I was walking down Bold Street, Liverpool looking at different shops that surrounded me and noticed a closed shop with windows being painted in white so people cannot see in. At the time I thought nothing of that except that it was unattractive to see and walk past. The next day I kept thinking about the painted windows and slowly an idea formed. I thought about how I can interact with such shop by scraping away at the paint and make a temporary piece out of it. I didn't know what I would do on the window but I knew that I was interested in it.
The next day I tried finding the same shop with the painted windows and couldn't find it, however I found another closed shop on Bold Street which had perfect big clean windows. This is the shop:
I thought about finding the owners number and discussing my idea with him. The idea consisted of me replicating the painted look on the window and then interacting with it. I didn't know what I would do with it, but I trusted that I would respond to the space at that particular moment. It is quite intuitive and exciting. At the moment i'm trying to get a hold of the owner through a company which might take a while because I am an "art student".
During my wait for some kind of response I decided I needed to try it out somewhere else to see how I feel and whether I enjoyed it or not. So I found a big window in studio balcony which was perfect for the try-out.
I found out that the thing that the workers mostly use on windows to prevent people from seeing in is Windolene emulsion, but because I couldn't find it anywhere I decided to get white emulsion and mix it with water to get the same effect.
After covering the window in watered down emulsion which took me about 5 minutes I was thinking about what I can do on it. I knew I wanted to scrape off at the window repetitively but I didn't know what. So I decided to start with something simple, a spiral that keeps growing out the centre, slowly appearing and expanding on window surface. Very subtle and meditative process which I am a fan of. Throughout I kept taking pictures and analysing this experience and how I felt about it being in the studio and not in a shop. How that impacted the meaning of the work and the whole experience of the process.
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| Moon through the spiral on window |
While in process new thoughts began to form. From the start I was interested in the window because of the workers working on it, but while working I got to appreciate its transparent quality. I began to think that by forming a spiral I slowly uncover what I can see through it and as a result I interact with the scene too and not just the mirror. Not only that but the scene interacts back, adding to the spiral. Its a conversation between both. Under different angles you can see the spiral better or worse depending on the background and that is very interesting to me.
Another thing that sprung to mind is that this experience is completely different to me doing this on an actual shop window. If I did it on shop window it would have been more interactive and performative in the sense that I would see people from the other side walking past the shop and as a result being a part of my work. That is very interesting. The spiral if I was to recreate it in that setting would not only interact with the background but also with the motion of people walking past and that information would be imprinted on my mark making as I have to concentrate really well to keep my hand steady, so if people walk past I would have more of an interesting spiral with all its imperfections where my hand moved from the line. I love this idea being in the moment and interacting with something that can capture it.
This spiral took me 5 hours, its not that big, but I will keep adding to it so I can fill the whole window in it. I really want to see how much time it will take me so I know if it comes to showing in a shop that I know n advance how much time I need.
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| Moon through the spiral on window |
~ Ev
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