Components

As I said before the work is moving into a slightly different direction… Instead of thinking of each drawing as a singular entity, I’m starting to think of them as communities of marks. A couple of years ago I came across the work of Anna Maiolino. With a portfolio of politically engaging work (from the 70’s onwards), Maiolino’s current practice plays with the dynamic between subjectivity and the collective.

Among Many Anna Maiolino

That constant tension between the whole and the singular intrigues and frustrates me. Historically artists are one of those entities; uncompromising, totally single minded and alone in their vision. Yet during the last 50 years all this has been challenged, from the Brazilian (neo concrete) artists of the 60’s to today. Now the conversation is about the level of participation and authorship to be shared.

I spent a long time agonising over what kind of Participatory artist I was, reading articles and books by the likes of Clare Bishop (Participation) and David Beech (Include Me Out). These critiques sheered off the utopian veneer and interrogated the intentions of the artist. I myself have dabbled within the participatory realm - what were my drives? - Loneliness, alienation towards the art world and simple working class guilt. In the end that ‘public’ out there (whoever they are) were fast becoming a fiction, and when I met the reality I was often disappointed. Although it’s a lonelier process, that control over ones ‘product’ is consolation for the lack of control anywhere else. As I said from the outset, these issues are still very pertinent, but now the guilt is gone and the medium has changed...

Animation sketch 2010

To be clean...

That cleanliness isn't just neatness, its about finding a space to occupy too - sometimes that entails wiping the desk clean. With all that cleaning, history has a hard time asserting itself. I'm not a very good historian - the past feels like some other persons story not mine. But contrarily, I feel rather aware of my traditional 'studio practice' - in a rather grand old building. Its cool in my studio, but I do warm it up a little...

www.blackstudioart.blogspot.com

The coalface

Choices

I’ve been drawing a lot these days and have many to choose from, I’m using the same materials more or less but they are changing. That’s the thing… sometimes you’ve got to keep tabs on yourself for moving too quickly. I find it hard balancing rigor with my boredom threshold. If you don’t have throngs of people knocking down your door, the pace is entirely left to you – I ask myself often what the right pace might be.

Work in progress 2010

The thinking around the earlier drawings corresponds with something ‘singular’, whereas the new drawings start to consider each mark as a component - now I’m considering each drawing as a ‘multiplicity’ - like I said its a bit fresh, I'm not ready to put those out just yet…

Untitled black series 'Corridor' exhibition 2009

So I'm gonna show something I made a little earlier ‘Blue Peter’ stylie. I’ve shown them before, but it’s a good opportunity to experiment with the installation – if I don’t show them, what the heck will happen to them? I’ve already thrown a bunch of stuff in the Artbin… As you get longer in the tooth at this game, you realise that an exhibition mainly proves that what you do exists. Even in that crazy oversized construction (the Artbin) all that work proved its existence, even if each artwork lost its separate identity in becoming one big monument/artwork. I'm not entirely convinced though that the exercise represented failure in the end...

Amanda