Context | My Site

Gaston Bachelard

The Poetics of Space, 1994

Corners

Bachelard presents the corner as a space that has two simultaneous languages, that of both inside and out.

“To begin with, the corner is a haven that ensures us of one of the things we prize most, immobility. It is the sure place, the place next to my immobility. The corner is a sort of half-box, part walls, part door. It will serve as an illustration for the dialectics of inside and out.”

The converging angles of the wall and the floor meet at its centre, a point described in drawing convention as the vanishing point. However, on the opposite side of these enclosing planes is an open side, an point of entry or exit, in this sense it is an transient, illusionary space.

I am interested in using this dialectic language as a recurring and adaptable metaphor in contrasting a grand force (external/tide/cosmic) with more intimate experience (domestic, personal, subconscious). Imagery can be found and restructured through contrasting elements for visual metaphor presenting a personal, emotional language alongside external, environmental space. I am particularly interested in the point of handover, the experience of leaving one space and entering another and how, at this point, one can overlap and bestow its language on the other.

“In these angles and corners, the dreamer would appear to enjoy the repose that divides being and no being. He is the being of an unreality.”

The Dialectics of Inside and Out

In a later chapter Bachelard further analyses the relationship between the two states.

““You feel the full significance of this myth of outside and inside in alienation, which is founded on these two terms. Beyond what is expressed in the formal opposition lie alienation and hostility between the two.” (Jean Hypolite). And so, simple geometrical opposition becomes tinged with aggressivity. Formal opposition is incapable of remaining calm.”

I am interested in the inherent dissonance between two opposing states, particularly in regard to metaphorical meaning and through combination and modification of oppositional image content and structure.

“This side and beyond are faint repetitions of the dialectics of inside and outside: everything takes form, even infinity. We seek to determine being and, in doing so, transcend all situations, too give a situation of all situations.”

I am interested in the relationship between ontological meaning and spatial environment. Bachelard describes the relationship of scale between two states, they are not proportionately fixed and they are not symmetrical. Furthermore, the miniature can accumulate and the giant can distant. This observation is evident in my experience of the electron microscope at the Natural History Museum. With each magnification, despite its diminishing size, the observed environment becomes perceptively more massive. The more times this is repeated, the more we build a sequential image in our head comprised of layer upon layer of increasing depth, detail and scale. This is a human value and a metric in the way we perceive scale and connectivity.

“And if we want to determine a man’s being, we are never sure of being closer to ourselves if we “withdraw” into ourselves if we move toward the centre of a spiral; for often it is in the heart of being that being is errancy. Sometimes, it is in being outside itself that being tests consistencies.

Conferring spatiality on thought is a key part of my practice. Through combing material and technical language, ex. identifying a domestic motif and creating a structure to project imagery against I can manipulate how the image of geographical image is read. For example, iby breaking the image used in the three panelled woodcut into panels a sequence is created, hardcoded with the language of progression and changing states. Varying elongations and distortions in each panel encourage the viewer to make their own associations. Whether conscious or sub conscious they are drawing on their own experiences in building these links.

House and Universe

“House and space are not merely two juxtaposed elements of space. In the reign of the imagination they awaken day dreams in each other, that are opposed.”

I am interested in how the motif of domestic structure can be used to signify the internal personal space of the subconscious, particularly when used in combination with elements that invoke external or outer environments. Bachelard observes that a new language can be born through existence of the two in combination and opposition. This language has the capacity to manipulate scale comparatively, by presenting the minute as massive and vice versa. When used for visual metaphor this can be a transformative and recontextualising tool, for example a tidal force set against a domestic corner.

“There is nothing like silence to suggest a sense of unlimited space. Sounds lend colour to space, and confer a sort of sound body upon it. But absence of sound leaves it quite pure and in the silence we are seized with the sensation of something vast and deep and boundless.”

I am interested in exploring the idea of silence, particularly through colour relationships and visibility information. The concept of an environment out of conventional time, a subconscious or cosmic space, speaks to a sense of still and dark. In using rich dark backdrops or dissonant colour relationships I am seeking to represent this place

Ian Hodder

The Meaning of Things, 1986

A collection of essays by various writers

Timothy Yates

Habitus and social space: some suggestions about meaning in the Saami (Lapp) tent ca. 1700–1900

An analysis of the domestic environment of the Saami people, inhabiting the region of Sapmi near the artic circle, previously known as Lapland. Yates examines the way in which a home is arranged and used in upholding social structures, behaviour and tradition in this culture. In doing so he looks at the layout and usage of the home in relation to the mediation between consciousness and activity.

“The home as a device that is defined by concepts in space and in the mind.”

He explains that in the absence of the sun during the winter months, the hearth is used not only practically to heat and light the home but as,

“A living representation of the sun, which produces the same effects on earth as it does in the heavens.”

A vast external force is reimagine in the home. Complex belief systems governs many aspects of their intergenerational domestic spaces. Specific areas and activities act as parallels for the outer and spiritual world. I am interested in the relationship between lived, everyday life and the desire to ground oneself in an environment by reaching out beyond the space and recreating it symbolically and behaviourally in an internal space. I am interested in these observations in that they are analogous, to both an inner sense of self, and a wider social environment. As Yates describes it,

“Through the distinction set up between public and private, the house and its walls create a fragmentary picture of society that denies both the totality and continuity of meaning in which these units are themselves articulated. The structures within the household walls are divorced from the wider cultural principles in which they belong – totality is dissolved through the private.”

Paul Cézanne

Inspired by Phillip Guston’s use of encroaching space and dynamic picture plane in unit one I looked to his compositional forebear Paul Cézanne in developing my own visual language.

In manipulation the conventions used to transpose three dimensional space to a two dimensional plane Cézanne created active and dynamic compositions. He achieved this using a combination of techniques that included the following:

Separate elements interconnect through joining planes that overlap and underpin the composition at multiple points.
Areas of negative space are used to create space and depth.
Warm to cool colour relationships and used in conjunction with a variety of scale to create tension.
Sweeping curved lines are used in combination with angular shapes to create a sense of dissonance.
Form is built through gradation and contrast, edges are merged and lost as adjacent shapes fuse together.

These techniques influenced my work specifically in the following ways:

Projection of photographic images onto angular surfaces. Surfaces are used to split the image sequentially but also to hold the fractured image together through repetition. Consideration is made regarding angle and location of these connections.
In separating and reducing photographic imagery in matrix preparation it is necessary to make decision about loss/modification of information. Negative space provides a structure in holding the remaining areas in space and retaining the desired depth to the image.
In the multiplate etching I used a combination of matt graphite grey and deep warm red was used in contrast with translucent primary colours to create a sense of tension. This was used to reflect the dissonant language between personal and external space.
During the July exhibition I intend to show on three large rolls, suspended from the ceiling, draped down to ground level. I want the curves of the falling paper to react with both the geometric shapes of the imagery and with the structure of the room to create tension through contrast.
The images in my work are built using interconnected process that distort and recontextualise an image. In using the granular qualities that are evident in the nature of light and in the surface of both wood and metal I can merge edges and manipulate tone using methods including dither and aquatint and by elongating and condensing light. These methods create a dissonant image that serving themes that examine the dialectic relationship of internal and external.

Cup and Saucer with Plate of Apples, 1890, oil on canvas

Cezanne' Compositions, an analysis of form with diagrams by Erle Loran

Giorgio de Chirico

“It is the stillness and non‐sensory beauty of matter that seem to me metaphysical.” Giorgio de Chirico

I am interested in de Chirico’s unconventional use of perspective and modulation in creating images that have a timelessness and a relationship to the subconscious mind, specifically in relation to his Metaphysical period, 1911-1917.

In creating images, projecting them onto new environments and rephotographing I am creating images within images. De Chirico achieves this by painting paintings within paintings, art as an object within art. The visual effect of this is a layering of tilting and conflicting perspectives that cause dizzying shifts in the composition. Through subverting a figurative representation of a piazza or cityscape the viewer is presented with a provocative, illusionistic environment that gives rise to a sense of dislocation and dissonance.

These near uninhabited environments have a silent atmosphere, this suggests a frozen state, removed from time. The presence of pictures within pictures equates to a sense of time within time. We are presented with a series of events but there is an uncertainty as to which one is the present what their relationship is to each other.

These elements cause us to question the reality of what we see, and therefore the images are read as something other than conventional physical spaces. The works have a psychological potential through the mechanic of visual conceptions as a conduit to the subconscious. There is a dialogue in relation to how the mind perceives these objects in space which causes us to question if it is metaphorical and if so, what is its meaning.

Metaphysical Interior with Large Factory, 1916, Oil on canvas

The Dream of Tobias, 1917, Oil on canvas

Karla Black

Karla Black makes work that can be defined as painting, sculpture and installation. Constructed of modest materials including sellotape, lipstick and toothpaste the work has a tactile quality that speaks the language of naivety and primitivity. Simultaneously defined by creation and destruction the works appear in a state of change; drying, falling and expanding. There is a sense that they are on a journey to take a final form. Black describes her works as “states of potential”.

Her work is often suspended from the ceilings and interacts with light cast from windows and responds to subtle movements in its surroundings. There is a celebratory or processional quality to these works, a theatrical nature in which the works display themselves as performer. It has an ephemeral and playful sensibility.

While making larger works I have become more interested in how I can develop sculptural or installation based elements. I am particularly interested in the transformative aspect of Black’s work in regard to a viewer’s experience of being in the room with the work. It seems to expand and encroach into the space shared with the viewer and in doing so confronts our experience of that space and of our interpretation of the visual components.

At Fault, 2011 Cellophane, paint, sellotape, plaster powder, powder paint, sugar paper, chalk, bath bombs, ribbon and wood

Don't Depend, Walk Away From Guilded Room, Forgetting Isn't Trying, At Fault, 2011 Cellophane, paint, sellotape, plaster powder, powder paint, sugar paper, chalk, bath bombs, ribbon and wood

Giorgio Morandi

The simple, dignified language of Morandi’s work presents a stripped down vision of human experience in which still life compositions are divided through use of object, tone and gradient. The separation and interception of forms creates balance and structure. Through repetition of these elements sequences are created in which interval infers a sense of time, in combination with the unified, subdued colour palette and the ambiguous sense of space, works achieve the feel of being fixed in a moment. There is a dissonant relationship between these two elements, sequence and static, one suggesting moving through time while the other suggest the opposite. This creates a sense of being outside of conventional time that imbues the objects with a universality and modifies their physical identity to that of motif and metaphor.

I am interested in how sequential imagery can be constructed and manipulated to give a sense of universality through which broader themes of experience can be interpreted. In the way objects meet and separate the viewer is encouraged to reassemble the figurative into a metaphorical conversation about time and existence. I am also interested in repetition as a method of subverting sequential imagery.

Still Life, 1962, oil on canvas

Still Life, 1956, oil on canvas

Felix Gonzalez-Torres

Gonzalez-Torres views the gallery as an active space for interaction and transformation of public attitudes. In examining what gives objects their status, and defines their function he articulates a network of metaphorical meaning. In doing this he seeks to explore our sense of self and how we relate to the world around us. Works are created through a jigsaw puzzle of physical object and metaphorical meaning that question our impulses as viewer.

For example, in the work Untitled, 1994, a bird is pictured flying in a vast of sky. The relationship between the elements looks at the way meaning inhabits the expanse of time and space. In the context of Gonzalez- Torres’ practice we can add further meaning in the form of themes of change and the factors that can precipitate change.

Through interactive elements he questions our role as viewer, for example, parts of a work can be taken away beyond the gallery (a sweet or a piece of paper). In doing this he activates a dialogue between artist and viewer and asks questions about the nature of the work. Is a separate piece taken from the whole still the work and once all pieces are taken what remains? The artwork requires this interaction in order to be ‘complete’. As a consequence he highlights the issue of art as commodity in relation to the gallery and market; how can money be made and who makes this money? These series of interactions inform general themes of art in social, cultural and economic contexts.

I am interested in his work in regard to use of metaphorical language in relation to both the visual content and the interactive qualities of the work. I explore themes of self and experience in my work and am interested in how these can be developed further though space and interaction with the viewer. Engaging these themes further will act to leverage existing and new metaphorical value.

Untitled, 1994, C-type

Untitled (Rossmore II), 1991, Green candies, each wrapped in cellophane