Making ideas with brick.

My first blog post for 2016.

So far I've been working on several different projects some I can begin to drip feed images through. Here are some ideas emerging for a couple of pending exhibitions later in the year.

My continuing fascination with brick is a starting point. Some of these pieces have been found some have been given to me and others have been carved by myself. 

What I'm immediately thinking about is weight. 

Or how these pieces and compositions can join together to make one large piece of work.

Revisiting these porcelain chunks that were initially split into sections. However,  I've never fully explored the fact that they all belong together. Considering that they were cut from one piece of clay there is an immediate connection.

The cuts and joins, the raw outer edges, the traces of being handled.
These elements have been a consideration of mine for a while now and it may have been something that remained part of that feeding process whilst developing another idea. 

I often find that pieces of work that have been produced quickly as part of a bigger thought can still hold their own as a stand alone object. There is a huge value in these pieces and to move them into another context can often unlock those initial thoughts that may or may not have fed the final work that they were originally born from. 

As well as being consumed by the idea of weight in clay I have also been throwing other key words around such as suspension, gravity and balance. 

Using existing work to begin this process I ventured outside with a bag of string, hooks, wire, sheeting, fabric and with Ben's help we began to explore how we could convey these singular descriptive words through objects and compositions. The works will not be shown outside but I find it so much easier to have space as opposed to being restricted to a room or studio. It also helps to have the addition of the elements to contend with because this could help change the direction of the thinking or help to stumble across something that would never have previously been a consideration. 

This is a starting point! I still have a long way to go but I always enjoy the time that allows you to really experiment with ideas without feeling they are too precious. Thoughts and ideas come and go quite swiftly at this stage. 

Week 2: Compositions with Objects.

Last week I started looking at the relationship between some of my smaller ceramic objects originally through the use or instruction of a particular word and some of the found objects that have been given to me or collected by myself. 

This week i'm extending this exploration to a series of porcelain objects originally matched up with Sasha's photography shown last year in Arthouse1. http://www.arthouse1.co.uk

Whilst I'm working on this smaller scale I'm always considering how these structures could be scaled up. 

The collection of five images below have been taken from every angle or rotating the porcelain piece around in order for me to understand the points of contact between the objects or surfaces. There are resting points here, some fit more comfortably than others. The porcelain piece has two distinct surfaces one side is glazed and the other is untouched from being wrapping in it's bag. There are varying thicknesses throughout the slice and it's possible to get a sense of that as there are small areas that the light reflects through. Another point of interest here is the space that is created in-between the two objects where light and shadow come into play. 

Here by contrast I'm looking at how the porcelain objects fit into brick and contains it.
There is a more intimate connection here where light shadow and space does not exist between the two. 

My Inspiration

For a while now I've been trying to make sense of the many many different strands of focus and interests that make up my practice.

Because I don't make collections of work or have a range of objects I'm reconised by or known for I think I can often feel as though I have many separate elements.

However, on closer inspection I really don't think that is necessarily the case.

There are key ideas and points of reference I take for my conceptual thinking and in this post I hope to be able to show some of the inspiration, sources of research and smilarities that run throughout my multi layered working methods. 

If I begin with ceramics as this is always at the core of my thinking despite the fact I may not always use it or indeed fire it. Most of my exploratory work begins around either clay, clay materials in their raw form or clay soils.  

 Puddle clay from Stoke on Trent 

Raw clay before it's processed into bags or made it's way through a pug mill. 

This is one stage I love about this material, It can be seen in clay pits in such large quantites and it hi-lights how enormous, heavy, and dense this is but for me it really inspired ideas of being able to built on a large scale. 

On the other end of the spectrum I adore using porcelain it's a material that really needs to be handled with care and experience. Where I'm at this present moment with porcelain is trying to reliquish control and push it to it's breaking point.  

Brick a clay material I fell in love with during my MA. 
By using multiples allows you to build sizeable pieces of work but I'm also drawn to materials that may be considered mundane or ordinary. Most of us may be confronted with brick on a daily basis but it becomes somewhat invisible or we take it for granted as a standard building block for houses and buildings. 

Once you step away and begin to look more carefully at the range of bricks the different colours and textures used and how they have been positioned together it becomes more evident that the common brick offers so much more. 

  

The Red House 

Cambridge 

Continuing with the possible idea of the mundane the next subject has recently become prominent after my exhibition last year at Siobhan Davies dance where I was looking at local London clay and soils specific to Southwark. This has opened up a new fascination with soils and geology across the UK. 

Wherever, I visit I take a roll of small plastic bags and a small trowel with me to remove a sample and come home to test it out on to canvas.

Layers for the Human Nature Season at Siobhan Davies 2014

The act of making is obviously an huge part of what I do and this can often be overlooked when confronted with a final piece of work. Process and working methods are equally important, sometimes I find it can be more important and revealing that's one reason I always like to give an insight into each project from start to finish. 

Mark-making 

Whether this is on paper, Canvas or clay. Texture and surface normally plays a part in what  I explore and it maybe linked back to my fascination with the handling of materials and tactility. 

Moving on to art movements other artists designers and architects I've already mentioned Richard Serra, Anselm Kiefer and Peter Zumthor in previous posts. 

I haven't talked about Minimalism or Land Art in any great depth. Two movements that have had an influence on my work to date and continues to.
I've recently been reading a book called Minimalism: Origins by Edward Strikland.  

One difficult question I was asked was: What is your aesthetic? 
I find that fairly tricky to answer however, I will attempt to and the two words that immediately come to mind are Minimal and Raw. 

I try not to overly complicate work but when you are working with materials that have normally come straight from the ground I like to keep them as pure as possible you are ultimately dealing with an unrefined quality. 

Here are two examples of work I'm particularly fond of in the Forest of Dean and think they both encapsulate my description.

Raw By Neville Gabie, located 2001

http://www.forestofdean-sculpture.org.uk/index.php/sculptures/96

By David Nash, charred larch 
http://www.forestofdean-sculpture.org.uk/index.php/sculptures/60

Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail

Architectural spaces, Phenomenology 

Something I always strive for in my work is to involve the audience or to allow the viewer to be able to react with the work on a sensory level. I'm not interested in making precious work that can't be touched, walked through, sat on. This is a common notion born from the context of the gallery and I'm certainly not a fan of the plinth. 
The plinth for me conjures up the notion of unapproachable work that can simply be viewed or enjoyed from afar. 

Phenomenology is a subject I attempted to begin to understand about four or five years ago. It's often talked about in the context of architecture and architectural practice.
It's a huge area to try and condense down into a few sentences. 
Essentially it has been born from philosophy and psychology based around the work of Edmund Husserl, and later developed by Heidegger.

Phenomenology is the human perception of a place space or experience. it's not tangible and this makes it a complex area to try and define.
Despite that being the case it's something I try and capture within parts of my research and development of an idea or project. 

Whether this is through tactility, sound, light, dark, small confined spaces, or the positioning of the work itself. Every small detail and subtle nuance is considered. 

Winchester Cathedral Crypt.

Finally gardens are another important part of my practice. Fascinated with space, colour, planting, I grow plants myself this has to help with my understanding and appreciation. Gardens are more than simply places to step outside into. 
Gardens are to be truly experienced and there is a sense of freedom that can be gained from a garden. During my MA I spent a lot of my research visiting different kinds of garden spaces. From the highly formal layout of Sissinghurst to the French show in Chaumont exhibiting more experimental spaces.

They are spaces that are in a constant state of transformation not only with the plants life cycle but also with the weather conditions and changing of the seasons means that gardens are never static. You experience these fleeting moments and then it moves into the next phase and this continues all year round. 

Japanese Garden Vancouver 

Ightham Mote

The High Line New York

Physical traces of making: Part 3

Since my last additions based around 'Physical traces of making' I've been scaling the work up slightly and also looking at different ways to present it. 

Work in progress with porcelain 

The two or three pieces below have been photographed on mirror glass against white and black backgrounds to see how or whether it changes the appearance in any way. On closer inspection the porcelain against black seems to bring out more detail on the surface. 

The use of monotones in reversal is definitely something to explore further.

Mirror glass is a material I'm revisiting from the exhibition at Arthouse1 in 2014.
I'm fascinated by extending the work and revealing parts of the form that would normally be concealed by the plinth or surface it's sitting on. 

I'm particularly interested in these tiny points of contact with the mirror glass raising the rest of the surface up and away. Creating new visual spaces intangible spaces and small pockets of space. 

High fired Porcelain

Physical traces of making

This exploratory work has been sitting in my sketch book for a while now. I'm revisiting it as I think I've finally formulated my thinking enough to begin to develop it further.

I'm looking at the process of making and the importance of that direct contact or handling of a material through making. In this case I'm using three different clays. 

With a simple set of instructions such as: pushing, squeezing, folding, opening I've been interpreting and responding to these words through the movement and manipulation of the clay itself.

 The initial idea came from looking at Richard Serra's verb list. There is a rhythm to this list in much the same way there is a rhythm to many making processes. 

http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2011/10/20/to-collect

Each piece of clay begins in the shape of a ball. The idea is to work quickly without over thinking each instruction meaning you are left with an object that hasn't been overworked. All tools have been removed from this process. Every mark, trace and indentation has been made through my hands or contact with the work bench.

I will be posting more images as this begins to unfold. 

All images taken by Ben Winkley 2015

Exhibition at Arthouse1 October 2014

It's often said that simplicity requires a lot of hard work. In the case of our installation at Arthouse1 in Bermondsey Sasha and myself were setting up for about a week. 

A little longer than we both had expected but this particular exhibition required an exceptional attention to detail. We had decided to keep the ceramic works low to the ground in order for the audience to look at the work from a different perspective. 

I personally feel that a lot of galleries show work at eye level on plinths and it's too easy. It's a format we are all far too familiar with and it's not always the best way of really be able to focus on the work. 

Perpendicular opened on Thursday evening (9th October) after much help and assistance throughout from both Rebecca Fairman and Adrain Hicks. 

Here are a few images of the exhibition in natural daylight on the first day kindly taken by Adrian Hicks. 

www.arthouse1.co.uk

 Image taken by Adrian Hicks 2014

 Image taken by Adrian Hicks 2014

 Image taken by Adrian Hicks 2014

 Image taken by Adrian Hicks 2014

 Image taken by Adrian Hicks 2014

 Image taken by Adrian Hicks 2014

 Image taken by Adrian Hicks 2014

Image taken by Adrian Hicks 2014

Sasha is exhibiting two installations and a series of photographs that have been born from the installations themselves. Through the use of water, light and motion. 

These collaborative pieces titled Collection of five #1 and #2 comprise of small ceramic segments that sit along side Sasha'a photography. 

There is a strong synthesis between us both particularly through the use of mark making. 

Image Taken by Ben Winkley 2014 

Image taken by Ben Winkley 2014 

My two collections on show are titled Kuro and Shiro are looking at small intimate spaces that contain light. 

These objects are the complete opposite to Sasha'a works. They are dense, heavy and present within the space. 

There is a physical tactility to them and the process of making is evident within the traces and marks left either by my hand the tools or other processes I have undergone to achieve certain aesthetic qualities. 

Sasha's work is more transient it's continuously changing with movement, light and shadow. There is an illusion of something tangible but mark making has been created through an impermanant medium and there is an ethereal quality to the entire body of work showing here.

Perpendicular will be showing at Arthouse1 until 1st November 2014 

The gallery is open every Thursday-Sunday from 3pm - 7.30pm or by appointment 

www.arthouse1.co.uk

Perpendicular's ceramic pieces and photography for Arthouse1

As one exhibition sadly ends at Siobhan Davies another opens in a couple of weeks time at Arthouse1 in Bermondsey, London.

In my last post I talked about adding more images of work that will be shown in the exhibition and since then the kiln has been on pretty much continuously. I still have four or five more firings to squeeze in before completion but it's definitely coming together. 

I will be showing a series of black and white pieces along side Sasha's installations and photography. 

Sasha is working and developing a series of site specific works so I can't really show the installations at this stage until we begin to install next week. 

But here's a peek at some of the photographs and my ceramic objects.