history

Ritualised Tools of Passage /  by Justin Harrison

I'm sanding some reclaimed wood for a piece and I hesitate, the colours of the grain - the history of the wood are emerging subtle yet sweet; knots, creosote, grain and dirt, its like a book with an obscure narrative that I'm trying to follow - I'm slightly torn how much to sand, I love the glassy feel of super smooth lacquered wood but it feels like a crime to remove anymore of the paternation, like I’m erasing memories. I'm trying to engage with time in a disrupted way. Keeping the history yet making new.

I accidentally put Danish oil on first - I had planned to use varnish however I know that these mistakes often work for the better so I don't worry too much. Fine saw marks appear, as forgotten half healed scars as the oil soaks into the dry fibres of the wood. Then I put too many layers on and it changes the colouration I had been obsessing over, the oil takes the wood to more warm honey colours and some of the paternation disappears.

/// I lament for a moment///

However these sculptures are meant to be fast explorative pieces, all of which is research and informative. The more I make - the more I learn about the materials and my work.

As the oil is drying I cut a second piece of wood, it's thin and brittle and doesn't have the subtlety of shape that I want, so I take to carving at it in attempt to have a little more control. This works but ads time to the process. I'm able to manipulate and manifest the forms that I feel in my head.

At some point it also occurs to me that I can char the wood that I will get a nice contrast against the Holly pegs I've been making and plan to add. This changes the voice of the piece, more gravitas than the honeyed wood. I like it and putting the two together creates more dialogue that I enjoy. (I do wonder about how I animate this work more a feature of the other recent sculptures)

On reflection of the two sculptures placed together as a piece - I almost feel as tough I've happened upon something that I shouldn't have. Like opening a tomb.

The apertures agents, the pegs agents in conflict. Some sort of holy/unholy moment. The passage at crux. The threat of the outside coming in.

I'm not sure I quiet understand what I've made, I need time to absorb what is going on. A slow burn.

 

Drawer Paddle - Ritualised tools of passage /  by Justin Harrison

Completed recently is the paddle cut from the front of a chest of drawers. I chose to leave in key details as I wanted to maintain elements of it’s history. The key hole and holes from where the handles were once fixed and the dark varnish.

I like the way it sits when folded back on itself, again a sense of animation, movement, something animalistic. I like how the gesture is minimal but also suggestive of presence. It leads away from the notion of a paddle that works, that is ‘fit for purpose’ and is becoming.

There is a passage to be made through. Through uncertainty, through mystery, through the unknown.

It does feel incomplete - that it need s something to pull the narrative through. When I say narrative I don’t need an explicit story more something of the mystery to continue on. I need to think about whom these paddles belong to and why.

 

Studio Notes - Cabinet Paddle /  by Justin Harrison

Cabinet Paddle. I’ve had an old draw knocking around. It’s been waiting for me to do something, so I set to it with a saw. The lock and holes to fit the handle still present, it’s former life still marked, haunting it. (I also like the connection to draws that I have been drawing.)

I’ll put in joints again, the other preoccupation I have, it’s purpose and use rePlaced.

I love the history to the materials again, more than just a cut of wood it’s history marks it and places it in and out of time. ‘Time is out of joint’. (The wood smelt peculiar when I cut it, it’s history was given up in it’s scent, mothballs and varnish and everyday life).

I hope to make this a little better than the current ‘Physical Sketches’, cut the joints nice.

I also had a practice carving it that I will need to cover somehow as it detracts from the dialogue. More copper cladding perhaps.

 

Zombies: "The real power of the many is the many" /  by Justin Harrison

So this guy is my new favourite discovery. Maybe I’ll move on quickly but. art of points are resonating, and seem to fall into a useful place. I’m not sure this will go towards my research paper but it’s certainly interesting.

"History is made by bodies, armies, mass movements, hordes. Historie's great men and women always stood on mobs of bodies that changed history. unlike heroes journeies history is about masses of peple doing stuff, lots of work lots of war, lots of building systems and sometimes dismantelling systems. ANd ususally all of this is done without knowledge of what they are doing, unconscious of history, just like the zombie.

The problem is ideology refracts and distracts and temps us away from a mutalistic or communal historical consciousness and it temps us away from the consciousness of being a mass". 14:20 Plastic Pills

"The real power of the many as many. As an organism driven by a singular purpose. And even if the only leverage left avaialable to you is to take up space - that's still leverage. You've got more agency as a zombie than as a cowboy regardless of what the films say". 17:30 Plastic Pills