MA Graduate
Summer 2019 saw me graduate as a Contemporary Art Master. Over a 3 year part time course I was able to interrogate my own art practice. Using University facilities such as Print Rooms, The Library, Studio Spaces, Computers, & Office Spaces I was able to make work that I could never have done out of an institution. I was supported by amazing Artist Tutors, Technicians, Visiting Artists & my Cohort - all exactly why I went back into education after graduating Ba years before. Having time to mature as an artist was the goal that I have achieved & now it must continue.
So what do I do now?
One of the main themes that emerged in my work is a condensed practice which is achieved through the work that is made to expand & contract. Once the work is contracted it should pack down & take up a small amount of storage space. Not only is this a practical solution for storage & transportation, it is also a defining constraint that informs how my work uses materials & display space. There is little to no waste.
In order to keep momentum, now, at a time when I would normally be preparing to start a new project, I have taken a look back at an older work, one that takes up quite a lot of space. A work from 2 years ago, made for Art Week Exeter consisting of 200 printed boxes needed a review. The reworking of this project saw a reduction of its parts.
Brutal Pattern, expanded installation at TOPOS for AWE17. 200 printed boxes.
In an expanded form this installation fills a space roughly the size of a single garage. In a packed down form it fills roughly a quarter of a double sized shed. The shed unit of measurement is currently what I am working with so in order to maximise my storage this work has to shrink in size. The screen printed images on the card are still relevant to my practice & are useful for future work, so I decided to cut them all out.
Boxes getting the chop
The cut off parts of the boxes are destined for the recycling centre, but before that they are ratchet strapped together. The forms are a final solute to how they have contributed to the progress of my work, stacked & bound. The forms are reminiscent of miniature tower blocks. The very edges of the prints are visible on the card leaving a trace of the missing images with stained or scorched looking sides.
Once removed there is a neat stack of cardboard prints of Exeter Civic Centre’s structural cladding unit. They are ready for another day, aprox 400 of them.
