Type up some notes
Writing lots of notes is great so long as I go back through them. Lets see what is useful…
Rubble bags need collecting on mass. Print some for hanging & bale the rest. Again. What is printed. Housing austerity?
“Authenticity is reaching a point of realisation. It’s ok to borrow & take along the way because it will become a mixture only you could have put together.” - I wrote this down around 23.10.18 - 30.10.18, not sure who said it.
10 canvases complete ((reality has 12 but 2 are lost in Switzerland) also they’re not canvas- they are deconstructed rubble bags). They are hung through the space between two architectural columns using orange ratchet straps that are jigsawed together to make one longer strap. Hanging them in this manor has several objectives.
Some of the smaller CIVIC prints needed to be in front of a light source, preferably a window. This is to explore the translucent nature of the tarp/rubble bag material. Printing on both sides layers the image & text. In the RLB 101 space the layering in front of the window is perfect as the view beyond is of the built city scape.
These pieces of material are former bags capable of holding & suspending 1 ton of weight. Strong bags that now have no ability to carry weight. Hanging limp like washing. Airing ideas & politically charged content. CIVIC buildings that have passed their use. Made for long lives from strong definite materials. Hanging up like the sheeting that will cover the face lift.
A desire to use straps to suspend between two points. This fitting system of display supports the need for the prints to be hung & the need for all aspects to be useful.
Regarding the act of printing onto sacks, I began to exploit the the process to create certain effects on the image. Sometimes flooding the screen in order to produce a darker image or changing the angle of the squeegee to create a clearly defined image. These variations resemble the effect of time on concrete.
Acquisition of scaffold tarp. What to do with it?
——>Printed onto & hung long resembling a tower block staircase window.
——>TRANSPARENCY. Link to architecture. Tower blocks/Flats
——>Find a link to Social Housing/Council Houses/Industrial/Working Class/Cities/Urban Forms
The tarpaulin sheet can become a tapestry with certain aspects of architecture printed onto them. Use images from Riley Square in Coventry take specific architectural details. Print those details onto the tapestry (tarpaulin sheet) so that when the sheeting is folded into a bail those details become exposed on the outer edges of the form. This tapestry could be a large form in the space with the images printed potentially strapped together & it then travels into the space to become lofty. The tarpaulin sheet travels up into the space creating height representing the tower at Bellgreen (Bellgreen flats) which becomes an interrogation of space, council housing, architecture, materials & personal space.
It’s not enough that I will have hopefully collected a large amount of material. I have to show that is HAS been worked. Printed on, thought about. Otherwise what is the point of showing it?
Weight determined by content. EXPAND BAGS?? ———————> Also the form is imposed with these bags if filled. The mass of material is relatively small. Rubble bags & scaffold tarp will create their own form.
Studio day
Using printed sand bags I am looking towards the use of their volume in space. Initially looking at the space taken up on the ground. Like a floor plan or building site this creates pedestrian boundaries. Limiting & directing the flow of movement in a given space. In a small gallery space it is important for 2 reasons. One, specific displays of material & work act as a mode of exhibition that is true to the materials. Sand bags are used on the ground normally to direct the flow of water or as a weight for something. In this space directing human flow but the bags are not filled & so are weightless. The image printed image is of something heavy, concrete & glass, but taken from a structure that is high in the air. Here the image is displayed on the ground. Two, the laying of peoples homes on the ground, printed onto sand bags makes a direct reference to the way some people live. This image is of a low rise block of flats on a neglected shopping precinct. Repeating images of facades on this material makes me think of modular living. In addition the cheapness of the material might suggest the ageing quality of such housing blocks. Sandbags make us think of building & repair or even demolition. The life span & building quality is being questioned.