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It bloody worked!!! A seven man, one woman, 2 winch job,

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Testing out ideas.

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Taking Up Space

This phrase took a trajectory of its own.  I have really enjoyed the concept of my work taking up space.  Space that I would never be able to.  The idea that my work might have a voice I will never have and say what I can rarely vocalize, has become incredibly important to me.  I thought my wall would do and be all of the above, excusing me from the discomfort of having to do any of it.  I didn’t realise I would have to experience it, for the work to fully represent it.

Imagine my internal horror as the discussion of how this heavy, unstable structure would be lifted from horizontal to vertical developed from 1 on 1 discussion with various tutors (this I can manage) to an impromptu (read unprepared for) group meeting with 2 estate technicians and up to 4 different tutors joining and departing the conversation requiring more time, more repetition and covering the same uncomfortable ground.  A group discussion with my work (and me) front and centre.  Not only discussing but defending.  My inconvenient, difficult, problematic, never been done before work, taking up space, time and money!  Being focused on and talked about and thought about, cogitated,and deliberated and pondered, for minutes and hours and days!

I bit my lip, held my tongue and shut my mouth.  How tempting to try and make things easier and more convenient.  I could make it smaller less …. lighter … invisible or not exist at all.  Here was one occasion when silence was the road best travelled.  Let my wall take its space, be difficult and inconvenient and problematic.  Let it be discussed and debated and talked about.

Let it cost some money

Require some thought

Some strength

Some effort

Let it subvert function, subvert role, subvert history.

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Threading the bricks - no room for mistakes, once each row is in place nothing can be changed or amended without re-doing everything. Very nerve-wracking!!

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Couldn’t resist this insta post

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Carl Andre: when kids learn to eat they stop making art because things have to mean something. Buy works of art don’t mean anything. They are reality and what does reality mea? It��s there . Because our culture tends to turn everything into language we lose sight of the actual meaning of things

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At last, it’s been a long long process but here is my first slip cast brick. So far so good - but how will it fair in the kiln???

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Ceramic Art Fair

Went to glean some clay knowledge. Loved the colour on these pieces which were wheel thrown them carved and sprayed with slip using stain and some oxide, over a brown stoneware clay. Interesting

Slip painted on strips of fabric which then burns off in the kiln leaving this wafer thin strips of porcelain. Love a bit of gradation too.

Shape, colour, pattern

Porcelain at its finest

Unusual modern shapes colours.

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3 more come moulds using various bottles and cups. This will up production.

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When you can’t find the right spacers, make a mould and make your own!

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Technical skills learnt in the process of making my wall.

Mould making - 2 piece and a 5 piece

Silicon mould making - brick and spacers

Making what you can’t buy - spacers

Building jigs - one for holes in bricks, one for holes in spheres

Problem solving - every step and stage

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Disaster strikes!!! A weeks worth of spheres waiting for a kiln firing tomorrow, fell of their shelf to their death. This has pushed me pretty close the edge ..

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Fascinated by and love repetition in art but he repetitive daily and weekly tasks of women’s lives drive me to distraction - maybe it’s about making that repetition visible.

It has a double meaning or feeling for me because there is something meditative, calming, centring, in the making but also in the looking. There is volume in repetition, an emphasis or clarity that then gets lost is the whole.

Meals

Washing

Cleaning

Shopping

A repetition of choice or that is acknowledged - is it the indeed nature of reproduce household tasks that is so demoralising?

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Abstraction of the object. How much can I remove and it it still be quite recognisable if not functional, in fact what I have removed is all of its function - form is all that’s left although I’ve also alluded to its functionality but subverted it or abstracted that by removing the grout, that is its solidifying structure. I have made a hard wall soft. - trans-functionality !!!! Is that a new word?

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Spacers!!! Who knew they could be so problematic. Tried white plastic, metal (both too expensive) and a horrible creamy nylon which was the right price but not something I could sit with aesthetically - it’s interesting to observe what matters and what I can be less pedantic about - so I am going to make a silicon mould and cast them out of plaster !!

Silicon mould curing in the fridge. Apparently to remove air bubbles

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Spheres are growing in number and glazing continues to fail, to the point that I’ve made a time-based decision to leave my spheres unglazed but sand them to create as near to a matt glazed finish as I can get.

Also made a jig to make creating a hold in the top easier and quicker

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Back to creating a plaster mould for my ceramic ‘Wye’ bricks