Exhibtion: James Turrell

artist research: David Prior

Reasearching british sound artists, came across soundfjord website with links to liminal website: official website of collaboration between David Prior (Sound artist and composer) his partner Frances Crow (architect and designer).
I came across mention of a project completed during a residency for  binaural media 
called 'Of this parish'

a film explaining a live soundart recording made on a residency for binaural in Portugal.
the concept was of delineating in a real time recording, the geographical boundaries of a parish. 
Where bells tolling ceased to be heard at a parish boundary, meant you were within the adjacent parish.

At the time I was researching ideas and symbolism for a sound piece for a project for Theaster Gates's Sanctum November 2015.

Already had ideas around
->timeline
->repeated stories of the parishioners
->the church was dedicated to weavers of Bristol, repetitive mechanic sounds...
->using more repetitive elements of sounds to create meditative pattern and series of noises

 
I'd started with an idea of referencing the historical timeline of the Temple church where the final sound piece would be played.


The film produced for liminal was more about using 

using sound as a means to articulate space

rather than time, but I was really struck and taken by the calm thoughtful, simple concept. 
 'The film is both a sonic portrait'
Coincidentally, the film then showed at the Arnolfini, I was able to go and hear David Prior speak about the ideas and logistics of the recording and video editing.
The actual recording in live time that was done of the church bells wasn't included in the film which I was disappointed about.
But I came away excited and energised by hearing about contemporary artists work that I felt touched on some of the themes/content I'm enjoying exploring on the course:
How and what media to use to communicate an idea and feeling

How does this relate to my work?
Interesting the comments on liminal website that the preparation
for the project.

Unlike gathering field-recordings for future use in an edited work, these recordings are made in a single take. Like Aleksandr Sokurov’s film Russian Ark (2002), or indeed our work Another Poisonous Sunset (1998) or Janet Cardiff’s The Forty Part Motet (2001), Of This Parish is dependant upon real time rendering of space. For this reason, a significant portion of the residency was devoted to devising and preparing these simultaneous walks. Each walk was undertaken by two recordists providing equipment backup and ensuring that the primary recordist is not disturbed by the need to communicate, map-read or negotiate other practicalities.

 Ideas first, preparation, then controlled but spontaneous process that results in finished piece.

For final Sanctum piece, the sound recording, was edited live during the performance. Thus, the timeline and concept remained unchanged, but controlling and altering which elements allowed spontaneous editing during the performance eg altering volume or what sounds took 'centrestage' aurally.

from Liminal website,link below my italics

Of this parish Review

the talk given by David Prior was articulate, succinct and unpretentious. He spoke warmly and with interest about the themes in the work, the voiceover script and subsequent projects.
The film, was beautifully and simply edited but with a few additional effects eg children appearing/disappearing.
I will be interested to keep an eye on further projects by Liminal and I've also been looking into the binaural media links and other projects.





Links:
http://www.soundfjord.org/listeningpost.htm 
http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/film-screening-of-this-parish
http://www.liminal.org.uk/contact/
http://binauralmedia.org/news/en/about
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/mar/28/sound-art-radio-4
http://www.quietmark.com/

food for thought, sol le witt

Sentences on Conceptual Art

by Sol Lewitt 

1. Conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach.
2. Rational judgements repeat rational judgements.
3. Irrational judgements lead to new experience.
4. Formal art is essentially rational.
5. Irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically.
6. If the artist changes his mind midway through the execution of the piece he compromises the result and repeats past results.
7. The artist's will is secondary to the process he initiates from idea to completion. His wilfulness may only be ego.
8. When words such as painting and sculpture are used, they connote a whole tradition and imply a consequent acceptance of this tradition, thus placing limitations on the artist who would be reluctant to make art that goes beyond the limitations.
9. The concept and idea are different. The former implies a general direction while the latter is the component. Ideas implement the concept.
10. Ideas can be works of art; they are in a chain of development that may eventually find some form. All ideas need not be made physical.
11. Ideas do not necessarily proceed in logical order. They may set one off in unexpected directions, but an idea must necessarily be completed in the mind before the next one is formed.
12. For each work of art that becomes physical there are many variations that do not.
13. A work of art may be understood as a conductor from the artist's mind to the viewer's. But it may never reach the viewer, or it may never leave the artist's mind.
14. The words of one artist to another may induce an idea chain, if they share the same concept.
15. Since no form is intrinsically superior to another, the artist may use any form, from an expression of words (written or spoken) to physical reality, equally.
16. If words are used, and they proceed from ideas about art, then they are art and not literature; numbers are not mathematics.
17. All ideas are art if they are concerned with art and fall within the conventions of art.
18. One usually understands the art of the past by applying the convention of the present, thus misunderstanding the art of the past.
19. The conventions of art are altered by works of art.
20. Successful art changes our understanding of the conventions by altering our perceptions.
21. Perception of ideas leads to new ideas.
22. The artist cannot imagine his art, and cannot perceive it until it is complete.
23. The artist may misperceive (understand it differently from the artist) a work of art but still be set off in his own chain of thought by that misconstrual.
24. Perception is subjective.
25. The artist may not necessarily understand his own art. His perception is neither better nor worse than that of others.
26. An artist may perceive the art of others better than his own.
27. The concept of a work of art may involve the matter of the piece or the process in which it is made.
28. Once the idea of the piece is established in the artist's mind and the final form is decided, the process is carried out blindly. There are many side effects that the artist cannot imagine. These may be used as ideas for new works.
29. The process is mechanical and should not be tampered with. It should run its course.
30. There are many elements involved in a work of art. The most important are the most obvious.
31. If an artist uses the same form in a group of works, and changes the material, one would assume the artist's concept involved the material.
32. Banal ideas cannot be rescued by beautiful execution.
33. It is difficult to bungle a good idea.
34. When an artist learns his craft too well he makes slick art.
35. These sentences comment on art, but are not art.

---

First published in 0-9 (New York), 1969, and Art-Language (England), May 1969

Residency: lessons learnt

Lessons learnt from residency

Asking for residency

-be confident, succinct, explain that not knowing what you will produce is normal and not a reflection of not being serious about the process.

-show examples of previous work

-provide and artists statement

-set and be clear about specific dates of events, eg when you will be attending, handing over statements, available for talks, hand out contact details to improve trust and transparency. Provide references if needed- I said I was part of known art school which leant credibility and local interest to the project

-offer something, make it clear you intend the public/involved parties will get something out of it, I suggested a mosaic photobook

-ask to be mentioned in newsletters so that interested parties know what is going on

-if you ask for input from building users/public, be specific about what you’re interested in knowing, it helps them open up (I asked to know personal stories about what the church meant to them as a place of reflection, this was too broad)

-ask directly why people like a space, people like opening up about where they choose to spend their time. What’s special about it?

-Expect the unexpected: people will want to know what you’re doing, don’t really on people looking on blog

-Leaving business cards doesn’t work

-Ask if people would like to see your workings/experiments, what you see as rubbish/mistakes, interests others and helps them understand how you develop ideas

-taking photos not only helps record but helps you identify what your themes/interests are

- people like to see things BIG, not just photocopied in a note book

Developing ideas

-wikipedia!! This links from one page to another, this way I ended up learning about liturgical calendars, women bishop laws, coming across all kinds of terminology I’d never heard of and imagery linked to the church that stimulated ideas.

-don’t feel bad about spending lots of time researching, ideas came out of this Agnus Dei->I then came across a music script in a

-the process will come, daft scribbles or making a mess will leave things to settle and ideas and experiments will come. Making bad uncomfortable pieces helps clarify what feels right

-ask feedback from others about what they like/don’t like about a piece

-asking people/friends if they would like see what you’re doing helps you practice explaining in different ways what you’re doing, how you’re working and the ideas behind it, doing this lots of times, helps clarify and improve confidence in what you’re doing

-trial and error- eg using go pro too complicated, risk of theft, looked even though small too intrusive and ‘’blinking’, be sensitive to other users, this meant I had to find alternative ways of recording photos/footage

-get expert help but also wing it, I looked up a stop-motion app that my phone could use, it could do square format that I like, turns out there are forums for sharing work, that I then used the imotion to record in other places which has ended up giving me enough footage for a mini-film

Starting point:

Circles in tree of life photo, circle in hallway entranceway, baptismal font,

Arches: baldaccino,

Lines: organ,

Light/dark: columns, acoustic ceiling, wood panelling vs concrete,

Contrast: boiled sweet colours-primary, strong, simple

Colour and symbolism: blue (sea/sky)

Senses affected: smell (fragrance of dust- reminiscent and evocative of grandparents house-memory), incense- frankincense, sight: has to adjust from dark to light, touch: cool not cold on skin- constance of temperature,

What did I produce?:

a series of experimental drawings, with regular geometric patterns from circles

what is it to be british
we're a nation of the faithless. in a majority.
the tv is bombarding us with horrific examples of barbarity in the name of religion. This turn it's in Allahs name. but defending christian values seems to need an equally pious but unforgiving military defense. in our name. in our interests.


bristol feels like a city of churches at times. if you're down low, the spires in an otherwise relatively low level rise city, stick out. 
many have been turned into flats, or offices or places bought by those with money. the irony. the pews are empty but the walls remain.
I was thinking of the idea of keeping your head up/spirits up and how if you literally do that there's the physical reminder of britains faith in faith.
when being an atheist is as common and accepted as being a bearded hipster, i feel it's a shame these buildings are sold to the highest bidder, a shame of our past, or necessity given no-one goes in there in significant numbers.
st michaels church on st michaels hill is on the buildings at risk register.
i've walked past in many times, wheezing up from christmas steps or passing at a pace heading to the waterfront. i've always thought, what a waste of a space, of a refuge. 
mindfulness is a buzz word. making the equivalent of a morning constitutional to settle the mind, big business in self-help books and apps. as a gp at one stage I was referring over 100 people a month to CBT and cousenlling services. some people recognised they were stressed and anxious, others needed more gentle persuasion after a raft of tests eventually confirmed that they were burnt out, not dying of a mysterious illness that google stated otherwise.
bristol is a city of cycling. but i walk. i don't trust drivers (like myself) to overtake fully concentrating. i don't want to breathe in fumes and get to work looking like i've just come out of a sweat lodge. i walk. when i can. and i'm lucky, i've chosen and am able to live where the buildings shape my security and love of this city. arches, stonecarvings, warm bath stone, missing railways stolen for armory, old style lamposts that still glow a nostalgic orange that i remember keeping my awake through my curtains as a child. carrots. that's what i called the wedges of light that would appear after dark on the ceiling by the curtain track. they made me anxious. i was a poor sleeper. did i mention i was anxious. but it was never fed back to me like that. if i could just shut the light out i would be able to go to sleep. but i couldn't. now i can sleep with chinks of white but i need ear plugs instead. still anxious. but less so now. because i walk. because there's something mindful and calming about putting one foot in front of another. i don't want to run to relax. why would getting out of breath make me feel calmer? i've never got that. walking, co-ordination, breathing, avoiding people on their mobiles, not getting run over, 'oh look i never noticed how fucking beautiful those old telegraph wires look against a cobalt sky, oh yes, life's good' these are the actions and thoughts that calm me down.
so, back to the church, on one of my wanders that was needing to happen every day at a time, when frankly, no amount of blue skies and beautiful buildings, kind friends, money in the bank, health or humour could buoy me up i came across a sign. the all saints church at about 7 in the evening was open for prayer. i don't pray. i beg i whinge i don't pray. this weird building, with it's weird phallic spire and it's blackened windows like the filthy depressing outside of the BRI. It intrigued me in.
A bit like a cop car behind you, i've always had an irrational guilt going into a church. but i went in anyway. pushed against some heavy glass doors, more like going into a Gap than a church and it hit me. heavy dusty fragrance in the lungs. you can't rush through that. it's such a weirdly odd but familiar smell it stopped me in my tracks.
in front of you a square glass quadrant with dull concrete paving slabs in the middle. you can see across to a garden beyond.
left into the main body of the church.
no-one there.
i sneak in.
i take a seat.
polished modern seats. pews of any age are never comfy.
it was so much darker than outside. i looked up right and suddenly felt like i'd been dunked under water in the med. bright blue windows. i say bright, they weren't letting light in, but underneath them on the ground floor level more light let in through translucent white windows giving a celestial additional otherworldly feel to the place.
Then I heard it. Gin and tonic on ice. Water under a frozen lake. Crackling a plastic bag. There are lots of things it's sounds like. But it's got it's own rhythm, it's not disconcerting like some unpredictable sounds can be. It took me a while to realise the building makes noises. Like water running down the outside, but it was a dry night.
Later on after many visits, i realised it's the windows. not obviously glass, but they don't appear to move in time with the sounds either.
They're fibreglass and they contract and expand with different temperatures. I now know on a warm day it'll be more of a frenzied crackling when i sit down.
smell, sound colour and calm.
behind the altar a huge join of two unadorned intimidating walls join to form a corner. it looks like a huge upended blank book. Bathstone, warm pale beige yellow depending on the time of day.
the ceiling grey functional concrete with round cornered square hollows in it. repeating across a diagonal. these are designed to optimise the acoustics in a building i value for it's silence but one that is known for it's music.
one of the last times i wondered in, there was an extra noise above the crackling. snoring. likely to be James, a ruddy cheeked, warly volatile scot homeless veteran that will often come in to kip on a pew.


all saints
not the shop
but the building,
 is a church that was bombed in WW2 on pembroke road clifton

scratch and smoke

1. 

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

These are scanned A4 watercolour smoke drawings.
Starting point to my project.
Following summer work developing ideas and works for a residency at All Saints Church, Clifton.

THe use of incense in the church, spirtual connotations of transformation and the movement embodied in smoke and incense interested me.

Looking at these now and photos I took of the interior of the church I can see how these link in also to soot marks above the heaters in the church.

Traces of things no longer there.

I like the subtlety of the marks

Using the candle to paint like a brush was a technique that was initially tricky to master.
It had to be done outside. 
I soon learnt to use a face mask!
Tilting the paper at 45 degrees to the upright candle flame produced the right amount of carbon residue that would mark up the paper.

Marks like feather were produced by carefully moving the candle in brush stroke like manner against the paper.


The feathers seem the most obvious reference marks.

After a tutorial discussing these, it's become apparent, that they have a photographic type quality, I think the shape of the paper, aswell as the depth of the black references this.

THis isn't so surprising given I've always been drawn to black and white photos from the past, whether Ansel Adams and Sally Mann 
one a landscape photographer whose breadth of tones and scale amaze me, the other a contemporary photographer who usually uses human subjects as her focus.

Moving forwards I need to decide where to go with these.

My favourite piece remains no. 8, I love the depth and vertiginous sensation of this. I didn't recognise a possible suggestion of a face in the ring, which is entirely accidental. I'm not sure I like this as it detracts from the more stark abstract qualities to the piece.


numbers 1-3 were more like a graphic design and could see how they were referencing Emma McNally's large scale more intricate and intriguing works in graphite.

We're all going on a boar hunt..

water pool. part of Buckeridge installation.

bewitching sound installation in the forest by Browen Buckeridge was the highlight of this short-run exhibition showcasing the work of resident artists in the stunning location of Lydney Park Estate.

Shuttled around in a 4x4 and trailer, visitors were a mix of local well healed friends of Rupert, owner of the estate, art supporter and artist in his own right.

Buckeridge's Piece involved walking and jumping with a start, in response to a perfectly edited 'conversation' and sound piece around the forest.

Wearing a pair of earphones cancelling out any other noises, a soundpiece played using binaural recording. An eery combination of hearing footsteps, causing a instinctive need to compulsively check behind you. THe footsteps were part of the approx 10 minute soundpiece that also included real recording of a wiccan ceremony that was performed at the site of the exhibit.

After being told about the rampant numbers of wild boar, it felt unnerving having you natural hearing senses dulled by a soundtrack of someone elses footsteps cracking on twigs and of a wiccan seance being performed. Drum beats, encantations, all very pagan, all very moving in the context of it being heard in such wild place.

No traffic sounds, just surrounded on all sides, by tall firs, letting enough of a warm blueskied autumn day light to trickle through and take enough edge off the experience to make it, evocative and not fully creepy.

Chance to see Susan Hiller's piece that I've only read about before. Moving installation about NDE (near death experiences) with hypnotic use of film loops and blue screen on TV monitors.

http://www.mattsgallery.org/

shades and triangles

  



















                                                              

charcoal circle layers

layers of charcoal circles
made by twisting incense remnants
possible will do watercolour wash on top
not sure about the cross, too many references
aiming to have a circular paler area that glows in comparison to darker layers
makes a right mess, charcoal gets everywhere

Smoke circles

 

A4 smoke circles



 

close up on smoke on watercolour paper

The B's have it

                                                



B flat minor

slowed this down to 0.25secs
makes the whole tune even more frickin freaky and goosebumpy
trying to find a way to combine this with stop-motion footage of smoke and time-lapse of semi-opaque windows


time and time again,'le fil' by Camille keeps nagging at the back of my mind. One note plays through the whole album. A sustained B note.....


Play both of these together and I think I've had my herbal tea spiked with something a bit more hardcore than licorice.

Smoke circles and stars

charcoal works

 

incense charcoal 
rain
& watercolour

ordinary time circles

watercolour on incense charcoal

 

 

walk the line

richard long lonely hearts
loner rambler 
likes mud
WLTM fellow introverts for cross-country walks and rock hunting

each bio i read about Long talks about him being kicked out of art school
not just any art school
the one i'm studying at at the moment
i suppose the point being is that 'in spite' of that he became famous and successful, ie it was a very good thing that happened

2 things of note here, why speak of a 'supposed' failure unless it's to big yourself up and stick 2 fingers up to an institute from your home town. Do we still need to know this? Why is it still part of his narrative

2. Long's current piece, boyhood line, is on the downs. Durdham downs, an expanse of grassland owned by the merchant venturers ( a possible shady secret type society if we are to believe cynical conspiracy theorists from Massive attack. Or is it just having beef over it mainly being a man's club of red trouser wearers). Anyway I digress. The downs, is cut in pieces by roads linking wealthy parts of bristol to each other. If this was Longs upbringing it does make me wonder about successful artists. 

He is of his time. Long and Andy Goldsworthy, outside making serious art out of nature long before cynical Saatchi got his mitts on the BYA and the landscape of Britains 9(capitalist) art scene changed forever.

What was the man walking away, to or from. Heavily eyebrowed, intensely staring out of portraits of him at the arnolfini show. This is a man to be taken seriously. He might be a middle class Bristolian, but goddamit he's got gravitas and punk to him. He just chucked out of art school the little bleeder and makes art from mud. And stones. This artist is all man. Like the stonehengers before him, he is a pagan stone mover. If art is about context. His stone moving and walking is art. We call cave art, art, because it's visually recognisable and figurative. It may well just be a visual shopping list for a bunch of illiterate cave people, daydreaming about their next ideal feast. But we label it art. It's the context. We assume, holed up for the winter, fed up of bopping their female kin over the head with clubs and giving them a proper seeing to neolithic style, that they then got bored and needed a more cultured and creative outlook for their developing frontal lobes and energy. So of course they drew. We all know that drawing and painting are proper art. Using wood fired charcoal, ochre and probably spit. 

Fast forward a couple of millenia, and there's a bloke from BRistol, traipsing round the planet recording it all and then selling photos of it in books.

My annoying trains of thoughts when I was walking round are sadly like an amateur gallery botherer. Yes, but why? I get the pleasing duality of mud on black wall versus mud on white wall. I'm intrigued to know if he's even taller than his photos suggest and he didn't need a step ladder to reach the ceiling. I wonder about the sloppiness of the mud and the vessel he held it in. Not really the lofty thoughts of an art critic. There was something like nail marks down a blackboard, a slight slow meditative form to the strokes applied that seems like a controlled frenzy of a madman. Or just an obsessive. My doctor mind wonders about his wanders and note taking. A bit on the spectrum? But aren't we all
Recording details, miles walked, objects seen, thrush blood. All verifying the deeds and walks done. So it's not up for questioning. An impressive walk from Bristol to London bridge in 39 hours. Again, tall man, long legs, quick walker. This obsessive need to leave a mark. I was here, I matter, I did it really. It made me sad. If a woman had done this, I think it would be dismissed as contrived,conceited and light weight. I think Long looks too intense and scary to have his credibility called into questions. But the female vagabond artist? What was she doing all that time. On her own? Did no-one want to marry her? Why's she making such a spectacle of herself? With mud, can' she go to Glastonbury and be a hippy there. Nancy Holt, did similar trips, but on a slightly more altruistic and secretive mission, left objects for friends at places and recorded the locations.

All these conflicting ideas. How does he afford to do this? The downs. The guy grew up near the downs. Must be middle class. That explains it. Anthony Caro, Henry Moore, all growing up in penury.
Just like someone convinced to go to medical school and growing up a stones throw from the downs. Privileged and playing around with art. It's a disgrace. That's me I'm talking about now. Not Long, I have no real idea about his background. Although it's a familiar story throughout art history (and I reference these people for whom the only possible similarity will be our backgrounds, not our successes) but Tapies, Miro, Redon, all academic/professional families. This is why I'm bemused at the criticism levelled at Tracy Emin and Damian Hirst and friends, the little jumpstarts made it when they shouldn'thave done. They're not establishment. How awful for the british bourgeosie to be challenged by people they would never rub shoulders with otherwise. I think of this each time I see another oil painting in turdy colours at the RWA in an open exhibition. This is what the fight is against. People lauding the skills of people that can copy nature as proper genuine artists. This is still happening now, ie contemporarily. 

God I'm waffling. I think my reaction to work like Long's like that of the recent exhibition of Randall-Page's (ooh, double-barrelled, there's a surprise) at the RWA, was an irritation at the simplicity of it. Because that's what I'm doing and obsessed with. Where on earth does that leave the rest of us, if the 'successes' are keeping it simple. I turn that on it's head though as, despite the insistent critical middle class narrow minded art naive numpty in my head still screams the loudest, the other more, er..authentic one whispers, pleased, it's ok, this is what it's about. If other people label as art/not art. it doesn't matter. It's all context and it's about experience. Not skill. And how good is that. To stick to your guns over decades and keep making the work and journeys that please you. That make sense of things. To record them and show them on walls. To mark out a line with your feet, and use those marks to show how you've marked your time on this planet. I was here. This is what I did. I'm tall I'm intimidating looking, but goddamit, I'll do what I please because I can stay true to myself. I'm rebel like that. I won't live how you tell me, I won't not break the rules. Even if it means I get chucked out of art school. Said Richard Long. Maybe. Or never