Art and Ideas: Time and Memory

 

                                                                     ' Childhood Garden' 
 

For the last   5 weeks I've  been  participating  in City Lit  online course  ' Art and Ideas : Time and Memory '. I did  a course  in the same series  in 2019 (   in a real classroom !)   on  the subject ' Space and Place'   and  found it thought-provoking and inspiring - I've been re reading some of the  articles recently.   

In lockdown ,  without the stimulation  of   travelling , visiting galleries  and new experiences, like many people  I've been remembering  the past,  recalling people  and places  I hadn't thought of in years so  it was a topic I was keen to explore  further.   The structure of the course  works well   using Zoom,  each week we  have  a series of readings  on a particular  aspect  which we discuss in small groups    and then shared screens  highlight work  of  contemporary  artists . 

For our  last  session   this week, we will be sharing personal  work  produced in response  to the course ( subject of another blog post)  and in thinking about that , I've  reviewed   the themes and ideas that most resonated  with me.   

Week 1 ‘ Art and Oblivion’   In the first session we introduced ourselves  and looked at types of memory : semantic, personal, involuntary, procedural, cultural, collective, shared.

The  readings  were : Jorge Luis Borges ‘Funes the Magnificant’   )A young man  who could reconstruct every moment lived or dreamt , spending so much time minutely reliving  the past , looking backwards,no time to observe or be in the present ) and Marc Auge ‘ How we forget to remember’  

Artists  included 

Rachel Whiteread  ‘ House’  

Cornelia Parker  Mnemic Traces  ( memories found in objects  that hold evidence of  what the object  has lived through )  ‘ subconscious of a monument 2005’ Room for Margins  1999 .   Some of this work  I was lucky enough to see at  the Whitworth gallery in 2015

  'If we remembered everything   could we make sense of anything?'

Week 2 'Haunted - involuntary  memory '

We  looked at the ways in which memories are triggered, what is it that causes the ghosts of our past to suddenly appear?   Readings  were  from   Proust’s ‘In Search of Lost Time’( ‘The way by Swanns’   translators intro  and extract) and   we shared  our  ‘ Madeline Moments’! 

My memory to do with feel of  fabrics and threads.  I still  have scraps from childhood  dresses   and wear a  fabric mask made from fabric from one of my mum’s  dresses. She’s still protecting me.

 Artists  looked at included Tracey Emin ‘ Why I never became a Dancer ‘  ( an approach to ‘ recovered’ memory in visual arts ) and Mike Kelley ( composite architectural models of all  his school/ colleges constructed from memory

 Our homework -  to map spatial memory, quick floor plan of  childhood home/ school  or familiar building from childhood  

                                                               '  Childhood Home'

 We  moved into a  new build   in 1964 ( when I was 3) . From 1979 when I went to university  only visited for short periods until 1995 when Dad died and the house was sold. Revisiting in  2010   with Ian  who was seeing it for the first time, they’d made substantial improvements , my old bedroom knocked through  to make new bathroom etc it  looked so different. The owner  still remembered  my mum on her Pashley   tricycle  with ‘ wide load'  ‘ sign on basket  from more than 20  years earlier. 

Week 3 'Collective  Memory'  

This session explored collective and cultural memory  with  discussion of readings :Introduction and essay by Maurice Halbwachs from The Collective Memory Reader and David Rieff, In Praise of Forgetting.

Artists/ Artworks  included : Cornelia Parker  'Magna Carta ( an embroidery)  2015', 'War Room  2015' 

Thomas Demand ' Room 1994'  

 Ai Weiwei  Dropping a 'Han Dynasty Urn  1995'    ‘ Straight’ 2005- 2012  ( both of which I saw at RA  exhibition.   

 Jeremy Deller ‘ We’re Here because We’re Here’ 

Looked particularly at work of Anselm  Kiefer  ( unforgettable work seen at RA  and White Cube which triggered memories of my own) 

 Week 4 'Mediated memory'  focused on photography as a medium of memory storage, and exchange – as well as questioning the reliability of our memory when shared with others or filtered through other Readings were : Susan  Sontag on Photography; extracts from Mediated Memories in the Digital Age by Van Dijck -  ( Pictures of Life, Living Pictures )  and a wonderful extract  from Esther Kinsky's ' River'   ( I ordered and am now reading the whole book !)  A lot of the discussions  were about authenticity. 

 Artists  included  Gerhard Richter and Christian Boltanski:  sharing’ autographic’ memories.  I particularly  liked  work of  Idris Khan , every page  of   Roland Barthes 'Camera Lucida ' superimposed , illegible.  

  Our homework  was  sharing a photo '  Seeing/seeing yourself through the eyes of others'   .  I  chose  and sent photos before  reading the texts !  ‘ The Day of Bees'   July 17 2020.    I also had  ideas around ‘ memory  storage' : crates of  slides and packets of photos in garage , not  looked at in 15 years  ! Many people  are spending lockdown sorting through old photos: like ‘ Funes the Magnificent’  I feel that if I started doing that  there wouldn’t be any  time for experiencing  the present. 

                                                                     ' Day  of  Bees' 

'Memory Storage' 

Week 5 ‘ Momento Mori’  ( remember you must die )

Readings: Chapter 10 of Gulliver's Travels; describing a race of immortals ( Struldbrugs ) living among the mortal.  Lucretius 'On the Nature of Things'; an extract from 'An Introduction to Heidegger' ( Dasien's awareness of mortality)

Art works  were mainly video/film :    Mark Wallinger ‘ Threshold to the Kingdom’   2000

 Bill Viola ‘ Ocean  without a shore’  2008 

Kris Vervaeke   Ad infinatum. 

Hirokazu Koreeda ‘After Life’1998  

The subject  was challenging and might seem morbid  (especially in the times we're living in ) but  ultimately life affirming, in accepting mortality,  to make the most of life  as you don’t know when  you will die.  

Lucretius : "Life is granted to none for freehold, to all  on lease"

EDAM Term 3 : Further thoughts on 'Meanwhile...', techniques and artists to explore

 During the course  of 2 terms of EDAM I've been pushed well out of my comfort zone in the variety of  drawing techniques. Now in Term 3,  when we're working on our own projects, I need to consider which of these  will be useful for  me to use to explore the theme of ' meanwhile...' ( initial thoughts here )
 Large scale drawing with Tony Hull, starting with  object, blind drawing, mark making with long stick. wrapping object ,  inserting sheets of paper to disrupt composition , making linkages across surface,  layers, responding to what's there.

 Bookmaking , copies of monoprints, change of scale,  formats, concertina
 ( also ideas  from   monoprint  sketchbook project -  backs of work different to front, interaction of pages,, juxtaposition ,

 Paper manipulation and stitch - lots to explore here, take on idea and try different methods: pleating, distortion , ripping layers , stitch on acetate

Space and Light with Anne Teahan, feeling the form

 Lessons from 'Large Scale Sketchbook' :

 Interest in layers - in cloth, excavating old  quilts, what's beneath , how to  try this in paper?

Some  first thoughts on artists  of relevance:

Michael Buthe 

 Junko Oki ( Looking forward to  going to see her exhibition in Brussels in a couple of weeks time !) 

Paul Feiler - I spent some time looking at layers and composition at the Redfern Gallery 

Julie  Mehretu 

Guillermo Kuitca

 And 'mining'  my  own blog for artists that have influenced me over the years - interesting to make connections.
 Richard Long
David Nash  Tree  Quaryy
David Nash Cork Structures
David Nash
Sue Lawty
Cornelia Parker 
Tania Kovats 

Our homework  from the first  class was to read an article from Contemporary Drawing 1960's to now by Katherine Stout and research  ' expanded notion' one of the themes 

We started  the  next session  looking  at  artists using these different methods :

 Alison Wilding 

 Jenny Saville 

 Claude Heath 

 Frank Pudney 

Kirsten Elswood

Gerhard Richter  ( overpainted photographs at Gagosian) 

Stephan Talasniek

( for his use  of frottage, monoprinting  'activating the surface' 

 Helen Scalway 

 'Psychogeography'  writer ( well worth downloading the pdf's) ,  ' Travelling Blind'   shows  fascinating interpretations of the tube.  

Cosmopolitan city  shows different scales ( above) and I like' patterns and perspective' ( below) linked with her essay on ornament and memory

 Nancy Spero  for her use of text 

 William Kendridge' s interdisciplinary  work covers so many different media , it was a privilege to see the rehearsals for the 'Head and The  Load' last year . I  have a copy of his  '6 Drawing Lessons'  somewhere, must track it down.

My own  research, linked to my interests in  mapping walks,  was in ' walking as art' ,  so I was interested to find the catalogue for exhibition ( which can be downloaded on ISSUU)  

 Walk on-WALK  celebrating 40 years of 'art walking' 

Those that caught my eye  were  Tim Knowles ( whose '7 walks from 7 Dials, Covent Garden' is featured  in the inspirational 'Drawing Projects' book 

 Also Jeremy Wood  who pioneered  drawing  with GPS ,the  3d physicality of his piece  ' White Horse Hill'  I found   exciting.

"We cannot understand where we are on the ground without first looking up at the stars. The chalk figure from the Bronze Age was made to be seen from the heavens and today we use space age technology from the heavens to tell us where we are.

The Uffington White Horse was chosen for its mysterious dialogue between the ground and the sky; a relationship it has in common with the magical properties of satellite navigation technology.

The original shapes have eroded over time along with their meaning. They are signs, not entirely visible from the ground that are projected towards the skies like symbols on a map to be seen by the gods." 

 

White Paintings: Tate Modern 'In the Studio' & Paul Feiler at Redfern Gallery

 Where possible, Fridays are now my 'London Gallery ' days : travelling  after 10 am cost £17.90 with a  Network railcard  in comparison to the  £47.80  travelling at peak time in the morning for EDAM  on Wednesdays! 

So far  I've  been to the Annie Albers at Tate Modern  and Oceania  at the RA  and with ' Black and White'  with Ashley Hanson  still in my mind , I've  been hunting down relevant artworks  while I've been in the area, discovering  a whole section in the 'In The  Studio' display  of  Tate Modern ( above) and  some exciting works  by Paul Feiler in the Redfern Gallery in Cork Street ( below) 

 Entering the prestigious  galleries in Mayfair  no longer scares me as much as it used  to - if you have a genuine interest in the work , I've found the  staff to be helpful and often generous with catalogues and cards etc .  At the Redfern, there was  roadworks going on outside and I think they were glad to see anyone!

 I sketched these 2  pieces : Oval and Blue ( above) and Porthleddon deep Blue 1962 ( below) to get  to grips with their proportions and compositions. Also to try and work out how many layers there were and in what order - I just loved the flashes of yellow, blue and brown  at the edges of shapes. What at first glance might seem to be a slapdash application of white  is actually   very carefully painted.  I was also very aware of the importance of edges ( as with Patrick Heron)

I  liked  the exuberance of the textured brush strokes  in 'coastal Walk 1959' above' summoning up a sense of place  and  his  sketches ( below)

 While  his earlier more organic work is more to my taste,  his later geometric 'portal' works ( above)  are mesmerising when you see them in the flesh, the subtle layers of colour drawing you in

 ( reproductions just can't do them justice)  The  title  'elusive space' for the exhibition  was very  apt. 

  The previous week, in Tate Modern while paying homage to the 'Cage' paintings of Gerhard Richter in section 'In the Studio'  ( I visit them every time I go there),   I revisited the 'Painting in White'  section I'd studied during the 'Ways into abstract painting '  course, particularly the work' holes'  of Shozo Shimamoto ' 

This time it was  the 'White Painting' by Michael Buthe   that grabbed me, reminding me of the work of Simon Callery  . I hadn't  heard of him before but   it looks like his work is well worth exploring further ( article here) 

Michael Buthe

Jack Whitten

Shozo Shimamoto 

Piero Manzoni 

Despite loving colour, I'm finding the exploration  of a neutral palette  very satisfying at the moment. It  allows me to explore texture, layers, marks  and composition and tone without the extra complication of  colour ( although I'm still struggling to  get to grips with charcoal). Time perhaps to look again at those gessoed/ primed pieces of old quilts I've been hoarding??

Reading a Paint Surface 2: Colour, Pinholes and Drawing the Spaces

Week 2 of ' Reading the Paint Surface' at City Lit  started  with the  scene of our previous weeks endeavors partially covering  the still life arrangement, a playful hint of what was to come - using a small  hole  in a piece of paper to look at the objects while we painted them!

  After an application of yellowish acrylic paint to seal the surface of the paper  we built up   a textured  background using a couple of other colours of acrylic . I kept  mine fairly simple  with scrapes and brush-marks, others  really went for it with  dribbles, palette  knife marks ( and a Richter-esque scrape with a palette in 1 case- I wish I'd thought of that!)  A brief coffee break was allowed while they dried and we set up palettes for oil -painting

Using the oil paints we mixed a light, mid and dark tone ( in my case a pale peach, red and purple)  and used these to  paint what we could see through a pinhole in the paper  ( the  stage above  shows 2 overlapping views)  The idea was to build up a picture in reverse of normal practice where you finish by putting in the detail, here you were starting with it!

As I haven't painted with oils  since  I was at school, this proved an additional challenge! I was also beginning to regret the choice of red as a mid tone ( I should have  remembered the lesson learnt while doing my 'red boat ' journal quilts -  it doesn't 'play nicely'). In feedback tutor was pointing out how the eye fills in the detail  , finding shapes in the background like the rest of the vase

After lunch, a whole group crit  which was incredibly valuable, looking at each others work and weighing up what draws your eye ( and to leave alone )balancing with areas that need more work.

The verdict  on mine at the stage above was  liking bottom left  and  the top ( apart from the hovering  white oval)  but to lose the 'stripey cap' in the foreground ( it's actually the  coffee pot !)

                                     

We were then encouraged  to add some more colours - I mixed some green  for the bottle but it really wasn't  working so I wiped it off ( the advantage of working in oils) .  The tutor really liked what was left , it had a real translucent quality but  said ' enough of the red period', that I now needed some cool colours  to  alter the temperature  so I mixed some blue greys for the shadows.  

 That made all the difference  and filling in the spaces around the objects tricks the eye into finding the shape. Magic!  Next week we're to bring in objects / secondary sources to work from.