Reflection on this first year

I wanted to reflect on this last year regarding the MA and everything really.
This has been a very difficult year for me, as I started this MA course I was also starting a new job and this probably was a mistake. I took on too much however the MA on the whole has been a very interesting learning experience and even though at times I have struggled with the Tasks I have learnt from these experiences.
I am hopeful that I will pass this first year and now I am financially able to pay for the second year I believe that I will be able to contribute and develop my artistic skills.
Next year will be exciting as I am becoming involved with a new business that will hopefully mean at the least a reduction in the hours that I work or even finding another job working part-time which would free up more time to concentrate on the MA.
I have now become involved with the Worcester Arts Workshops which will be inavailable to me as I develop as an artist over the next few years.
I personally enjoyed the study of Franko B within this module the most, because it pushed me beyond my normal boundaries, it was a fascinating area to research and I learnt a huge amount.
Breaking the Boundaries was a failure in my mind as I struggled to get communication from people and it was just a very difficult project to get off the ground, however I did the best that I could and that is all that I could do. I have learnt just how difficult it is to organise events even for a short period of time.
This year has passed very quickly and I have gained alot from the experience of the MA and hopefully this will continue next year.

Breaking the Boundaries - Sarah Lundy's comments

Breaking the Boundaries – Sarah Lundy’s comments

Jennifer task:

Sounds really interesting, something I'd love have been able to take part in. Democratic is definitely a good term to denote the ethos of the initiative, which is important with the ever growing void between the general public and art. I think it was an important idea as anyone could take part, without judgement, reference to education, performance pressure or the myriad other deterrents to engaging with contemporary art. It was not only engagement but shared authorship or the work. People had the opportunity to co-author a piece of contemporary conceptual art, which at once extended the opportunity to engage with and create art, but more importantly to understand what art is currently as the shared viewer/maker processes of compositional consideration, conceptual comprehension and contribution were exercised by the audience/authors, instilling in them an appreciation for the power of art to inspire questioning and boarder thinking around life and all its attributes. I will look at the images on the blog now. Very interesting. Regarding the cards, I'd be wary of using them at all unless they are distorted beyond identification for legal reasons, or unless clearance was gotten first. Maybe by soaking them-to distort the specific images/details-and drying them, a new invited/random audience painting over them to create an ongoing construction of the strata of strangers? Ah I dunno, like all I've read though. I would absolutely love to have a good auld root through the stuff left below, thrilling! Conceptually it does raise questions as to value, consumerism, rubbish, the inter-connectivity of the world due to the mass-produced sameness of the goods available to buy globally, homogenization, originality, appropriation, privacy, publicity etc. I think a good name would be 'Objective Orgy' ha!

Sue:

Sounds like this went well in the end which is great Sue. I would agree strongly with what has been said by the others about this. It is very important to have a local profile, especially a physical one as many people and organisations seem to reside largely in cyber-space because of facebook and such. I know that I 'know' lots of Irish artists due to their online profiles, shared exhibitions etc but have never actually met them or seen their face. Very odd really. I struggle with creating a personable local profile with the local arts scene due to unwillingness to go to openings, fear of crowds, inability to make proper small-talk etc, but it is something that i feel is important and that I want to work on, so I commend you for having the guts to put yourself out there as a person and artist and to host a successful event 'in the field'! I am not very well versed in the scope of your practice but I would imagine that context wise this was a real breaking of boundaries? I know you do work with groups, but outside? In a medium beyond the glass-work you are so skilled at? New location, new medium, new context-community art?. Artists have the responsibility to extend their own appreciation for art to those willing but marginalized where they can, especially now that art is largely made for other artists appreciation, a learned predisposition is required and the general public are alienated. As the others stated, now that you have a profile as artist, people will be receptive to all future ideas (artistic licence) as opposed to being suspicious. You have created an infrastructure of reception for your ideas, a foundation which you can build upon as and when and at whatever rate you want. If you were to host another very similar event you may risk being pigeon-holed, but if you keep things fresh and varied then people will just admire and anticipate your innovative initiative.

Jo:

This was also a brave move-to invite people into your front yard and even your home. I think that the notions as mentioned above of the private and the public are addressed in this work across the board; you painted without consent people you found interesting, then you invited random people into your home; there could be a correlation between the location you chose to exhibit these works and the subjects within the works, in that you were looking at down-and-outs, the homeless, the chemically dependent etc and literally giving them a home, inviting them into a haven, making society look at them, witness their cases, promote empathy toward them. I know you had empathy with them yourself and maybe were projecting your personal situation onto their extreme situation and them uniting these within the conceptual and actual realm of your home to express your own anguish and anxieties through their cases in your casement? All just ideas, I don't know the full story so gleaning what I can from our last chat! Makes me think of the  Goya paintings and how he broke boundaries by not painting the rich and beautiful but opting to paint people in the mad house etc instead. Yeah I also love the idea of a book, I'd personally go for a shabby scrap-book/old crammed photo album kinda look, photos of the actual people, images of the paintings. Maybe you could extend the project on to 'A-Day-In-the-Life' of a bum and get someone (your daughter) to document it, drinking in public places in the day, begging for change. Ok, I just heard myself, mad, sorry, but it would be good to walk a mile in their shoes perhaps. Maybe it could turn into a social awareness campaign, get some funding from whoever the homeless protection agency is over there and disseminate wee booklets. Could highlight the precarious balance there is between having a home and food etc and losing it all through metaphors like scales, chess etc. Just ideas. Like Jennifer's, its ask us to think about what and who we overlook and are willing to discard. A ballsy project it was, fair play.

Mine:

I created three video pieces on The Absurd (a concept arising from french existentialism) and the couple of books I read. The Absurd: "The Absurd" refers to the conflict between the human tendency to seek value and meaning in life and the human inability to find any." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurdism] That is not a very good explanation really, well it is and it isn't but I'll be damned if I'm gonna try to sum it up! It has to be read as philosophy or literature. Anyway I was taking repetition and randomness as adverse templates for life as outlined by Camus and Sartre, and trying to denote harnessed hope, futility, meaninglessness. ANYWAY, the videos are here: http://www.sarahellenlundy.com/video.php (sorry the site is shite, too little work, too many words etc..). I hadn't attempted video work before so in this way I broke my boundaries. When I had made them (it was only meant to be one piece but looked too cheesy so turned into a triptych) I applied to four exhibition opportunities. I was successful in three of these. They were all very different-one local, one in a new space the other end of the country, one as part of a festival. It caused me torment as suddenly I was aligning myself with video artists of which I am not one really, which made me feel like a fraud, but then I was accepted to a video-art collective which gave me confidence in the work I had made: http://www.mart.ie/news. Then I got proposed for a local/rural arts collective but need to be voted in and won't know how that goes until the new year. I feel it went well in the end despite the initial hell of trying to make videos with no expertise, experience or equipment. It was the biggest jump I've ever made medium-wise. Feedback is welcome.

Breaking the Boundaries = Group discussion

BREAKING THE  BOUNDARIES

NOTES FROM MEETING HELD ON 24^TH OCT 2011

JENNIFER’S BREAKING THE BOUNDARY

Jennifer’s work was featured in the Washington Post and can be accessed via her Blog site.

Jennifer explained that this particular project ‘Give and Take’ is continued theme to her work. She has created this idea of Give and Take before and the results from the previous exhibition she felt was an elegant piece of pro-active liaison between the public and her work. People were thoughtful on how they positioned their artefacts.

What surprised Jennifer in Washington D.C is how the general public seemed very much unprepared and they were pulling out any junk out of their bags! She felt that this time there was a the sense of the aftermath of a party, stuff was not positioned well so fell onto the floor, there was a feeling of a free for all and people can distracted from what they were being asked to do.

Jennifer with this instillation was being authentic about the perception of value on a utopian ideal way. The organic grid where her pieces were displayed fell apart due to the mess created by the general public. However Jennifer did acknowledge that she does not need to control the public experience of this particular piece of work.

There was a range of responses to her work which is once again reflected within her blog.

The wall where the work was placed became a vehicle for the public to place their ‘junk’ and what the general public seemed to leave behind the most is their business cards, is this a reflection of egotistical nature of the general public to promote themselves or was it a way to connect to another stranger?

Ego before common sense?

Jennifer asked the question ‘What should I do with these cards?

She feels at a loss at what to do with the business cards questioning whether to turn them into a piece of art. Or sell the information give? Email these individuals book them onto sex websites? Should she abuse the information given?

Jennifer wondered if she could turn them into a piece of art work that would be a published magazine.

I suggested looking at how Gilbert and George selected sex cards from around the area in London in which they live and from this their exhibition.

A variety of suggestions were made in regards with what to do with the business cards. Could Jennifer create a piece using the cards as the material – papier-mâché creation..

Or add the cards to the next exhibition, for the general public to continue exchanging their own personal identities but somehow adding a GPS system/tracking device to see where the cards actually go.

Jennifer commented that these cards seem to be disasporous (Sorry unable to spell!) The spreading of different cultures, people from other countries settling and still retaining their own cultures but also adapting to the new culture in which they live.

Jennifer has taken some fascination photographs of the ‘junk’ left behind which once again are featured on her blog site. The images taken have become an art form in themselves. With these pictures in mind Jennifer is thinking of creating a glossy magazine that continues this exhibition within a 2 dimensional piece of work.

Jennifer’s exhibition contrasted with another exhibition that was taking place at the same time were the artist’s involved gave away their pieces of work, and this asks the question what is the value of art? Because Jennifer was asking for something in return there seemed to be democratic sensibility about the exhibition ‘Give and Take’.

I then discussed my Breaking the Boundaries which was based around showing the general public outside of the M.A my work, especially within the area in which I live.

I discussed all the issues that have happened in trying to exhibit my work and the obstacles that have happened and because of this I ended holding an open study within my own home exhibiting my work in my lounge and on the windows of my front room. None of the local residents took part, however people from the Pathology Department who I do not work with were invited to attend, and some people did participate.

I explained that I felt the how project had not been on the level of a professional artist, rather someone out of their depth. I really wanted to finish this Task with creating a book possibly, and this book would contain why I painted the individuals, what made them attractive as subject matters. The sketches I had created the finished pieces and the comments given by individuals who did come to the open study.

Both Jennifer and Sue were interested about the idea of book and Jennifer suggested that I look into self-publishing and told me about ‘Blurb’ and website from which I can create a book using the software.

Sue’s Breaking the Boundary was about being engaged with the community on ‘Apple Day’ and she managed to get the community to document memories of the day using a wide variety of aides ranging from photography/bark rubbings/sign rubbings/leaves/grass/twigs.

In doing this the imagery of the day has been recreated in layers not only in imagery but also the layering of the senses. The work has been encoded with the exploration of the senses.

The community came together to make this art piece, selecting by the community, a real collaboration that stretched through the generations.

Sue has gained a lot of comments regarding this Task, one comment that has stood out was “This couldn’t be art because photography was involved.” 

Apple Day was discussed at depth and especially the concept of tithing, the local council is paid for the creation of the orchard on council land in apples as a levy/contribution. The concept of tithing opened up the discussion of the interpretation of land ownership, and how important ‘Apple Day’ was to the community as they have reclaimed the land creating an alternative economy.

Sue felt on the day she became a chameleon asking the question had she been artist/organiser/curator/teacher? All identities were used during this Task.

Sue has been concerned that she has had not been controversial in her Task, personally I believe that Sue is being very hard on herself and actually to become involved within the community especially on this particular day has allowed her to build a relationship within the community gaining a sense of trust and respect. In doing this she can then push forward onto more difficult and contentious material.

Jennifer then put forward to Sue how would she rephrase her intention, and what would she had changed about her outcome set within the Task.

Jennifer suggested that this particular Task was a step towards a bigger social comment and how Sue as an artist could now develop her ideas and have more of an impact within the community in which she lives.

At this point I had to leave the discussion however Sue and Jennifer continued to discuss Breaking the Boundaries.