20090513

engaged

exploring inter-subjective encounters, exchange and ties.

two participants engaged (maybe reactional, mutual, exchange )  for the duration to disengage  at the end of a participating relationship.

Performance artist, Tom Marshman



Tom Marshman
10 May at 16:27
Tom Marshman - The Invitation.
Over the last year Tom has been presenting his trilogy of performance work 'Everyone's Companion to Life & Love' to groups of older people across four regions. Tom has gathered memories and stories in response to these 3 shows and developed a new performance inspired by these meetings.
The show re-examines and remembers the abdication speech of the king, a childhood journey on the strawberry line, a debutante lying drunk on the floor of the Savoy and explores the possibility of what can happen when parachutes are remade into blouses.

Conversations with Jeremy Spencer, Art Theorist

Your last image reminded me of this work -

http://www.georginastarr.com/dining.htm

Thank you for your work today, and I do apologise for the problems with computers etc.

Jeremy



On 11 May 2009, at 20:04, Amy Spurdens wrote:

the blurb/sound that accompanies is quite beautiful.
It is an avenue to re-enact dining alone through audience members experiencing the isolation..still a niche of 'gallery goers'/ladies who lunch!.. Thank you for sending that.

Why did you choose to study art theory?



From: Jeremy Spencer (jeremy_spencer@me.com)
Sent: 11 May 2009 20:13:18
To: Amy Spurdens (amyspurdens@hotmail.co.uk)
I wanted to study here - http://www.leeds.ac.uk/fine_art/info/pgcs/maah/index.html - and I was a terrible artist, but I do miss, you know, making stuff. Pleased you like the Starr.

Jeremy




The Starr







DINING ALONE

Sound piece, text & photograph.

An invitation to make a work for a Paris restaurant turned into a lonely and paranoid meal for one for Starr. At a later date diners at the same restaurant are invited into the wine cellar where they can also dine alone by candle-light while listening to Starr's thoughts from her own dining alone experience.

Also while in Paris Starr dines alone on a makeshift table by the Seine, it's a quiet spot where she can be completely alone away from the eyes of other diners.



Exhibition history for Dining Alone:

Restaurant, La Bocca, Paris, 1993

Diary, Cornerhouse, Manchester, 2000

Saatchi Young Artists

my profile:


http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist_profile/Amy+Spurdens/108749.html

20090508

Developmental research essay (very, very unfinished)

DEVELOPMENTAL RESEARCH

My work is constantly changing theoretically and therefore visually, I am a de-centered practitioner; working on multiple themes in various mediums with an indistinct style running through all of my work. I am constantly journeying, understanding, testing and hypothesizing concepts whilst, running parrallel, am attempting to express a concept relatively and objectively.

Using Joseph Beuys’ public persona as an example, that he created from fact and fiction, a contrived self-appointed personal stance thread that takes some of the objectivity away from the viewer. Yet this subjectivity may have been a prerequisite to his further works, in a similar way to my semester 3 (which in hindsight are art as therapy) creations. Art Theorist, Benjamin Buchloh criticises Beuys retreat into myths and symbolism and criticises Beuys’ rhetoric, calling it, ‘simple minded, utopian drivel’.

 I am interested in art being a way of life and how much art and life can infringe and harmonise with each other. Bourriard states that, ‘contemporary art is definitely developing a political project when it endeavors to move into the relational realm by turning it into an issue.’


Spaces and accessing relational aesthetics
The aesthetic is predetermined by the site and by the found objects used to create the den and the control is a piece of vintage fabric, usually used for the dens roof. The intention upon initialising this project was to change spaces and integrate these spaces into the environment, with intention to leave the dens after initial creation to be evolved, de-created or untouched by the public, institution workers and nature. I am interested in what happens to the dens post-creation with more emphasis on how the work lives on in the viewers text or participation and less
of what the author states that the work means. with reference to Barthe’s essay, ‘From work to text.’ Barthes’ explained that, “the Text is radically symbolic: a work conceived, perceived and received in its integrally symbolic nature is a text.” What happens to the work after creation, socially, with audience participation or naturally, after the author leaves.

DEN5, Social Habitat
.
Bourriard defines a relational art as, “an art taking as its theoretical horizon the realm of human interactions and its social context, rather than the assertion of an independant and symbolic space.” In my dens project, I am lessening the importance of a ‘symbolic space’, therefore the notions of Barthes’ ‘text’ become a lesser relevance compared to the ‘realm of human interactions and its social context’, that Barthes states as relational art.


Rikrit Tiravanija inhabited the gallery space and served up ‘pad thai’ to his viewers.
Bourriard states that, ‘art is a state of encounter.’


Bishop disregards Tirivanija’s work for targeting a niche audience only, an audience of ‘gallery-goers’ who do not fit the bill of a democratic relational art. She states that,”.....”. Bishop rates Santiago Sierra’s work for reflecting the “tension..... (art and social sphere)”, in ‘6 people paid to remain in cardboard boxes’, where he pays illegal workers $9 for occupying a box for 3 hours. She shuns) Bourriards vision of relational art as being harmonious and utopian, yet I think there is still a possibility here for relational art not to have serious undertones. According to Bourriard, a work is political as soon as it, “incorporates.....people socially,” and Bishop quotes ....... as ...... Sierra goes into public streets to find illegal workers before his exhibition gallery opens.


20090503

Ashes

concept. to bring the ashes out of the one to one relation to viewer and into dialogue that penetrates further.

solution 1, performance. standing water bowl similar to baptism holy water, audience in a line baptise with ash. art/religion. religiously create destroy. shira.

plan. research baptism and other religious ceremonies especially involving ash.

solution 2. cremation performance. give a sketchbook/painting (ash) to an audience to spread. Request for photos of places they rest to be emailed.

plan. investigate this after essay research and writing....

plan 3. disperse the ashes myself with photos documenting place / ash in air

PLAN 4. to give each bottle of ash to a different person to disperse and request that it is documented in some way, ie. with a photograph or a letter about anything related to their interpretation of the project. And a request to have the documents given to me. (These documents to be exhibited with cushions of fabric control from dens project or a print of documents on the cushions)...

20090502

Den 9 sailing out

unfinished studio...



am thinking of screwing in a frame so it can balance standing up maybe with a piece of material on top











i need a canoo or something watertight to make a floating den..



Year 2 exhibition comments book

























20090429

Area 8 Pearl hunters

I started gathering oyster shells for this project and then became fully absorbed in gathering



















constants:
changing a space
vintage fabric
leaving materials at site
working with found objects and structures in original space
habitable yet uninhabited

20090422

DEN 7 inhabiting a space


no need for expanding the den more than minimal

20090419

DEN 7 heritage habits

next den...


at the old wall roman water sign?
graveyard?
underground?

20090418

Essay Synopsis.

im blank.

...does there have to be a blurb to explain the work?
-hypothesis>....yes this is a HE course get over it

Skinners motivational theory - i am not inspired to write this synopsis because past similar activities (chores) have not induced pleasure. Im not happy with explaining/contextualising/researching my work within the institutional constructs of a scholarly essay... (structuralism/post structuralism link)

Toni's nearly finished hers and said my advice worked; to use the essay as an opportunity for growth, fun and exploration. time to take own advice.

It involves listening to loud punk music..wahey

Ok heres first draft..







DEVELOPMENTAL RESEARCH SYNOPSIS

I am going to explore and break down relevant theories and debates that relate to my art practice to be able to formulate a statement that expresses my personal philosophy and underpins my work.

My work is about finding and exploring something fresh and alive. It is focused around a planned act or chemistry of a moment that can only be experienced by those present at the site. Photography is used to document the work.

My work is constantly changing theoretically and therefore visually, I am a de-centred practitioner working on multiple themes with an indistinct style running through all of my work. I am constantly journeying, understanding, testing and hypothesizing concepts whilst, running parrallel, am attempting to express a concept relatively and objectively.

I appreciate the controversial, innovative and ritualistic performances of Joseph Beuys and will investigate Beuys essays, ‘Not just a few are called, but everyone,’ and ‘I am searching for Field Vision.’ Strangely, Beuys created his public persona from fact and fiction, this self-appointed personal stance thread takes some of the objectivity away from the viewer. Yet this subjectivity may have been a prerequisite to his further works, in a similar way to my semester 3 (which in hindsight are art as therapy) creations. Art Theorist, Benjamin Buchloh criticises Beuys retreat into myths and symbolism and criticises Beuys’ rhetoric, calling it, ‘simple minded, utopian drivel’. I will take into account Rosalind Krauss’s writings on Beuys and link this to my work.


Following the above, I see myself as having re-accessed art at the beginning of Semester 4. Although absorbing and participating in Semester 3, my creations and thoughts were within the ‘art as therapy’ bracket, which was necessary at that time. I had to test the limits of art as therapy in a similar way to testing painting and printmaking as an artform to be able to put them to rest and to move on. I have rejected pretty pictures.I am interested in art being a way of life and how much art and life can infringe and harmonise with each other. This links with ideological political philosophies that I feel in the right place to be able to realise, encourage, disentangle and reformulate.

My current main project is creating public dens that are habitable yet initially uninhabited. The aesthetic is predetermined by the site and by the found objects used to create the den and the control is a piece of vintage fabric, usually used for the dens roof. The touch of intention upon initialising this project was to change spaces and integrate these spaces into the environment, with intention to leave the dens after initial creation to be evolved, de-created or untouched by the public, institution workers and nature.
I am interested in what happens to the dens post-creation and am going to attempt summarising this with reference to Barthes essay, ‘From work to text.’





now i just need to clean that up and add images..

20090417

on blogging

http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/article/406327

thoughts: long-winded

Work by BA hons 3rd year @ Colchester Institute

http://www.redbubble.com/people/new-horizons

gut reaction to initial images all placed together on a webpage (or in future exhibition) - disconnection between varied subject matter and what each student is persuing..

p.s. the Cindy Sherman private view

i heard that the experience of Cindy Sherman's private view last night was shit even though Sherman was there herself. I heard there was sardines of pretentious art students (from the (un)trusted source of gilbert richards) bragging about which prestigious artschool's they attend.... if i wasn't so financially fucked i would have gone to see what she actually looks like, let alone her 3 exhibited photographs.
And as Toni and I were discussing on Wednesday, its quality, not quantity that's important. We weren't talking about Sherman's (lack of) photos.


hypothesis for DENS

reflection. Den 2 and 3 have a sense of emptiness and nothingness (in a negative sense because this was not intentional)

why. can tell that they havent been inhabited or are unhabitable for humans. insect & rat habitat. disconnection and isolation from den was not the intention

suggestions for change. human inhabiting space and changing space, ergonomically, comfortability, uncomfortability, spacial awareness

test. studio den was rather inviting to escape the hum drum...

hypothesis. have the space inhabited and once created (by me), leave for change by the inhabitant(s)

Black Flag game

I am a participant

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8436101691&ref=ts

finding this very motivational even though it borders on AP (advanced procrastination)... yes another essay to write, "outline your personal philosophy that underpins your work that takes into account current relevant art debates" blah blah BLACK FLAG BLACK FLAG

BLACK FLAG !

....(later in the day...________
I really wanted to flag the back of a couple of community police officers.. hearing mothers voice in my head, "amy..im worried youre getting too passionate in the subversive again.."
this is not my art as this wasnt the initial intention or my idea. Intention was predetermined by the creator of the game, my national diploma lecturer Alex Pearl. Is this Alex's art or is it art..from what I know, I'd assume that this is a free project that belongs to nobody/everyone.. or better still, has abandoned notions of materialistic authorship whilst parodying ownership... ? ... . . . . . . . ? . . .
This mini project has given me some freedom and perspective to reflect on my (art) values and 'personal philosophy' and its also given me the most motivation i've had in a while.

click________





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p.p.s. very aware of the overuse of brackets ()

20090415

20090414

DEN 3



20090406

DEN 1 Studio



searching for something new? or no(t)(w) ?

i came across this colchester lecturers work... clair isles, her photog and inst is kinda similar to what im doing/have just done. seeing documentation of her work made me feel odd. i like it. the association and relating yet total distance and alienation from her images, theres an aesthetic thats really similar but somethings not similar..if only i knew what.
i like the contradictions/juxtaposition it makes me feel and dont think i need to know what

(2 weeks later..now.i.know... its uninhabited somewhat ghostly.. still&dead like my dens 2&3..
plan..
go back to den 2 site and attempt to make habitable
-risks> rats, mice, infectious diseases, broken glass, poaching land, littering private land, nettle stings, massive mutated spiders and slugs
-hypothesis> do it anyway.)





20090405

Constructing and deconstructing. Fake Den 2

the sign, signifier, signified
making and unmaking
putting on and taking off
putting on
backwards
taking off


putting on. 100 photos of putting on...10 second animation.. tripod/still camera position blutakc and tape in a tree!!!!!
making 100 changes.. outside natural light will change, things i cant alter, things that happen
some might include manipulating the space only a minute fraction of the 10 seconds..might just be weather change and putting a bit of fabric up

10 seconds of PUTTING-ON stop animation
followed by the same again but backwards..backwards ..ongoing video evolving the documenting manipulating the documenting (film deescalates the importance of photograph as object, putting more emphasis on the action..draw the line here or continue to film timelapse of what happens to den after its creation
-problems> deviating from intention into too much focus on documentation
-solution> ask others to be involved
-hypothesis> the documenting is tertiary to the work and of little proportional importance. just take a photo)

questions from a viewer.>did the installation/den/space get taken down or did it stay? were the photos documenting putting it up or taking it down???


I WALKED 10 MINUTES TO THE SITE TODAY I WALKED BACKWARDS WITH THE OCCASIONAL GLANCE BEHIND WALKING BACKWARDS seeing youre footsteps and un-footprints after youve made them. something about cycles and change and seasons and not knowing..






20090319

working with whats already there


i like this idea.
heres the photo from working with what I found in a house....
refreshing making a setup with newly found objects. spontaneous

-hypothesis>bring found object (already occupying den area) ideas into den creation. myself as a tool to relate the chosen space pre-den to the den objects/construction .

20090310

Photoshopping attempt


The plan was for Toni and I to swap skin
bricks, building blocks, genetics


Photography. 6th - 9th March


















 the everyday-ness of home photo's

































Intimacy between photographer & subject: Jaques Lartigue photographing girlfriend Renee Perle


perle is eating her sweetcorn, aware of the camera..