Film and projections

Phew – at last it’s finished! I’ve been working with film and trying out projections with intermittently since February and want to recap and chart my progression towards my film for the exhibition.

‘Conjuring up a storm in ink drawing knowing the drawing will never be the same dry as wet… I flood the paper, which starts to buckle and have a topography that directs the flow the black and blue. I dissolve salt into the water; which crystallizes as it dries, then changes back to wet beads on the paper when it next rains…The drawing dries, flattens and fixes. It has become dull and the storm has passed over…..My drawing is dry. It is only a record of itself, its own flood and passing storm, its own sediment of ink particles left after the water has evaporated. Disappointed, depressed dust.’

This comment by Tania Kovats expresses my excitment about the process of making ink drawings – watching them evolve is quite magical. As she says, a lot of that magic is lost as the drawing drys, becomes permanent and fixed. The finished drawings inevitably loose some of the drawings fluidity and movement when it is wet. For this reason in late January/ February I decided to start filming my poured ink drawings. These are made by wetting the paper, in a way that responds to the seaweed that the ink is made of, then letting the ink flow and pool into the channels of the water, like Kovats I also use sea salt.

I decided to combine footage of the drawings being made with footage of seaweed in movement. I wanted the experience for the viewer to be immmersive and felt that a split screen effect would work well. I tried projecting a number of split screen options (badly photographed) – they were projected on muslin as this is a material I have been using when making the inks and I wanted something very delicate and ephemeral.

 

 

I think the version on the left worked best with 2 screens in a horizontal format. Here is a still from this film, the seaweed was filmed in my bath which has lights/ jets so that I could change the speed at which it moved and create a glow:

Here’s a link to the short video Slippery Ground split screen video

I have created a sped up video showing my process, creating one of my poured ink drawings.  The videos have become part of my film.

Here’s another example – I think the video of this drawing worked particularly well, I like the way the ink flows into the channels and unfurls. It looks like it’s growing.

My film has become more complex as I wanted to incorporate the seaweed album which was my starting point, I have also filmed on location at the beaches where I collected the seaweed, particularly Burton Bradstock, Lyme Regis and Bowleaze Cove (all in West Dorset). Filming in rockpools comes with its own challenges – I soon realized it’s important to have a good idea of tide times and make sure you’re at low tide, ideally just before. At Lyme Regis I nearly got cut off with my camera and tripod as I was engrossed in videoing the rockpools and had to wade/ jump across rocks to shore! This makes my choice of title Slippery Ground which has been the title for the project for some time even more appropriate – the rocks you are standing on are often slippery, as at Lyme Regis covered in gut weed which is pretty treacherous.

I used Corel VideoStudioPro to edit my film – this is not as sophisticated as software such as Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere but seems to have suited my needs. I want the viewer to have a sense of a journey and feel immersed loose themselves in it – as if they are leafing through the album and peering into the rockpools themselves. I have used a lot of layering, interpersing the poured seaweed inks with the rockpool footage and stills from the album. My hand is present at a number of moments in the film, suggesting presence of the artist/ collector.

Here are a few screenshots showing the editing process – it’s taken a lot longer than I envisaged!

Here I am working out how to use the split screen tools.

 

 

 

 

 

I had to fit the ink film into an aperture in the album and worked out how to use tools to resize/ distort the film to fit.

 

Here I am playing around with transparency and layering – I like the effect of seeing both the film and faint image of the pressed seaweed. There is something a bit Alice in Wonderland about this, as if you are falling through the album into the rockpool.

Changing transparency – I discovered that I could alter the levels of transparency on a track at different points.

In terms of audio I had a lot of difficulty with this – I wanted to record wave and rockpool sounds but did not have access to appropriate recording equipment. Trying this on my phone was useless as there was far too much noise, picking up wind etc. I decided to deal with this by using existing audio and as I have been looking at archives, I used audio from the British Library sound archives. Although I would have liked the sound to have come from my collecting sites this seemed like a good compromise to make. This is a link to the recording in the archives: Wave recording, Cape Clear, Ireland from British Library Sound Archive

In order to make the film more personal and link back to the Victorian collectors I have researched I included several voice over recordings. One is a quote from Margaret Gatty’s British Seaweeds

Enjoy yourself thoroughly as you go, by keeping close to the sea; never minding a few touches from the last gentle waves as they ripple over at your feet. Feel all the luxury of not having to be afraid of your boots; neither of wetting nor destroying them. 

The others are from a piece of automatic writing that I did, following our writing workshop with Karl Foster:

rubbery, salty, tough, slippery, slime, goo, repulsion, seductive, gelatinous, cold, wet, liquid, shining, translucent, glowing, ochre, dunn, nut brown, grey brown, sludge green, flesh, rose, delicate, torn, shrivelled, dry, crunchy, leathery, illusive, fugitive, fading, pressed, preserved, dried, ground, boiled, heating, blended, ink, fluid, salt, childhood, games, beach combing, collecting, playing, exploring, immersion, fascination, documenting, samples, testing, ordering, reordering,

I think that this puts across the focus on the senses, materials and experimentation.

Lastly – I have listed the common and latin names of seaweeds commonly found in the British Isles.

Here is a link to the finished film:

Slippery Ground Film

 

 

Consolidating exhibition installation

March – sketch for exhibition installation

The sketch on the left was produced last month and shared in the March crit. In discussion with the group and Les there was a feeling that the large seaweed pigment works and split screen projection could work alone. Les questioned whether the other elements were necessary or merely describing the rest of the work.

Since this point I have moved away from using a large scale projection and large scale work in favour of creating a more intimate collection, an accumulation of smaller pieces. My tutorial with Michele Whiting on 1st April was really useful in getting me to address the form of installation I am creating. I had presented the idea of using a neat grid and shelf (as sent to The Civic and signed off by the other tutors):-

There is something neat, orderly and clinical in the above arrangement. Michele commented on the significance of the grid as a form of taxonomy and how I had not really addressed this in my blog and that it required research and inclusion in my essay. She also redirected me to Mark Dion’s work on collecting and museology (I had researched his work in Year 1), pointing out that his process was highly relevant to the work. Michele questioned whether I want to create something that can be neatly contained and appears to be finished, or something which provokes more questions, is hard to contain and is inherently ‘slippery’ and unfinished. To quote Michele’s comments from my notes:

But one of the valuable parts of the process, the experimentation, repeat visits, understanding place, ways of looking and working. To make this explicit have to grasp that all the processes are the work. Argument for making the process and research explicit. Think about how the women collecting seaweed collated their albums, went every day, made drawings, recorded the seaweed, pressed seaweed – I’m doing the same. The grid can still come into it, look back at Mark Dion’s work – collecting the material was part of the work.

The above comments made sense to me, my project has been an ongoing process of collecting, processing, responding. As with Dion who reveals and unpicks the processes of collecting and also reveals the workings behind the scenes of museums and archives, I could also make my process of collecting and selection explicit.

https://glasstire.com/2018/07/24/amon-carter-to-present-installation-by-mark-dion-in-2020/ (accessed April 5th 2019) In the above work, Dion is retracing the journeys of 19th century Texan explorers. There is a sense in which I am retracing, not the journeys but the processes, of my seaweed collecting ancestor and other seaweed collectors/ phycologists, including Amelia Griffiths, Mary Wyatt, Margaret Gatty and Anna Atkins.

 

Making the maquette above was a useful process and helped me to visual the installation and consider the layout. It has been confirmed that I have a long wall and corner in The Civic so the installation might not be in a straight line. I was thinking of representing a taxonomy in the arrangement of work on paper (as in the maquette above), starting with poured ink images of each of the main types of seaweed at the top and getting gradually smaller. I think this is a bit too neat and contained so I will vary the sizes and arrangement to add more variety and make it appear more informal/ personal.

Dion’s installations are highly detailed and thought through, they are convincing – putting us in the shoes of an explorer/ collector. His work focuses on the taxonomy and categorisation used in museums and archives. He predominantly works within institutions and responds to their collections. His work is also playful and often making an environmental point and holding a spotlight to our approach to the environment and collecting. “Mark Dion approaches history with both humor and respect while embodying the artist-explorer experience in modern times. He is able to push the boundaries of what a normal exhibition looks like, but still makes it accessible to a wide audience by creating a sense of wonder.” Margaret C. Adler, curator at The Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth. https://glasstire.com/2018/07/24/amon-carter-to-present-installation-by-mark-dion-in-2020/ (accessed April 5th 2019) In the above work, Dion is retracing the journeys of 19th century Texan explorers. There is a sense in which I am retracing, not the journeys but the processes, of my seaweed collecting ancestor and other seaweed collectors/ phycologists, including Amelia Griffiths, Mary Wyatt, Margaret Gatty and Anna Atkins.

Following the discussion with Michele about revealing the research and processes I tried out a mock up for the exhibition in my studio today (above). The space is not quite as big as the space I’ve been allocated in the gallery. I sourced a bureau desk on Ebay – as a  desk represents research more than the shelf that I had showed in my proposal, it also provides the opportunity for the viewer to look more closely, reveals more of the process. The desk will include seaweed and ink samples, my sketchbook with pigment tests and notes, and examples of pressed seaweed.

The above comments made sense to me, my project has been an ongoing process of collecting, processing, responding. As with Dion who reveals and unpicks the processes of collecting and also reveals the workings behind the scenes of museums and archives, I could also make my process of collecting and selection explicit.

Mark Dion, Department of Marine Animal Identification of the City of San Francisco (Chinatown Division), 1998/2010, Mixed media

Dion’s installations are highly detailed and thought through, they are convincing – putting us in the shoes of an explorer/ collector. His work focuses on the taxonomy and categorisation used in museums and archives. He predominantly works within institutions and responds to their collections. His work is also playful and often making an environmental point and holding a spotlight to our approach to the environment and collecting. “Mark Dion approaches history with both humor and respect while embodying the artist-explorer experience in modern times. He is able to push the boundaries of what a normal exhibition looks like, but still makes it accessible to a wide audience by creating a sense of wonder.” Margaret C. Adler, curator at The Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth. https://glasstire.com/2018/07/24/amon-carter-to-present-installation-by-mark-dion-in-2020/ (accessed April 5th 2019) In the above work, Dion is retracing the journeys of 19th century Texan explorers. There is a sense in which I am retracing, not the journeys but the processes, of my seaweed collecting ancestor and other seaweed collectors/ phycologists, including Amelia Griffiths, Mary Wyatt, Margaret Gatty and Anna Atkins.

Michele encouraged me to create a scale maquette to test out the form and scale of the installation:

 

 

‘The effort to organise and explain the world’s copious and strange complexity is the desire underlying the Wunderkammer – but equally evident is the desire to luxuriate in what cannot be understood. Even if we have, today, split apart the scientific from the artistic, the Wunderkammer reminds us that the two are both essentially forms of taking pleasure in the task of understanding the world, provoked by a stimulating object or idea.’ Obrist, H. and Raza, A. (n.d.). Ways of curating. (2014). UK: Penguin Random House. p.42

 

 

Work on paper – there will be quite a lot of variety in terms of scale and materials/ processes. This fits with the idea of it being a personal collection and – as with the seaweed albums at the RAMM archive, several types of paper were used, depending on availability and wealth of the collector.

I have hung the work on paper from twine – again, an alteration from my proposal, there will also be a larger number of pieces of varied scale, with a slightly more jumbled appearance than in the photos. The work on paper represents the different approaches that I have taken in my research, it also reveals my personal response to the material.

I testing out different ways that I could show my film, one thought was to show it in one of the drawers of a small apothercarie’s chest that I own (middle image in top row). I like this idea – in particular with the drawer being partially opened, the viewer has to pull it open. It doesn’t work on the plinth I have shown in the photo, it’s too high here, might work better on a side table. Alternatively I could use a plinth, as in right hand image on top row – perhaps rather than having an aperture cut out of the front I would cut one out of the top so that the viewer is peering down into it, as you would into a rock pool. TBC. I will probably need to get this fabricated by a CNC cutter if I go for the plinth option to make it look really crisp.

Michele suggested I read Hans Ulrich’s Ways of Curating and Claire Bishop’s Installation Art to help develop my understanding of the history and context, as well as opportunities and implications of particular forms of installation art. I found Ulrich’s writing particularly enjoyable and relevant – he comments on a conversation between Umberto Eco and Jean-Claude Carriere ‘during which they discuss archives, the writers say that everything they’ve thought about such collections started with their childhood’. Obrist, H. and Raza, A. (n.d.). Ways of curating. (2014). UK: Penguin Random House.p.46. This chimes with my experience of seaweed collecting, with photos and stories of me digging around in rockpools and seaweed aged five. Another quote by Ulrich especially attracted my attention:

‘The effort to organise and explain the world’s copious and strange complexity is the desire underlying the Wunderkammer – but equally evident is the desire to luxuriate in what cannot be understood. Even if we have, today, split apart the scientific from the artistic, the Wunderkammer reminds us that the two are both essentially forms of taking pleasure in the task of understanding the world, provoked by a stimulating object or idea.’ Obrist, H. and Raza, A. (n.d.). Ways of curating. (2014). UK: Penguin Random House. p.42

 

 

Through writing my essay, and examining ideas of taxonomy, as well as the work of Mark Dion, I decided to add a ladder to my installation. This ‘Seaweed Collectors of The British Isles‘ ladder (pictured above) includes the names of the female collectors that I have researched – Amelia Griffiths, Mary Wyatt, Anna Atkins, Margaret Gatty, and my Great, Great Grandfather John Mann, whose album started off my investigation in the first place. This is not supposed to be a comprehensive list, but the figures who have shaped my enquiry. I have written their names and dates on each rung. Dion’s Scala Naturae, (1994). The ladder is a metaphor for ordering and in my work for change/ revision as there is an implicit invitation to the viewer to climb it and move the installation. It is also intended to suggest the ongoing nature of collecting and ordering.

The form of my installation has evolved, through discussion, research and my making. I hope that it now invites more participation and engagment from the viewer than my earlier proposal and presents a questioning and curious collection. I imagine it will provoke a range of responses in the viewer. Primarily I aspire to invite a sensory and personal response and create discussion around collecting, observation of nature, materials, ephemerality vs permanence, and the role of the female collector.

 

 

Exhibition maquette

I had some fun creating this maquette for the exhibition. I have decided that the works on paper will start with 3 (almost A1 size) on the top row – these will have a poured image of the seaweed ink each representing one of the three main types of seaweed, red, green and brown. The following rows, as mentioned in the previous post will be showing one of the approaches I have used, eg gestural printing with the seaweed ink, Jurassic mud and seaweed combined. This represents my personal/ experiential taxonomy of seaweed.

There is one more possible element in the installation which is a wooden ladder, this would have seaweed hanging from it to dry and have the names of female seaweed collectors painted on the rungs – a pantheon.

Tutorial with Michele Whiting 1.4.2019

I found this tutorial thought provoking and challenging, I came out of it in many ways less certain about the work I am producing than when it started! Though this is not in many ways a bad thing as I feel I have been provoked to question my work more deeply and consider how I can articulate my ideas and also be ambitious in my exhibition. Whilst aware that there is some time pressure and an evident need to resolve work for the exhibition, Michele encouraged me to still develop my work further. Particular areas we discussed were the presentation/ installation, I am using the language of the museum in my installation and could push this further. Create my own taxonomy. Do not feel that I need to present just one, polished outcome, present the research and process behind the work. Michele encouraged me to return to the work of Mark Dion as a reference. All in all she was inviting/ challenging me to be ambitious – go for it with the installation, not be too safe and go for an overly neat (and potentially tentative solution). Notes below:

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We discussed the use of the grid – suggesting taxonomy, the aesthetic of the museum. How this is an artistic taxonomy, distinct from a scientific one, licence to play. Need to talk about museology in essay and blog with reference to texts.

Michele encouraged me to make a maquette to help me decide on scale etc of the installation – what do I need to keep in/ take out? Help to be specific about exact dimensions and format.

Michele felt that the use of the juraassic mud from the beach I’m collecting seaweed on and have been repeatedly visiting is appropriate – relates to the site, importance on place, ongoing investigation.

We discussed scale, I mentioned that I am undecided upon either a collection of smaller works of smaller number of large works. Michele commented on accumulation of images a way of creating scale/ impact.

Michele sketched the following Venn diagram which she suggested represents my work, this had a lot of resonance for me:

Michele pointed out this approach allows for play. When I curate the work, what am I adding to the work, what am I taking away? Can think about more artistic gestural matters, what it means when I mix these materials together, what does this bring to the understanding and recording of the place, what does it mean to the place?

Bring sense of discovery – repeated action of going on walks and finding new things into the work, dealing with the familiar in an unfamiliar way.

Michelle mentioned the body of work she produced for her MA – slippery, unfinished, made film, drawing, cuttings, drew from them. Memory drawings, immersed herself. The editing is v significant.

Looking, seeing, noting. Writing, drawing, making. Drawing on site – directly from the seaweed, photograph, experience and write about it.

Film – liked split screen. Think about sound – needs to be watery. I could build a plinth (white) with a hole cut in for a monitor, think about the housing of it, quite a slim plinth, coming out of wall a bit, think about height, could have headphones. Film could text and voiceover. Also think about the speed of the pieces in the film – they’re ethereal, could draw this out, slow down, need to speak with the drawings.

Adobe premiere.

Can take time in an edit suite with an editor, makes an edit list with a time code.

3-5 mins max, what that work is doing individually and in relation to what I’m doing overall. Brings another connection.

Installation –

Think about museology side of it – museums are places of learning. How do we learn? What I’m doing – saying there are other ways of learning, an artistic response we can learn from.

Scale – do I reach a scale through accumulation of these individual properties or do I make a large response, I need to resolve. Thinking about grid like formation – how do I disrupt that?

What kind of narrative am I curating? What devices can I use to present the ideas?

With maquette I can tweak ideas. – challenging museum display. How art, life, place interact with each other, how do I show that? Sense of a need to do this kind work in this society – what you’re doing can be packaged into another place, another set of experiences, ie a funded project. Where’s the longevity in it? Becomes a way of working/ vehicle. Local museum, have conversations, mention exhibition – could lead to residency. They’re most interested in impact, ie intimate knowledge of the seaweeeds, built on a history – eg albums, thinking about impact for learning, impact for adult audience, libraries. Environmental impact, visual knowledge, often overlooked in other disciplines.

The shelf: Is it a shelf or a desk, coming out from the wall which you can interact with, insinuating the idea of research into the space. Precedents – a space can be set up which has that immediacy, so even if the audience isn’t permitted to interact with it.

Value in being the person who takes the time out to observe/ record a specific space. Holds that bit of history.

Works you are making that you can then frame which can be put into the gallery white cube space. But one of the valuable parts of the process, the experimentation, repeat visits, understanding place, ways of looking and working. To make this explicit have to grasp that all the processes are the work. Michelle argues for making the process and research explicit. Think about how the women collecting seaweed collated their albums, went every day, made drawings, recorded the seaweed, pressed seaweed – I’m doing the same. The grid can still come into it, look back at Mark Dion’s work – collecting the material was part of the work.

Remind myself that I’m working at the forefront of my own knowledge, inherently uncomfortable – acknowledge that.

Reading:

Hans Obrist – ways of curating.

 

PPP tutorial 1.4.2019

Claudia Dharamshi MA3 PPP outline

I found this tutorial helpful – firstly Caroline confirmed that I’m on the right lines with my PPP, it just needs tweaking which is a relief. We had a useful talk about future plans, she helped me to be less black and white about the potential of earning money as an artist and making meaningful work, continuing with the art practice that I have been developing on the MA e.g. working with archives. She pointed out the potential to work with communities, curators, museums. We also discussed ways to extend and make the most out of work eg produce a book of my seaweed project.

Overall this discussion helped to confirm that the way forward is trying to create a portfolio approach to working as an artist, ie combining teaching, applying for funding, developing work/ working on commissions etc.

Notes from the tutorial are below:

• Caroline felt that my draft PPP was fine and that the format was logical, I should add an introductory paragraph and also list the targets that I have previously set and met.
• We discussed future career plans and potential for building on my MA body of work. The seaweed project could that become a publication. Etc.
• More commercially: How do you maximise the use of one piece of work? Eg a painting can be reproduced, prints, postcards
• How do we research things? – how do we find things out? – as a workshop. Try and widen thinking, not just about selling work.
• Working with archives and collections, many possibilities, could include work with different communities and people, developing work I have previously done with communities.
• Caroline thought that it was a positive thing that I am making more links with other artists, she suggested I should also develop connections with curators.
• Think broadly about where the work will sit and making the most out of the work. Add links to own website etc.
• Reading – The Allure of the Archive, Arlette Farge, talks about the archive having a holy grail attached to it, the discovery is in the process of gentle looking. Looking at these small discoveries, relevant to my work.

To do:

Add further detail to PPP plan, including appropriate links. Consider how I could further develop the work I am creating/ use a similar process in the future.

Contextual study Peer Review 25.3.2019

Having shared 500 words of our essays with our partners before the group seminar, Mary and I shared our feedback with each other, we had a fruitful discussion. In both cases Mary and I felt that our essays could benefit from putting more of ourselves into the essay, making our work more central. We were then paired with another member of the cohort, in my case Marten, and given a short time to read and respond to each other’s 500 words. I found both discussions very insightful, both Mary and Marten identified issues that I had not considered fully and made me see how another person interpreted my writing.

Above: Work by Mary Myers based on archival material about seaweed collectors in Appledore.

Mary’s feedback

This was a good pairing as interestingly Mary previously made work about three seaweed collectors in her village from local maritime museum, Appledore Laver pickers (see image above). All based on one photo. Contrast people who did it for a living – to exist vs people who did it for observation. Mary Jewel, Esher Screetch, Mary Bell.has also made work about female seaweed collectors working from archival material, based on the lives of women who collected Laver in Appledore where she lives.

Mary did some research into the process of seaweed collecting.

Interesting to see how i’ve progressed this idea – collecting own pigment.

Making own paper from seaweed? Fitting with with Richard Serra’s ideas re processes. Presumed that the familial connection between me and the albums collector – interesting connection between us both collecting. Would be interesting to see more about this, dialogue with materials also creating a dialogue with her.

Wondered if there was some underlying context about the connections between me and relative.

About pushing boundaries.

Connection to Amelia Griffiths – able to work with some scholarly intent. Gave opportunity to do something quite something scientific under the guise of doing something. Subversive seaweed – secretive.  Elaborate on character of great, great grandfather.

Sense of passing traditions down generations.

Marten feedback

Question about as a kid, picking up disgusting things, provoking this reaction?

Writing about the intention –

Alchemy – creating gold, something that’s impossible to do.  What is the difference between alchemy and conventional chemistry, conventional chemistry can create completely new things. How is it more like alchemy than conventional chemistry.

Likes idea of something being pointless – can have a kind of value. Hard to explain. Would be nice to contrast with more conventional science, by contrast, science is expected to be valuable/ have an important function.

Richard Serra verb list – could be essay title……

A book discussing how paints are made – all commercial colours all made in same way, in contrast to how things used to be made. Earlier artists would make colours themselves, part of teh work. Now everything has a similar finish. Commercial brands all fairly similar.

Piss Christ – Andres Serrano. Similarity in making something beautiful out of something repulsive.

 

Visiting the seaweed archive at The Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter

Having seen a display of Victorian seaweed albums by Devon based collector, Mary Wyatt at The Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) in Exeter, I discovered that they have a considerable seaweed herbarium and thought it was time that I went to take a look. I arranged this with the Collections Officer, Holly Morgenroth and visited on 13th March.

Intriguingly the archive is located in a building called The Ark, in reality a pretty bland building on an industrial estate outside Exeter. It was hard to know what to request to see, partly as they have a large collection of seaweed albums and herbarium sheets, also because other than the collections of Amelia Griffiths and Mary Wyatt who worked together in Torquay – I didn’t know exactly what collections they held. Holly met me and had taken out quite a large number of the albums and boxes of herbarium sheets. I had imagined that I might be able to leaf through the albums myself, but as they are very fragile I was not able to handle them. There is a definite sense of mystery, wonder, preciousness/ inaccessibility in the archive, and a feeling of privilege if you are given access. The rituals, protocols and specialised equipment associated with archives all creates a particular, rarified atmosphere. Hans Ulrich Obrist mentions the impact this had on him as a child with reference to a library: My child’s mind was very deeply attracted to and marvelled at this library… the white gloves worn by its staff, the readers forced to walk silently wearing felt slippers.’  I took these behind the scene photos at the RAMM archive, intrigued by the stacks of archival boxes.

On seeing the volume of material Holly had laid out for me, Arlette Farge’s comments in The Allure of the Archive which I have read recently came to mind-

‘When working in the archive you will often find yourself thinking of this exploration as a dive, a submersion, perhaps even a drowning… you feel immersed in something vast, oceanic.’ Farge, Arlette (2015) The allure of the archives. New Haven: Yale University Press. p.4

I took notes from my discussion with Holly which revealed that there are a lot of gaps in their knowledge about the collections and the identities of the collectors, she occasionally has time to do some detective work, share knowledge with other museum curators and fill in the gaps.

A couple of things which struck me – the beauty of the pressed specimen and the contradiction between the delicacy of the specimen and their longevity – maintaining much of their brightness partly because of their conservation and lack of exposure to light. As with my family seaweed album, the albums often had very clear mirrored imprints created by the seaweed which look like rust. I photographed a selection of the work which instinctively appealed in terms of colour or form and I thought I could work from. Here is a selection of the photos:

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The collections range from amateur collectors and decorative albums – see cross stitched album cover above to scientific collections such as Griffiths’ Algae Danmoniensis. The majority of the collections are by women, some were jointly collected by husband and wife collectors. Apparently a significant number of serious collectors were vicars and their wives, as you can see with the cross stitched cover, the observation of nature including seaweed was seen as a way of being close to god and his mysteries.

Following my visit I have created a number of ink drawings based on the photographs – some of these are drawn over backgrounds which are monoprinted with my seaweed inks.

Ink and salf 

Ink drawing on monoprinted background

Automatic writing

In an effort to get started with the writing process, beyond my initial plan for the contextual study I tried a short stint of automatic writing. This is also a way to get ideas which are floaty around my head out and perhaps make sense of them:

Words which come to mind when I think of seaweed and the work I have been making:

sensory, smell, tactile, taste, rubbery, salty, tough, slippery, slime, goo, repulsion, seductive, gelatinous, cold, wet, liquid, shining, translucent, glowing, ochre, dunn, nut brown, grey brown, sludge green, flesh, rose, delicate, torn, shrivelled, dry, crunchy, leathery, illusive, fugitive, fading, pressed, preserved, dried, ground, boiled, heating, blended, ink, fluid, salt, childhood, games, beach combing, collecting, playing, exploring, immersion, fascination, documenting, samples, testing, ordering, reordering,

Oozing, obsessive collecting eg A La Ronde Shells, drawers crammed with samples, overabundance. Beach combing, walking, rhythm of waves, evidence of storm and turbulence in the process of seaweed being hurled onto the beach and deposited on the strand line. A sense of purpose in collecting but also a sensory experience. The changeability of the seaweed in different conditions, tough, crunchy and quite repulsive when dry on the beach, entangled mass. Reanimated and liberated in water, regains its suppleness and remembers its fluid origins. Moves and undulates like hair in the water. Fascination with testing the material, putting it through different processes. Feels akin to alchemy, the material changes, the way it bonds with paper with its natural glues, the different qualities of it from watery ink like substance to blob like and foamy substance. Transformation of a material. The way that the material moves on paper, disperses, pools and encrusts the surface, meditative. Awareness of history of seaweed collecting as a female pursuit, a form of sanctioned scientific enquiry and escape from the domestic. Desire for the work to be delicate and floating, like the interleaving paper in an album, suspended. For the viewer to be immersed in an environment, lost in associations brought on by smell and touch. Exploring the different samples. Environment a mixture between a domestic space/ kitchen/ studio/ laboratory – anachronistic elements eg Bell Jar and Victorian cabinet and pressed seaweed album mixed with more recent eg slide viewers and digital projection. My response/ allusion to earlier forms of collecting alongside my reinterpretation of this process and material investigations.

Reflection on today’s crit 4th March

Really helpful feedback and questions from Les, Jacqui, Rachel and Elena.

I realise that I expected everyone to look at a lot of information and asked too many questions – bit of an overload. This probably reflects the fact that there are still a considerable number of things for me to work out in preparation for the exhibition. Les put it well when he said that my installation sketch and material I had sent was a combination of solid and fluid, some things are established but others still changeable.

Here is a summary of the key comments made:

Les:

What is it that the work that I’m making – explaining itself. The videos contextualising the prints. The samples demonstrating where the material has come from. Do I need all of this explaining and demonstrating?

What is the tone of this demonstration?

Is it mad scientist or an artist making something v precise and contained. – This is something that Caroline asked me in my tutorial on 11th February, I thought I had defined this but obviously not.

The films – felt filming of seaweed, rather gorgeous. Filming of pouring with pigment also works, but should film on a tripod so that the pigment is the only thing moving. Possibility for simplifying/ distilling the exhibition: On walls, giant pourings, in drawers smaller test pieces and seaweed. Drawers are appealing but needs to be a different experience, full of seaweed would be a surprise and assault to the senses. Walking film not so successful – superfluous, would be different if walking in wet seaweed?

• Les is it a large or a monitor, is it two giant projections?
• What does alchemy look like?
• What does science look like?
• What does the role of artist looking like scientist look like.

The word alchemy keeps coming up. Walked into a room, piece of translucent paper, rear projection, make it so that people can walk through the projection, projection or film and space is transformed.

Could I project onto the samples I have made could work well with sparkly/ textured surface?

Possibility: Installation as if you have left the room. Mark Dion, Kabakov. Intricate staged places.

Rachel

Likes the fact so much going on. Immersed in experience – immersive space. Likes videos – thinks  this adds a different element. Prints a 2d static outcome of process, more energy in videos, bring another layer, textural and visceral. Convey more meaning, they are the experience.

Do I want multi sensory experience? For Rachel the videos the strongest. Could just be that and the seaweed samples.

What do I want people to experience when they go in?

 Jacqui

• Likes walking on bottom third of split screen. Brings an element of uncomfortableness/ fear.
• Suggested working on sheets of rice paper for large poured pigment work.
• Older/ modern version of what the sea was.

Elena

The work makes her think about a fictional character of scientist or researcher back in time. Likes idea of presenting samples. Has a lot of history in itself. Likes to see the process of experimentation. Likes effect the seaweed gives to the paper, would enjoy being in a space where she can experience these.

TaiPei biennale – artwork, a room, not complete darkness, feels kind of narrative. Small shelves with light on each shelf, each has small sample of materials. Brought together by diary of research. Also projection onto shelves. People can discover the processes. Likes idea of me as researcher, in our today’s society not possible to be that kind of person.

My response – I need to work on distilling what is essential about the work. I feel that showing the processes in some way is important, perhaps this can be shown in a different way to the outcomes (eg in a cabinet/ drawers which the viewer can interact with). Another way is for the work and process to be given the same prominence. The form of projection is important  and needs experimenting with. Perhaps lightboxes could be inside drawers. Define my position, artist-scientist/ artist-alchemist/ artist-explorer.

Material for Group Crit 4th March

Below is a my current idea of how my exhibition installation could work. Still quite a few question marks. I am calling it Slippery Ground: Seaweed as Material. It is a material investigation of seaweed, focusing on creating pigment from seaweed and exploring it as material in its different states. The aim is for the installation to be a sensory experience, there will be samples of wet, and dried seaweed, pigments etc.

Rough sketch for ‘Slippery Ground’ installation

Questions for the crit:

I have produced three short films (1 minute each), they are split screen could you let me know your thoughts on these?

Which arrangement do you prefer?

The sound is a bit incidental but perhaps I should keep it? What do you think?

Here are some photos of the films projected on muslin in my living room which has quite dim lighting (muslin screen was a bit small). I tried normal and rear projection –  the rear projection (bottom three photos) created a rainbow effect and the light showed through so I think the material need to be more opaque:

 

I need to decide whether to use my poured seaweed pigments as the large scale pieces on the right of the sketch or whether to produce large scale rust/ seaweed prints. Here are some examples below for comparison. I hope to make these on sumi-e Japanese paper which is quite translucent but need to test this out.

Below are the rust prints, on left the print on paper, the bottom half has a layer of seaweed pigment painted on top. The two right hand images are of the actual plate.

Below are a number of pieces using poured seaweed pigment and salt (these are A4/A3).

I also might use paintings similar to the ones below which are inspired by the internal cell structure of seaweed – these would probably go on the lightboxes on the left of the sketch:

Question for the group:

Which do you think would be more successful – large scale rust prints (with seaweed embedded) or large scale versions of the poured pigment?

Am I trying to do too much? Is less more?