studio-reflections

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Updating my website - haven’t yet worked out why this is the image linked to all the pages ...

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Cremation content

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Images by Sam Christopher Cornwell

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Geoff... I remembered the book that I had forgotten about!

Art and Artifact: The Museum as Medium

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A link to this semesters pinterest. It has been a vital resource for pattern analysing, and an extra part of my ‘memory’.

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Vimeo Link for Thursday 9th August

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For once I didn’t get tired of the sight of my own work - and I didn’t joyfully wave goodbye. Which is both a great thing, but also fairly anticlimactic.

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This challenged my depleting graphic design abilities, but I am really happy with the outcome. I was concerned about the test to image ratio, but I really feel that all the text has a place being there, and is needed for the full understanding of this project.

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Reflection

I am really pleased with the result of this project. Initially I was disappointed in myself - it is undeniable that my work doesn't have the same visual impact that the MFA2s final hand-ins had. That initial ‘wow-factor’ is something that I was jealous of...

However, I am glad that I questioned myself on this. I realised I have achieved exactly what I set out to do. My accumulative research over the last few semesters including; aesthetic theory, colour theory, research into culture, practices, and beliefs, as well as the continuing occurrence of the golden ratio in seemingly everything I do; has resulted in a body of pieces which represent numerous parts of the Peranakan culture and the need for new functional items. Wow-factor or not - the pieces serve their purpose, and have considered design details, which makes the project a whole.

Although the urn could be read as a product, this isn’t its primary purpose. It is a vessel to start conversation, which is, and has been my main interest throughout this journey.

I have been fortunate to, after being ignored by the National Museum of Scotland, having been in almost non-stop contact with a senior curator at the Peranakan Museum in Singapore, Jackie Yoong.

Jackie’s readiness to listen and sound ideas off has been an incredibly useful and necessary asset to this project. I have formed connections within several departments within the museum, and have firm plans to travel there in summer of 2020. I am hoping at this point the educational department will have benefited from an ‘outsiders’ perspective, and will follow through on their offer to show my work.

I was more than slightly concerned about my project book. I am still a little unsure about the visual text to image ratios, but every bit of information within the book is important. I have edited and re-edited down to what I feel is the minimum I can to get my concept accross.

I am also not sure if I have talked about this before, but I find it really relevent so I will repeat myself. I know I have said I am concerned about offending people from the get-go, but something I hadn’t considered prior to actually starting was how much information to give away.

It is fairly obvious from my surname that I have some Asian heritage. This is something I would like people to be aware of - it rules out the ‘us’ and ‘them’ worry, slightly. However, It is really important that this project isn’t read as a product. I had initially only called it ‘21st century peranakan’ ... which was simple and clean, but it really doesn’t offer any spark of intrigue to read further into the project.

That is where ‘Ascension through artefact’ came from... It is unclear enough for people to question its meaning, but if you know the full story - it makes perfect sense.

I have chosen to not write an ‘artist statement’. If I needed to have one, I would want to use my artist introduction merged with my artist information text, but as a ‘museum’ piece, I would like to think that a larger, more explanatory section of text would be available. I.e vinyl prints on walls, out the way of the projector....

This brings me onto my projector situation. I know some people hate it, and sometimes I think it’s done really badly, but I really like when the ‘audience’ can get in the way of a projection. It only works if its not a walkway or through a pathway, and is instead in its own room or with a cluster of pieces. However, having people cross in-front of the projection gives the piece more presence. It is immersive, and the shadows projected are that person in the piece.

This turned into a ramble, sorry!

Essentially, I am really happy with the final result of this project, and am really excited for what it’s future holds.

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These are images from earlier. The last one is the image that I edited and used for the over of my project book. I hadn’t realised how hard it would be to photograph smoke, however, I am happy with the effect I finally got... even if its on printer paper

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Metal finishes

It occurred to me that although the stands and lids don’t entirely match eachother, they both reflect evidence of their making process.

I had started to look at ways to pattinate the lids and even use powder coating to disguise their marks from making, but I decided to leave their evidence.

I have not decided if I am fully happy with this, but there is a strong link back to previous tests from semester two, where I acknowledged the in-exact nature of peranakan ware, and the ways that the making process was evident throughout each piece.

I also like the concept of falsified life. The idea that these object which have not, had a journey, have already had a preview and have the bare markings to show this.

I think this is something that, in future, I want to explore further. Artefacts in relation to human contact.

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Lid gluing

I am aware that part of the ring doesn’t meet the metal due to it’s overlap. However, I think that the full ring gives the lids less chance of slipping.

I bought some self mixing epoxy syringes which worked better than I could have hoped.

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InDesign doesn’t like me

I just managed to highlight roughly half of my design book, wanting to only select a few pages, and pressed delete without thinking - This would have been fine, but the programme crashed, and autosaved the last known document... the one missing half it’s contents.

Two hours later, it has sunk in that there are no back up files. This needs to be re-done. I am sad and tired now.

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The future of this project

Even though this project, in itself, is complete; it is only a starting point for a conversation about belonging and claiming heritage. Throughout my research, i have been in conversation with the Peranakan Museum’s educational department, who want to develop more inclusive and contemporary exhibition spaces for which, people like me, can feel a sense of belonging.

This project was never intended for a gallery space. It is not about the object, but about the object in relation to its narrative. The work is so much better suited to a museum setting - thus the title - Ascension through artefact.

It does not just seek to be a collection of ‘pretty objects’, but to be a start of discussion.

Ultimately, It would be amazing if the Peranakan museum took this project on. However, this is a little unlikely. I am not putting much faith in off-hand comments, or promises.

I am considering sharing my project book with a material anthropologist in a hope to gain yet another perspective.

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Pricing

Pricing is something which I haven’t worked out yet. I know the formula, but haven’t had to price blown work before, and Ingrid is away.

On her return, I will be asking lots of questions about hiring workshops and rates per hour.

I know this isn’t fulfilling the ‘professional’ element of the outcomes - but I really don’t want to rush this and end up just going with my 1st calculation without consulting someone who knows all the numbers.

I would also hope to sell in sets, or an installation, rather than individual pieces - unless it is someone who understands the narrative. I am not one to turn down sales, but this project makes too much sense as a whole, and is far to personal to just sell individual parts off.