Fine Art MA

Tutorial 18/04/2023 /  by Justin Harrison

We covered a lot of ground - which is why I like talking with Jonathan so much. Always so much to discuss.

I spoke about my current interest in translation, around Benjamin and Bhabha and Derrida. I’ve found yet another connection that they share. In my work I’m looking at translation as passage , that it too is a form of liminal passage.

I’ve managed to contact a Professor who specialises Derrida and intercontinental philosophy, I’m hoping to discuss with him n Derrida and the divine and the liminal, he’s also studied languages to better read the original works - so I’m hoping this too will expand the research.

I’ve been thinking about the show a lot and the discussion with Jonathan was very helpful to.

We had quiet a lot of discussion about my drawing, looking back at which ones were worth continuing to explore more - imaginary bundles, negative passage and the general drawing of my sculptures. In discussion it came up how central drawing is too my practice, to making sculpture and after. I've always gravitated to drawing and it's become central to my process. That it can begin or end a work. It’s core to the work rather than a means to plan or document.

Another point that Jonathan raised that I have been thinking for some time is about the scale of my drawings and sculpture. That this feels like a time to go big. I need to meditate on this I had been thinking about making 2-3 meter high drawings, but then Jonathan challenged me to work way bigger 2 - 3 stories. That scares me but also excites me. What would I draw? What would merit such effort?

For the show I have been thinking about making an installation of the sculptures that I have been making over the past few months, to hang them in a vertical circle, and to possibly offset a wall drawing in clay (Research Richard Long) The intent is to dialogue about passage/translation through the liminal. Looking at the ritualised tools of passage - especially the modified paddles.  There appear to be various possibilities around showing this format, however I could also move away from the circle and show drawings and sculptures alongside each other...but this needs more thought. How would I do it and what would it bring to the dialogue?

JK also discussed with me the titling of my work to help give access and context. This has been a practice whenever I blog about a piece I try and find some sort of title and there has been the phrase, Ritualised tools of Passage and Poetic discovery of the hidden. I also found the phrase 'Middle Voice' which is an interesting term. Originally in a text from Derrida, however it is also a grammatical term.

Middle Voice

A voice that is neither active nor passive, because the subject of the verb cannot be categorized as either agent or patient, having elements of both.

I like this very much and want to incorporate it. Ill need to build a catalogue of terms an titles to aid access to the work, but without oversimplifying.

So much to consider and plan and I’m also need to process a film about mu practice…

 

Unexpected /  by Justin Harrison

Something happened tonight, an unexpected flurry. I’ve been angsting about the final show. A little lost at sea with my work. I have ideas but didn’t feel convinced. The past week or so Ive been in the studio just making and doing a few drawings around concluding bits.

I sat down tonight to make some drawings, finalising some ideas and have instead generated a whole bunch more work to make. Too much to make for the show but that’s fine it’s work I can continue with after the MA.

The practice based research throws me at times, I feel like I should be in books and papers, which I do - and have too many! But the making and drawing is a valuable form of research and development not an end process - which I keep forgetting.

I now have a number of pages of sketches that I can work up into sculptures or more involved drawings.

But how that’s my question, what occurred to summon this? How do I keep it?

There’s some interesting bit happening for with the pot. (At the back of my head is the smoking pot from Abrams encounter with Yahweh and the question was that a Liminal Moment a generative moment?)

In addition I’ve been wondering about basic needs of the Liminal Personae.

I’ve begun to think about the passage - basic needs. Food, Water, Sleep, Movement.

The circular form a kind of navigational device, measuring the character for travel. I want to put metric markings down the rod.

More paddles just because I can’t leave them alone.

A travel bed - but more.

The cooking pot and stick.

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Shopping

https://www.rapidmetals.co.uk/product/copper-1-4-dia/

 

Show Planning /  by Justin Harrison

I’ve been wondering about this for a while. Let it sit in the back of my mind. Sometimes I find it’s better to let things percolate. I’m thinking about how and what I show, part of me is tempted to make new work…but I also know the dangers with that. It’s hard I always want to be progressing and for that to happen I want to make new work, use the lessons learnt from what I have just made. But its also time consuming, and perhaps more importantly I need to pull on what has happened over the past two years on the course.

A key lesson learnt is the value of me liberating my making, stopping myself from overthinking and working which ultimately leads to me editing all ideas and not making so much. In working quick and dirty I’ve found that my ideas are able to make more connections and resonances, the practice based research goes deeper.

So in many senses it seems appropriate to show all the experiments rather than a polished final artwork. Although this is hard too as I imagine the weight of expectations of others. But then I think making the installation similar to what the drawing is in keeping with my research paper too. A nod to Ursual von Rydingsvard curation.

Hung from hopefully a unistrut using cables suspending the work feels more sympathetic that securing to a wall, but at a push that could work to, it feels kinda big maybe 3.5m - 4m square, but that’s kinda greedy.

But more than that an exploration of the liminal, I do wonder weather objects are allowed, making something physical seems almost contradictory. But I return to the phrases ‘Ritualised objects of the liminal’ and ‘Poetic discovery of the hidden’.

I do have a new piece that might also translate better, in interpreting the Liminal and my investigations, but I need to make it and it’s location bound so I don’t really know how it would show in the gallery context…and I need to make it yet. It could suck.

I want to meditate more on the past two years and reread my paper, so older blog posts, there’s so much that I have already forgotten.

 

Mechanics of Paper /  by Justin Harrison

MA Session - Paper folding.

I like it when there is no clear boundaries with certain disciplines, especially in the arts, which is why I like Derrida’s work, the structures get broken down and bleed into each other.

With the paper folding the surface becomes space. 2d is both 2d and 3d. Sculpture and single plane. It seems a natural response to then photograph the work, explore the tonal planes and how the sculpture can return to an image, abstracted and RePlaced.

It’s no secret I love process and the practical tuition was very satisfying. Finding the form in the paper feel good too as we creased the paper. In this I chose to work with waxed paper. I love how it takes and draws each crease in white, whilst maintaining a warm translucent qality. Ultimately the paper doesn’t perform so well structurally but then moving beyond folded form it then lends it’s self to more possibilities. Again the language of materials is there to be found and negotiated.

 

Response to Assessment Feedback /  by Justin Harrison

The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida. Religion without religion. By John D Caputo

After processing my feedback, I’m attempting to refine my plans for the next year. Have realistic making goals// In parallel my research/conceptual enquiry needs refining, my areas of reading and research, I did receive advice not to get too consumed with existential theory. ( Although saying this I did just start another book on Derrida). But in my defence it’s a very different one from the usual analysis, the writing is almost prose at times and has some beautiful phrases. I know I want the technical insight but I don’t want to depart from the creative either, and I find the prose helpful.

The feedback from the assessment was very encouraging, reminding me to continue with the free documentation of thoughts and ideas through mini deadlines and making multiples that can be edited later.

I am also mindful of questions raised about engaging with 'smaller, quieter and less visible changes, especially in the context of Derrida', - rather than the more noticeable motif of death. I agree and in thinking around this - I am reminded of a line form a song - "Who are you great mountain that you should not bow low?" (“Never Lost'' was written by Catherine Mullins & Rita Springer) some how it re-addresses value systems for me. Micro and macro. Mustard seed and tree. The still small voice that can level mountains.

We look for the dramatic- the grand and the impactful yet miss the same impact that can come from the small. It's not just an inversion though...there is a different understanding of dynamics and binary. Is this where 'differance' can come into view if only for half a moment?

There is a warning again about getting trapped in conceptual theories and the perfectionism of making. I see the truth with both these points and need to carefully consider what ideas I am going to pursue and how they are going to be made. Perhaps I need to identify some common threads that appear and which I connected to creatively.

///////////////////

  • Am tempted to look at:

  • Quick 10 mins sketches in porcelain and black clay?

  • Quick fabrications in cardboard.

  • Drawings made on discarded paper (It stops me getting precious with my drawings)

  • Multiple drawings.

  • Slip casting?

  • Set some hard mini deadlines.

 

Process /  by Justin Harrison

Detail from self portrait

I look like shit. I’m seriously behind on sleep. So this seems like a good time to take a self portrait photo for the collaborative project.

I take fairly brutal one straight on, but then I find myself messing with it. I can't help it. We chose the theme 'Awkward' and this can go in many directions, I play with the image till I've almost destroyed it, but then I really like it. It's become something else, it has a Gerhard Richter feel to it and the colours are working for me. I mess with I some more pushing the colours and forms. I like that I don't know where this is going but that the trajectory is interesting, it’s undergoing trnsformation///

/// I send the image and wait to se what I'll get back....

Because I keep on forgetting what I am currently interested in I’m posting now on my blog to try and centralise my resources and focus and who knows it could be useful too.

Decomposition and the science of death.

Derrida - locate a constructive element on the up cycle of deconstruction. Also reading Structure Sign and Play.

Dead horses - find anything and draw/collograph print

Walter Bruggerman - find that book Justin.

South Africa - Finish reading and research further.

 

I bled on it, it must be finished. /  by Justin Harrison

Really wish I’d put a coat of Aussie wax on it, just three coats of neats foot oil feels too vulnerable. But then it is a fragile little piece. The wood is thin, knotted and brittle, the leather porous and sensitive to it’s environment (including my blood - I jabbed my finger several times sewing it).

I think that’s what the piece is about, sensitivity and vulnerability in passage. But its more as well///

I finished late Sunday night - just in time for Monday, an annoying tension of kinda rushing it but then taking too long. ((( Note this started out as a piece that’s supposed to be made in an hour)))  But what’s come out of it is interesting and suggests to me that I should attempt the experiment of’ limited making time’ again,especially as the concept was generated through that process.

I’m intrigued by the artwork thats been made and what it touches on: Restoration, RePlacement, Resistance. Strongholds (my ref - not a theme clearly described in the piece) Momento mori, death as passage, way marker, the fear that permeates change.  

/// I’ve burnt the wood so intentionally, the surface quality is really important, transitions from raw wood into charred wood through to high polished grain and knots. I’m wanting to use the visceral feel of materials and their treatments to articulate.

I am curious to work with the fencing panels some more ( I have a bunch stashed in the studio), sanding and polishing to transform it to find value and beauty. \\\ I spoke in class the other day about ‘Agitating Agents’ people or situations that rub us up the wrong way, how they can work to refine us, teach us. Slough off the surface detritus. Process and change and discomfort.

I also wonder what would happen to the piece if I were to change it’s scale and it 3 meters high. But then I’d really have to love the piece to commit to it.

///////

Is this work  a documentation of passage or an intercession for change? or both I can’t really decide at the moment but then maybe I don’t need to and it’s in the process of practice I may find answers.


 

T up >> T down<< /  by Justin Harrison

Image my own

In writing my Study statement - I began to think about Transformation in a particular model. The problem with models is they are often wrong. Things don’t fit into categorisation or structure neatly - but it’s a way of temporarily holding the information for me, a way of looking at it - till I find a better way…

Actually a lot came out of writing my Assessment and Study statement, I’ve not considered my practice, art or interests so formally before. It was hard, I had a headache after posting it all. But so worth it, to find structure, plans and actually discover that my interests do connect.

Does transformation exist in two differing states that cycle round:

Transformation down <<

In the transformation down<<<  the process of deconstruction, decomposition. The gradual and eventual disassembly of structure, division of cells, molecules and elements.  

A rendering down to constituent parts.

“Everything is divisable” (Derrida)

Transformation up >>

In transformation up>>> looking at the coalescence, aggregation, cumulation of elements or events. The newness of creation. Being RePlaced. Becoming new, becoming more.

A circle of transformation cycling through stages of Life>>>Death >>> Decomposition >>> Creation>>>New life>>>

“Far from being ‘dead,’ however, a rotting corpse is teeming with life. A growing number of scientists view a rotting corpse as the cornerstone of a vast and complex ecosystem, which emerges soon after death and flourishes and evolves as decomposition proceeds.” (Mo Costandi (2017). Life after death: the science of human decomposition. [online] the Guardian).

So in light of the nature of Derrida's approach to deconstructions and undecidability - where in his thinking does he reference a constructive approach? What if anything isn’t left undone -  Reinscription? Somewhere I read about a part of his work that touched on this but cannot remember which book it was.

I need to locate more specific and rigorous texts that at least allude to something akin to Transformation up>>>

 

Dear /  by Justin Harrison

Following yesterdays post I looked up Game painting, specifically deer. The major players Jan Van Weenix and Frans Snyders. I guess it would come to this sooner or later…dead animals. So here is my confession.

Hi my name is Justin Harrison and I have a thing about dead animals. My friends if the see road kill - think of me or send pictures. This theme always seem too manifest sooner or later in my work.

I guess maybe the MA is the place to follow this moribund thread.

I’m thinking about a body of work and this actually plays very well into it, I’ll need to research some more, but revolves around ‘bag dumps’ that you see often on Instagram, Youtube - If you follow Bushcrafters or survivalists. I like the idea of making the contents of a bag dump but for a 17th Century Game Keeper of for an imagined traveller/ initiate.

Kit for the rite of passage///
Knife, Compass, cordage, bag, invented tools.

There is something I love about the game paintings, the colours and lighting, a strange tableaux. As I look through the galleries of images I could collect more…

I feel like there are some interesting and deeper connections, but having had very little sleep for the past few days I’m gonna trust that I’ll figure it out…

Image References:
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/a-huntsman-cutting-up-a-dead-deer-with-two-deerhounds-jan-weenix.html
A Huntsman cutting up a Dead Deer, with Two Deerhounds
Jan Van Weenix

https://www.passionforpaintings.com/en/art-gallery/sir-edwin-henry-landseer-painter/of-a-dead-stag-oil-painting-reproduction
Of A Dead Stag
Painted originally by: Landseer Sir Edwin Henry
Recommended: 25 x 18 "

http://community.artauthority.net/work.asp?wid=64064&pos=2
Title: Still Life with Dead Deer, Heron and Hunting Implements
Artist: Weenix, Jan
Year: c. 1690 Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 47 15/16 x 62 3/8 in. (121.8 x 158.4 cm)

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O131738/still-life-with-a-dead-oil-painting-snyders-frans/
Still Life with a Dead Stag
Snyders, Frans 
Oil Painting 1640s Antwerp

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/still-life-with-dead-game-138951
Still Life with Dead Game
Frans Snyders (1579–1657)
Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/SK-A-591
A Dog and a Cat near a partially disembowelled Deer, Jan Baptist Weenix, 1645 - 1660 oil on canvas, h 180cm × w 162cm × d 12cm × w 46kg

 

Saturation /  by Justin Harrison

How can one drawing do so much to me ? I’m sat at home feeling pretty lousy, a virus has spent the best part of this week trying to interfere in my practice based research, and THAT is unforgivable. However I want to focus on this drawing by Gerhart Richter. Understand why it speaks a previously unchartered place in me.

Every now and then I encounter a work which is far grater than he sum of it’s parts. Deceptively simple in it’s execution of ink bled across paper. This one drawing is flooded with emotive waves like a symphony. It feels as though it is the the distilled essence of a passage across hope, love and loss.

I suspect that it is no chance that Richter created this drawing and it is born from years of study and making in colour and form. I don’t care necessarily for a lot of Richter’s paintings but I see his craft.

When I look at the drawing I see sadness and beauty occupying the same space, a lament -( as discussed in this weeks MA session). I’ve always connected with the notion of the lament, the sadness in seeing the gap between what is and what could be.

It’s also important to consider as I’m using this process of bleeding ink quiet a lot in my own practice right now. Something I am a little suspicious of due to it’s popular nature, the though needs to work in sync with he aesthetics. And where am I taking it?

 

'Ists' & 'Isms' /  by Justin Harrison

 

Following JK's lecture and MA discussion on Thursday, I've been processing some more about movements and their nature/purpose.

I fear this is ground that has already been well trodden and the paths already smooth, compacted and familiar. However I guess its good to explore for yourself and see where it can lead.

The question was regarding what era are we in now, after post modernism, or meta modernism or alter modernism. (I remember we discussed some other postulations). In addition we discussed what movements might there be in light of the digital technology that is now available to the arts?

However for all the possible angles I end up thinking of the quote "The clay does not say to the potter, what are you making?". Similarly I wonder if artists in the era of cubism, impressionism were too conscious of what movement they belonged if any, (although after modernism I sense a change in the self awareness/self consciousness of the artist and the art they made) 

It feels as though it is after the event, that a burgeoning movement becomes acknowledged and receives it's nomenclature from the exterior/more dominant culture. Even then I want to resist the 'taxonomy', it feels restrictive with a subtext of violence. The aggressive 'spatlung' splitting, a removal from the body. 

"splitting to use the term chosen by Lacan, therefore masks the subject from himself in the utterances he makes on himself and on the world. But Lacan also tells us that in discourse the subject experiences his lack of being, as he is no more than represented in discourse, just a s his desire is no more than represented there." Lemaire Anik - Jacques Lacan 1970 p73

Derrida also speaks of the violence of ecrire, that act of making an impression upon the page to write, to name to other.

It seems a naive and plaintiff cry, but is enough just to make, to research and to have value in what I do - I am highly cautious of being seduced by the zeitgeist - who all too often turns out to be shallow, usury and fleeting.

Then it all comes back to Kant's dove it's dream of being liberated from air resistance.

 
 

Trashed /  by Justin Harrison

I feel like my mind has the landscape of an angry 3yr olds bedroom. everything is everywhere and nothing resides in its proper place. It's all out and on the floor. I'm filling pages of my sketchbook with odd disjointed ideas, some manifestations from years ago, some from just now.

I've gone down rabbit hole with Derrida and doubt I'll ever return from that one with any useful information other than he makes your nose bleed if you read too much.

Continuing to build up a glossary of random words I like:

Passage///

Diagram///

Constituent///

Honouring///

Threshold///

Threshing Floor///

Refine///

Filter///

 

Honesty/// /  by Justin Harrison

IMG_4125.JPG

I talked with a good friend and told them about the MA course, about the Blog. They are a creative practitioner and immediately ‘got it’ - thought it was a great idea, understanding the benefits and value to creative reflection… and then we came to discuss honesty.

/// If the blog is really to be of value then it needs to be honest, not performative.

When I write this blog, am I writing openly and honestly? Or am I trying to impress people?

It’s bad enough to give myself away in my artwork - am I now I’m gonna confess all my weird shit in words too?

It makes me realise how much I hold back>>> everyday. 

/// In fact how authentic am I? When I am at work, when I am out - who am I? It’s an unnerving thought that I might perform - more than I am actually myself.

///Currently reading:::
This blog and my presentation repeatedly - if I’m honest

 

Proof & Approval /  by Justin Harrison

88417DBE-95E9-4035-9D91-8B535EA650EB.JPG

I noticed a connection between the words approval and prove - that had not occurred to me before.

The two set an interdependent in a negative frame. That to have approval I must prove myself, yet this is a futile task. My identity should not be scaffolded by others approval that I must first evidence.

My subconscious harangues me…

“If you really are…

…an artist

…intelligent

…likeable

…worthy to do an MA”

 >>>Or insert any other angst based self-defeating doubt>>>

…then prove it…(by fact based action…)

It seems the moment we step out, we come under unfair and unjust scrutiny. Rather than be encouraged to take risks, make new work or suggest a new way. Eeverything must be first justified and evidenced.

Prove///Approve - it’s a shitty equation.

How would you describe 'a healthy artistic environment’?

One free from the need to prove myself. 
Challenging yet collaborative.
A space where risks are taken.
A fringe space liberated from standard cultural capital.

Thinking about what my fellow students are doing to enhance my social and learning experiences; What do I most value in them?

Honest, challenging and rigorous discussion.
Experience beyond my own frame.
Kindness and understanding.

Thinking about what I am doing to enhance my fellow students social and learning experiences; What do they most value in me?

Experience outside of themselves.
Kindness and understanding.
Honest, challenging and rigorous discussion.

Sorry to be cheesy but I can’t ask something of someone I’m not prepared to give myself.

///Currently reading::: 
Theastre Gates:::Carol Becker, Lisa Yun Lee, Achim Borchardt-Hume