I'm a proper artist! Or am I?

My Zip, photo below, has been selected for "a new programme of open displays and talks at the Council House for practicing and aspiring artists living in Plymouth and surrounding area."  

I'm giving my talk next Wednesday, 26th February, between 12 and 1pm.  Everybody is welcome.  The Council House is next to the Civic Centre at the southerly end of Armada Way.

Last term Helen Creedy and I used my Zip for a joint presentation in our Context of Practice Course, reviewing various ways of valuing works of art in general and my Zip in particular.  

As I said in the presentation, it's not for sale but for this exhibition, I put a value of £5,000 on it for insurance purposes (and then joked that I might steal it).

Anyhow, here's a link to download the exhibition catalogue:

http://councilhouseart.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/council20house20open20art.pdf

This is the first time I've had something I've made selected for an exhibition (apart from "Obscenity Number One") and I feel honoured to be in the company of real artists.  I feel as though I could, tentatively,  call myself an artist now - a significant milestone that Grayson Perry remembered in one of his Reith Lectures.

You may recall that I said I wouldn't display statements in the art manifesto that I produced for homework on our course last November.

So, shock horror, I have a statement in the exhibition catalogue!  It reads: 

I’m a mature student doing a BA in Contemporary Craft at Plymouth College of Art. My main focus is sculpture in wood, ceramics, glass and metal. 

I hope to become known for creating art in public places. I’ve already made a start by winning a competition to design the gates of Devonport Column, a Grade 1 listed monument in Plymouth. 

Just recently, I won another competition, this time to paint my design on one of the giant fibre-glass sun fish in the “Making Waves” project – a tourist trail around Plymouth. 

My sister Sonia writes: "You can't be a proper artist because your statement is easily understood."

Richard Wentworth

He wasn't on my little list of famous sculptors but he's on one of the BBC's:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/sculptors/12810.shtml

Takes easily identifiable everyday objects - sometimes "found" in a local junk shop  - and alters them or juxtaposes them in unusual environments to make you think.

Seems to make most of his stuff himself, often using sheet metal and sometimes concrete (in addition to the found objects).

He's into photography,  focusing on a similar sort of subject:

http://camberwellillustration1.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/richard-wentworth-making-do-and-getting.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wentworth_(artist)

http://www.lissongallery.com/artists/richard-wentworth/

Worked for Henry Moore:
CV: http://www.lissongallery.com/artists/richard-wentworth/cv

Interview:
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/jun/11/richard-wentworth-sculptor-portrait-artist

Craft vs Design (huh?)

Another homework task:

This is the sequel to "craft vs art" and once again we're supposed to pick a quote supposedly about the topic and write 300 words or so on whether we agree or disagree with it.

As before, I'm struggling with the premise.  To me, craft includes design so positioning them in opposition to each other makes no sense.  It's equivalent to 'sentences vs words'  - you can't have the former without the latter so it's not something you can sensibly take a view on.

So the easy way out for me is to agree with this quote:

"The…distinctions between design and craftsmanship as aspects of product creation are made for purposes of discussion and analysis.  In actual practice design cannot readily be considered apart from craftsmanship."

This is attributed to a Don Wallace in 1956.  I've found an assistant professor of this name at the U.S. Naval Academy who studies Walter Benjamin among others.  But the date of the quote rather rules him out!

In a lot of the other dozen or so quotes my sense is that we're expected to interpret craft versus design as making an object by hand versus designing it for manufacture - a signal for ludites to crawl out of the wood-work, as they do in some of the quotes.

There are some exceptions and I'm going with one of them:

Maybe putting together a MySpace page is not that different from collaging or quilting.  You’re using different materials, to different ends, but along the way you’re starting with matter and transforming it into something else, using your hands and your brain. 

This quote is attributed to Liz Collins in 2008.  She's "a New York City-based artist and designer, recognized internationally for her use of machine knitting to create ground-breaking clothing, textiles, performances and installations."  

Her bio: http://lizcollins.com/about/statement

One of her projects, Knitting Nation, "functions as a commentary on how humans interact with machines, global manufacturing, trade and labor, brand iconography, and fashion."

I've started the clock running on "300 words or so" on this quote:

I agree with this quote and would go further.  Making anything visual - whether it's a web page, painting,  sculpture or whatever - is all about imagination - coming up with ideas and being able to visualise them.   

I think this is the key to creativity.  Actually translating the ideas into reality by designing and making them is secondary and it's of no consequence whether you do this by hand or with the help of a machine (or you get someone else to undertake these tasks).  

I don't know whether you can learn to be imaginative.  I suspect you're stuck with the imagination you were born with.  

On the other hand, you can learn to design and make stuff,  and nowadays that implies learning to use lots of "machines", from software programs like Photoshop to power tools, kiln controllers and, well, the list is endless.  That's what I'm doing at Plymouth College of Art! 

The quotes about technology undermining art (or craft, but don't let me get started on that one again!) are complete twaddle.  I have the opposite opinion - technology makes it feasible to make stuff that was previously difficult or impossible so it helps rather than hinders expression.

An example:  I won a competition to design the gates for Devonport Column, a Grade 1 monument in Plymouth.  The gate wouldn't have been stiff enough, and thus my design wouldn't have worked,  if the fabricator hadn't been able to cut the stainless steel incredibly accurately using a laser-cutter.  (And this is an example of me coming up with the idea - the design concept - and "someone else", Art Metal, doing the detail design and fabrication.)

There's an additional point to make here.  My experience with the gate has fed back into the creative process - my imagination.    For example,  I started out designing a trophy for a race staged by Looe Pioneers running club by thinking I could reproduce the race logo in intricate detail using the college's laser cutter.

I'm stopping the clock on 334 words but I have an additional comment to make about this assignment:

I'm supposed to do some research to back up my opinions but I'm expressing my view here, as requested, and:

• I've shown how my opinions relate to actual practice - what I'm doing at college and the art I produce.
• I don't see the value of quoting other people that share my views in this context.  As the quotes illustrate, people differ in what they think so I'm sure I could find something but what would it prove?  
• I don't think one person's views carry any more weight than another's in this context, even if they have a sort of celebrity status.  
• I've expressed my view in plain English.  I don't want to muddy the waters with convoluted commentary from art critics.

Bill Woodrow

Started out making sculptures from junk - cutting shapes out of the skins of things like twin-tub washing machines and car doors to create witty sort of connections.

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/woodrow-twin-tub-with-guitar-t03354

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/woodrow-elephant-t07169

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/bill-woodrow-2170

Moved on to welded steel and bronze, and I get the impression his star has waned.

Only a stub on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Woodrow

The Daily Telegraph's Alastair Sooke thinks Woodrow's lost his way:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-reviews/10424903/Bill-Woodrow-RA-Burlington-Gardens-Royal-Academy-of-Arts-review.html

Woodrow was one of the subjects for the BBC's "Five Sculptors" series but there's only four sculptors listed in its archives - Richard Wentworth (another name for my little list),  Antony Gormley, Alison Wilding and Anish Kapoor:  Looks like Woodrow's been dropped!

Hard to navigate personal website:
http://billwoodrow.com

I met a man who wasn't there

For some strange reason I'm not included in the register for the Context of Practice course, which prompted me to (mis) quote this poem this morning:

Yesterday, upon the stair,

I met a man who wasn't there.

He wasn't there again today,

I wish, I wish he'd go away...

When I came home last night at three,

The man was waiting there for me

But when I looked around the hall,

I couldn't see him there at all!

Go away, go away, don't you come back any more!

Go away, go away, and please don't slam the door...

Last night I saw upon the stair,

A little man who wasn't there,

He wasn't there again today

Oh, how I wish he'd go away...

Alison Wilding

Dang!  Just missed seeing a display of works by Alison Wilding, one of sculptors on my "little list", in Tate Britain:

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/display/alison-wilding

My take-aways on Wilding:

• She does abstract stuff, shapes
• She appears to make all her own stuff
• She thinks viewers should interpret her stuff themselves, no explanations from her
• Sheet metal seems one of her most common materials
• She hides her light ...doesn't seem to have a website, has a bare-bones listing on Wikipedia and is not into public art.
• A lot of her stuff is about showing glimpses of what's otherwise out of sight 

Interview:
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/oct/08/alison-wilding-sculptor-portrait

A whole treasure trove of videos about sculptors, including a really good 20 mins on Wilding:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/sculptors/12809.shtml

Anish Kapoor

Or should I say Sir Anish?  He was knighted in 2013.

Best known (perhaps) for his ArcelorMittalOrbit structure in the Olympic Park.

Winner of the Turner prize in 1991

Very inventive!

Very rich!  He made $27 million profit in 2008, taking total revenue from his art to $62.7 million according to Wikipedia

Very productive - lots of stuff!

Very large scale!

Often works with architects and engineers.

His art sometimes alludes to dualities -   light/dark, male/female, conscious/unconscious etc

Started using brightly coloured pigment.  Moved on to polished stainless steel.

http://anishkapoor.com

At first glance I disliked his website, above, but it's actually quite a clever way of showing the enormous amount of stuff he's made.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/anish-kapoor-1384

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/unilever-series-anish-kapoor-marsyas

http://www.lissongallery.com/artists/anish-kapoor

UPDATE 23rd September 2014

See Vantablack

See this tour of Kapoor's studio