Blog
Evaluation of 'Happening' at Outpost Studios Sweet Spot Night
15/12/2019
When Henry Newcomb Jackson invited studio members to open the Sweet Spot social night in the common room with events around the studio, I thought it would be a great chance to try doing something different with my cutouts. I'd been looking into the Commedia Dell'Arte, as suggested by both my mentors Manick Govinda and Sacha Craddock, and found some terrifically lively and droll acting classes on Youtube given by the National Theatre on how to move, laugh and speak in a Commedic way. I thought people might like to try on some sculptures and swagger around grunting and strutting, holding up my portraits as though they were masks, walking around with my 'legs'.
Although this didn't happen I did get to reorganise my studio. The stuff stacked by the last occupant I stacked into a great big beautiful wall of old boxes, carpet and tubes. Two sheets of mirror acrylic I'd used in my 3 metre high 'radar' was pinned to wooden stands from an exhibition in Voewood Hall, and formed a fine fourth wall to hide the crap one. The floor was swept, the heads arranged, and nothing happened.
After a while I wandered downstairs, took a fine snap of Henry N.J. posed against a wall (drawn on by Jerwood winner Jade Monserrat) and coaxed Ilona Brinton upstairs, where she tried on a green face that reflected beautifully in the wobbly mirror. Sadly Nicky Deeley, a performance artist down my corridor, is leaving for New Zealand - I wanted to quiz her about how to animate such an event and bring it to life. She tried on my Mark Morris head, looking a little rueful, and promised to keep in touch and chat about live art possibilities.
Apart from the practical outcome of making the studio look wondrous, the non-Happening had been a most useful and stimulating exercise. I'm thinking how well the reflections of the artwoprks reflected in the slightly warping mirror worked - maybe I can cut out some tall mirror shapes and site them among the sculptures to increase a shimmering impression of illogical space. More holes could be cut in forthcoming sculptures to make them wearable (in the loosest sense). Bigger variations in scale might pump up the feeling of disorientation - big faces, tiny feet, far awayness, nearness.
I like the way the cutouts slumped on the walls - there was a look of potential about them, something in their slanting forms suggests future movements and functions. I've thought about finding dancers and trying some formal movements but I like the appearace o the work as though it's been quite carefully leftin an order, hinting at some theatrical thing that's about to happen, something is being planned. It reminds me of Franz West who oftemn slumped or slouched or assumed positions that were in-between positions, slightly uneasy, unresolved.
Although this didn't happen I did get to reorganise my studio. The stuff stacked by the last occupant I stacked into a great big beautiful wall of old boxes, carpet and tubes. Two sheets of mirror acrylic I'd used in my 3 metre high 'radar' was pinned to wooden stands from an exhibition in Voewood Hall, and formed a fine fourth wall to hide the crap one. The floor was swept, the heads arranged, and nothing happened.
After a while I wandered downstairs, took a fine snap of Henry N.J. posed against a wall (drawn on by Jerwood winner Jade Monserrat) and coaxed Ilona Brinton upstairs, where she tried on a green face that reflected beautifully in the wobbly mirror. Sadly Nicky Deeley, a performance artist down my corridor, is leaving for New Zealand - I wanted to quiz her about how to animate such an event and bring it to life. She tried on my Mark Morris head, looking a little rueful, and promised to keep in touch and chat about live art possibilities.
Apart from the practical outcome of making the studio look wondrous, the non-Happening had been a most useful and stimulating exercise. I'm thinking how well the reflections of the artwoprks reflected in the slightly warping mirror worked - maybe I can cut out some tall mirror shapes and site them among the sculptures to increase a shimmering impression of illogical space. More holes could be cut in forthcoming sculptures to make them wearable (in the loosest sense). Bigger variations in scale might pump up the feeling of disorientation - big faces, tiny feet, far awayness, nearness.
I like the way the cutouts slumped on the walls - there was a look of potential about them, something in their slanting forms suggests future movements and functions. I've thought about finding dancers and trying some formal movements but I like the appearace o the work as though it's been quite carefully leftin an order, hinting at some theatrical thing that's about to happen, something is being planned. It reminds me of Franz West who oftemn slumped or slouched or assumed positions that were in-between positions, slightly uneasy, unresolved.
