Lucy Clout lecture + tutorial

I was intrigued to hear about Lucy's practice as she does both video and performance pieces. Surprisingly I have been drawn to work with video recently so I really wanted to talk to her about the way she works and talk to her about my ongoing ballroom obsession and see what she says about it. 

Lecture 10:00

The first thing she said is that she is going to hold her phone whilst giving the talk. At first I thought that it was because she was more comfortable this way, however later I realised it was nothing to do with that, the phone was just there to trigger notes to look at if she was stuck. She was very comfortable with giving a lecture and being herself which I really liked. She was casual and relaxed which was very pleasant. 

She stated that she is interested in embodiment (a tangible or visible form of an idea, quality or feeling) which was very interesting to me as I noticed that I am moving away from any visible or touchable artwork, where the art is in the moment and experience in that moment with minimal objects. I have recently thought about creating a work that is a bit more tangible just to see what happens, such as creating a video.

Throughout the lecture she focused on five recent videos she has made. She said that she creates one video a year, however does other bits and bobs around, such as sculpture and performance. One video she has shown us was called Warm Bath which was a home movie, a fiction telling two interlocking stories. The first story was about seven women living together in one house, being obsessed with the movements of water. The second story was about a man who films a particular drainage ditch everyday, twice a day in California endoeric basin. The video explores and captures the passing of time, systems and intimacy. Throughout her explanation of this video I realised that her research might be similar to mine. She researches a lot of things that aren't artistic such as the geographical terms or looks into history for an explanation, that later feed into her work somehow. She explores what occurs in real life and makes them visible through video she creates, making us see the relationships more clearly. 

'Warm Bath', 2016, Exhibition View, Limoncello, London

'Warm Bath', 2016, Exhibition View, Limoncello, London

‘Warm Bath’, 2016, Video Still, HD Video, 10'08''

In terms of the actual video production and quality - the video was raw which added reality to it. The video of the man filming the water was bad quality and not as sharp as the video created by the artist. Also I found it quite interesting how the artist overlapped the videos together, where whilst watching her own recordings there would suddenly appear a small screen on top showing something else, and the other way round. I really enjoyed the video and the multi meanings and stories it was exploring - time, systems and intimacy. The video was well narrated throughout either by the artist or the video found by the artist where the man could be heard stating time and day he visited the place again.

An interesting phrase that Clout said in the lecture, where she said that the video was like 'a performance which happens between the person and the screen'.

Tutorial 14:30

For my tutorial I wanted to talk about my interest in the old ballroom in city centre and the ongoing research that I keep generating for it, whilst waiting for the opportunity to visit. We discussed what potentially can come from this exploration. There could be a video piece narrated, focusing on the transitional stage the space is in whilst also linking to the transitional elements of own everyday life. The way the builders began working from the outside of the building first, leaving the inside as it is. Whilst walking past it always feels as though the inside is frozen in time whilst the outside is constantly changing. Even the music that is imprinted onto the walls of the ballroom is completely different from the music played just outside, on the other side by the workers. An invisible divide of time.

Are you the music, are you the vibration, are you the air that fills the space? Are you the broken wood scattered on floor? Are you the time that has passed? Are you the light that shines through the windows?

This could potentially be an interesting sound piece as well, which could be listened to whilst in the space itself if I get lucky, as I would require permission to bring anybody to the space. 

~Ev

Triptych Show at The Royal Standard, Cains Brewery (Site Visit)

All of the third years soon will be showing at the Royal Standard at Cains Brewery on the 23rd January. We went on a site visit to see potential three spaces that we might be showing in. First space was a small white wall room, second was the Royal Standard white wall gallery space which was medium size and the third was a very big warehouse garage space. It was the most rough spaces of all, with dirt on the walls and cobwebs, leaking roof and moss growing on pillars.

The big garage space

The big garage space

Before I went to see any of the spaces I wanted to do a little experiment. I wanted to explore the spaces blindfolded and have a sense of space through touch. I was able to do this with the last space we visited which was the big garage. I explored one wall of the garage by walking alongside it, making small step and touching the wall. Through touch imagining what the space looks like as well as the smell and the sounds I could hear. 

First I could hear flapping of wings, assuming that there were birds there. I noticed that it was colder than previous spaces we have been to and more grounded and damp. I began to explore the wall and walk along side it. It was rough and after a while I could feel a pattern forming on the wall through the indents of end and start of the bricks I felt. I could feel how big the bricks were and how long they are. When exploring higher I could feel the wall had a dent outwards and continued upwards. I could feel the thin pipes lower down near my knees and the bolts that were holding them together and in place. After a certain point I could feel metallic line standing just a bit from the wall, very cold to touch, approximately ten centimetres in width. I could also feel the dirt that was mostly everywhere. After taking off my blindfold the place wasn't looking as great as I formed it in my mind. It was an interesting experience as I was very curious what I could feel next and what kind of map I will build in my head of the space based only on touch. Maybe not the best space for this but it was an interesting experience in which I felt very vulnerable in.

Entrance to the space 

After exploring the space for a short period of time I decided that I wanted to experience the space whilst somebody else is guiding me through it and see what happens then and how that is different from the exercise I just did. My friend Eryn helped me with this. As she was leading me through the space I began to ask questions about it, such as how big it is, which way is the door, what is closest to us, are there any pillars… A conversation began to form through this and based on Eryn’s answers I was more curious and new questions would surface. At one point she led me to a pillar and said that she can see moss growing on it. I asked if I could touch it. She also said that on the other side of the pillar there were some plants growing out of it too. This experience has really intrigued me and I began wondering how I can use this for the show. Potentially without this conversation and me being blindfolded Eryn could have not realized there was moss there, so through this minimal performance like participation I highlighted her sense of space and what is around her.

Interestingly this idea has a strong relationship to the observations in spaces I have been creating. Quite intense writing of what is happening around me at the time and how I am feeling, noticing the smallest of things. However this time I am relying on the person to tell me what is happening around me and where in the space we are in that moment. In return my questions and a conversation that follows allows the person that is guiding me through space to notice things and himself in a different way that he might not have otherwise. Another way to experiment further with this ideas is to swap and blindfold the person and lead him through the space myself. It would be interesting to see how different this experience would be.

This idea reminds me of Marina Abramovic piece called Generator 2014. In this piece people could create their own performances and experience. They were blindfolded and given soundproof headphones to create their own movements and expressions, being more in tune with themselves and their bodies. However, in my piece I want to create a one-on-one experience, a conversation with a better connection with the surroundings and what is in it and heighten their awareness.

Because there are three spaces to engage with I have yet to think of what I can do with the other two. The smaller space is roughly 4 by 6 meters and considering around 60 students will be showing there it would be interesting to play around with it. It could be interesting to see if I can let one person at a time into the space experiencing all the artwork in it by themselves just for one minute. So each person will have a time limit of 1 minute to spend the time with the artworks. For Royal Standard gallery space which is a medium size I am thinking of logging every single mark that I can find in the space and maybe just leave it as a text for people to read.

~Ev