October 4, 2009

Thesis Project

The time has come for me to show what I've got. Yes, it might sound strange, but it's absolutly true. I've made it to my 4th and final year of University and it's now the time for me to get on stage. What is the show going to be about? Who will be the audience? What is it that I need to get through and how am I going to achieve the spreading of the message?

I have been thinking about my final project from the first day of class in my first year, 3 years ago. Since then, I have come up with all sorts of ideas and concepts but nothing really quite developed into something that fully excited me. This year, after my exchange experience and having had the opportunity to travel around quite a bit, I came back to Toronto deeply inspired. The piece just popped in my head one afternoon, hunging out at Todd's place, while sketching one of my cyclical drawings. From that day, a seed was planted in my brain and started to rapidly grow into a more sophisticated branch of ideas and concepts. I know it's still not a fully grown tree, but I'm sure that with a little more watering and some pruning this might turn into something solid, rooted yet high.

Project

The piece, untitled so far, consists of a set of five canvasses -same size- hunging next to each other on the wall, very much like a painting exhibit. I'm currently considering the possibility of having the typical museum velvet rope around the space, with a sign that instead of keeping the audience away from the paintings, invites them to get closer. The number of canvasses is still not set on stone but so far this is what I have established:

Canvas 1 - Printed Proposal
This canvas will present the project proposal as it is. I haven't yet decided if it will be printed on the canvas, painted (less likely) or glued -more like a collage. This canvas represents the concepts and ideas behind the piece, as well as the burocratic side of Art.

Canvas 2 - Sketch
This canvas will be the first sketch, the skeleton of the painting. It represents the "making of" the art work and the raw state of a painting.

Canvas 3 - Watercolor Painting
This canvas most likely will be painted with watercolor. I chose this medium because it's water based and it's translucent quality will help me incorporate color not too abruptly.

Canvas 4 - Acrylic Painting
This canvas will be one of the biggest challanges for me. I do not feel confident enough that I will be able to keep the nature of the drawing using such an opaque medium. However, the reason why I have chosen to play with different mediums is to see the changes and constraints the same drawing will go under.

Canvas 5 - Blank canvas (painting itself - animation)
This one is the BIG question mark. The idea with this canvas is to have a projection of a stop-motion animation of how canvas #4 was painted. If I were to set up a camera while I paint, I would then have an animation of the painting itself, which then would be projected on this blank canvas. There are many questions still regarding this one, which I believe is the most important of them all, maybe even being the one making THE statement. Will the artist's hands (my hands) be shown? Is this video or film? How to set up the projector to avoid shadows being casted on the canvas?

Another important point is that all the canvasses must be able to be rotated. The anture of my drawings is that they are a string of continuing, transforming and interconected images. They can be turned around to catch a different angle and therefore a different image. This is the main reason why I want the canvasses to be hunged in a way that with enable manipulation. I'm also trying to break the barrier, that has been established for centuries, of painting-audience interaction. The painting has always been something to look at from a certain distance, usually hunging from a very white and immaculate wall, with a velvet rope delimiting a certain distance. What if you were able to no only observe but touch and change the direction in which the painting is hung?

Brainstorming of Ideas

-Ever-changing Art:
Art through time (e.g. canvas worn out from hand manipulation)
Time as an art and as the artist
Medium (how it affects the drawing and what each medium represents)
Continuity > cyclical drawings (movement vs. dimension or movement AND dimension)

-Art through senses. How is it perceived through touch and/or visually
Expectator (passive viewer) vs. Participant (active audience)

-Technology (New Media) vs. Organic (Old Media)

-Audience (?) - Canada > multicultural

"The world in which you were born is just one model of reality.
Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you; they are unique
manifestations of the human spirit"
(Wade Davis)

*FIND THE ONE VOICE THAT SPEAKS AN UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE*
-Material vs. Ephimeral
-String theory

Challanges

-Lack of technical skills (painting)
-How to keep the drawing organic and flowing when it has been reproduced 4 times?
-Canvas rotation: manually? crank? electronically?
-animation? will the projected canvas be turning? will my hand be on it? YES: the artist behind the drawing. NO: self-painting canvas
-How to get audience to interact with the paintings (specially with the mind set of gallery exhibits)

Artists Research

Maria Lassnig
Ian Carrharris
Tim Hawkinson (illustrations)
Richard Reeves
Joseph Kosuth
Glen Ligon
Andy Goldsworthy (concept of time)
William Kentridge
Peter Callesen (paper > ephemeral?)

1 comment:

  1. Geanial Agata! me prendo con musica y/o ruiditos para el stop motion!!!
    beso grande y exitos! seguire las novedades

    ReplyDelete