Group Crit with Gerard & Andrew + Further Research

Key Points, Reflections and Development

• The three paintings work really well together and they mirror each other. They are all different yet share the same contexts of what I'm working with. 

Mild Steel Welding Piece:

• Hanging the piece: The metal cable wire approach that I was going to hang it with, looks too 'expected'. 
• When hanging: 155cm centre for paintings, make this a universal standard for the whole exhibition. 
• Experiment with using metal/ mild steel 'rods' and hooking the over the metal bar in the gallery. The mild steel rods would make the painting become part of the gallery this way and I think this would elevate this piece further. 
• Andrew & Gerard both suggested to grind the 4 welded lines on each of the 4 corners of the frame back so that the back frame is nice a shiny and smooth all the way round. This would draw attention to the detail of the welding even more. 
• Overall, I own this work and it needs to be the best it can be, including the owning of the hanging and the curation process.

Palette Painting

• It's a palette but it's not. Playing with language of painting here and elevating the palette through medium. 
• Play with adding stainless steel sections underneath the palette on bottom supports.
• Sand down the bottom parts/ sides of the palette, perhaps play with turning it into a more dressed up palette.. making it more perfect.
• Gerard suggested that I cut about 2-3mm out of the wood under each of the stainless steel shapes, and sink them into the wood so they are more level with the surface of the wood. He said the workshop has something called a CNC router that could do this. 

Silver Leaf Canvas:

• The silver leaf piece needs finishing off around the edges. 
• Andrew noticed the edges of the canvas were left bare and advised to cover these up with something, suggesting silver leaf and continuing the work that I had completed on the canvas.
• Gerard recommended using steel tubing as I had used in the mild steel piece as this would tie it in nicely. 
• I am thinking creating a mild steel sheet frame around it to stick to it, to cover these edges up.  I am thinking cutting 4 strips of mild steel sheet metal that are the width of the canvas' depth, and welding them together & glueing to the canvas. 

Designs for Development:

Further Research

• Gold leaf Japanese art style.. puts gold leaf into cracks..
• Susan Collis
• Wade Guyton photographs 
• Asking rob about technical details/ whether it's possible/ doable. 

Kintsugi

Kintsugi or kintsukuroi is the Japanese art of repairing broken objects with gold. Source: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/broken-is-beautiful-kintsugi-makes-broken-things-even-better-231069 

• This image is from a restaurant, "Carmina and Pilar’s restaurant remains almost the same as in the old days – even the cracked tiles haven’t changed. However, Bury has used copper leaf, which in time will oxidise to give a more subdued effect, grout to fill the cracks," Source https://www.yatzer.com/anahi-paris 

Seam (gold leaf in concrete, 2007), Catherine Bertola; image courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery.

• "Catherine Bertola creates installations, objects and drawings that respond to particular sites, collections and historic contexts. Underpinning the work is a desire to look beyond the surface of objects and buildings, to uncover forgotten and invisible histories of places and people, as a way of reframing and reconsidering the past."

Rachel Sussman

Rachel Sussman

• "brooklyn-based artist rachel sussman has re-imagined this traditional art through a contemporary lens for her ‘sidewalk kintsukuroi’ series. expanding on the belief that something beautiful can be made from something broken, sussman has taken to the streets to ‘repair’ cracked pavement by infilling its fractured lines with gold pigment." Source: https://www.designboom.com/art/rachel-sussman-sidewalk-kintsukuroi-gold-cracks-03-01-2017/

•  This art form is very appealing to me, and is essentially what I have done within my silver leaf painting, where I intentionally filled the 'voids' or gaps in the painting that the paint didn't cover. 
• Although the Japanese art form traditionally doesn't do this for decoration or aesthetics, I do believe it has a very aesthetic side. The gold leaf enhances the area that is not there in the case of the cracks, it draws attention to the void, or the broken, or the imperfect. 
• I would be very interested in working with this style of art again in the future. 

Susan Collis

• "Susan Collis uses a variety of techniques and strategies to investigate issues concerning interpretation, craft, value and labour... Everyday objects are presented etched, splattered and stained with marks of work, wear and tear. At first glance, the marks seem to be the accidental results of normal use, and as such seem meaningless and not worthy of examination. Collis is interested in the shift of perception that takes place upon discovery that they are, in fact, careful, intentional acts, and that the materials used are traditionally valued for their financial or decorative properties. "
• Source; http://www.seventeengallery.com/artists/susan-collis/

Susan Collis, Love Supreme (Black Square after Malevich), 2012, Graphite on paper

Susan Collis, Jimmy, 2010

Coloured biro inks and graphite on paper construction

50 x 32.5 x 28cm

Susan Collis, The oyster’s our world, 2004

Wooden stepladder, mother of pearl, shell, coral, fresh water pearl, cultured pearls, white opal, diamond.

Susan Collis, 100% Cotton, 2004

Overalls, embroidery threads

155 x 25 x 17 cm

Maybe this time - 2013, Platinum leaf on A4 Paper (Acid Free)

Detail of Susan Collis, As good as it gets, 2008

18 carat white gold (hallmarked), white sapphire, turquoise, onyx

Edition of 10

• From reading her bio alone, it's clear Collis shares some interests with me. The aspect of craft and labour has always been a theme within my work, and the intentional material choices to manipulate perception, with association with financial and decorative properties.

• Looking at her material choices, for example using biro pens to colour in the textile design of 'Jimmy' really distorts the viewers perception. 

• Also, 100% Cotton, 2004, is a strikingly good representation of an artists overalls with paint splatters over them, yet the paint splatters have been embroidered, and this connection with the imperfection, and the manipulation of this imperfection through this skilled process, eliminates the 'imperfect' aspect. 

• Maybe this time turns everyday paper into paper with value. 

• Her piece, As good as it gets, 2008, stands out to me due to its material composition which contrasts dramatically with its form. It is white gold with various other precious stones, which of course brings a financial value to the material, yet it's contradicting form of an everyday screw, makes the viewer think twice about it. Perhaps due to its material value, and critique of juxtaposing the mundaneness of its form, this piece is seen as a greater piece of art than if it had been a screw cast from a lower quality metal. 

• How much can material value of an object change the way we perceive it? How can our perception of something become greater when we realise it may satisfy us economically.

• Further research on Susan Collis would be good, and she could be a good person to write an annotated text about.