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.

Kimberley: Contextual Study Tutorial 25th February

The tutorial was helpful and encouraging. My notes from the session are below. On reflection I can see I have a starting point which is relevant to my work and not too broad. I now need to establish my position and rationale for my work and make that central to the essay. Kimberley has helped me to make the title more succinct (as below).

Slippery ground: Seaweed as material.

Listening to and reacting to the material

The agency of the material. Important that I talk about taking something from a specific landscape. Phenomenological position – connection to seascapes.

Talking about a process of knowing your material.

what is it doing – how does it operate? Ripping it from its context. Feels like alchemy. Quite a forceful process.

Drag and slowness of materials – seaweed – dredging, rockpools. Take ownership of why I’ve used it. Residue, glutinous. Nearly liquid. Porous, flexible, mutating etc. Look at what that matter means to me. Important.

Material in its original form. How significant is the process of altering the material? Ref to how Matsutani and McCausland transform their materials.

Ingold – gathering from the earth, material that’s already rooted. Disrupted and enable to become something else. What am I hoping to unravel in this material encounter – even if it doesn’t really exist any more at the end of the process.

Are materials hot or cold. How does it resonate with you. Knowing the material inside and out.

Make sure reference if paraphrasing.

Alchemy – being a maker. What does it mean to manipulate and transform materials so you offer them up with a different potential, like a reconstituted seaweed.

Comment on inks being made and design company – ecological retracing of our ethical.

Steer your writing as you steer your practice.

Reordering/ alchemy/ matter. Both artists using unconventional materials. Finding where I am within them and where they difffer.

Can use language which relates to the sea – ebb/ flow drag and pull.

My relationship now to the materials I am using (don’t need to mention previous work which is related).

Suggests some sort of negotiation – i uproot it and metaphorically am uprooted from a normal apporach to making, grapple with its form. Relationship

Intro – experience of being in amongst the material. Set the scene. Awarenss of its immensenss/ vitality. Now trying to control it/ attending to it through a lens. Artistic knowledge, a different knowledge to scientific. Close relationship.

Then Ingold – relationsihp between practitioner and substance.

New materials of entanglements of matter and meaning. Relevant for the seaweed, uproot and untangle.

Expanse of seaweed and sea, distilled.

What/ why/ where/ how and so what? ie what is this process enabling? Either for you as an artist or for the audience?

What is my playfulness and what is my purpose?

Navigation between me and the material – both uprooted.

Look up terms using on thesaurus.

Search a text using keywords.

Reading:

References to do with material and material/ phenomenological

Vibrant matter – Janet Bennett

The Blindings by Brian Catlin – opening up/ wonder of getting to know a material.

The Phenomenology of Perception – attention and judgment section.

Toronto Ink Company – Foraging for natural inks

Barbara mentioned the Toronto Ink Company some time ago and it’s been sitting on a post it for me to look up. As I was struggling to make seaweed pigments, in particular something which could be poured and acted like an ink I remembered this and look on their website. The founder of the company, Jason Logan came across natural inks almost by accident and has honed his now expert and extensive knowledge through trial and error. He often goes on urban foraging walks and creates inks from his finds, using unexpected and mundane materials such as bedsprings, soggy old walnut shells and invasive weeds. The resulting inks are combined together to create palettes which are particular to that walk.

There is also a beautiful Instagram page for the company – I found a lot of inspiration here. The way that the work is curated/ collated is stunning, both scientific and whimiscal. I find that the grid format of the test pieces works really well, also the use of a border/ standard format and list of ingredients gives it a scientific/ objective appearance. The materials and processes behind the inks are very much part of the company’s story and appeal, there is an emphasis upon their experimental and playful approach – backed up with rigour and testing. This definitely gives me ideas for how I could present my work. The test pieces – small strips of paper are also very appealing through their uniformity.

 

Below is an article that I came across about the Toronto Ink Company and its ethos:

Ink’s ingredients are usually closely held secrets, but one artist shows how you can make it with items found all across the city, from soggy walnuts to rusty bedsprings.
— Read on www.citylab.com/life/2018/09/make-natural-ink-book-urban-foraging/568711/

Thinking Through Making

http://www.louisapenfold.com/4552/

I have been thinking about my essay ideas and thought that Tim Ingold’s theory of ‘thinking through making’ would be an appropriate subject of enquiry. When I looked this up online I came across Louisa Penfold’s blog, interestingly she uses Takesada Matsutani as an example of an artist who exemplifies this approach. I had Matsutani’s work in mind (having visited his exhibiton A Drop in Time at Hauser and Wirth, Somerset in December) when I thought of this subject. His playful and experimental engagement with his chosen medium, also in the exhibition, the way that his tools and test pieces were exhibited alongside more resolved work.

Toronto Ink Company – Foraging for natural inks

Barbara mentioned the Toronto Ink Company some time ago and it’s been sitting on a post it for me to look up. As I was struggling to make seaweed pigments, in particular something which could be poured and acted like an ink I remembered this and look on their website. The founder of the company, Jason Logan came across natural inks almost by accident and has honed his now expert and extensive knowledge through trial and error. He often goes on urban foraging walks and creates inks from his finds, using unexpected and mundane materials such as bedsprings, soggy old walnut shells and invasive weeds. The resulting inks are combined together to create palettes which are particular to that walk.

There is also a beautiful Instagram page for the company – I found a lot of inspiration here. The way that the work is curated/ collated is stunning, both scientific and whimiscal. I find that the grid format of the test pieces works really well, also the use of a border/ standard format and list of ingredients gives it a scientific/ objective appearance. The materials and processes behind the inks are very much part of the company’s story and appeal, there is an emphasis upon their experimental and playful approach – backed up with rigour and testing. This definitely gives me ideas for how I could present my work. The test pieces – small strips of paper are also very appealing through their uniformity.

 

Below is an article that I came across about the Toronto Ink Company and its ethos:

Ink’s ingredients are usually closely held secrets, but one artist shows how you can make it with items found all across the city, from soggy walnuts to rusty bedsprings.
— Read on www.citylab.com/life/2018/09/make-natural-ink-book-urban-foraging/568711/

Gestural monoprints and developing seaweed pigments.

 

In my tutorial with Michele Whiting (28th January) – when I showed the work above and other outcomes. This included layered abstract paintings loosely inspired by microscopic underwater imagery, and a series of ink drawings, some on a light source. We discussed the potential to focus on mark making – creating ambiguous, fluid textures which might suggest microscopic forms, not necessarily specific to seaweed, looser and more gestural. This might lead to projected imagery from my drawings/ paintings. Following this discussion I started making gestural monoprints using Spirulina (powder form combined with gum arabic to make a paint) – see below. I found this process both exciting and satisfying, I was inspired by the work of Israeli-American artist Miriam Cabessa who creates performance and installation art, I was particularly interested in her large action paintings which are very physical and involves her whole body in repetitive mark making. Below are some of my prints and a link to a video showing Miriam Cabessa at work, this link shows a timelapse video of me making one of the prints: Spirulina monoprint video

I photographed the perspex printing plates against a lightsource, continuing my ongoing interest in tranlucency and light.

 

Spirulina monoprints (above)

Miriam Cabessa’s process (above)

Cabessa’s work has been described as slow action painting, she is influenced by Minimalist artists such as Agnes Martin and abstract expressionist action painting. The Julie M Gallery, Toronto says of her work:

Cabessa is known for large-scale patterned artworks whose intensely haptic creation is inseparable from the final product. 

https://www.juliemgallery.com/miriam-cabessa (accessed 2.2.2019)

I am drawn to the pattern like quality of her mark making and the combination of quick, gestural marks and slower, physical exertion as she drags her body through the paint. I feel that I have some connection with her process as she often uses erasing as part of her image making, this is something that comes through in my work, (for instance my painting and monoprinting from photographs last year and rust prints from Year 1).

I had lost some confidence after my subsequent  Proposal/ PPP tutorial with Caroline (11th February) where I presented amongst other material this initial sketch (left) with ideas for my exhibition installation. The tutorial revealed that I have a lot to firm up before my proposal deadline. Caroline asked several pertinent questions to prompt me to narrow down my focus and identify the core of the project, I realise that I was trying to neatly combine all the threads of work that I have been working on and as a result there was a lack of focus and clarity. The things that came out of this discussion were my interest in the material properties of seaweed, the use of it as a medium, my role as an investigator. I have since started investigating the material properties of the seaweed, in particular trying to create a series of pigments in a more rigorous way. I also have a renewed interest in presenting the work as the kitchen/ laboratory of a female collector. I will need to see whether the two can be combined effectively or whether I need to focus on one or the other. Caroline suggested that I research the work and process of Onya McCausland who created a series of earth pigments from by products of the coal industry, using a forensic process. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2018/apr/artist-creates-paint-pigments-coal-mine-sludge  (Accessed 12th February 2019). McCausland’s pigments have been approved in terms of quality by the paint industry including Windsor & Newton. Her resulting work was exhibited as an installation at Anima-Mundi, it is very pure and minimalist. The gallery says of the work:

McCausland’s multi-layered, minimalist paintings and wall installations are made from ‘waste ochres’, produced as a result of the mining industry, and each floor of the exhibition will pay homage to the origin of the materials used, recording the aesthetic intensity and unique quality of each landscape.

https://www.animamundigallery.com/exhibition-onya-mccausland-landscapes (Accessed 3rd February 2019).

I like the idea that her work speaks of a specific place and landscape, she also lets the materials speak for themselves.

Following this tutorial I decided that I should use the making day on February 16th to continue my investigation into seaweed pigments and experimenting with the pigments that I have created so far, to help find out more about their characteristics and what supports to use them on.

 

Applied thickly

Seaweed pigment applied thickly and drawn into with brush

Seaweed pigment and salt

Seaweed pigment on cold press watercolour paper

Letting the pigment run/ pool

Poured seaweed pigment, faint stains, breaking up

Applying pigment with brush

Seaweed pigment on duralar wet media

Creating shadows with pigment on duralar

 

 

Feedback from Mary and Kimberley:

I asked what they thought of the pigment on duralar – Mary thought it might be interesting to use this in front of a reflective surface, or, if it were framed to have the duralar raised off the surface to create shadows. Kimberley said it could be layered in front of other drawings or project shadows onto other work. They were both interested in the potential for reflection/ showing or including the spectator in the work, this is something I had not really thought of. Kimberley asked which approach I prefered in terms of using the seaweed pigment, more heavily painted pieces or ones were the pigment was more of a stain, more ephemeral. I said the latter, she agreed that this was interesting to let the material speak for itself and allow an element of chance/ accident – commented that I have already shown intentionality in my choice of materials, support, tools to apply it etc.

My main reflections from the session were that I want to, as mentioned above exploit the characteristics of the medium – look at how it pools, pours, bleeds and interacts, maintaining gestural/ decisive marks and spontaneity.

Spirulina Monoprints

Following my tutorial with Michelle, I wanted to try some more gestural work, focusing on repetitive movement and mark making. As discussed, I also wanted to use a medium which related directly to seaweed so spirulina which is derived from algae seemed like an appropriate choice. I combined the spirulina with gum arabic and then applied it to a large perpex plate (about 1m x 0.5m), I tried different techniques, rubbing it on and off with brushes, my hands and fingers and sliding the paper slightly on the plate.

Having watched video of doing a performative painting/ print using her body I wanted to document the process of making the prints. The outcome is rather comic as I created it using timelapse, you can see the video using the link below:

Spirulina monoprint video

I enjoyed the process of making thise and some of the resulting marks – I prefer the close up images at the top. I realise that the technique used second from the left on the top row where the paper slid is similar to Max Ernst’s decalcomania technique, it creates an effect which is reminiscent of organic forms like coral or sea sponges.

Ernst’s technique is also a type of monoprinting. I photographed the perspex plate when it was inked up as I was interested in the effect when it was backlit.

Proposal/PPP Tutorial with Caroline 11.2.2019

This is the document and installation sketch which I sent to Caroline in advance of our tutorial:

C Dharamshi MA3 Images for tutorial with CW 11th Feb

Reflection on our discussion

Caroline asked me several pertinent questions about my work and the images I had sent re the exhibition proposal. I feel that I rather crumbled under this questioning and was unable to articulate what I am trying to do clearly. This has left me feeling quite lost and realising that I need to establish a much clearer focus and purpose with my work in order to produce a strong and cohesive outcome for the exhibition.

Though I initially felt a bit desperate after the tutorial, Caroline’s questions and the discussion has helped to galvanise me and refocus. I have since started investigating the material properties of the seaweed, in particular trying to create a series of pigments in a more rigorous way. I also have a renewed interest in presenting the work as the kitchen/ laboratory or a female collector. I will need to see whether the two can be combined effectively or whether I need to focus on one or the other.

I should have made my thoughts clearer – for instance the scrappy sketch idea for my installation may make sense to me but is indistinct and hard for someone else to interpret.

Below is a summary of our discussion:

Caroline questioned how I want my work to be presented/ perceived by my audience.

Do I envisage the person coming to see it seeing something they don’t touch, or is it something that they can touch.

I have said that the work is ‘quasi scientific’ but how is it scientific? Think about presentation ie is it objective/ clinical and catalgoued or am I presenting a the chaotic lab of a mad scientist? As the aesthetic of the projector I have shown is homemade, it could include found objects.

All need more development – burgeoning body of work with different threads. So then can select from body of work what will work best.

What is it that I’m investigating? Taking a thing and doing tests on it. Do I need the actual material in there, jars of seaweed.

The work is lacking a core, could include some dried samples/ specimen jars. What is the chemical composition of seaweed, is there a way it can be described chemically?

We discussed the process of materials interacting – vital and important. Needs to be more of a logic to what I’m doing. Eg with spirulina prints, document the processes eg 10% gum arabic. Risk that the work is just explosive and joyous investigation in what you can do with materials – potentially not telling us anything.

If take out science and investigation of the experience. Enjoying what I’m doing – play and materiality. Think about an angle, is it using natural materials? Talking about Caroline, calling me a painter re making marks and using materials and substances, confidence of material working for you as a tool. Is my investigation into the materiality of mark making, projection slides taking tiny elements of my work could be blown up sections of my work.

An investigator, like to find things out – by working with materials.

Am I still in the role of investigator – how do I set up this conceit? Do I need this conceit?

Shut self in studio and make, make, make, pull out the pieces that speak to you and analyse.

My comment: The seaweed has amazing fascinating materials qualities. Just use the seaweed as the medium get some natural earth pigments. Rigour in the materials. Am exploring the materials.

Focus on using materials.

Caroline suggested looking at Onya McCausland’s research into pigments – based at Slade, worked with coal authority to create a series of pigments from sludge and by products. Will be produced by Windsor and Newton. Look at her process.

Need to reflect and consider what is essential/ important in the work.

 

How to Make Ink From Scratch: A Cookbook for Urban Foragers – CityLab

Ink’s ingredients are usually closely held secrets, but one artist shows how you can make it with items found all across the city, from soggy walnuts to rusty bedsprings.
— Read on www.citylab.com/life/2018/09/make-natural-ink-book-urban-foraging/568711/

Seaweed gathering and processing, creating pigments.

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I collected seaweed from the strandline at Burton Bradstock and was struck at the range of species. I laid them out, grouping the different types into categories, ie red seaweeds, kelps etc (see above). I was thinking of botanical illustrations/ engravings where specimen are ordered in a meticulous way and the ordering of species in the Linnaean system.

After these processes of gathering and ordering I made my first attempts at extracting pigment from seaweed, having made ink drawings from seaweed I thought that creating pigments with the seaweed would be poetic and capture the essence of the material. The colours of seaweed can be very beautiful, following some research into seaweed pigmentation I discovered that:

Seaweed is categorised by colour, there are three main types the chlorophytes (greens), rhodophytes (red), and ochrophytes (brown).

The first to use this characteristic to class seaweeds was a botanist named William Henry Harvey, pioneer of the field of phycology (the science of seaweeds). With careful observation of the spores of the algae under his 18th century microscope, he noticed that they were always green, pink, or brown. His method, a colorful reflection of evolutionary history, is still applicable today. https://www.laboratoires-biarritz.com/blog/en/where-does-seaweed-get-its-color/ (accessed at 8th February 2019)

Mainly, they are the result of type-specific pigments found in the plastids (where photosynthesis takes place in seaweed cells).

• Green seaweeds, like plants, get their color from the presence of chlorophyll. Their phylum, Chlorophyta, takes it’s name from it.
• Red seaweeds, have characteristic accessory pigments than chrlorophyll, notably phycobiliproteins. The two main types are phycoerythrin (red) and phycocyanin (blue). The combination of the two results in a wide spectrum of colors, from deep red to electric blue.
• Brown seaweeds get their color from another type of pigment, carotenoids. Among them, fucoxanthin is the most common. Other molecules, notably phlorotannins, similar to the tannins in wine, can influence their color as well.  Above information quotes from https://www.laboratoires-biarritz.com/blog/en/where-does-seaweed-get-its-color/ (accessed at)

This is an involved subject – recent research by Juliet Brodie, research chair at the Natural History Museum shows that a certain seaweed Chrondus Crispus or Irish Moss is iridescent in some circumstances, this might be a way that the plant can alter its pigmentation to protect it from exposure to the sun. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2015/july/shining-seaweeds-reveal-secret-iridescence.html (accessed at 10th February 2019)

For my first seaweed pigment I used a red seaweed commonly known as Dulse (Palmaria palmata) which is edible . I put the seaweed through several processes;

1. Cut into small pieces
2. Tried to crush in a pestle and mortar
3. Added acetone
4. Blended the resulting substance
5. Strained the substance through kitchen towel
6. Tried to do paper chromotography test on it to separate pigments.

This series of processes resulted in a soft pink colour – I was pleased with this. However, it was very thin, on reflection I realise that I need to add a binding agent such as gum arabic to give it body/ viscosity and make it flow. The chromotography did not work, however this was before I had added the acetone and may have worked better after this. Excited to see that I can extract some pigments just using processes available to me in the kitchen!

Above I used some kelp which has amazing material properties, transforming from leathery and crunchy when dried to slippery and fluid again when wet. I just washed this and then put it in the blender, the results were both disgusting and pleasing. As I blended the kelp it released a lot of gelatinous goo, as you can see from the photos. I bought some muslin for straining the seaweed which worked much better than kitchen roll I previously used, a thick stream of slime which strongly resembled rather disgusting bodily fluids, (thinking mucus and phlegm) but also reminded me of my love of slime as a child. Slime making is an obsession with kids at the moment and my daughter and I have tried out several Youtube recipes, I didn’t realise that seaweed would produce such a quick version.

I was not sure how this would work on paper but when I tested it, it left frothy/ gel like blob which kept some of its body when dried. So far the colour has remained true, though it is a bit fragile (ie would crumble if rubbed hard) the gelatinous, mucilaginous nature of the seaweed seems to act as a natural binder, it also gives the substance gloss.