I came across Catherine Bertola by flipping through pages of a book on my break, and immediately was interested in her work as I could see similarities between her art practice and mine which I would like to talk about here. But first more about the artist!
What interested me from the start is the residency she did with other artists in Liverpool, called 'Further Up in the Air'. Further Up In The Air was a project which commissioned eighteen artists over two years to respond to the demolition of the Linosa Tower block in Liverpool, and the regeneration of the area local to it. Further Up In The Air built on the success of an earlier pilot project in another tower block on the same estate - Up In The Air. A broad range of artists spent a month working in one of the tower's empty flats in the period leading up to the block's demolition. One of these artists was Catherine Bertola. To read about the residency in detail here's a link:
Catherine Bertola reworked an embossed ivy pattern wallpaper by cutting round the outlines of the embossed leaves and partially pulling them away.
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| Catherine Bertola, If wall could talk....., 2002.
Installation at Linosa Close, Liverpool,
as part of 'Further up in the air'. |
"Catherine Bertola subtly intervenes within specific locations, often empty spaces – be they temporarily vacated prior to renovation, long-since abandoned or even derelict and destined for demolition." link:click here
This is interesting to me because my work is also site specific and I constantly try and find places to work in, as I am not satisfied working in a studio all the time. My work develops from the place itself so working in the studio is quite limiting.
"Seeking out the traces of their departed occupants, she uses these as the base material for her work. The markers of our physical bodies – such as fingerprints and dust – and the locations they inhabit – from bricks and mortar through to our choice of fabrics, wallpapers and paint colours – remain long after we have departed."
I am also interested in traces such as stains, marks and other things that are left in the space and the things that people don't appreciate or notice anymore e.g. the solo show where I was searching imperfections. In the solo show I went round imperfections on the wall which you can count as a trace from previous artist who was showing there, bringing audiences attention to that. However I believe Bertola has a more of a strong connection to history and the people who lived in the space.
"Nothing is ever really destroyed, only concealed or altered. Whether painted or papered over or reduced to dust, fragments of the original remain. Likewise, Bertola’s work is as much about the processes that take place both before and after the actual public exhibition of an individual piece of work."
I would love to work in an abandoned space as I believe the space would generate many ideas for me. However at the moment I am working with any space that grabs my attention to experiment, and work forms from there. It is temporary and I am ok with that.
"Labour intensive and repetitive in their creation, these processes often mimic the methods of archaeology or forensic science, digging beneath the surface to uncover past histories, architecture and functions."
Interestingly I found myself explaining my solo show work in exactly the same way. As I was forming work, going round the imperfections on the white gallery wall, I could not help but feel as though I was an archaeologist, digging up and bringing forward information lost and unseen that was a trace made by previous artists work.
"Largely site-specific and outside of the conventional gallery environment, individual works often remain in place for months or even years, their eventual erasure dependent on the future actions of those other than the artist."
The solo show was made particularly for a gallery space and it was temporary, however I really want to move away from gallery environment and concentrate more on other spaces which I believe will trigger for more ideas to form.
I feel as though Catherine Bertola's art work has opened my eyes that I need to work in different spaces more and get out the studio more often as I am a site- specific artist and being in the studio is limiting fro my ideas. At the moment I have several ideas I want to try out that includes me working in a different setting and out of my comfort zone which will be interesting. A project that I chose at uni will also help me to get out of a normal gallery/ studio setting as for this project I will be working with people of a different discipline and their setting which the people of that discipline are used to. This will be new to me as I will be responding to what happens there in some way and that Is very exciting.
~Ev
Interestingly I found myself explaining my solo show work in exactly the same way. As I was forming work, going round the imperfections on the white gallery wall, I could not help but feel as though I was an archaeologist, digging up and bringing forward information lost and unseen that was a trace made by previous artists work.
The solo show was made particularly for a gallery space and it was temporary, however I really want to move away from gallery environment and concentrate more on other spaces which I believe will trigger for more ideas to form.
I feel as though Catherine Bertola's art work has opened my eyes that I need to work in different spaces more and get out the studio more often as I am a site- specific artist and being in the studio is limiting fro my ideas. At the moment I have several ideas I want to try out that includes me working in a different setting and out of my comfort zone which will be interesting. A project that I chose at uni will also help me to get out of a normal gallery/ studio setting as for this project I will be working with people of a different discipline and their setting which the people of that discipline are used to. This will be new to me as I will be responding to what happens there in some way and that Is very exciting.
~Ev
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