in certain aspects of the project thus-far. Line quality and the ability to represent as much as possible in a single mark have become details which I am exploring backwards. I worked from vague images to ones where a very real likeness (to people who knew or had seen the models around) was achieved. The interesting thing is that I put barely any facial features on any of the drawings and, in that regard, a lot of them might as well have been stickmen.

Next week we begin a new module where, hopefully, I will be able to return to the work regarding weather and the world that had me so obsessed before I had to commit all of my studio time to this drawing project. I hope to build some machines I have plans for (which I WILL show when I have the means, blah blah sick of hearing) which will make a visual rather than numerical record of wind, rainfall and other elements of the weather. These would have been done by now were it not for the fact that the only time I have in which to do it (as well as the only time where the tools/timber are available) is studio time.

The catch!

Of which there always is one. The catch is that the tutors, in their abundant sympathy for how difficult it is to be fumbling around in the dark trying to grapple with an emerging practise, have decided to pair up the students for the module's duration and force us to work together on collaborative pieces of work. Whilst there are some people in the group that I think would mesh well with me in terms of the work actually... well.. working, there are plenty of people who's work is so completely alien to mine that I think, whilst the resultant dialogue would be interesting, neither party would progress. One particular student and I simply couldn't work together as she has made it abundantly clear that shes not a person I can get along with for great amounts of time. We're civil but outside of the necessary we don't have much to do with each other. Time will tell as to how successful or torturous the whole scenario will be.