Collaborating with Emma

I realise that I have not produced work to the level of the MA through my paintings, however I do believe the photography from the last module is of a good standard, However I missed painting therefore I decided to continue using text within the work but extending into the realm of painting. This has not worked for me.
There is a problem that still exists I need to create/make/do..

Emma my daughter then offered to be a model for this particular module and we decided that we would start off using the mirror as the instrument within the work to begin.

 

 

I not only took images of Emma with the mirror we also emptied the shower room and I introduced a stool for Emma to sit on.

 



 

 

Once I had taken a series of images I then introduced the chair that I sit it whilst using the computer. I could use these images as paintings they are interesting positions.

 



 

Once again I returned to the mirror as a tool, and the images produced I feel have something tangible with the viewer's view point which makes a connection.

 

Once I had introduced the chair into the small space within the shower room and once I had taken images of Emma within the mirror, Emma seemed to develop her own idea of what she felt would make interesting images.

Emma then began to place herself within the space taking control of the images being taken. The chair became part of the work, this piece of furniture not only became a prop but also was integral part of these particular images as the mirror has been in previous images.
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week there was an incident within my home and the photographs above are quite frightening to look at because of the situation that occured in reality. But without this situation that    occured this images are still disturbing and are something that I believe have a theoritical basis.

 

 
Even without working into this images there is something potent and I believe the viewer will gain insight in these images, there is depth and a sense of the teenage identity that is revealed within this images.

The next two images are photographs which were taken earlier of myself a few weeks ago. The first image is when the ink was running low and I like the lightness and the tonal colours I have used, I have also added pen scribbled onto the figures.

 

 

Again this is another image taken from an earlier session that I took of myself I have printed this image using photography paper and washed over with water and brown water colour was added.

 

 

 

The following images are the worked on images of Emma I have used a variety of inks and pen scratched into the images. In some of these images I have added brighter colours to some of the images I enjoy how they runs over the physical aspect of Emma. I attempted to wash over those put the ink didn't spread.    

 

 

The next few images have been washed over using watercolour inks and I enjoy the contrast of the two figures. I have attempted to use different colours but I don't these particular images work.

 

 

Out of all the images that I have worked on I do prefer the darker colours that I have used, however I like the washed out tonal colours.

 

The last three images that I have added are interesting because they are printed short on ink so they have a lighter washed out feel and the colour is a blandish blue result, The colours added are brighter and interesting. I do feel this last session and the work I added to the images have pushed the work further on than it had been a few months ago.

Angela asked if Emma would her opinion on this collaboration and Emma agreed and below is her statement. 

  

 

Emma’s Statement

          I’m used to my Mum doing art, and over the years she has sometimes used.

          The photos taken of me were taken in my Mum’s shower room, it’s a small room and it has a full length mirror which used to belong to our old neighbour in East Sussex, he died this year and I miss him, but the

mirror reminds me of Norman each time I look into it. I also have a picture of me and him from when I was little.

          I hate my picture being taken especially at parties, as I don’t like the way I look and I always feel really uncomfortable.

          I don’t really know why I offered to take part in these photos it but it didn’t bother me because I don’t know really know the people who are on this course and my mum needed me to do it so that she could pass her course.

I liked how my mum said that I could wear what I liked but I only put a small amount of make up on.

Mum cleared the shower room, and I started off by sitting on a stool and Mum took images of me where my reflection could be seen. Then Mum brought her chair into the room, and I sat on that and let Mum take the pictures. I then got a bit bored of just sitting so that’s when I thought I would go onto the floor.

The photos of me are okay, I prefer them in black and white and they are better after Mum has worked into them because me makes me

look sullen. I like the way my eyes look big.

The photos of me on the floor makes me look boxed in as if I can’t escape, I think these photos show a teenager who has lots to say but doesn’t or can’t because she is experiencing different things every day and sometimes too many things happen so she feels closed in.

Also these photos are about girls who feel they will never be cool and yet there are bits about them that are good but they are made to feel that they will never completely fit in by their peers.

 

 

I have found Emma's statement really interesting, and what she has written is quite an eye opener, I do agree with what Emma has stated especially the last two paragraphs. She is experiencing so many things and the next few years there will be many times when she will have to make choices, some will be the right choices and some will be choices that she will regret, but these are all things that she has to experience.

 

Art and Identity

After taking photographs of the wedding I felt inspired to return to taking photographs of myself using the mirror and self portraiture and in the images I had to consider not of 'How do I look? Rather I was considering how I could represent myself at that moment in time, without using text.

I was inspired to create these images after reading about an exhibition called Mother's Pride:Mother's Ruin 1977 - 1978 by Tricia Davis and Phil Goodall. Taken from the book Framing Feminism: Art and the Women's Movement 1970-1985 by Rozsika Parker and Griselda Pollock. Published 1987 by Harper Collins Publishers.

Section IV Strategies of Feminism,Chapter 9.'Personally and Politically: feminist art practice'

"This exhibition sets out to explore visually some of the ways in which our experience as women is structured through education, employment and domesticity, and some responses to these structures." (1987:293).

What I found fascinating about this exhibition is the description of the processes of the work, the aspects of many of our lives as women, this exhibition makes us draw on our experiences and the issues of being a women. We are collages of our roles within society and its an impact on ourselves as well as others.

These photographs are of me wearing an evening gown that is too large and doesn't fit my body especially ill fitting due to that fact I am not wearing a bra and the images look intimate, however I know that these images are not enough, when considering the work I created within the last module.   

The work in this module has been based around Chapter 10 of Art & Today by Eleanor Heartney called 'Art and Identity'.
This is an area that has always been underlying my work throughout this MA.
Within my work the complex issue of identity and/or identity association is continously being changed and the work alters due to how I explore the issues that develops and moulds my identity taking into account issues within a life time that creates another facet within the cover of identity as discussed in the chapter 'Art and Identity' Heartley discusses the difficulty in exploring identity.

"A more nuanced understanding of identity association. These phases, which may overlap and recur from one movement and one individual to the next, are also reflected in art that emphasises identity, either by celebrating, questioning or recognising it as something that that is ultimately and always hybrid". (2008:242).

The idea of identity is so broad and complex and within my work it can be difficult to justify why identity would interest me because I am not in a minority, however the more I become interested within this area I realise that its influences that create and expand our individual identities.

In the book The Art of Reflection by Marsha Meskimmon she states that "We are formed by an elaborate interweaving of identifications with socially defined roles and expectations.. Furthermore, we may experience contradictory positions within ourselves, some of the roles we 'play' may themselves define us in contradictory ways." (1996:13).

Therefore I began to work into the images using a sharp needle, ink and felt tip, biro, chalk and then added water as well.

I have extended the materials using coffee and acrylic paint working into the images, furthermore I have used not only photographic paper but white card as well.

The results of using these different mediums onto the original photographs and then using photoshop just to brighten and contrast has added extra depth to the images.


Furthermore I have been given a vast amount of watercolour inks which are in glass bottles with pipettes and I have been experimenting with these materials.  

I think I am attempting to create work that refuses a stable definition of identity because I am more inclined to regard identity as a complex of overlaying roles within the society in which we live and our private expectations as well as public expectations, these are mixed and thread through which removes the idea of a static definition of identity.

  

Studio Practice

This particular module has started with an interesting lecture from Emma Bulley in which she discusses the limitations of art practice and the relationship we as artists with the wider society? Emma asks the question as an artist 'Can you change social structures and the hearts and minds of people?'

I hope that as an artist that I can show how I respond to the world and with this visual imagery create a debate that has a positive response on the society in which we live.
We as artists have a moral responsibility because our work has an impact once we release into into the public realm.
    
Furthermore Emma discussed the studio as a physical space, as a cave in which things are brought back to materials or ideas. Also when we work as artists we go into a 'State of flow' which is important within our artist practice, in our techniques and our conceptual approach and in the medium in which we work produces this state.

Within the tutorial that Emma and I had, we discussed the work I had produced in the last module which was interesting and very positive, however I have struggled to move on from the images that I had produced. So I have stepped away and concentrated on which books could be of interest to me throughout this module and began to look at artist's work.
I have become interested in the work of Paula Rego (b.1935)
especially the 'she dog's' series.

Dog Woman 1994, Pastel on canvas

Inspired by a story a friend had written for her, Paula Rego draws her Dog Woman in pastels, referencing the raw physicality of Degas’drawings. “To be a dog woman is not necessarily to be downtrodden; that has very little to do with it,” She explained, “In these pictures every woman's a dog woman, not downtrodden, but powerful. To be bestial is good. It's physical. Eating, snarling, all activities to do with sensation are positive. To picture a woman as a dog is utterly believable."

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/paula_rego.htm - Accessed 06.06.2012

Taking this image into consideration and the work I have produced in the last module I have attempted to create a painting.

I realise that this particular image isn't great, and yet there places of interest, my face is not an accurate reflection which is something that I am glad about, the whole piece is quite grimy and blurred, only the eyes stand out within the face.
I look almost constipated and quite uncomfortable, squat and uncomfortable, I believe I look abit like a hen. There is an animal essence to the work.
When creating this work I decided that I would not perfectly sketch and fit my body into the canvas properly, I created a blurred evasive image. 

I have written on the dress, the writing explores why I feel different and how I define myself this writing is for myself and does not necessary need to be read by the viewer, and yet can be decifered, once again I am exploring my identity gently within this image.

I would like to explore and develop this work more, I missed painting during the last module and that is why I am interested in using this medium during this module.

Strangeland by Tracey Emin

I have just finished the book 'Strangeland' by Tracey Emin copyright 2005 by Hodder and Stoughton.

This book is based on her memoirs and confessions of this artist, her accounts are incredibly frank, disturbing and yet there is a sensitivity that lurks beneath the words. Furthermore there are elements of humour which lightens the work.

Tracey Emin finishes this book with the sentence "I found a way to visit without fear, exorcising all ghosts from the past to fill my mind with something mind-blowing. DON'T BE AFRAID TO TAKE THE PAST HEAD ON." (2005:213)

I felt there was truth within this statement, however I believe that once you have taken on the past, forgiven yourself and others around you, and hopefully learnt from those experiences you can then go on to witness life moment to moment, and my work does look at myself at this moment time and situations in a deeper level.

'Pissed People as Company' I have created a piece of work which I do think has been influenced by reading the book 'Strangeland' by Tracey Emin, because I started this piece straight after finishing the book.

This piece relates to what happens on the weekends in the early hours as people wander home from clubs and pubs, these people are usually drunk and vocal.
When I first moved into this area I used to be quite frightened but now I find it quite welcoming at times. In fact it's at times like this I enjoy listening to their rabbling conversations, it feels voyeutistic as I secretly react to their conversations, by laughing or remembering times when I have been in their situations, furthermore I do feel alone and these people for a short period of time are company in a strange way.

The background writing states "I see the pissed lovers walking home from the pub they shout scream physically touch hit punch kiss grab love loudly these people enter my home their noise reassures me that I am still here I am part of this society here I connect it's at times like this I miss my past life my youth I felt as if I needed the reassurance of being drunk and loudly emotional that wasn't what I needed yet I believed that was who I really was now I know that was never really me." 

The reason I am in strange and awkward position is because I wanted the image of myself to be difficult and strange and yet I wanted this piece to be friendly but odd. I roughly sketched the image of myself using a pen and then I painted over the top of these marks. I haven't created a complex and detailed imagery of myself perfectly drawn and flawlessly painted and anatomical perfect. This particular piece is about the flawed aspects of behaviour. 
So as a female artist I recognise that I have used my own body as an 'object' within the piece, I have represented myself as someone who is intruding in a voyeuristic manner into someone else's world at that moment in time, yet in a way that reflects no shame as the face stares out to the viewer almost suggesting that the viewer could come and join.

Over the last month or so the issues regarding Emma Bulley's situation within the MA and the difficulty of this particular module has affected my work dramatically. Compounding this is the dramatic situation that is occurring in my workplace and will adversely affect my home life and the time that I will have left to work on the MA.
These situations are all political and terribly painful and I am depressed and I have struggled to produce work. However I did create a piece of work which is I hoped would reflect how complex and it was an expression of needing help or rather an acknowledgement of how overwhelming everything is....

Therefore the elements within the piece are possibly too literal.

The elements reflect the amount of research, time in the pile of books, the crutches I use but struggle with which is the smoking, glass of wine the amount of tablets I am taking in attempt to keep level.

Furthermore I have included the domestic duties that I have to do to maintain the home as well has the second job I have in attempt to financially survive.

As I have stated my work situation is horrendous at the moment so elements of my main job has been brought into the work, because I really wanted to include as much as I could and to draw attention to these elements.

The final piece is vibrant overcrowded probably overly explicit in what I am trying to reflect to the viewer, however I recognised that this piece would not be recieved positively in all its aspects by the MA, due to the fact the elements are too obvious and they would prefer these elements to be more obscure and far less literal.

Last term I produced alot of photography in which I wrote onto my body and I for all of these images I only had to state what inspired me, for instance a particular text from the Bible.

I have attempted to continue using text within the work because I personally thought that it added another elemenet to the work within the elements of painting however this has caused more complex conversations and questions.
Therefore I attempted to rework this particular piece and it became a complete mess and I wasted a lot of valuable time, and I rarely do not show work that has failed or that I am not happy about, but that was the last straw for me at this particular time and I became ill which did not help issues therefore the painting has been destroyed and I withdrew from the MA so that I could concentrate and prioritise other areas in my life.

During this period of not being able to engage with the MA I was asked to be a photographer at a wedding. I do not have much experience regarding photography or cameras, on the day of the wedding I had one hour's training using a Nikon macro camera and I was thrown completely into the deep end.

This image was taken in the registry office waiting room which was a very difficult room in which to take any photographs which reflected a wedding, therefore this image has had good comments due to the fact I have captured the groom and bride in an intimate space.

This photograph was taken after the wedding vows had been exchanged and after the signing of the registry book, the room in which the wedding had taken place was very difficult due to the skylight and it was a very bright day so there was only light or darkness no between. It was a interesting room in which to work, and this image that I managed to capture has recieved positive comments.



Mother's Pride:Mother's Ruin an exhibition 1977 - 1978 by Tricia Davis and Phil Goodall.

Taken from the book Framing Feminism: Art and the Women's Movement 1970-1985 by Rozsika Parker and Griselda Pollock. Published 1987 by Harper Collins Publishers.

Section IV Strategies of Feminism,Chapter 9.

'Personally and Politically: feminist art practice'

"This exhibition sets out to explore visually some of the ways in which our experience as women is structured through education, employment and domesticity, and some responses to these structures." (1987:293).

What I found fascinating about this exhibition is the description of the processes of the work, the aspects of many of our lives as women, this exhibition makes us draw on our experiences and the issues of being a women. We are collages of our roles within society and its an impact on ourselves as well as others.

 

  

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.