Documentation

Don’t Make a Monkey Out of Me, 2023, oil on canvas, MDF, pine wood frame, enamel paint, blue fluorescent acrylic plastic, and chrome mirror screws, 101 x 131.5 x 6.7 cm (framed)

As the final stages of the painting process approached, I made the decision to undertake the preparation of the frame, recognising its significance as an essential element of the artwork. I had previously fabricated my own framing moulds and canvas panels to produce a floater frame, which is intended to align the artwork's surface with the frame. The painting appears to be suspended within the frame, with a slight distance between the frame and the canvas edge. Unlike European paintings from the 13th century onwards, this painting is not enclosed behind a glass panel, and the frame's front facing surface does not extend over the painting's edges. Floater frames are considered an ideal option for framing canvas stretchers due to the absence of the lip of a traditional picture frame, which ensures that none of the artwork is obscured. The floating illusion present in the artwork provides viewers with a perception of depth and a heightened sense of the image as an object. Additionally, the frame serves as a structural element of the painting, contributing to the sense of objecthood that my artistic practise is devoted to.

However, this endeavour proved to be considerably more challenging than initially expected. Regrettably, the frames incurred certain damages, requiring substantial applications of filler and coarse sanding. Upon inspection, I observed that despite the application of multiple layers of primer and paint, the resinous nature of the wood had resulted in seepage at the knots, leading to the emergence of sap streaks and stains that were visible through the paint. Following the removal of the majority of the paint, a primer was reapplied and sanded between coats prior to the application of enamel spray paint. This process was undertaken to achieve a polished, lustrous, industrial, and commercial finish. In preparation for the second frame designated for painting, a proactive measure was taken to prevent the manifestation of resinous marks during the painting process. This was achieved by administering a knotting solution to the knots prior to the application of primer and paint.

After positing the painting in the frame, I positioned a vertical strip of fluorescent plastic across the painting, thereby disrupting the original and illusory elements of the image. By doing so, the reflective surface of the plastic introduced a new, transient image that merged the realms of life and art. The use of a photographic source for the painting in question introduces an additional layer of complexity to the fundamental tension that arises between the painted surface and the subject matter of the painting in the context of painting from a photograph, in accordance with the current discourses that surround my practise. In addition to depicting the subject matter, I am also capturing its reproduction. The artwork in question depicts both a human figure and a monkey while also incorporating elements of a photographic image, including its inherent attributes and imperfections. By maintaining an open double register, the artificial or illusory aspect of painting is emphasised. Photo-paintings, on the other hand, function as a deliberate intervention in the widespread dissemination of images rather than serving as a depiction of objective reality. Regrettably, it is my belief that the reflective property of the plastic material has not always been duly recognised in group critiques owing to its limited scope. Consequently, this is an aspect that requires further contemplation and enhancement. I ask the audience to take into account not solely the subject matter and the painted texture of the artwork, but also the intricate interplay between the painting and our own personal encounters. In the pursuit of enhancing the three-dimensional quality of images, it is imperative to establish a stronger correlation between the observer's space and the painting's space. Consequently, the viewer must consistently harmonise their perception of the painting as a tangible entity with their perception of the painting as a creation of make-believe and deception. The materiality of the medium and the fictionality of the representation have a mutually tensional and enriching relationship. The intriguing correlation pertains to the viewer's awareness of the materiality of oil paint on canvas, coupled with the perception of duplication, as both aspects coalesce.

A Pipe Dream, oil on canvas, painted frame, Blue PVC Fuel Hose Pipe, 24 x 32.5 x 5.5 cm (framed), 0 x 0 cm (overall)

As illustrated in the accompanying photographs above, a meticulous measurement of the hole depth on the frame was necessary to ensure that the pipe would not impede the canvas depth while still allowing for a comfortable fit through its opening. Subsequently, I proceeded to meticulously punch the holes in the frame moulding prior to its construction and application of spray paint. When the painting was complete, it was affixed to the frame with a 2.5mm MDF backing board and a tab driver equipped with flexible tabs, thereby enabling the painting to be easily removed for cleaning and varnishing purposes. In addition, the protection of the back of the stretcher may serve to mitigate potential warping resulting from extrinsic factors, such as variations in temperature and humidity, thereby promoting the durability of the painting. In order to operate the tab driver, the initial step involved the insertion of the flexible tabs into the driver and clamping the frame in place to prevent movement. Subsequently, the tabs on the frame were aligned with the corresponding holes in the driver, and a firm downward pressure was applied to securely affix the frame in position. The pliable tabs can be effortlessly retracted to facilitate the detachment of the artwork and its accompanying back panel.

Maistrye

During the first unit, I had the opportunity to visit the studio of Simon Callery, which left me with some thoughts that I did not fully comprehend until my feedback tutorial with Anna Bunting-Branch. Simon explained during the visit that the tactility of his work adds a moment of cognitive self-reflection, sociocultural and aesthetic self-awareness, to the viewer's experience. Another student, confused by his conception of the tactile, asked if he wanted viewers to touch the work, which sparked a series of ideas and an investigation into tactility and touch. To contemplate the act of touching implies separation. This disembodied vision, the preserve of the optic, translates the visual into perceptual faculties of knowledge. The art historical foundations of the relationship between knowledge and sight, validate and prioritise sight over other sensory experience. It is obvious that the proxy position of an art object is untouchable, whereas haptic images, in the words of Laura Marks, “do not invite identification with a figure so much as they encourage a bodily relationship between the viewer and the image. Thus, it is less appropriate to speak of the object of a haptic look than to speak of a dynamic subjectivity between looker and image.” (Marks, 2001 , pg. 3) The haptic is not merely an adjunct to the optic but must act as a moment of rupture to the optical experience; it must be transgressive. To violate this sacred optical realm, similar to how Van Hanos's work is described above, I wanted to create a work that alludes to the sense of sight, to address a dichotomy in the way we process and consume information by integrating distinct forms of sensory experience that engage the viewer through interactive art and relational aesthetics.

Art historians and critics have written extensively on the topic of the gaze in art, including the various types of gaze depicted in figurative representations in paintings and the ways in which viewers look at art. Gaze is a major focus of debate in both cognitive neuroscience and the study of art historical discourse and visual culture. Most of the qualities they identify in depicted gazes (such as the infamous female gaze) are difficult to objectify or study empirically. Roman portrait busts feature prominent eye contact, with subjects often expressing an awareness of the viewer's gaze and initiating (possibly) the first direct reflexivity to art objects and, by extension, conscious interaction between artist and viewer in the history of art. Examples from more recent history include artworks like Giulio Paolini, Young Man Looking at Lorenzo Lotto, 1967, in which the subject being depicted looks back at the viewer and returns their gaze.

Researchers have published their findings on the neuronal and behavioral response to the gaze in painted portraits (including physical and structural characteristics of impoverished line-drawn faces) using separate eye-tracking measurements and functional magnetic resonance imaging in volume 125 of the journal Brain and Cognition. Direct versus averted gaze elicited increased activation in several areas of the brain involved in attentional and social cognitive processes, particularly the theory of mind, as shown by an fMRI experiment. Participants spent more time studying the portrait's eyes and mouth when the gaze was directed at the observer, as determined by an additional eye-tracking experiment. These findings imply that passively gazing at a static and, in some cases, highly stylized depiction of a human being in an artistic portrait triggers brain activation analogous to the sensation of being watched by an intelligent being. Consequently, they engage viewers in inherent inferences regarding the subjective experiences and expressions of the painted subject. This further demonstrates that representational medium has a substantial effect on brain activity and corroborates the sheer power of images.

There's no denying the outlandishness of Mitchell's argument in "What Do Pictures Want?" that we should treat photographs like they're living, sentient beings. Mitchell opens this chapter by practically urging people to accuse him of "subjectivization of images, a dubious personification of inanimate objects." (Mitchell, 1996, pg. 71) However, this high-flown rhetoric only serves as an enigmatic means to get to the apparent conclusion that we live in a world where images have power over us; Mitchell frequently cites statements such as "image is everything" or "[he’s] nothing but an image," evidencing the advanced cultural criticism with current discourses that claim "that we live in a society of spectacle, surveillance, and simulacra." (Mitchell, 1996, pg. 73) Nonetheless, Mitchell is able to make some intriguing observations with this analogy, such as when he contrasts critical practise with the fallacy that harming an image will harm the actual subject with his line: "critical exposure and demolition of the nefarious power of images is both easy and ineffectual." Mitchell writes. "Pictures are a popular political antagonist because one can take a tough stand on them, and yet, at the end of the day, everything remains pretty much the same". (Mitchell, 1996, pg. 33) Mitchell evidently supports this superstitious claim with an exemplar lecture in which he asks his students to take out a picture of their mother and cut out the eyes. Mitchell sometimes frames images as subaltern and gendered, gendering "images as women" and drawing parallels between Freud's famous "What do women want?" and Fanon's "What does the black man want?" in his effort to give pictures agency. It is certainly risky to animate subjects or objects by gendering and positioning them as subalterns in a time of profound race and gender critical awareness. Whether or not Mitchell is being comical or provocative, the idea of pictures and subalternity allows us to examine our own perceptions and assumptions about images. His phrase, however, provided fuel for contemplation in light of this animism towards pictures: "If pictures are persons, then, they are coloured or marked persons, and the scandal of the purely white or purely black canvas, the blank, unmarked surface, presents quite a different face." (Mitchell, 1996, pg. 75) Here, I thought about the white or black surface of the painting’s plane that are only animated by the artist’s depiction in conjunction with the curated space of the gallery. This is when I thought it would be interesting to intercept the gallery space with a wall like panel that both literally and figuratively embodies the space whilst engages the body of the viewer with voids that alludes to the eyes. The propositionary artwork's title, Maistrye, is a playful response to the image of my mother and Mitchell's use of the word after he highlights the story from Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales in which the answer to the question "what do women most desire?" is "maistrye, a complex Middle English term that equivocates between mastery by right or consent, and the power that goes with superior strength or cunning." (Mitchell, 1996, pg. 76)

Allison Katz's Artery show at Nottingham Contemporary was set up to amplify and repeat existing angles and doorways in order to make a series of recursive sight lines. A painting of the inside of a lift, done to scale, acts as a visual duplicate of the original, like a virtual pane that extends the gallery space. The small room-within-a-room opposite provided a canvas portraying a bird's-eye view of a network of tunnels carved out of the sandstone beneath Nottingham. Katz viewed the gallery itself as a "porous body" with an upward and downward reach into the belly of the cave below. Extenuating the play of physiology in the exhibition, Katz draws on the bodily spaces of the cave below as an extension to the exhibition. She appropriates the open mouth motif from a 1943 small woodcut by André Derain and uses it in a number of her paintings. In an effort to subvert our own expectations of viewing and consuming an image, Katz employs this motif in an effort to paint from the perspective of language, hunger, or the tongue. Her homogeneous works 2020 (ephemeral) and 2020 (femoral) are both interrupted by two large oval shapes that could resemble eyes, or nostrils, or perhaps as the title femoral suggests: eggs; the gapping noughts in 2020, the year the world stood still with the pandemic, or perhaps its suggestive of 20/20 vision. On all accounts, the works allude to the body and not just because of the numerable limbs and suggestive eye like shapes but they also play with optics. The optical illusion of space and depth as the large white and black shapes resemble portals or voids, a space beyond the wall, or an extension to the gallery.

In a similar vein to the work of Allison Katz, I intend for my piece Maistrye to portray a correlation between the body and the building. The artwork's negative space refers to a realm outside of its materiality and serves as an extension of the tangible space. The white flat plane, which defines the gallery's exhibition space, prompts viewers to contribute their own lived experiences to the work's reflexive measures. Furthermore, the sculpture creates a parallel between the viewer's body and the flat body (or disembodiment) of the work, which profoundly points to the trace (or absence) of the body and the sense of sight. In the first unit, I explained that by exploring the objecthood of painting through the ambivalent art discourses of reflexivity and agency, I hoped to usurp or extend my current research enquiry into images. Taking inspiration from artists like Allison Katz, who uses the body to denote notions of taste and perception, I have found a way to challenge the idea of the autonomous artist by placing a premium on the active utilisation of space, with the audience serving as the catalyst. Like the work of Allison Katz, this piece draws on sightlines and geometry as influence for the exhibition, with a large wall-like free-standing panel that interrupts and reforms the language of the gallery, pointing to the connections between the positions of artwork, audience, and architecture.

Theoretically, the work should go beyond the dichotomy of self-referential painting, opening up a labyrinth of transitive time and space perspectives that interact and alter each other in an ebb and flow of images. Consequently, both images interact and refer to themselves, each other, and the audience. Playing with space and time adds another layer of complexity to a painting's typical separation between representation and audience. Each side of the panel exists in a reciprocal relationship of tension and augmentation. The removal of the optical shapes cut out of the image, simultaneously fragments the image whilst creating a new image on the opposite side. Thus, the initial opposition consists of a pair of opposites: addition and subtraction, appearance and disappearance; each is reflected in and through the other. This transitivity from one image to the next emphasises a picture's trajectory through embodied experience, revealing that its meaning shifts and adapts in response to cultural and societal factors over time; the interaction between the past and the present is complex and multifaceted, and the perception of the present does not exist beyond past projections. The work thus investigates the mysteries of aesthetic practises and the appearance of implicit subjectivity. Perhaps, this is what Andrew Grassie meant in his artist talk when he spoke about his interest in the esoteric concept of time in the creation of one image from another.

Below you can see a 3D rendering and still images of the proposition for the piece. Originally, I had intended for the piece to be done over unit three, however, it has taken some time to come to fruition and after speaking to both woodwork and metal technicians, I am still figuring out the best way to fabricate the piece which may take considerable time in not only the structural support but also the painting. For now this remains a piece to develop and consider towards the end of unit three when I can utilise the facilities of the university workshops. Nevertheless, these discussions have influenced my work and prompted me to consider alternative strategies for painting and exhibition making.

References:

Marks, LU 2001, Touch : Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [16 March 2023].

Mitchell, W.J.T., 1996. What Do Pictures" Really" Want?. October, 77, pp.71-82.

Professional Experience

Curation Society - Home on Me - Hoxton Arches

I recently collaborated with the Curation Society and Decolonising Arts for an exhibition titled "Home on Me" at Hoxton Arches from 23rd to 25th January. The exhibition aimed to explore the concept of "home" through diverse interpretations and mediums. The exhibition showcased novel creations from 23 artists who belong to diverse fields of study such as Fine Art, Fashion design, Graphic design, Curation, and others, and are affiliated with all campuses of the University of the Arts London. Each artist presented themes such as love, double-consciousness, loss, immigration, self-expression, bodily autonomy, and cultural heritages in an individual manner to facilitate a comprehensive and in-depth discussion among students. The Home on Me exhibit provided a venue for introspection and rumination, encouraging attendees to ponder their personal encounters. The collective aspiration was that this display enhances our comprehension of the manner in which we establish a bond with the locations we consider our home, thereby influencing our sense of self. The exhibition experience has brought to my attention that such interactions have the potential to result in significant connections, constructive feedback, opportunities for support, and prospective collaborations. Membership in an artistic community can furnish encouragement, stimulation, and evaluative interaction, cultivating artistic development and exposure to exciting ideas.

Forces of the Small - Filet Gallery

The exhibition titled "Forces of the Small" provided us with our first prospect of gaining visibility and acknowledgement. The opportunity afforded us a platform to exhibit our work to a wider audience, comprising of art collectors, critics, gallery proprietors, and fellow artists. The event provided a platform for the artwork to be exhibited, evaluated, and analysed. The quite quickly observed the correlation between the acquisition of visibility and potential collaborations that can be readily formed through exhibitions. The contextualization and novel “force” offered by this “small” exhibition were the most significant factors for me, not only in terms of the artworks themselves but also in relation to the overall exhibition encounter. Gaining insight into the broader artistic landscape through the contextualization of my work alongside other pieces facilitated my comprehension of how my work fits within this framework. The exhibition afforded me the opportunity to observe other pathways, themes, and techniques utilised by fellow artists, thereby imparting valuable insights and inspiration. The experience prompted me to place my own work in a broader context and evaluate its distinctiveness, merits, and potential areas for enhancement.

The limitations of the miniatures brief made me aware that the scale of an artwork is a crucial factor in shaping the perception and encounter of the audience. Through this exhibition, I quickly realised that artworks of considerable size frequently exert a commanding presence, whilst conversely, diminutive artworks have the potential to evoke a feeling of closeness, fragility, or self-reflection, prompting observers to approach and scrutinise the smaller works with greater attention. The spatial context of artwork is also determined by its scale, which plays a crucial role in determining its interaction with the surrounding artworks and the physical space it occupies. The inherent characteristics of a miniature artwork necessitated the utilisation of a novel size and medium, which was previously unacquainted to me. However, this presented an opportunity to demonstrate flexibility and adaptability by exploring uncharted territories and employing innovative techniques to overcome the challenges posed. Generating work that adheres to a particular set of guidelines can present various difficulties. This project has highlighted the challenges that artists may encounter in expressing their artistic vision and incorporating their creative ideas within the constraints of not just the size, but time and space. The professional realm of exhibiting imposes specific requirements, guidelines, and limitations that artists must adhere to, which can pose difficulties in realising their artistic goals.

The recognition of the exhibition as one of the top five exhibitions of the month by the Whitechapel Gallery has brought to my attention the significance of exhibiting and collaborating as means of obtaining critical feedback, validation, and exposure. Art exhibitions frequently solicit input from spectators, reviewers, and exhibition organisers, which can play a crucial role in the development of an artist. The acquisition of constructive criticism and validation via exhibition experiences can facilitate artists in comprehending their ideas, honing their artistic vision, and making well-informed decisions regarding their future artistic endeavours.

Chaiya Arts Award - Awe + Wonder - Gallery@oxo

My painting, Simultaneously Sublime, was selected for inclusion in the Chaiya Art Awards 2023 exhibition with this year's theme, "Awe + Wonder." The exhibition was held on London’s Southbank from April 7–16, 2023, at the gallery@oxo and The Bargehouse, which featured 14 themed rooms. All exhibiting works were shortlisted for all 10 prizes available, with the first prize of £10,000 being awarded to artist Julia Polanski.

The exhibition accompanied a beautiful book of the same name, "Awe + Wonder." The painting I exhibited was a few years old, and I believe my work has progressed significantly in that time, so I was apprehensive about re-exhibiting it after some time, but it was incredibly well received. As Chaiya Arts is a non-profit organisation, I volunteered my time to assist with exhibition invigilation. This was a very rewarding experience, as I was able to observe not only how the audience interacted with the works, but also the type of audience that frequented the oxo gallery and the bargehouse before Spectrum. The press night allowed me to extend my network and speak with a variety of artists from all over the United Kingdom with diverse practises.

Prior to the exhibition, the paper components of the painting were damaged, and I was tasked with restoring it as closely as possible to the original, as the original images had already been used for press and the catalogue. The painting was originally stored in Wales, so I travelled there during the holiday and hired a van to restore and transport it back for the exhibition. In order to safeguard the painting during transport, I researched the most effective protective measures, which included foam corners, palette wrap, and bubble wrap. As I became more familiar with the logistics of preparing work for exhibition, these protective measures became increasingly costly. However, this exhibition has been invaluable in enabling me to consider more sustainable practises, in both the creation and distribution of works.

The text that accompanied the painting:

The sublime is a long-understood term in art once attributed to romantic landscape paintings and literature, tending to inspire awe and wonder because of elevated quality of greatness or grandeur. By depositing glossy images from online sources and commercial magazines into painting, I reflect the current preoccupation with the problem of positing one’s identity with the continuous input of sublime media images and aesthetics. Through painting, this disrupts seamless viewing and challenges our passive intake of images, with the modern inundation of a media-dominated world. 

Spectrum: Diffusion - Bargehouse

The extensive exhibition experience that I have acquired during this term has played a pivotal role in my professional growth, as it has compelled me to augment my organisational and executive skills. Furthermore, I have been mandated to enhance my artistic practice, elucidate the establishment of my practice, adhere to designated timelines, and oversee the logistical aspects of showcasing the work. While this experience has been exhilarating, it has also been at times exhausting and challenging to balance these responsibilities. Nonetheless, these encounters aid in the establishment of a proficient collection of works, which is crucial for pursuing funding, residencies, art gallery representation, and other vocational prospects. The development of an artist's growth, recognition, and professional advancement is reliant upon their exhibition experience and their capacity to contextualise their work in relation to other artwork and discussions. Artistic opportunities such as exposure, contextualization, networking, feedback, and inspiration are provided to artists through exhibitions such as this, which ultimately aid in their artistic journey and success. This interim exhibition has facilitated my comprehension of the progress of my work to date and enabled me to identify compelling discourses when the work is situated within a gallery context alongside other artworks.

Xhibit - from / now / on

This year my painting ‘Fifteen Love’ was chosen as part of the ArtsSU’s 26th edition of Xhibit 2023, the longest-running open call to UAL students. This year, Xhibit was held at the Dray Walk Gallery on Brick Lane, April 29th to May 3rd, 2023, with a private view on April 28th. Sophie Risner of the ArtsSU developed and coordinated the exhibition with comprehensive dedication and professionalism, as evidenced by her frequent correspondence leading up to the exhibition. As an emerging artist taking their first steps in the professional landscape of contemporary art, the exhibition experience was sincerely invaluable. The exhibition was an open call to all UAL students, with student Sarah Winski given the challenge of finding and unpicking relationships between the works to curate the show that she entitled from / now / on. In the words of Sarah, "this year’s Xhibit cohort covers vast and exciting ground across themes of crisis, multiplicity, possibility, immigration and family. Their practises are multidisciplinary and generative, presenting new modes of observation, speculation and experience."

As well as exhibiting work, I was also able to attend an exciting professional development programme: a day of talks reflecting areas of consideration pertaining to Xhibit. Early in the development of the exhibition, on November 16th, I attended a development day for Xhibit, where I was able to find out more about Xhibit and its history; discuss the possible exhibition hosting venue and possible dates; learn about the Professional Development programme; discuss installation troubleshooting; gain some initial feedback from the judges; meet other selected students to network and commence community building; find out more about the catalogue; and ask any questions about the opportunity.

It was a gratifying experience to see the show come to fruition and all the work that contributed to making an all-encompassing and lucrative exhibition, especially since Sophie had the artists involved in every step of the exhibition making. Recent themes in my own work and the broader spectrum of contemporary practise have tested the individual artist genius, and through this exhibition I have truly experienced the interdependence and camaraderie that accompany a successful exhibition! Sophie displayed a deep care for the artists’ vision and intellectual property rights while showing us the importance of situating the work in the broader art context of exhibition making, from the copy-editing of the press release and catalogue to the administrative tasks of transportation and insurance.

In the coming days, I will also receive personal feedback from the selection committee, which I hope will provide insight into how the work is initially received and processed — a crucial aspect of a socially engaged practise that extends beyond the studio. I hope that the feedback from different industry professionals will prepare me to engage with painting publicly and critically in a broader art context. This year's exciting selection panel included Joe Hill, Director of Towner Eastbourne Gallery and host of this year's Turner Prize; Tim A. Shaw, Co-Founder of Hospital Rooms, London; Minna Ellis, current Central Saint Martins Sabbatical Officer at Arts Students' Union, filmmaker and performance artist; and Kim Hughes, current Camberwell College of Arts Sabbatical Officer at Arts Students' Union, with a background in Fine Art.

My involvement with Xhibit encouraged me to share my practise in a variety of contexts beyond the studio and championed my continued progression as a professional artist.

For more details on Xhibit and the exhibiting artists, see a digital version of the catalogue below or use this link provided: https://issuu.com/artstudentsunion/docs/xhibit_catalogue_final_13april