Author: Adrian

Inspired by the work at the gallery, I started working on a light-based installation. This work is created from some of the challenging aspects I enjoyed from Toi Tu Toi Ora such as the use of reflection and light refraction.

Rather than to present two or three individual works, I created an installation that turns the multiple aspects of my exploration into one final exhibition. This involved;

1. A metalwork sculpture composed of wool, calico and string of lights. I wanted to explore the linear part of this work, inspired by Toi Te Rito Maihi (see last post) with straight taught wool to the ‘weave’ the light and colourful in contrast with the dark plain steel and cream calico. This work is suspended, anchored in the wall, to show the push and pull, and highlight gravity and weight as Lander does with her massive sheets of material hanging from above (see last post).
2. Cellophane bags crumpled around the lights to create light refraction inspired by Robert Jahnke (see last post).
3. Mirrors layered behind these bags to double the appearance of the lights as Jahnke does with his mirror works.
4. An earlier piece of work serves as the backdrop to this – the 1000 lines instruction – as I found the lights had a similar squiggly shape due to the wire, so I highlighted this by ‘tracing’ some of the lines with the lights.

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We took to the Auckland Art Gallery on Tuesday to visit the Toi Tu Toi Ora exhibition. We went in looking for inspiration for our next task. The Maureen Lander exhibition was of particular interest to us as a massive sculptural installation, but we also looked to other works for inspiration.

Atapō by Maureen Lander

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Lander’s ‘Atapō’ installation spans the height of two stories with two works. One has a focus on layers and the other with an embroidery focus. I was most intrigued by this layered work, the immense size of it in height and depth, being 12 layers. It creates an unusual impression, more like a subtraction to the space rather than an addition. The build up of black seems more like a black hole than an installation.

I want to explore the transparency and build up of layers in my work, especially in a context where the viewer can walk around the work and appreciate the separate layers built up. I like that the material has an interesting ‘there but not there’ quality about it. The fabric can be seen through, emphasising how thin the material is. However at the same time, being in such a dark shade, the work actually discolours the environment seen behind it. I want to experiment with this concept by discolouring or distorting my installation environment when looking ‘through’ my work. I’m going to search for some transparent materials that can be bent, crumpled or otherwise distorted.

Ripeka Series Whero, Kōwhai and Kahurangi by Robert Jahnke

A work that interested me was the Ripeka Series by Robert Jahnke. It is a series of three light sculpture using neon, one-way glass and mirrors. I was most intrigued by the repetition created by the mirror and mirrored glass creating infinite copies of the work. The reflections create a false sense of depth and layers. The suggested depth deceives the viewer into thinking the piece is much larger than it really is. I find the reflection of this piece challenging, bringing the viewer into the piece itself. I’m excited to work with some mirrors when I get the chance.

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Uenuku by Toi Te Rito Maihi

I was fascinated by this piece. The contrast of colour and b&w and collaboration of traditional Maori weaving patterns with modernist illustration is very intriguing. Inspired by the Maori god associated with the rainbow named Uenuku, Maihi’s painting portrays him as not simply the colours, but a ‘weaving’ of the seven colours taking shape. The original sculpture she sought inspiration from is the Uenuku carving. This work has four spikes and three gaps symbolising the seven colours of the rainbow. I’m excited to seek inspiration from abstract depictions like this to create new interpretations as Maihi has.

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Heading in to week two, I created two sculptures exploring line based on our CV drawings. I created two contrating pieces to explore different approaches to the task.

Sculpture One – Human Hand

The first sculpture, while initially sketched by the CV program, was a human-made development. I took the major shapes and planes of the CV sketch and reinterpreted it as a one-line work. Using the steel piping we’ve been offered, I took to the metal workshop to bend and shape the piece into a finished work. I hoped to weld this for a seamless finish but with the spot welder down and the training sessions for ARC welding limited, I used tape as my solution.

I sanded down the black coating on the steel to create a reflective and shiny quality. This makes the piece seem ‘lighter’ and more weightless. In future, I will make sure I book in for any training in the 3D labs I need so I don’t have to turn to alternatives that don’t embody my intentions.

Sculpture Two – Computer Hand

My second sculpture takes the CV results and continues with the geometric nature of the computer generated image. The work is based on the pyramid created against my entographomania piece, except I’ve divided it into separate plains to reinforce the idea of linear aspects. The original concept was to ‘cage’ these plains with steel however as I worked with the growing weight of the work, I realised the movement of the piece was far more interesting than a static work.

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The work is created from MDF scraps found in the wood working lab, previously used as a base for the CNC machine. I loved the linear lines in the wood and decided rather than to hide them, let them be on display. This work is of great interest to me because of it’s interactive element. The work needs to be lifted and turned to cause the plains to spin. They come to rest at random depending on how the viewer is holding it, meaning the sculpture will never be seen the same way by two people. I’m excited to work more with layers and interactive art to create individual experiences for every viewer.

Day Two

Tuesday had a focus on ‘Entopic Graphomania & Veronoi Diagrams”. This is a method of creating art without a predetermined outcome.

I drew some focal points on found ephemera – in this case a book from an op shop. I focused on the discolouration along the edges of the book and outlined these. Filling in the rest of the space with colour, I subdivided the space by connecting some outlined shapes using a darker colour.

Computer Vision (CV) Software

To introduce some automatism to my process, I used CV software developed by James to create Veronoi Diagrams for me. I used a piece from the previous brief as well as the piece above. It’s very interesting to compare the work generated by hand to the computer generated work – the clearest difference being my choice to use fluid lines while the computer is governed by linear connections.

This next brief explores a metaphor around the physical and conceptual ‘weight’ of ideas through the medium of sculpture. Everyday this week we generated work around ‘rules’.

Day One

On Tuesday a list of 15 instructions to create works from was set. We were instructed to consider visual language in our work with qualities of weight, mass and size and various ways viewers may interpret the work. Although these ‘drawings’ were on paper or flat surfaces, we were encouraged to see the work as a three dimensional piece because even paper has depth. Our work could be considered ‘sculptural’ to some.

Piece one

For this piece we weren’t allowed to create a small piece of paper, only use what we could find. I stumbled across this post-it sized paper in the back of my laptop case – the warranty for it. I wanted to retain the original context, so used only to the blank areas of the paper. This reduced the size of usable space further, adding to the challenge. By folding back on itself, the line fills as much of the space as possible. I’ve also connected the end to the beginning, the line therefore becomes a loop or infinite line.

Piece two

This instruction in itself is impossible. You cannot replicate a line by hand. To get as close as possible, I used a found piece of wire and used it as a stencil. I traced the shape 99 times before photocopying the work with the original wire 9 times. The result was 900 photocopied lines, 99 original traces and one wire stencil line – 1000 of the same line.

Piece three

This instruction was tricky to navigate at first however, after I found this paper I was able to create it. I challenged myself beyond the original instruction to create a line even the blind could ‘see’, through touch as well. I’ve disrupted the original paper by tearing it in half. It’s an invisible line in the way that I haven’t added anything to the piece to make the line, however everyone can see the clear man-made line.

This week we needed to start considering how we wanted to present our work for the Thursday exhibition. I knew I wanted to continue my idea of breaking boundaries and my art spilling over the edge of the canvas or out of it’s metaphorical ‘frame’.

Inspiration

I looked to some of my inspiration for my work to inspire my presentation. Qiu Zhijie is a Chinese artist who I looked at for my maps work, as he creates fictional maps. While most of his exhibitions have been fairly traditional in presentation with the work being displayed on a gallery wall etc, I came across one exhibition which suited my concept much better – “Journeys Without Arrivals”. The work ‘Room 4: Camouflage’ is displayed on the wall, however the graphics continue beyond the edge of the rectangular image and spill onto the wall.

My intention was to create a gallery feeling with my work, but slightly unusual. I bought a number of picture frames from an op shop on Karangahape Road and set about creating my exhibition. I claimed a spot in the hallway to maximise the long stretch of wall gallery feeling. Initially the plan was to include all my finalised pieces in the work, however with Ryder’s guidance, realised only the final six really embodied my idea of breaking the frame.

Open Studio

My initial two works in my exhibition have frames within the pieces. The map is it’s own square frame which is broken with the paper jam section and connects to the second framed piece on calico. This print has a square edge of the mono print slate and is broken with the carbon paper lines. My third piece is my new map recreation. I took a much too small frame and placed it within the work so the work

My fourth and fifth pieces follow similarly, framed classically but breaking out of the edge. The left hand piece is framed twice to create the sense of reframing, which happens when a work breaks it’s edges and therefore creates a new ‘edge’. The right hand piece is a further experiment with this. I’ve replaced the glass with my dry point sheet to add yet another layer of the patter so the work has four overlapping patterns in total. I decided to keep the frame presented traditionally but tilted the work within it to remind the viewer than my work is an unconventional twist on the traditional gallery presentation

Final Work

The final work in this exhibition is my concertina work. I hung it vertically and framed only one part to suggest a concentration. I then pinned the remaining work beyond the frame so it would lift out from the world, breaking not only the frame but into the 3rd dimension too. This reflects the paper jam texture from earlier too.

Last week we were able to visit the book binding lab and Fleur taught the group how to create some books through simple binding techniques. In our next session we were able to explore some other binding techniques and the ‘concertina’ or ‘accordian’ bind caught my eye. It creates a book through folding double pages into a square with pages facing opposite eachother. It reminded me a lot of the folds in my printed matter caused by the printer jam (see ‘Mechanical Error’ post), so I decided to create it and experiment with it as a presentation technique.

I added an earlier print made through the cloudy turps solution onto the concertina book, then took the whole book to the print lab to contrast print in white ink over the black paper. I used the same washy turps solutionto print, then drizzled some of the solution onto the work and folded it into it’s book form. This made an interesting rocharch effect as the ink blots became mirrors of themselves.

Following this dripping and drizzling of ink, I was curious to try more. I found chalk, charcoal and waterproof ink in the student supplies cupboard in studio. I took a copy of my map in black and white, then, using the window as a lightbox, traced over these lines onto a new piece of paper using chalk the same colour as the original map. Greens, blues, blacks and oranges all came into play here.

I then took to tracing the lines with the ink, my canvas still vertical against the window to cause ink to drip down the page. Once dry, I took an earlier screenprint ‘fail’ that I had thought would be no use to me, and isolated some squiggly lines. I stuck these over the work and trimmed the edges to follow the outermost chalk lines. Changing the work from a perfect square to one with jaunty edges made the work more visually interesting.

Luca suggested looking into dry point as a new experiment to continue my map work. Struan in the print lab taught me how to do this and I was able to create a print with altitude lines as it’s inspiration. The work resulted in a velvet quality of ink. To continue this work, I cast a light from above the clear dry point slate and drew over the resulting shadow. I did this twice, once with black ballpoint, and another with white ballpoint pen. Changing the orientation of the slate meant the shadows would change and the resulting lines created a confusing overlapping image.

As the print was on white paper, using a white ballpoint pen actually subtracted from the work. The resulting gaps in the black ink lines were very clean in contrast to the print quality. I really liked the use of white ink and wanted to experiment on black paper.

I decided to print on black paper using white ink with the same method of mark making as my black ink prints. This meant I saturated the mono print slate with turps and added ink to create a cloudy result. I also used my fingertips to smudge and layer the ink. Then, using a white ink ballpoint pen, I followed the contours of the ink print to create ‘altitude lines’. Again, the framing stands out here. A clear square is seen of where the monoprint slate fit onto the page, and I’ve gone in with the pen to muddle these ‘edges’ by drawing to the very edge of the paper.

I wanted to try some new ways to create work from my map of Ruapehu I had used in my previous work on calico (see ‘Printing’ post). I started by photocopying the map on a large old fashioned copier in the studio. The copier accepted the map initially however started to make strange sounds as it printed. It turns out that the ink had dried out and the cooling system has failed causing the paper to catch, crumple, fuse together and the ink came out as a dust. I was disappointed at first with my torn and messy print, however I realised how similar the print making marks and the smudgy ink looked.

I decided to combine this with the original map to create a contrast between the slear crisp original and the messy printed copy.

I really like how the printed copy is added beyond the edge of the original work, further supporting the theme of working out of a boundary. I really like the pleats in the copied piece caused by the printer malfunction and I think I might continue to texture my work in a similar way. I’m really pleased with how the mechanical error became a successful piece.

Many of the artists we’ve looked at for this brief have used scanners to distort their work and create new pieces. I decided to experiment with this to keep up the process of creation and ended up with some very interesting and unexpected results. I took my earlier work on wood cut to create the following piece.

I really liked the result of this experiment but felt it didn’t fit with my sequence so far. The inkjet print had a shiny and digital quality to it which felt too disconnected from my previous traditional matte pieces. I chose to isolate just the manipulated art work to reduce the impact of the print while still using the content I’d created.