Author: Natalia

Thinking back to wanting to create a machine that worked with movement and gravity, I went and looked at some arrtworks.

Robert Howsare

Howsare artworks interested me a lot because of the geometric markings that his machines creates. His machine called the Drawing Apparatus records movement by having a pen attached to a wooden ‘arm’ that is pinned to two playing vinyl records. The recording of the movement creates precise geometric lines.

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Recording movement that creates geometric designs is something I would like to create in my next art machine. But rather having a machine create the lines, I want something more organic.

Meg Rodger

Rodger is a scottish artist who heavily involves nature into her works and saying she “works creatively with natural phenomena, taking [her] inspiration from the complexity, strength and beauty of the oceans and the wild lands.” as well as that “[Her] work is from the perspective that humans are not the central but merely part of these naturally occurring systems, and cycles that are complex, integrated and vast.”

I like Rodgers work because she uses the organic environment as a machine to record marks, in her many works called Wind Drawings. In these work, Rodger set a pendulum, making a stand with a pen attached to string in the centre, and paper weighted down by rocks. The machine works with the wind, as the wind from the environment pushes the string, it moves the pen which records it movements.

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With my research, I would like to combine the ideas of recording marks from a natural element and to make marks that have a geometric pattern. A machine I think that would achieve this is a pendulum that will release paint as it swings. The machine being gravity- the natural element- will influence the pendulum to swing when let go from a height. And as it swings, paint would be releases and hopefully record it’s movement onto a piece of paper place underneath it.

https://roberthowsare.com/

http://roberthowsare.com/rational-aesthetics/drawing-apparatus/, Robert Howsare Drawing Apparatus, Accessed July 22 2021.

https://www.toa.st/blogs/magazine/lines-of-beauty-in-the-studio-with-meg-rodger Lines of Beauty, Toast Magazine, 30 March 2021.

https://www.megrodger.com/ Meg Rodger, Accessed 22 July 2021

Today Emma and I made a Catapult Machine out of popsicle sticks, skewers and rubber bands. Emma had the idea of making a catapult that would throw paint as she was inspired by blood splatter marking in films/tv.

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I was surprised to find out that the catapult worked really well! We made multiple different prints on paper using different colours. First we had one with one splat on it, another with two splats layered on it, two splats side by side.

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Knowing that the catapult worked and figuring out the consistency of the paint we moved onto using the catapult on a person. We went out and got a white t-shirt so the red paint would stand out and Kurt was willing to be the person who would stand in front of the catapult. Because we wanted each paint splat to be visible, we made the paint colour go dark to light red. We also ended up doing the last paint splatter on an angle to create a different affect from what we had done previously.

In the moment, I had only thought that the catapult was the machine. But as I’m looking at it now, Kurt is a part of the machine and it a part of the performance. His body is used as a canvas and explored the relationship of how people interact with substances. Usually, people avoid it, try to be clean and are usually the one in control with a paint substance. But in this case, we are reversing the roles, The paint/catapult are the ones in control, and Kurt- the person- is not.

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Another thing to note is how movement and gravity affected the markings- The machine, the catapult moves very quickly to throw the paint and I love how we can see this movement in the markings. The splatter and big blotch of paint going upwards. As well as this I love how gravity pushes the paint splatter downwards, creating drips.

Moving forward I want to try and explore a machine that specifically works with gravity and movement.

Wanting to use the stairs again, we thought it would be a good idea to paint the bottoms of our shoes as we walk down paper that would be placed down on the stairs. This would show how people interact with the machine, the stairs, and how we as people use gravity to stand and walk up/down stairs. The marks of our shoes would also show the passage of time, the rhythm of stepping and the movement as the marks fade.

At first we wanted four of us to walk the stairs, but we ended up using two people because of safety reasons as well as so the markings of our shoes would be clearer. After walking down the stairs with our painted shoes, we decided to go up/down the stairs until the paint on our shoes run out- following how the slinky marks faded to show the passage of time and movement. This also relates to exploring the way humans interacts with the world around them by making marks, an idea that Rebecca Thorns has in her works.

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I like the results of this, but also think the machine is so alike to the slinky, making marks on paper on stairs to show rhythm and the passage of time. So moving forward, I think we should try different machines and different was to show action, movement and the passage of time.

The first idea we did was the Slinky machine. This is where we would layout a sheet of paper onto stairs, and have a slinky with painted sides, ‘walk’ down the stairs creating marks. The machine is the gravity pulling down the slinky to walk down the stairs to create marks.

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After a few trial runs, we were able to get the slinky to walk down the stairs and create marks. We dipped each side into liquid acrylic. I really liked how as the further the slinky walked, the for the marks faded. This also shows the passage of time as well as the the rhythmic repetition of the slinky walking. I was quite surprised that the slinky would walk linear, almost in the same spots as it went down, I would’ve thought it would move differently i.e lean to a side.

Because we were getting a repetition of the same marks, we decided to do another way to make the slinky walk. We did this by not having the paper flushed to the stairs, creating an incline and by rolling the slinky down the stairs.

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This created spontaneous marking, theres lines from the sides of the slinky, paint splatter and some circle outlines of the bottoms of the slinky. Personally, I don’t think this worked as well as walking the slinky down as the marks are unclear of what was happening. Whereas walking the slinky down, there’s a clear idea that the slinky is walking, and you we can see the rhythmic pattern of it stepping and the passage of time as the slinky marks fade.

Moving forward, I think we should go with the theme of ‘action’ and rhythm/time. As well as using gravity as part of the machine.

For this brief, we are to experiment with making art machines. This way of making art is exploring the relationship between humans and the world around them.

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Margie Livingston

Margie Livingston has an art machine that I found interesting called Day Hike: Lake 22, 2018

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Livingston made an art machine by painting a canvas with multiple layers, and tying the canvas to her back so that while she would walk, the canvas would drag on the ground. As she would go over different terrain on her hikes, the environment would wear away the paint on the canvas, showing the passage of time and movement of where she would hike.

I thought this was a really cool idea and something I would like to explore with out machines: Time and movement.

Rebecca Horn

Wilson is a german artist who works in areas such as mechanical sculpture, drawings and performance. What interests me is that she has made art machines that are expansions of her body to make markings.

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In this work, Horn created a mask that had pencils attached to it. To create markings, she would move her face close to wall and the movement would be recorded as the pencils scribbles against the wall. I really like how she explores the relationship between people, the world, and how people interact with things. Thorn could’ve easily scribbled on the wall by traditionally using her hand to pencil method, but she decided to branch out and see different way humans could interact with their surroundings.

I would like to explore making marks in the way humans interact with their surroundings.

https://ocula.com/artists/rebecca-horn/ Rebecca Horn, Ocula, accessed 22 July 2021.

Gabinet. Rebecca Horn

Wanting to continue the tall layout that I had with by banner hanging, I decided to keep this in mind for my final display. I am really happy and excited about my final works and how I’ve displayed.

Hanging the calico with thread from the ceiling was really successful as well and love how I can see both sides of the calico, seeing the contrasting lace transfers, the front/back of the ‘400 LUX’ embroidery and seeing the frayed calico suspend in the air.

Pulling my work the furtherest away from the wall with pin also is successful as it allows the loose thread, frayed edges and the calico to be seen clearer, I also love seeing my work softly move from the breeze.

I also decided to put up the spare thread that came out while I was fraying the calico up. I think this it’s a very cool seeing the frayed calico hanging and then the loose threads, similar to how Capurro displayed his erased book and his erasure rubbings.

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Final Reflections

Thinking over this brief, I really enjoyed the process of making things and using the print labs. In the beginning I do think I was being to “safe”, by making work that was narrative driven such as collages. But towards the end, I started to experiment more with the process by going into the print lab and making different transfers with my dry points and monoprints. I started to get more confident in my work when I just started creating and layering with different things, such as paint, embroidery and dry points. I also loved fraying the calico and this is definitely where I was most confident in my work after trying not to be too critical or worry about the outcome.

My favourite works are the frayed calico with the lace pattern, the 400 LUX embroidery (the banner), My frayed Suspiria and my Carrie work. I especially love the fraying and how you can still see the image/pattern that was on the threads.

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If I had more time, I would want to venture more in removing/subtracting such as trying out different ways to remove the thread from calico to make an image. I also would want to do more collages with the printed images and layer more with embroidery and textiles .

I decided to embroider onto the calico that had lace transfers on both side. I chose white thread, because I wanted it to stand out against the lace the was mostly black.

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I really love how this turned out, the white lace didn’t really stand out against the side which was mostly calico, so I decided to trace around it in black pen to make it stand out, and I really love the outcome! I’m going to hand this piece up in studio so we can see the back of the calico and all of the back of the emroidery.

For it to hand up, I had to throw some thread over a pipe near the ceiling. I then had to hang up the calico with three seperate thread, on the left, middle and right of the calico. To make the calico not warp, I stiched some chopsticks along the top of the calico and this worked really well! I also love how you can see the chopstick and the white stitching as it relates back to the stitching/embroidery that I did in my mary magdalene work.

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Wanting this to be like a banner, I attached my other work that I had frayed underneath.

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I really loved how this stands out from the rest of my work and how tall it is. To make my work that hangs on the wall relate better, I decided I pull my works furtherest away from the wall using the pins. I really love how this turned out and decided to do with every work on the wall.

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(below) I really loved how my mary magdalene turned out as well! I finished stitching the lyrics from Fka Twigs’ song Mary Magdalene and I glued down the spare thread onto the calico. I loved how this added texture and look similar to the brushstrokes in my suspiria work.

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I finished fraying the suspiria print and I love it! I love this way of subtracting things from my work, as I have only been adding or layering. I think it looks really cool how all though thread had been removes, you can still see traces of the ink/paint on the remaining thread.

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I love this son much that I want to do it again. I want to try doing it on some lace transfers as I really enjoy the detail of the lace and I think contrasting the beautiful lace with tearing away thread could look really interesting.

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I really love how this turned out! I love the imperfections in the lace transfer, such as the little hints of red among the black ink, the blotches of ink and the negative space created from a thread that covered the ink while in the roll press. I also in love with how the frayed edge looks and how they started to behave on their own by wrapping up and dividing themselves. While in the Print Lab I decided to transfer the lace pattern on either side of the calico, giving me the potential to hang up the calico and have people look at the transfers on both sides if I wanted to!

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While going through my works, my mary magdalene stitching was upside down and I remember thinking of how I loved the crazy lines of the stitching and want to show it in one of my works. With the lace calico being held up in mind, I want to embroider something onto the calico, so we can see the cool textures and messiness of the back of the stitching.

Capurro is an Australian artist working in multi mediums such as print, drawing and installation. His work is based in the process- an aspect of palimpsest- and his works are mainly in the process of removing/erasing to create an image. His work interest me as I’m experimenting with removing thread from calico, a form of erasing and I wanted to investigate what pathways I could take.

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In these two works, Cupurro had completely erase every images/text from a book and the other was the result of the erasure rubbing and tiny pieces of paper.

https://www.mca.com.au/artists-works/artists/christian-capurro/

Stuart Koop

Looking at this wall on my wall, I wanted to manipulate it in some way. Taking inspiration from the jagged lines of the paint, I decided to get some sandpaper and tear at some of the fabric, I took away some of the printed image and frayed some of the calico. Like the look of the frayed calico, I started to manually pull the thread out. I really love how this looks and this way of subtracting so I want to do this with some new work, maybe with some lace transfers.

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I had previously said how I wanted to layer text on fabric and then stitch it onto calico, I started to do this and really love it! I love how the brown fabric stands out against the calico and how the stitching around the fabric adds texture as well as looks similar to the wild brush strokes and frayed edges of my Suspiria work. As I was fraying the Suspiria work, I was laying out the spare thread on top of this work (Below) and I surprisingly thought it looked really interesting, so I think I wanted to glue some of the spare thread onto it.

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