I’m supposed to be taking time out to relax but as usual I find that really hard to do. Instead I find myself late at night doing another quick brush pen sketch of plaster fragments from the studio of Eduardo Paolozzi and a cast of my teeth.
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It ‘s been a while since I last drew in a sketch book with my brush pens, but something was niggling me so Steve Reich is on the stereo and a few sketches are thrown together.
I now need to figure out my mark making again as I would like to transfer some of these drawings in to either lino or wood cuts.
Yup I’m thinking about printing again.
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Just finished working on this. I’m impressed with how the colours have worked out in the photo as in reality it looks a bit muggy. Sometimes the fixative blends the colours. As for shading plaster it’s an absolute nightmare. The teeth in this are a cast of my bottom teeth.
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Chalk, charcoal , ink on envelope of Amazon origin.
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Whilst researching for my current project I decided to research the idea of the familiar and unfamiliar on the internet. My search came back with the word defamiliarization a concept formed by the Russian Formalist Viktor Shklovsky.
so what does defamiliarization mean ? well in layman’s terms it is the technique of presenting the familiar in an unfamiliar or strange way. Shklovsky wrote about this in his essay Art as Device from 1914, in it he talks about the perception of objects and the writing about them in poetic terms. Shklovsky also proposes the idea of looking at objects in algebraic terms.
” By this “algebraic” method of thought we apprehend objects only as shapes with imprecise extensions; we do not see them in their entirety but rather recognise them by their main characteristics. We see the object as though it were enveloped in a sack. We know what it is by its configuration, but only see its silhouette.” (Shklovsky. V, 1917)
Even though this was written for artists dealing in the written word, I feel it is just as important for visual artists those dealing with abstract art. Shklovsky’s theories of Defamiliarization predate Freud’s writing about the Uncanny from 1919 ( an influential text for the Surrealists movement). In Freud’s essay he writes
“Unheimlich is clearly the opposite of heimlich, heimisch, vertraut, and it seems obvious that something should be frightening precisely because it is unknown and unfamiliar” (Freud, S)
So how does this relate to my current work practice? In earlier posts I talk about 3D scans and then prints becoming like ghosts of the original objects , very much like Shklovskys quote “We see the object as though it were enveloped in a sack. We know what it is by its configuration, but only see its silhouette.” Through placing the object in the sack it is becoming strange and almost abstract.
Hopefully once I am able to get back in to University to use the equipment I will be able to further my explorations in to 3D printing and the degradation of image when it gets scanned, printed and scanned again to the point that it may be familiar but in a “strange way”
So I received this in the post today. I had seen it for some weeks for sale on eBay but had not realised it’s importance until I was looking through the catalog for the Paolozzi Portraits show that was held at the National Portrait Gallery in 1988.
It was this picture that then made me realise what was for sale.
As can be seen in the photo the figure is holding an enlarged copy of my plaster piece. It is like a direct connection with Paolozzi, then again he could have cast hundreds of these pieces, still it is pretty cool to have a version of it in my possession.
I like the way these later sculptures have evolved, Paolozzi had continued with his use of collage but in this case the collage is made of cast pieces of plaster that have then been cut up, added to and amended to.
This method of working has really got me thinking about my own work practice and the directions it could now go in.
It’s interesting how doing this MA has made me look back at the past. Recently I have been trying to find a stand point to my work, this should be easier said than done but within the last year it has changed so considerably it has left me questioning myself.
What has been consistent throughout is this idea of “sampling” cultures, art movements and artists. In the above article I mention sampling. In many ways it is as if I’m using a form of cultural and visual collating taking ideas from hear adding to there very much like a DJ does when sampling bits of music to make a new tune.
DJ Shadow talks about Sampling as Collage in this article from 2012 https://www.npr.org/2012/11/17/165145271/dj-shadow-on-sampling-as-a-collage-of-mistakes?t=1609688007498 . 25 years ago Shadow’s album “Entroducing ” was releasd on Mo Wax records, it was a groundbreaking trip hop masterpiece, sample heavy at the time it was like audio magic. Like many this album was glued to my turntable, I would listen and then spend time hunting down some of the samples, that’s how influential this album was. In the article Shadow describes it like a collage “I call it a collage. For people unfamiliar to sampling and its history and how it evolved, I think that’s the best way to explain it. It’s taking little pieces from here, adding it to little pieces from there — as many different disparate elements as you can find — and making something totally new out of it”
Music sampling is taking the familiar a snippet of music that is known and then building upon it to make the new or unfamiliar, I have some experience of this having dabbled in and out of the world of music making and production as well as DJing. This way of working is not unfamiliar to me but instead of playing with audio I am making and building upon the physical in that I am making sculptures that are formed out of bits of rubble and other found objects the objet trouve’ or the “urban organic”, as well as adding sculpted components and 3D printed pieces.
How these sculptures will progress I really do not know but i’m thinking about impressing items in to clay and then casting wax sheets from them that can be manipulated and sculpted much like how Paolozzi produced the models for his early bronze sculptures. Maybe instead of casting these models in bronze I will leave them as they are and see how the wax changes and distorts with time. For now this is just an idea.
Well the studio needs sorting out again. Mainly because I need to find space for a 3D printer that I am buying. It’s not a professional one but hopefully it will be of some use.
But first I have to also finish my writing. I have quite a few ideas for the next few weeks.
Just spent time collecting all the books together I have been looking at and researching from for the last 3 months for my MA.
Next I have to start typing up the bibliography.
As I may have said before this MA has been one of the biggest challenges I have had ( and over the last decade I sure as hell had a lot) as it is a matter of facing up to many of my own shortcomings in life, manly my Dyslexia.
The annoying thing is I have the knowledge but lose site of this when I have to put it down in words added to this I have found it hard as hell to focus and do the needed reading.
If the course was purely practical then I would be ok but justifying one’s art practice as well as contextualising it after being in a non academic environment for 25 years or more, is pretty difficult.
Even trying to find a stand point is proving harder than expected as my work practice shifted considerably during the first period of lockdown.
Yet even though I finding this hard in so many ways I’m also finding that it has helped push me and my work in so many new directions and that what I’m producing now is really a 100% me as I’m not hiding behind any masks. Yes I’m flying by the seat of my pants at times but that also adds an air of excitement to what I’m doing, the juxtaposition and re assembly of elements is what keeps me interested, along with the learning of new technology and processes.
Pioneers don’t find it easy weather I am one or not is another question but for now I have to put up and shut up and do the writing.
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I really like the composition of this drawing, it throws up so many questions. The way the figure is holding something that looks like a shield. It has a feel of an prehistory sculpture that has been added to and amended thanks to head section, a plasterr artifact from the studio of Paolozzi.
For the last couple of weeks this has been taunting me, so today I decided to finish it off.
It’s another study of a 3D print with a fragment from the studio of the late Sir Eduardo Paolozzi.
These studies are in some way a form of connecting and collaborating Paolozzi. As stated in an earlier post Paolozzi made many multiple plaster casts which he had in his studio. these would be used as components for sculptures or given away. When his studio was disbanded in London a volume of these plaster relics/ sculptures were auctioned off.
Robin Spencer, the authority on Paolozzi, wrote about Paolozzi’s use of plaster:
”Paolozzi’s approach, like that of Picasso and the Surrealists, often involved the use of found objects. His studio was filled with plaster casts of the objects that appealed to him – dolls, toys, machine parts etc. Sometimes these objects would simply be cast, at other times they were chopped up and reassembled, or individually coloured by the artist. As with Rodin’s approach to plaster, Paolozzi often regarded the plaster as the final work and most of Paolozzi’s plasters were never intended for casting or editioning.”
I expect in most cases these plaster casts are now in various collections gathering dust or hidden away. Sometimes they appear for sale on eBay the costs are varying but thanks to Graeme Brooks (who I mentioned in an earlier post) I have been able to acquire some of these plasters at a reasonable price.
What I propose to actually use these plasters for is to collage and combine them within my own work practice, like Paolozzi using elements of them to form sections of bodies or details within the general build of the sculptures. This may work or may not and the only way to find out is to give it a go, but for now due to the current lockdown restrictions IU will have to satisfy myself with drawings of such pieces.
by the way trying to get the right shading for plaster is rather hard with limited chalk colours.
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Chalk, charcoal , ink on envelope of Amazon origin.
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The Art and musings of Jeffrey Knopf 