This was supposed to be another quick sketch. But took two visits to the studio later…. A thought had popped into my mind a while ago to try this. I had drawn it at some point in my sketch book and at that stage it was just a thought, but as I started to make it - I got more into it. It felt good to make, the process was satisfying and the aesthetics of the bark abruptly ending against the white wood in roughly hewn construction, had an essence to them that felt right.
As it progressed I really wanted to get it made.. finished. I realised that if I could make it work then it could become more. The paddles I’ve been drawing (a tool for navigating) could speak more by adding articulated joints then let the work create it’s own dialogue and become more active.
Adding the joint also animates the work, something I’ve been feeing was missing for me and especially in regards to sculpture. I envy animation and film - the work occupies space and tie and I desire some of this ‘life’ for my work.
As a foot note UVR has made one specific piece of work that is animated ‘Mama your legs’ A curious mechanical creation that thumps out it’s broken cadence with great lumps of wood into stoic vessels.
On completion of this small sketch I’ve continued to feel excited. It has a feel and a presence to it that speaks - I like it when my work speaks back.
I have limited time for this course but I would like to try and make some large jointed paddles in variants. Drawing wil be a good way to test out various ideas before I committ to making. And also as a meditation on the work, what is it about the materials and making that is working , articulating for me.
I do wonder what level of finish to bring to the work, currently I’m learning to not be so preoccupied with excellence/ high finish. I can refine that later, right now it’s more important to see the work manifested and to make as much as possible- to experiment.
There is also something about the crude fashioning that I like, it’s part of its language. An honesty.
I do want to collect some second had wood to make a jointed paddle, which has to do with the provenance of the material, that it has a history and has already gone through one process and purposing. An old door or chest of draws crafted into navigation tools. Already having had one life it feels haunted, saturated with history and presence of agent or agents.
I also stared an offset paddle from an old draw front, I cut it purposely to leave the key hole and other details, and echo or ghost of its history.
The joints also ties to a preoccupation I’ve started upon in my research paper about Derrida’s Hauntology. Where he focussed on Shakespeares Hamlet. Hamlet declares time is ‘out of joint’ and he laments the incompleteness of his situation.
Transformation rarely is the straightforward process we hope it will be. For me large disjointed paddles crude and cumbersome, overly complicated won’t really work. Very little help for the situation for physical navigation. Yet they have presence, and somehow purpose.