Michael Landy is best known for his performance piece installation "Breakdown" in which he destroyed all of his personal objects. He made an inventory of everything he owned (7,227 items) and destroyed each one in a production line way, each stage the objects becoming more broken down.
Landy inspired work, destruction of materials, however, Landy used personal possessions to destroy, whereas I am using found materials. Destruction of this material was done using scissors, taken to a point in which I could not physically do anymore due to pain in hands.
These are the marks/drawings I made whilst reaching to touch the ceiling with different materials. I have also edited the images to see what effects they would give.
Original - Pen
Edited - Marks and indentations can be seen on this image.
Original - Crayon
Original - Paint
Edited - The marks on the image are more bold, and contrast well with the background.
After a few tutorials this week I have been given many directions to take and artists to look at. I have chosen to look at Matthew Barney first. He created photos and videos from restraining himself whilst trying to make a drawing. The purpose of him doing this was to create resistance in his muscles, breaking them down, letting them heal, therefore making them stronger.
I have experimented with this technique, using materials etc that I have in my own home, however, I am creating work for a different purpose. Restraining myself, or not being able to do something easily frustrates me, and I wanted to create this experience for the viewer. I attached paper to the ceiling of my bedroom (which I cannot reach without step ladders) and photographed myself attempting to make marks on the paper with various materials by jumping and stretching. I experimented with camera effects in order to capture movement within the images. I feel this experiment was a success, however, I feel that I could push this idea further.
Experimenting expressing current feelings, channeling them towards art, using various materials: acrylic paint, wax, hot glue. The piece has a lot of texture and depth, with no clear subject, this is for the viewer to decide.
Christmas, what a stressful time. Never knew how stressful it could get until you stopped enjoying the lazy days off school and started working in the real word, cramming everything in, and arranging visits to a million people!
Back to the art work. Even more stress.
I had been looking at other ways of visually showing stress, struggling to represent how I feel. I shut down and tend not to do anything. Looking around me for some inspiration in my pokey little flat, I see my results. Nothing has been done, no housework, washing, cleaning, sorting etc. Everywhere is a mess. This inspired me to trial an installation piece for my assessment, simply by leaving my studio in the mess it was in whilst preparing and pulling my hair out for the deadline. I took photos of my flat, which I would have been happy to display as pieces themselves however I decided to take this further and bring the chaotic state of my mind from my flat to my studio.
Before Christmas, I had a talk to a tutor about my work who basically told me to explore how stress can be shown visually in different ways (other than the clenched fists). I tend to make work personal to me, so began to think of what I do when i'm stressed and how I show it. I made a list of things in my journal and selected a few ideas to try. Firstly, I tend to have a really bad nights sleep, constantly tossing and turning, unable to escape from my stressful thoughts. I created a stop motion video of how the covers and pillows typically move around the bed when I have a restless nights sleep.
The video, for some reason uploaded with a fault, however, I use this in my favor and feel the distortion adds to the experience of viewing the video, creating an almost stressful experience for the viewer.
I then moved on to think of a 'meltdown', when I really don't know what to do, I feel isolated, and seem to just break down. I experimented by freezing objects in ice, therefore when the ice is melting, it reveals the objects. I used a biscuit wrapper in a bag to trial this technique, and found it worked quite well, therefore I created a larger piece incorporating various objects relating to stress, such as food and sweets (eating too much), a cigarette end (smoking) and wine corks and bottle tops (turning to alcohol). I only managed to photograph the piece completely frozen as it was then submitted for assessment, and was therefore left to form and melt by itself.
The photos are not the best, I admit, this is a pint to work on in future, however, the turkey tray was something I had a hand to hold the water and objects when the piece had melted. I enjoyed encapsulating objects and isolating them in water, something that I always have. I plan to carry on using this technique, however developing my ideas further, and possibly experimenting with isolating objects in clear resin.
