Final piece and reflection

Final display by Kath Howard (2014)

Final display by Kath Howard (2014)

Final display by Kath Howard (2014)

 

 

Reflection

Looking back at my final display, I feel that my work reflects my intentions of creating a connection between art and science through the use of microscopic imagery and textiles. With feedback from my peers, the overall feeling about my pieces were that they were desirable to hold and people found them to look very pretty with the new details I had added compared to my older pieces. Many of the people who were familiar with my work understood that my fabric pieces were in fact replicas of part of disease under the microscope and therefore understood what they were looking at when holding them. However, it will be interesting to see people who are unfamiliar with my work interacting with my pieces as I feel that at the most they will understand that they were inspired by microscopic images due to the video also on display, but will not consider them to be of diseases until reading about my work.

Things I would change with my display

Desired display sketch by Kath Howard (2014)

Due to the unfortunate event of not being able to gain a projector for my video, I decided to use a mac computer last minute to display my video which led me to create more of a ‘scientific desk space’ for my installation. As I had little time and materials to plan out this display the best to my abilities, I feel there are some things I would go about changing for the Summer Show if possible. Curatorially speaking, I would like to change my display by adding in certain scientific props such as a small microscope and some sketches and notes of the microscopic disease cells to accompany my textile pieces. I feel this would add a more ‘used’ feeling to the display making my installation feel like a scientist is currently in the process of creating these pieces themselves from the research on the video. I would also like to change the current table in use to a desk which has a filing system which would represent that this particular desk is used for research and stores important information. To replace the chair I would choose an office chair of similar shape and colour although I would select a smaller chair as to not obstruct the view of my installation when viewed from far away. I feel this over all display would portray more of a working area and would show clearly the connection between the microscope and the microscopic images to the sketches and the finished textile disease cells compared to my current installation.

Curatorial aspects

Inspiration

Shelve of sweet jars.

Marine specimen collection at the Natural History Museum, London.

When considering the display of my final pieces, I looked back at display from last year in order to develop and improve my curatorial aspects of my work. My initial plan was to create a large collection of textile 3D pieces, place them in an arrangement of jars and display them on a shelf or cabinet. This initial plan supported my ideas of creating a museum-like display similar to what you would see within the Natural History Museum. However, as my plans changed to making a much smaller collection of pieces so that I could spend more time perfecting each ones details, I moved away from the idea of displaying my work within a large shelf, and looked into the possibilities of displaying them as a smaller installation by which I would still use the jars to display the pieces, but using a table to arrange them instead.

Fabric disease cell inside sweet jar. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

Within my previous work, I had used simple food jars to display my textile pieces as these were cost effective and easy to obtain at the time. However, with more research into other jars, I came to the conclusion of using different sized old-fashioned sweet jars to display them in. I found that the sweets jars slightly resembled the jars used within the Natural History Museum where the collections would be submersed within liquid and contained within the jars. When looking into the usual display of sweet jars, I also found a similarity in how the jars were arranged within the collections at the museum. My main purpose within this particular artwork is to make my fabric disease cells look as aesthetically pleasing to the eye as possible, and personally I felt the use of sweet jars added a certain appealing quality to my textile pieces in comparison to if I had used a more scientific looking jar. However, I still feel that the sweet jars also add a certain scientific quality to the pieces.

Initial idea

Initial plan of display sketch by Kath Howard (2014)

With my idea of creating a smaller installation using a table to display my fabric pieces and video I drew out a possible scenario for my display. In terms of the video, I considered the idea of reverse projection whereby I would create a frame using wood and cover the frame with white cotton to project through the back of. I would then cover the projector with a white box to disguise it whilst on display. The use of the white cotton I feel will bring out the textures of the images used within the video and link into my use of fabrics through out my project. When displaying my fabric pieces and jars, I considered the idea of arranging them with mostly all of them inside the jars and possibly having one of the pieces out so that viewers can hold it. I feel that having most of the pieces inside the jar with only one outside of the jar will create a desire to hold the other pieces. When contemplating what table would be suitable for my display, I considered a clean white or silver table in order to give myself a very clinical looking space. I also contacted Oliver Tills one of my contacts for collaborating with the science field in order to see if there were any available to borrow but have still not received a reply due to him being quite busy.

Installing and problems

Media player for video and projector. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

Cotton projector screen. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

Cotton projector screen. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

When I began to install my piece had already made my projector screen using wood and white cotton and had bought my media player which I would use to play my video from by connecting it to the projector. However, as I was still waiting for my allocated projector I was still yet to try out my video projected onto my hand made screen. Unfortunately the projector I had managed to get on short notice would not focus enough at the distance I wanted my video to project onto my screen from and with no time or money to obtain another projector which would project at this particular distance, I had to change my ideas for my display. As well as this I had some concerns about my media player being on for around nine hours a day for around one week during the summer show due to it getting quite hot from only being used after a few minutes.

Change of direction

Experimenting with display using old pieces. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

Final display by Kath Howard (2014)

Setting up the computer and video for display. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

With the need to find a new way of displaying my video fast, I came to the conclusion of using Mac computer to display the video and considered several ways of doing so. Initially I had contemplated creating a white box in which to cover the computer with, leaving a square hole in which the video would be seen through. However, covering the computer with a box didn’t feel right, and after some thought and discussion with others I decided to keep the computer as a whole set up making my display seem like more of a work space for a scientist. I also felt that the use of the computer related well to the idea of making a connection between art, science and technology, and having both sit side by side seemed to work a lot better. Now that my display had changed from a clinical, scientific installation to more of a work space, I had to reconsider my display of my fabric disease cells in order to fit with the display. From here I experimented with the idea of including some of my older fabric pieces and played around with placing them outside of the jars on the table as if they were some form of research. However, I decided against this idea as my work seemed to look unfinished, and over all I favoured my newer pieces as I felt they reflected my concept a lot more. When choosing a table to display my work on, initially I had used a small silver table which added a more clean and clinical feel to my pieces. However after some thought, I decided to find myself a wooden table which resembled a science desk much more and had the feeling of being used often for research. To accompany the desk, I also placed a black office chair as if the table were in use, however I may still change the chair prior to my summer show display.

Final display

Final display by Kath Howard (2014)

Final display by Kath Howard (2014)

Over all I am content with my display as although I had to change my plan quite suddenly, I feel the outcome works well with my context. I also feel that by having the computer, the viewers can relate the images to the fabric pieces and consider the images as research towards them, making a firm link between the scientific, microscopic images and the soft, appealing, fabric pieces in sweet jars. However, there are some major aspects of the display that I would change in order to make my installation look more like the work space of a scientist. I have written about these changes in my evaluation of my work where you can read by following this link: https://kathhoward.wordpress.com/final-piece/

 

References:

The Natural History Museum, (n.d.). Collections at the museum. [image] Available at: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/collections-at-the-museum/ [Accessed 1 Jun. 2014].

Minster Sweets, (2014). Sweet Jars. [image] Available at: http://www.wimborneminster.net/bid/16/shopping-and-services/29/Minster-Sweets [Accessed 1 Jun. 2014].

Making

Previous work

Fabric cancer cell by Kath Howard (2013)

Previous work on display by Kath Howard (2013)

Previous work on display by Kath Howard (2013)

When looking back at my work from the beginning of the year, I concluded that I needed to look into a way of making my fabric disease cells look more aesthetically pleasing, which would in turn make viewers of my artwork want to hold them. When making my previous pieces, the materials I used prevented me from doing this, causing my pieces to look messy and unattractive. At the beginning of the year I had planned to create a large collection of fabric disease cells, however I feel that with the time I’ve been given to create these pieces I would rather make only a few pieces in which I would spend more time on in order to make them looked detailed and aesthetically pleasing. Although I was unhappy with the over all turnout of my previous work, I was still quite fond of one fabric disease cell in particular which I had spent more time on and for this reason, I decided to keep this particular piece to display with my upcoming work.

Materials

Velvet materials in various colours. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

Assortment of coloured cotton material. Photo by Kath Howard (2013)

Polyester stuffing. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

Assortment of blue sequins. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

Assortment of 4mm pearl beads for decoration. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

Coloured cotton thread. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

For me, changing my choice of materials was an important part of improving my work. From working mainly with cotton materials, I changed to using velvets as much as possible in order to make my pieces soft and pleasant to touch. However, I also kept to using some cotton material in order to create different textures and qualities in each piece. When choosing my fabric, I kept with the idea of using a range bright, non-offensive colours as much as possible in order to make my pieces interesting. As well as fabric, I also chose to use sequins and beads to add more detail to my pieces. I also felt like using these types of materials would draw more attention to them as well as adding more textures and colour.

Drawings

‘Crookes hyaline a x1000’ by Kath Howard (2013) image used for sketches.

Sketch of disease cells by Kath Howard (2014)

‘HaemangioblastomaHP’ image by Kath Howard (2013) used for sketches.

Watercolour sketch by Kath Howard (2014)

Breast cancer cell sourced from web and used for sketches.

Sketch of breast cancer cell by Kath Howard (2013)

Before beginning to make my pieces, I created a few rough sketches with inspiration from my own images of disease under the microscope as well as found images from the Wellcome Science Photo Library. When drawing out sketches, I though about shape, colours and textures as well as possible materials. Looking back at my previous project, I chose a sketch I had made at the beginning of the year and decided to finally create a piece based on this sketch. I found that drawing out my ideas helped, as I find that when working with materials, the outcome is never as accurate as the image being replicated. However, I still found that my finished pieces changed whilst in the process of making.

Making

Making the fabric disease cells. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

Making the fabric disease cells. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

Making the fabric disease cells. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

Making the fabric disease cells. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

Making the fabric disease cells. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

Making the fabric disease cells. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

Making the fabric disease cells. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

Making the fabric disease cells. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

Making the fabric disease cells. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

To begin making my final pieces, I created the main body of the disease cells using white and light pink velvet. I created several different size bodies in which to work with and add detail to and then stuffed them with polyester white stuffing to make the pieces soft to touch and squeeze. When making the fabric disease cells, I followed to my sketches and images as much as possible, cutting out my desired shapes of fabric and sewing neatly onto the body. With one of my pieces, I created different sized stuffed balls of velvet in which I attached to the body of the cell. I felt this particular method added a desire to hold the fabric disease cell and play with the shape of the piece.

Making the fabric disease cells. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

Making the fabric disease cells. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

Making the fabric disease cells. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

Making the fabric disease cells. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

Making the fabric disease cells. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

Making the fabric disease cells. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

Once the main parts of the fabric disease cells were added, I began to add more delicate details such as sequins and beading to three of my four pieces. I decided against using beads and sequins on my older piece as I felt it was unnecessary due to it already being quite heavily textured and therefore I didn’t want to over do it. When securing the beads and sequins I made sure to keep them as neat as possible, and only selected particular areas of the pieces to place them in order to not make the fabric disease cells look over crowded or too kitsch.

Comparing fabric disease cells. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

Making my final pieces turned out to be quite a long process in order to make them look as aesthetically pleasing as possible as well as making them resemble the images in which inspired them in the first place. However I was happy with my outcome and felt that my new fabric disease cells were a lot better made and represented my concept of how disease under the microscope is deceivingly beautiful much more.

One of the finished fabric disease cells by Kath Howard (2014)

Three of the finished fabric disease cells by Kath Howard (2014)

Video

Screenshot of making the video. Photo by Kath Howard (2014)

To accompany my fabric disease cells, I created a loping video which consisted of my own images of disease under the microscope which I had sourced from visiting Derriford Hospital last year. When selecting the images, I chose the most interesting as well as aesthetically pleasing, selecting bright colours and complex patterns. When creating this video, my initial intentions were to include some unpleasant images of surgery relating to disease, or the results of cancer cells amongst the more beautiful images of diseases under the microscope, however, I feel that only showing the more pleasant images allows the viewer to interpret my fabric disease cells how they wish before knowing what they really are a representation of. I feel the video allows my viewers to make a connection between the 3D pieces and the images within the video, however I feel that it doesn’t give too much away, complimenting my fabric pieces well. I also feel that although these images are primarily for scientific purposes, they can be seen as artworks themselves, supporting my ideas about the collaboration between art and science within my work.

(Please use this link to visit the final video and artworks on display)

 

References: Wellcome, (n.d.). Breast cancer cell. [image] Available at: http://nutritionfacts.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/stem-cell-blog-for-NF-on-april-19th.jpg?c3d2dd [Accessed 1 Jun. 2014].

Videos

 

 

 

References:

McDonald, L. (2014). The Future of Plymouth project. Available at: http://vimeo.com/96620245[Accessed 27 May. 2014].

Bent, J. (2014). The Sculpture, ‘Eight’. Available at: http://vimeo.com/94374158 [Accessed 27 May. 2014].

Bent, J. (2014). The kaleidoscope effect. [image] Available at: http://vimeo.com/94375029 [Accessed 27 May. 2014].

 

 

Matthew Stock

Matthew Stock, Perplications 2012.

On the 23rd January Matthew Stock gave a lecture at my university on his practice as an artist and curator. Stock initially began as just an artist and moved into curating after completing his masters in Fine art. Within his practice he is concerned with spaces for art whether it be the artwork situated in it, the physical environment around the artwork or the languages which are linked to it. Stock is also extremely interested in the circulation of artwork, the gallery, audience and institutions and how these can all be altered when separated from time and place. He asks questions within his work regarding new encounters with art such as where should they take place and in what form? Over all of his interests one seems to stand out more than any other, this being the artist spectator relationship and how the transference of knowledge takes place. Within his artist practice Stock creates videos through body worn surveillance cameras which are usually very low quality and in multiple numbers. In his work he uses the word ‘spectator’ instead of audience as he feels this has more of an active role rather than passive which is usually used to describe an audience. However he feels that this is inaccurate when describing the audience of an artwork. Because of this, screenings and talks are very important for his practice.

In 2012 Stock created the artwork Perplications which consisted of a 30 minute looped 4 channel silent video. For this piece Stock manipulated an audio piece, which was created when giving a tour of the Hayward gallery in 2010, and converted it into text which was shown across 4 screens. At Stock’s lecture I got a chance to watch five minutes of this piece and found it to create a lot of concentration in the room as in order to understand the conversation you had to wait and follow the text around the four screens. The text was mostly gibberish as it was taking from Stock having a conversation to the public and not an art audience showing more of a relaxation in his tone of voice. For him this was an important element when discussing his interest in the artist and spectator relationship. I also find that through taking the job of giving knowledge as a tour guide in an exhibition to the public he holds a certain power and he uses this in his advantage to make an artwork.

Another example of Stock’s artwork is the piece Urban encounters a radio show made in partnership with Tate Britain and Goldsmith’s London and aired between 8-9pm on the 9th, 10th and 11th of October 2013 on Resonance 104.4fm. Within this radio show he interviewed artists about the area of London and created songs in order to make an album which was also played on the show. Doing this made him understand how important collaboration was for his practice. Within this artwork Stock looks at social politics and reveals an uneasy difficulty in understanding the city as an entity. He concludes that the city perceives itself through the community that lives within it. Another one of Stock’s artworks consisted of a 40 minute long video set on a loop and displayed on 2 screens. The video included a low quality video of Stock filming around  2 difference gallery spaces which are both identical in form. One screen shows the empty space of the artist show on display and the other screen shows the busy gallery space with the artist about to begin a talk to the audience. Stock wants to show a never ending cycle of repetition of the body entering the gallery and the audience listening to the artist talk but never being able to leave and held in a state of flux twisting reality. From his art practice, I can tell that Stock is largely interested in the physicality of the gallery space which is also needed in order to become a good curator.

Illusion of the spectator installation view, 2012.

During his lecture, Stock also discusses some of his curating practice, such as the exhibition Illusion of the spectator  shown at the Angus-Hughes gallery in London in 2012 in collaboration with The Modern Language Experiment. When it comes to the combining of artist and curatorial practice, Stock feels that there is a potential for a coherence between the two. He find himself always coming back to the same question: When does my art practice end and my curatorial practice begin? However he is now finding that he always tried to pair the two practices together which means he should be asking: In what ways can both practices begin? In his curatorial exhibitions Stock also focuses on the theme of the position and the power of the spectator which creates a good continuity within both sides of his practice. Within this particular exhibition the art works were mainly video or text installations which related to the idea of the spectator. He hopes to challenge artists, curators and viewers to move beyond spectator-ship. The exhibition included artists: Beth Fox, Craig Cooper, Charlotte Norwood, Kate Janes, Maite Zabala, Matthew Stock and Patrick Coyle. As you can see, Stock also included his own work Perplecations, which makes sense as his own artistic practice relates heavily to the theme of the show. In some cases there has been a lot of questions around whether an artist curator should display their work within their own curated shows as it seems biased, however Stock shows a balance in this idea as he has also curated many other shows without his artwork included. He says this is because when he feels his artwork relates to the theme, it makes sense to show it and in this I agree completely as it keeps your artist curator practice strong.

One thing I was slightly concerned of when listening to Stock’s talk was when he discussed a rock being thrown though the window of the Angus-Hughes gallery in London for artist Craig Cooper’s piece and then leaving the rock where it landed in the space for the rest of this show. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the idea of the artwork, but mainly the approach of doing so. Stock mentioned the rock landing very close to another artist’s installation and their disapproval of this as he had not mentioned anything to them about it, as well as this Stock also never approached the gallery. I understand that it can be difficult when curating a show and getting approval from all of the artists as well as the gallery, however I feel that as an artist as well as a curator, I would be unhappy with my artwork being positioned or tempered with out of my approval.

When it comes to curating as a practice, Stock mentions how it still very important for artists and curators to work together and how both fields for him feed into one another. He feels that curating for him is definitely a part of his artist practice rather than separate and is just a different way of talking about the same ideas.  He also discusses how for him, curating an exhibition is just the next step after creating an artwork or a project in collaboration with other artists.

References:

Stock, M. 2012. Matthew Stock, Perplications 2012.. [image online] Available at: http://www.angus-hughes.com/illusion-of-the-spectator [Accessed: 25 Jan 2014].

Stock, M. 2012. Illusion of the spectator, installation view, 2012.. [image online] Available at: Stock, M. 2012. Matthew Stock, Perplications 2012.. [image online] Available at: http://www.angus-hughes.com/illusion-of-the-spectator [Accessed: 25 Jan 2014]. [Accessed: 25 Jan 2014].