Making

Making stuff /  by Justin Harrison

I glue some more battons together in the stack as it felt too light weight not enough presence, fiddle with a clamping system and revert back to string wrapping.

Then I turn my attention to the base plate - Ive been sanding it and start thinking about just the transformation the material from rough to finished - am I adding value or meaning? Can I also do this with copper too - I still want to draw on it. (I also realise I should have dipped it in water to raise the grain before adding some oil - but I got too excited by the material wanting to see its grain)

Still not sure about the direction of the sculpture stuff it seems too tight and controlled and unimaginative. I don’t feel excited about it. But I need to push on and make not worry.

I move on to a funny little piece started last time I was in the studio the tin batton pieces I’m following the idea that at times it’s good just to make and not overthink but let the art evolve. I’m undecided what exactly its about other than ‘an article’. A collection of physical sketches. I keep on rearranging it and get tired and just make a decision and glue it.

Ursula Von Rydingsvard has a collection of pieces called ‘little nothings’ a collection of smaller less self-conscious pieces. this seems like a helpful technique and I’m trying to fill my bench with quicker pieces whilst I settle with my practice.

Then because it’s been on my mind and in my drawings for a while I cut out a paddle from a fence panel. It’s crude, quick and dirty. But then. I am trying to make quick pieces too and to do it to my satisfaction would realistically take weeks. There is something satisfying seeing it in the physical, it represents something but needs to go under more transformation.

When mounting the paddle quickly on the wall to view it I place the ‘article’ next to it and something small happens that I like. A relationship strikes up between the two pieces it’s small and quiet but present non the less. I leave up and arrange the there current pieces to see them together.

There are various thoughts around the purpose of the paddle that I’m beginning to explore in sketchbooks also relating to the vertical poles.

 

Make lots of things /  by Justin Harrison

I can not justify this piece, except that I love crafting and making, direct from my hands, this includes drawing especially too. Oh and for some reason I particularly like the colour of the plastercine today. Portraits feel so ‘art self- indulgent, arrogant and over confident of thier place in art history and practice. It makes it hard for me to make - except that I get some sort of satisfaction at summoning forth the work. Finding moments of detail described in a simple gesture or mark that Describes much more.

I struggle as it doesn’t feel very ‘Fine Art’ or very ‘CSM’. But then what has value. What does it mean for me to abandon approval. What could I make?

I’m still rolling over my friends words, how there is a quality and uniqueness to the things I make. The presence of the artist in the work. Even in a photograph or ready made, when work is really successful I feel as though the presence of the artist can still be discerned, felt.  

Still looking for the more in my work, something…a hand full of pigment cast like dust on the floor. A sentence that unravels the moment. An image that summons an aching. The more. Work that transcends the ordinary of everyday.