Introduction
Most of my research is experiential from being in nature and observing it, often taking photos and videos. During Unit 1 I have enjoyed going to exhibitions and other young artists' private views. I also attended many lectures where I took notes and reflected on the artists' ideas, some of which related to my practice and inspired me - as recorded within my reflections on sketching the tree at St Giles' in the 'Body of work' section and in this section. There were several teaching and learning events which I found an interactive and more social way of engaging with ideas.
Context
Nature/ eco crisis
I feel my works are reminders of what is worth protecting e.g. beautiful trees amidst an eco crisis. The majority of my research is experiential through being in Nature. I often use tree-derived materials such as wood, paper, charcoal and latex however, my practice could face criticism for using non-eco friendly materials such as acrylic paint which is a pollutant. The sustainability of the wood panels I get from the school shop, for example, is largely unknown. However, I am not making 'protest art'.
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Growing awareness surrounding mental health in society
Tutorials have highlighted the link between my practice and states of mind – experiencing Nature can impact how you feel. My personal relationship with Nature is central to my practice – it offers me escapism and comfort. My practice is an emotional outlet of these experiences.
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The Gothic
I am interested in the sombre and gothic imagery. My paintings have previously had black backgrounds and the gothic forms of bare branches mimicking mortality. I am looking at finding beauty in the sombre. I feel my interest in the gothic overlaps with my interest in rock music where there is a sense of liberation, sexuality and the animal. I am intrigued by androgyny which is found in trees and rock stars.
Artist inspiration
I will be researching artists who explore Nature (Tacita Dean), Surrealism (Leonora Carrington), Materiality (Lynda Benglis/Jackson Pollock) and the evocation of the psyche (Francis Bacon).
I am interested in researching alternative painting methods through other artists.
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Simon Callery - sensual connection to environment you're working in (Callery, 2023).
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Mark Fairnington - "What happens in the making of a painting that generates new knowledge" (Fairnington, 2023).
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In my 'Body of work' section I describe how I related to the ideas of Simon Callery and Mark Fairnington when sketching the tree at St Giles'.
Tacita Dean. (2021)Purgatory (Mount I). Coloured pencil on Fuji Velvet paper mounted on paper. Frith Street Gallery.
Tacita Dean's exhibition The Dante Project at Frith Street Gallery Golden Square 1 (cropped) (2021). I saw this exhibition during my second year at Chelsea (BA). I feel Tacita Dean is the most obvious link to my work in terms of the capturing of trees and nature. Her films including flying birds in a white gallery space were deeply touching; I did a group project where we projected my film of a flock of birds into Chelsea's morgue and its corridor (BA).
Leonora Carrington. (1945)The House Opposite. Tempera on board. Photograph from Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art.
Leonora Carrington The House Opposite (1945) - a blending of the real and hallucinatory, the human and other.
Francis Bacon. (1972) Painting from Triptych. Oil and sand on canvas. Francis Bacon: Man and Beast, RA.
Francis Bacon Painting from Triptych August 1972. Oil and sand on canvas. I feel it is a painful evocation of his psyche following his partner's suicide. His works have a rawness and are openly disturbing yet human and relatable.
Rudy Burckhardt. Jackson Pollock at work, 1950. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Jackson Pollock - materiality/ physicality/ energy/ large-scale.
Helen Frankenthaler. (2004) Snow Pines, 2004. Thirty-four colour woodcut from 16 woodblocks. Helen Frankenthaler Foundation.
Helen Frankenthaler Radical Beauty: Snow Pines, 2004.
"The one rule is that there are no rules" (Dulwich Picture Gallery, 2022)
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"Something turns out not as expected ...that's the magic" (Ibid)
"What concerns her is if she has made a beautiful picture" - Jane Findland - I'm looking at sombre beauty (Findland, 2022).
Lynda Benglis. (Jan 16-Feb 15, 2020) Hills and Clouds. 'organic phosphorescent forms' (Pacegallery.com).
Since my Foundation I have repeatedly returned to Benglis' exciting organic sculptures, some of which look like tree trunks/roots. She experiments with alternative materials.
Placebo. (2022) Placebo Happy Birthday In The Sky. Digital album cover. Spotify.
Brian Molko from my favourite alternative rock band Placebo. I feel he embodies gothic aesthetic and androgyny which intrigue me.
Shoot from Terrarium
I have been thinking about Mark Fairnington’s lecture where he commented on how the “pursuit of realism takes you into something strange, disturbing, quite Surreal” (Fairnington, 2023). Although my practice often captures photographed ‘real’ trees I am also interested in where the tree which starts off as a realist sketch becomes intentionally abstracted by the mediums I use. Recently in a crit Andrew Grassie perceived my work as spooky which I liked as I have often tried to capture a starkness as well as a beauty in trees. The large black backgrounds continue the theme of finding beauty in sombreness and perhaps a black-and-white way of looking at life, with an edge of nihilism. When looking after my terrarium I noticed this thirsty shoot which followed a similar sensation - it is a ‘real’ root yet I felt it held a surreal quality. To me the root, in combination with its shadow took on the form of a man with its central body and almost hand-like branches. I felt there was an eeriness in its skeletal nature. The round form at the bottom could be interpreted as a tail above legs. Looking at the shoots there I associated them not only with trees (bigger than that in the terrarium) but animal forms. I felt it was a sensual experience smelling the sweet musty glass container with damp shoots which were torn off from the tree. I related to how a healthy activity could bring experiences with the Surreal and darker imagination.
This shoot reminded me of the sword-fish-like skeletons in the National History Museum which intrigued and frightened me as a child.
I have been thinking about Mark Fairnington's lecture where he commented on how the "pursuit of realism takes you into something strange, disturbing, quite Surreal" (Fairnington, 2023). Gavin Edmond's reading discussion 'Visions of the self' centred around Freudian theories and the Rorschach test which explores perception, a theme which arises repeatedly when looking at the forms within trees and when showing my work to others (who often find figures in my tree paintings) (Edmonds, 2023).
Mia Graham
Burial exhibition
INCUBATOR-23 : MIA GRAHAM
Mia Graham is a recent graduate from Camberwell College of Arts who studied for a bachelors in painting. I went to see her first solo exhibition in the Incubator gallery and was inspired. She shares my interest in Nature and Mortality which was evoked through her works: ‘Informed by an acute awareness of both human and animal experiences, Graham’s work visually integrates nature with biographical representations.’ (Incubator, 2023).
As I entered the room I was met by this etching of ‘THE LONELY ANGEL OAK’. My practice centres around portraiture of trees. I was enchanted by this whimsical yet dreary depiction which embodied a sombreness which I am drawn to. The white spaces in-between branches created a bitter coldness. At a closer look I could see the minute details of line making up the bark and swirls where the screen was perhaps wiped or lightly scratched ?.
I particularly liked this painting of rabbits in a burrow. There is a clear sense of shelter in how your eye is led to the distant entrance to the tunnel which is lit with outside light. The rabbits are clambering over one another like vermin but also reminiscent of a comforting, safe huddle. I find the top rabbit particularly interesting in the way it is pale with empty eyes; there is a sense of the infrared camera view but also a ghostliness. Is it a creature of death? It is written ‘the recurring motifs of rabbits and hares - historically, symbols of vitality, rebirth and resurrection’ (ibid). Roots bring the essence of undergrowth to life.
This portrait or self-portrait with a hare evoked the animal and human connection, yet I found myself envisioning a touching embrace with the creature of death; it could be imagined as a comfort, or tear-jerking acceptance of the creature of death. The hollow eyes of the hare made this fantasy eminent as the animal appears as a body between life and death. I felt the sitter’s posture was itself animalistic - large feet indicate a grounded-ness and the bent wrist reminded me of Paula Rego’s ‘Dog Woman’.
Paula Rego.(1994) Dog Woman. Pastel on canvas. Victoria Miro.
I looked more closely at the surface of the painting and noticed the layers of thinner and thicker paint,
overlapped by drips. I am particularly interested in how paint sits on the surface and its texture.
I was touched by this nude with fluid brush strokes. I felt there was a sense of being at one with nature. The sitter seems to fall into the surroundings at peace in the nude as naturally as animals curl up to sleep in the earth. A shadow around the eye creates a dreaminess. The room enclosed on the nude much like the rabbits were enclosed by the burrow. I noticed how the blues and greens of Incubator’s interior echoed the tones of Graham’s paintings. There was an interesting play of a narrow rectangular painting in the bottom floor capturing rabbits squeezed into the burrow as the viewers similarly squeezed into the underground space; this perhaps continued the theme of human and animal experiences with nature - in this case with the viewers observing and partially mimicking the burrow. We were both on the outside and the inside. Incubator demonstrated the importance of the placement of works.
This piece whimsically included human hair. I felt it broke the final barrier between the fantasy of a painting and reality. A reality which is primitive and human. The brushstrokes mirrored the waves of hair. The stickiness and wiriness holds an animalistic quality.
Bibliography
https://www.victoria-miro.com/artworks/29910/
Artist’s information provided by
Incubator. (2023) INCUBATOR-23 : MIA GRAHAM.
The Research Festival
Student's book 'Lover's Lungs'
Student's illustrated book.
I liked how the two artist's above explored love, sexuality and heartbreak through poetry and illustration of animals. The book format seemed an intimate way to draw together ideas, written and visual.
This book seemed an artwork itself. This inspired me as an immediate way to demonstrate and catalogue materiality.
‘Memory as material - Surrealist collaboration’
After attending the workshop ‘Memory as material - Surrealist collaboration’ at the Research Festival I was thinking about how neon paper had been used as a backdrop for paintings of our nostalgic memories; I suppose there is a link between neon and nostalgia evoking a vivid or hyper-sensual experience. My tutor commented on the use of saturated bright colours in films. I depicted a childhood memory of a goldfish unfortunately getting temporarily stuck in the handle of a plastic rice container in the garden (it survived).
MA Pop-Up Show
I loved this dark collection of human-animal creatures in monochrome by a painting student.
I loved how this photography student used resin to encase photos from her family archive (discreetly layered above each other inside). I particularly like the detail in this piece, mirroring the length of the bat, with a hint of yellow.
This sculpture student had experimented with classical figures in different poses and materials which reminded me of my studies of Classical civilisation.
I was intrigued by how the sculpture student created a fight between two figures within a resin block.
This sculpture was particularly beautiful. The form inside almost looks like a flying origami bird. It was vivid and had a lightness. I imagined the box having water inside and was surprised when it had air. The plinth blends into the surroundings drawing attention to the box with the form inside.
This stained glass window caught my eye at Camberwell. It continues an interest in transparency and vivid glass; it made me consider making a stained glass piece featuring a tree.
These bean bags were a disturbing sensual experience. Although comfortable and stretchy, it felt as though you were sitting on naked forms which felt eerily like sweaty skin and looked equally repulsive yet alluring.
On the theme of skin this is my cousin's English bulldog Muffin. He is the perfect example of excess skin, beastly folds and organic form.
Slade Interim Showcase 2023
The sharp hook holding up the piece evoked imagery of meat at the butchers, combined with the sheep's hair. The form was almost sausage-like or intestine-like. It has an organic feel. The smaller sculpture drew the eye to the floor.
This artist had an archival cluster of works following a theme of mushrooms. There was a play on scale from small forms in boxes, to a larger more biological white sculpture. I liked the experimental nature of the pieces in their treatment of the mushrooms, materiality and how they were displayed. I found I was intrigued by the balance between delicacy and disgust. There was a variety of textures - dry, sticky and indented.
This cocoon-like inflated form was coming out from a pipe. It also looked like a spider's egg-sack.
This sculpture also played with organic and disgusting form. It felt stretched and was transparent with things stuck inside. It hung theatrically from a piece of wood, casting a shadow which stretched down the wall. It reminded me of a spider's web but also resin, or gum from trees. Skin is also evoked as if shedded by a reptile and left to hang.
Jack Kinsman. (2023)The Assuming Device. Balsa wood, glue, wire, and foam ear plugs. Slade, London.
My cousin's sculptures explored the animal gaze through physical interactions with the sculptures. The sculpture above had a chin-rest; you looked forward and the wood created the illusion of seeing outwards like a horse with eyes on the sides of its head.
Themes of interest
Trees
Sombreness
Gothic
fluidity
black birds
Ethereal
Ephemeral
Ungraspable memory
vivid graspable experience
Experiencing Nature
Charcoal sketches
Landscapes that look like paintings (Hampstead Heath)
Wood
Grain
The Romantic
Animal
Experimentation
Nostalgia - fish - neon - vivid
Green
black
transparency
sensual
texture
organic
2D, 3D
Sense of Space - spirituality - the paranormal
Moons and clouds
Roots
Narrative
Perception
Physical experience of nature
time
The black silhouette of trees
Folds/skin
Emotion
Disgust
Delicacy
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The strange
Development of research
Although I have attended many lectures this term, I feel next term I need to do more private research into my interests, visiting exhibitions and collections and reading in the library. Experiential research is central to my practice such as being in nature and reflecting on what is drawing my attention. It has been recommended that I visit the Petrichor exhibition at Kew Gardens.
Experiential Research
I took this photograph in Regent's park. I feel it demonstrates my initial interest in trees. This tree was very tall and had a theatrical beauty. The row of trees at the entrance of the park holds a place of nostalgia as I used to visit the park with my cousins as a child and spent much of last summer revisiting it. I love the dark silhouettes of trees where you can see the intricacy of each branch and diversity of forms which often can be perceived as figurative. There are different shapes in the negative spaces between the branches which can also be perceived as eye-like. I like this overlap between the real and the imaginary. I feel trees are both mundane and strange - it still amazes me that huge forms organically grow from the ground which will outlive us by hundreds of years. They are mortality symbols. Yet I feel this amplifies their association with the romantic as they remind you of the impermanence of human lives. I find there is an overlap with gothic imagery in how there is a creepiness to trees in their limbs which often look like hands and veins; they are both dead and alive.
In Hampstead Heath I was enchanted by the dappled light on this tree.
Beautiful shadows and dappled light on the ground, Hampstead Heath.
Landscape that looked like a painting, Kenwood House, Hampstead Heath.
Two interlinked trees, Hampstead Heath. I was drawn to two trees seen across a vast expanse of grass walking with an old friend. We resonated with the trees and imagined being them in a second life. There was a captivating starkness to the English landscape. In a tutorial recently a tutor commented on how my tree paintings are reflections of an inner state of mind and I feel this is true.
I found this dead tree trunk at Hampstead Heath. I often find myself drawn to the fluid yet angry spiky forms of dead tree trunks. My next painting is going to be a black wood panel with a neon green acrylic or acrylic/glue painting of a dead tree trunk which captures the energy of this type of form, symbolising mortality and vivid experience evoking the freedom found being in nature. This photograph also reminded me of Mark Fairnington's painting (2023).
Mark Fairnington. (2023) Root Finger. Oil on canvas. markfairnington.com.
In December I recorded this magical sight found at Hampstead Heath. I felt there was a dreaminess and beautiful sombreness to how the moon would appear and disappear behind moody grey clouds. The scene captured my interest in the dark silhouettes of trees and the moon. There were layers of stillness and motion between the thin bare still trees in the cold and fleeting clouds and birds. Clouds embody a fluidity which is mesmerising.
I took this video of the moon in the darkness of my bedroom window. Although I couldn't see the dramatic dark clouds passing in front of the moon through my phone's camera, I liked how it captured a fuzzy, abstract light form which changed shape and luminosity. It had it's own dreaminess and intrigue.
Bibliography
Callery, S. (2023) 'Painters' Forum : A talk by Simon Callery' [Lecture]. Camberwell College of Arts. 11 October.
Fairnington, M. (2023) 'Postgraduate Lecture Programme: Mark Fairnington' [Lecture]. Camberwell College of Arts. 4 October.
Edmonds, G. (2023) 'Reading Group: Visions of The Self with Gavin Edmonds' [Reading Group]. Camberwell College of Arts. 2 November.
Findland, J. (2022) 'Helen Frankenthaler Radical Beauty: No Rules Symposium' [Lecture]. Camberwell College of Arts. 26 March.
Helen Frankenthaler: Radical Beauty (2021) [Exhibition]. Dulwich Picture Gallery. 15 September 2021-18 April, 2022.
Dean, T. (2021) Purgatory (Mount I) [Coloured pencil on Fuji Velvet paper mounted on paper]. Frith Street Gallery, Golden Square 1, London (Viewed: 1 October 2021).
L.Aberth, S. (2010/2020) Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art. Uk : Lund Humphries.
Moorhead, J. (2017) The Surreal Life of Leonora Carrington. Great Britain: Virago Press.
Francis Bacon. (1972) Painting from Triptych [Painting]. RA, London (Viewed:11 February 2022).
Burckhardt, R. (1950) Jackson Pollock at work, 1950. Available at: https://www.sarahransomeart.com/blog/what-inspired-jackson-pollocks-art (Accessed: 7 November 2023).
Helen Frankenthaler Foundation. (2004) Snow Pines, 2004. Available at: https://www.frankenthalerfoundation.org/artworks/snow-pines/details/all(Accessed: 7 November 2023).
PACE Gallery. (2020) Lynda Benglis Hills and Clouds. Available at: https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/lynda-benglis-2/ (Accessed: 2 October 2023).
Placebo. (2022) Placebo Happy Birthday In The Sky. Available at: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6RZUqkomCmb8zCRqc9eznB/discography/all (Accessed: 2 October 2023).
INCUBATOR -23 : MIA GRAHAM BURIAL (2023) [Exhibition]. Incubator Gallery. 18 - 29 October 2023.
Paula Rego (1994) Dog Woman [Pastel on canvas]. Victoria Miro (Viewed: 24 October 2023). Available at: https://www.victoria-miro.com/artworks/29910/ (Accessed:24 October 2023).
Kinsman, J. (2023) The Assuming Device [balsa wood, glue, wire and foam ear plugs]. Slade, London (Viewed: 14 December 2023).
Slade Interim Showcase (2023) [Exhibition]. Slade, London.12 -14 December, 2023.
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​Fairnington, M. (2023) Root Finger [oil on canvas]. Mark Fairnington (Viewed: 22 January 2024). Available at: https://markfairnington.com/roots/ (Accessed: 22 January 2024).