Term 2 SNU
SNU stands for Self Negotiated Unit. For this unit I worked with three creative strands that over the course of the term plaited together. Strand one: working through an emotional block i travelled back into my life story to give context and place to someone i loved, to let myself feel connected to my past but held rather than held back by my memories. Strand two: very important, i wanted to learn how to print better. I came to university to do an MA to learn printmaking. I am at beginners level. Strand three: with a mind to the masters project in term three and possible needs for work in that term, and also for my ASU2 project, i made work in the 3d workshops building my mould making skills and learning about casting materials, how to finish work and also what a 3d printer could do.
During this unit I used photographs, objects and pieces of script as visual references to tell my story. I was unable to work to finish with the script as time and Covid19 stopped me in my tracks. However, putting forward some of the work i have made this term, i would call it, if in exhibition "Invisible Ink". This is in reference to a piece of writing on the wall of my studio space at university. A leftover from some other student, some other time, part too of their story and the story of the building. Memories are like that, an unseen story, sometimes maybe a shared story. My hope this term was to make visible some parts of my story for myself and for others to see and be witness to.
SNU stands for Self Negotiated Unit. For this unit I worked with three creative strands that over the course of the term plaited together. Strand one: working through an emotional block i travelled back into my life story to give context and place to someone i loved, to let myself feel connected to my past but held rather than held back by my memories. Strand two: very important, i wanted to learn how to print better. I came to university to do an MA to learn printmaking. I am at beginners level. Strand three: with a mind to the masters project in term three and possible needs for work in that term, and also for my ASU2 project, i made work in the 3d workshops building my mould making skills and learning about casting materials, how to finish work and also what a 3d printer could do.
During this unit I used photographs, objects and pieces of script as visual references to tell my story. I was unable to work to finish with the script as time and Covid19 stopped me in my tracks. However, putting forward some of the work i have made this term, i would call it, if in exhibition "Invisible Ink". This is in reference to a piece of writing on the wall of my studio space at university. A leftover from some other student, some other time, part too of their story and the story of the building. Memories are like that, an unseen story, sometimes maybe a shared story. My hope this term was to make visible some parts of my story for myself and for others to see and be witness to.
Work i was unable to complete: At point of lockdown i was ready to start screen printing to learn more about layering colour. I had made acetates in preparation and i am currently using these to explore lumen photography. I also had plans to work further with the etched plates using colour.
The work in the slide show is a small portion, a curated body, of the work i made for SNU this term.
The work in the slide show is a small portion, a curated body, of the work i made for SNU this term.
Term 2 ASU2
ASU2 stands for Award Specific Unit 2. I think story telling is a key part of our survival system. We tell stories to understand, to assimilate, absorb and learn. Stories that stand the test of time become embedded in the language of cultures, cultures as small as a family or as great as an era or civilisation. Each term, to date, i have chosen a story that has lasted millennia to hold my creative practice learning and to build my ability to tell stories using visual imagery. These ancient stories are like great trees, their deep roots meet and entwine with other ancients, and the wide trunk that stems from these roots, opens out into branches that follow light, space and urge to grow and form canopy, and home to all sorts, and which bear flower and fruit that leads to more stories and more and more. This term i have been working with The Stations of the Cross, Jesus' journey to his crucifixion, also the events leading up to his death and considering those whose lives were connected to his, also the relevance of the story to this time and age.
The illustrated Stations of the Cross began in the middle ages as a way, for those who were unable to go on a physical pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to follow the Via Dolorosa, Christ's road from being sentenced to death to his being laid in the tomb. The stations allowed the pilgrim to be with Jesus in his suffering and so learn the way of Christ. This path is a spiritual one and the subject matter is weighty. I was drawn to the old masters depictions of Christ's life, Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Caravaggio, El Greco, Titian, great painters especially, but i was also called to more modern takes from Bill Viola's video installations of the Pieta and other biblical themes to Cornelia Parkers Thirty Pieces of Silver. And film makers working with, either specifically the stations, Dietrich Brüggemann's Stations of the Cross was a haunting depiction, or more broadly with god and spirituality, as in Hunger by Steve McQueen also formed part of my research. I visited three churches and a Cathedral to see the images they had on display and looked at modern depictions of the Stations both figurative and abstract including work by Michael Kenny, Oliver Barratt and Lino Manocci who were part of an exhibition in 2000 in Suffolk.
I looked at the stations as both allegory and also as a happening. I endeavoured to feel what not only Jesus but the Marys, his mother, and companion Mary Magdalen, and other companions, Judas, Simon Peter, and other disciples and those witnessing Jesus' life and death might have felt. I also thought about those who had died for their faith. What it takes to die for something you believe in. I thought about the struggle between the state of Israel and the Palestinians, I thought about what it means to be Jewish and also what it means to Christian. What do these defining terms mean ?
I thought about Michaelango's Pieta, of Mary holding her broken son, and the earth as our mother holding the balance, or not, for the crimes that humanity reeks on her body. The rape and the violence we, as a species, inflict on this body that holds and maintains us. I thought about the father and the son, about youth and age. I though about the patriarchy. I thought about the dominance of the male perspective for too many millennia. I found out that in medieval paintings of christ on the cross there is a skull at the base of cross which represents Adam's skull and the fall of man from the garden of Eden. Jesus' death on the cross was supposed to negate the sins of the fathers but the fathers have carried on sinning. I thought about dissent. I thought about trust. I thought about broken trust.
I looked at poetry by RS Thomas, Dylan Thomas, Sharon Olds, Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Kevin Crossley Holland and read parts of the gospels to check on the story. I googled the stations. Of course I googled the stations. And then I tried to live them.
I cast a glass that had been broken with a mind to fixing it. I realised i was unable to fix it. I cast a glass that was not broken and it broke in the mould that i made. I thought about broken things. I thought about the words 'take, eat, this is my body" and " take, drink, this is my blood" and i thought about the holy grail. I thought about how I as an artist seek that in my work. I thought that the holy grail is not an easy take up. I thought about the crown of thorns placed on Jesus' head and i thought that the quest for the grail is a path that is bound by thorns that to get to the end without being hurt is unlikely, that in the end the cup may be empty but that it is the going that makes suffering worth bearing.
I thought about resurrection. I thought about how after death there is life, That although there is no going back there is remembrance, and the life that was lives on in those that remember. And i thought that that is what stories are. That the stations of the cross is just another allegory for life. I thought that the grail is like the tree that i spoke of earlier, the tree of life and there within it is each one of us. A ring in the trunk, or a patch of lichen, a microbe in the earth at its roots, a fly on a twig, a birdsong rippling though the leaves, or a leaf fluttering in a breeze, or any other part. And I thought that the tree of life connects us all, whatever our colour or creed and that which is timeless and universal is feeling, and that love is the best of all feelings. And that love is the body, and love is the blood, and love is the air that i breathe.
....
ASU2 stands for Award Specific Unit 2. I think story telling is a key part of our survival system. We tell stories to understand, to assimilate, absorb and learn. Stories that stand the test of time become embedded in the language of cultures, cultures as small as a family or as great as an era or civilisation. Each term, to date, i have chosen a story that has lasted millennia to hold my creative practice learning and to build my ability to tell stories using visual imagery. These ancient stories are like great trees, their deep roots meet and entwine with other ancients, and the wide trunk that stems from these roots, opens out into branches that follow light, space and urge to grow and form canopy, and home to all sorts, and which bear flower and fruit that leads to more stories and more and more. This term i have been working with The Stations of the Cross, Jesus' journey to his crucifixion, also the events leading up to his death and considering those whose lives were connected to his, also the relevance of the story to this time and age.
The illustrated Stations of the Cross began in the middle ages as a way, for those who were unable to go on a physical pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to follow the Via Dolorosa, Christ's road from being sentenced to death to his being laid in the tomb. The stations allowed the pilgrim to be with Jesus in his suffering and so learn the way of Christ. This path is a spiritual one and the subject matter is weighty. I was drawn to the old masters depictions of Christ's life, Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Caravaggio, El Greco, Titian, great painters especially, but i was also called to more modern takes from Bill Viola's video installations of the Pieta and other biblical themes to Cornelia Parkers Thirty Pieces of Silver. And film makers working with, either specifically the stations, Dietrich Brüggemann's Stations of the Cross was a haunting depiction, or more broadly with god and spirituality, as in Hunger by Steve McQueen also formed part of my research. I visited three churches and a Cathedral to see the images they had on display and looked at modern depictions of the Stations both figurative and abstract including work by Michael Kenny, Oliver Barratt and Lino Manocci who were part of an exhibition in 2000 in Suffolk.
I looked at the stations as both allegory and also as a happening. I endeavoured to feel what not only Jesus but the Marys, his mother, and companion Mary Magdalen, and other companions, Judas, Simon Peter, and other disciples and those witnessing Jesus' life and death might have felt. I also thought about those who had died for their faith. What it takes to die for something you believe in. I thought about the struggle between the state of Israel and the Palestinians, I thought about what it means to be Jewish and also what it means to Christian. What do these defining terms mean ?
I thought about Michaelango's Pieta, of Mary holding her broken son, and the earth as our mother holding the balance, or not, for the crimes that humanity reeks on her body. The rape and the violence we, as a species, inflict on this body that holds and maintains us. I thought about the father and the son, about youth and age. I though about the patriarchy. I thought about the dominance of the male perspective for too many millennia. I found out that in medieval paintings of christ on the cross there is a skull at the base of cross which represents Adam's skull and the fall of man from the garden of Eden. Jesus' death on the cross was supposed to negate the sins of the fathers but the fathers have carried on sinning. I thought about dissent. I thought about trust. I thought about broken trust.
I looked at poetry by RS Thomas, Dylan Thomas, Sharon Olds, Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Kevin Crossley Holland and read parts of the gospels to check on the story. I googled the stations. Of course I googled the stations. And then I tried to live them.
I cast a glass that had been broken with a mind to fixing it. I realised i was unable to fix it. I cast a glass that was not broken and it broke in the mould that i made. I thought about broken things. I thought about the words 'take, eat, this is my body" and " take, drink, this is my blood" and i thought about the holy grail. I thought about how I as an artist seek that in my work. I thought that the holy grail is not an easy take up. I thought about the crown of thorns placed on Jesus' head and i thought that the quest for the grail is a path that is bound by thorns that to get to the end without being hurt is unlikely, that in the end the cup may be empty but that it is the going that makes suffering worth bearing.
I thought about resurrection. I thought about how after death there is life, That although there is no going back there is remembrance, and the life that was lives on in those that remember. And i thought that that is what stories are. That the stations of the cross is just another allegory for life. I thought that the grail is like the tree that i spoke of earlier, the tree of life and there within it is each one of us. A ring in the trunk, or a patch of lichen, a microbe in the earth at its roots, a fly on a twig, a birdsong rippling though the leaves, or a leaf fluttering in a breeze, or any other part. And I thought that the tree of life connects us all, whatever our colour or creed and that which is timeless and universal is feeling, and that love is the best of all feelings. And that love is the body, and love is the blood, and love is the air that i breathe.
....
ASU2 sketchbook - loose prints, scribbles, and doodles. 2d notes, mostly on paper.
ASU2 3d work - moulds, casts and 3d printed models
3 shrines - spring 2020
Work i was unable to complete: I had prepared fourteen small copper plates with hard ground and also was planning to make fourteen collagraph boards with used train tickets however i ran out of time and the need to catalogue already made work for hand in took precedence over making new work. Also i needed to pause to absorb the shock of lockdown and fear and worry for the people i love. I will make these later probably in 2021 in the run up to Easter. I feel that the work i have made for ASU2, although mostly of unfinished quality, is a good bedrock for future work about the story of Jesus. All bronze work is unfinished but the flashing on the "beeswax" candles and chalices/grails has been deliberately left, The plaster casts of sea worn plywood were intended to be made into icons. And the smaller rectangular casts to be miniatures of themes drawn from the gospels.