#hcafarp/problemsolving/chrono

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tHE dILEMMA cont...

As often happens, I am more energised and enthusiastic about a current project than I am about a previous one. Yet, wanting to select my best work to exhibit, I need to be pragmatic. 

If I go totally with It's Not What You Say . ., realistically I can only show one piece because of the space restrictions. But I do like the idea of having a piece at the entrance to the show. There is nowhere at the entrance to HCA CRC for a text piece. However, it lends itself to The Benefit of All Your Doubt, albeit with the meaning changed by the Coronavirus crisis.

Already suffused with connotation involving tracking and surveillance, The Benefit of All Your Doubt becomes a more substantial work following the end of lock-down. Its elements of 'construction' imply more than initially intended. From issues involving the construction of self, it now speaks of the new normal, our navigation and surveillance within it. Moreover, it echoes the corralling elements imposed by lock-down and restricted actions when outside: our movements being structured as well as tracked. The Heras Panels contain, herd and funnel us and, enhanced by the 2M distancing markers on the ground within the installation, the connotations of authoritarian control become heightened.

A fly in the ointment: will this installation interfere with the Health And Safety management of people entering the exhibition? Might it be refused permission on this basis? Yet could confusion with the 'official' visitor control be to its advantage? Viewed as integral, almost as part of the safety policy and precautions, might make the whole 'official' procedures seem even more unreal. This has the same feel as an outside promenade performance of Macbeth I attended many years ago. It was a contemporary interpretation set in a West African dictatorship. We were met at the entrance to the set by aggressive machine-gun-toting guards that rounded us up and marched us at gunpoint to where the play would begin. It served to heighten anticipation and our awareness.

Social distancing measures used inside the installation help serve its purpose as there is nothing to look at within the structure except yourself. Singled out and separated from the herd, as we have been during lock-down, you are left to reflect on the situated you, your solitary existence is reflected back at you in the mirrors hanging on the inside of the panels. Your behaviour, recorded on video, can be viewed on a monitor once you enter the building.

That could work well - a few bumps to smooth and a lot of sweet-talking to 'estates' me thinks.

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tHE dILEMMA

So which is it to be? The Benefit of All Doubt or It's Not What You Say . . ?

The primary advantage with  It's Not What You Say . . is its use as a back-up should it sadly be necessary for the Summer Show to be an online affair. Its secondary advantage is that any of the pieces can be produced for the exhibition. An immediate disadvantage is that part of their appeal is scale. They need to be writ large. However, the available gallery area is restricted, not only because the walls are only 2.4M high, but as this is a big cohort wall space will be at a premium.

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Art Acts - stating the bleedin’ obvious

My intention is to establish conjecture regarding the title and elements I present you with. Currently, I am exploring existential identity: yours, mine and ours.

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home recording

mic set up for recording The Truth and The Mark

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Black Patina & Coach Bolts

Decided against red paint for a number of reasons

the pieces need drilling and screwing to the wall for H & S reasons

making  a feature of the bolts means it would look better in raw steel

truth to materials

to execute the piece in red I could use plastic although this isn’t environmentally friendly

if the piece is commissioned for an alternative space I will investigate a sustainable product that can be painted

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Screw it - H & S

Mulling over Health and Safety issues regarding TBO T Ds. Had planned to install using nanotape which has pretty strong adhesion while remaining non permanent, but looking at the seperate elements of the work some of the pieces are like javalins and should one come off the wall with a visitor in front of the work the consequences might not be pretty.

Took the metalwork to paint finishers yesterday and it turns out that they need holes to suspend the pieces in the oven so that decides the issue. In discussion with them we did devise a way to braze wire to the back to hang them from if I didn’t want to drill - worth keeping in mind should the opportunity ever arise to install permanently as I can fix them with glue.

Seems a shame to drill these pristine pieces of metal, but I have no choice.

When I was interior designing I had a rule of thumb on the lines of if you couldn’t remove, hide of absorb an unwanted feature of a room then explore making a feature of it. This generally worked..I cannot hide the screw heads or make them invible so maybe . . . . ?

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RAL 3020

Picking up the cut-outs from Central Engineering in Hereford today and tomorrow taking them to Gavin at TAG-Z Fabrication and Welding in Llandrindod for powder coating in the above colour the week after next.

Having researched using the RAL number I can get one of those tiny tins of Humbrol enamel gloss no 238 (their equivalent on the conversion chart) just in case I need to touch up the paintwork at some future date.

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long words  -  no spaces

Along with the search for the right image to use and explorations of words, I have to carefully consider the merits of the negative space around the letters that make these pieces possible. For instance words that begin with the letter ‘I’ do not work - similarly lower case Ls are problematic. Being just a line, other than what is between it and the next letter it has no negative space that discloses it. Double lowercase Ls are double trouble. This is a shame as a lot of interesting words begin with the letter ‘I’ and have Ls in them.

Long words only rarely work well.

 A L L O N E W O R D came about because it caught my eye that ‘coronavirus’ was, in fact (which always feels as if it should be infact) all one word when, intuitively I felt, perhaps it should read ‘corona virus’. It then occured to me that we often say ‘all one word’ when spelling out to someone an email or website address (or should that be web-site or web site? Not to mention lowercase or lower case!). ‘All one word’ is always offered with the rider ‘no spaces’. Bingo! The word and a title in one hit! O N E H I T - another idea rolled into one. And another - R O L L E D I N T O O N E. I’m on fire - and another - I ‘ M O N F I R E.

Seriously though - S E R I O U S L Y T H O U G H? - but back to reality - B A C K T O R E A L I T Y - long pieces are problematic. For one thing - F O R O N E T H I N G - they can be ungainly unless you have a space to work in that is also long and thin. Like this one in fact:

What I particularly like about A O W and its title ‘No Spaces’ is that in this style of text art, where the letters are kerned into each other, there literally are no spaces.

Something to explore at a later date - when we speak, other than occasional pauses, we mostly speak sentences as if they are all one word. We - only - ever - separate - each - word - when - dictating.

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TBO Your D

With the good news yesterday re the degree show being in the hall at CRC came the possibity that this piece will be in a ‘booth’ as opposed to being on an end wall. I will discuss this with Dan in person on Friday hopefully because it would be good to know either way. The problem with it being in a booth is viewing it from a distance. The booths are 2,4m cubes which basically means unless you’re standing in the site line of the very front of the booth you will not be able to see the piece.

[hcafarp]

TBO M D - indoors or out?

The goldfish

Relieved to find that the aquatic section at Wyevale Garden centre is selling goldfish. Found out from phoning them however that there are indoor and outdoor goldfish - guess if I’m setting them free in the HCA pond after the show it’ll be outdoor ones I need.

Researched and found this:

Before moving fish outside there are a few points to consider: Time of year.  The best time is during the warmer months.  Goldfish kept indoors are usually at a higher average water temperature than outside, so don't hibernate or at least slow down during winter. If you put fish out during winter, it will be a shock to their system to go from active to hibernation mode overnight.  They won't have built up any fat to take them through the winter months so come spring they will be in poor condition and many fish die at this time of year. One last point, you didn't mention what variety of Goldfish you have. If they are a single tail variety, they will thrive in a pond.  Some of the fancier varieties aren't as hardy and if you live in an area that experiences severe winter temperatures, consider bringing the fish indoors during the coldest months.

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TBO T D latest

The DXf files prepared in college on Monday are now with Central Engineering in Hereford. Originally I was going to have the metalwork powder coated however the announcement of dates for the show yesterday has meant that the lead-in times on this part of the procedure are too long and would risk not having the piece in my hands ready for the installation week.

have decided to paint them myself, possibly with a paint effect - just spoken to Chris at CEH and he thinks the job might be ready by the end of this week and he is going to give me some sample squares to experiment with paint on.

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maquette development

I’m not sure at this stage if when scaled up to life size the ‘effect’ I’m attempting will work. I want the visitor to look over the side of the tank and for it to appear that there is water below the level of the ground on which they’re standing. Somehow this doesn’t happen with the maquette - the phone appears to be at ground level - it doesn’t look like an opening in the floor down through which there is water

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1st draft introductory email

Hello,

Let me introduce myself. My name is David Saunders, and I am an artist living in Wales, UK. I will shortly be taking part in the Summer Show Exhibition at HCA, Hereford, England. I wondered if you would like to collaborate with me (and others) on an art installation that will be in the exhibition?

In English, we have a phrase: the naked truth. It is thought to have come from an ancient Roman tale in which two young maidens, The Truth and The Lie, decide to bathe together. The story tells of how they meet one warm and beautiful day and agree to take a dip to cool off. They undress and take to the water. This, unfortunately for The Truth, was a trick. The Lie, seeing her chance, quickly leaves the water and stealing The Truth's clothing, runs off to the outside world. On discovering this, The Truth is enraged. She leaves the water but refuses to wear the fancy clothes of The Lie. She begins searching everywhere to recover her own garments. Unfortunately, the people she meets in the outside world are embarrassed by her state of undress. They are unwilling to face the naked Truth, but readily accept The Lie dressed as The Truth. So The Truth sadly returns to a life of solitude at the bottom of a well.

The reach of fake news around the world and our inability to distinguish it from the truth makes this ancient story one that particularly resonates in the present day. 

This story has been a favourite subject for artists throughout the centuries; however, the patriarchy represented both 'The Truth' and 'The Lie' as naked young women.  In modern times it is rightly more appropriate to depict this story without using a specified gender. And, as Truth is an abstract concept, without an ability to free itself FROM imprisonment, it is more apt to portray its liberation as definitely being our responsibility. 

In The Benefit Of Your Doubt, my re-working of this theme is through an audio-visual art installation. 

The installation itself comprises of a dimly lit room, in the centre of which is a large black tank-like structure. On peering over the sides of the tank, you see water at the bottom of it (a flat-screen monitor, face-up and showing video footage of a water surface). The room is filled with the sound of dripping and gently lapping water. From the darkness, we also hear whisperings in different languages coming from loud-speakers placed around the outside of the space.

I have written a poem to be whispered. It is in an uncomplicated form to make translation as straightforward as possible. I am sending it to a variety of countries that will together be a fair representation of global reach. If you wish to participate, all I ask is that you kindly make a written translation. Please then record your translation whispered slowly, with pauses between lines, on whatever device you prefer, be that phone, Ipad, laptop etc. Then please email the document and sound file from your country to me here in Wales. From the data I am sent, I will create a 'world-wide' soundscape for the artwork and have text in your language to accompany the work in the gallery space.

Thank you very much. I appreciate that this is a lot to ask of you. When it is finished, I will happily send recordings of the work for you to see and hear your contribution.

Here is the poem:

Many thanks. David

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Art Acts - the give away

My intention is to establish conjecture regarding the elements and ascribed titles I present you with. Currently, I am exploring existential identity: yours, mine and ours.

OR  . . .

My intention is to establish conjecture regarding the title and elements presented. Currently, I am exploring existential identity: yours, mine and ours.

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My Doubts

email reply from wesprayanything.com

Paul Harris <paul@wesprayanything.com>

Hi, We, can spray our chrome to the inside of the bucket to give a reflective finish, best to bring this our so we can give you a fixed price.

We also have samples for you to look at.

Look forward to your reply.

I have emailed for a ballpark figure for feasibility

wesprayanything.com is in Bromsgrove between Worcester and B’ham so could tie this in with the next visit to Highbury Hall

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T B O A  MY  D

my email reply

Thanks for the swift reply to my initial enquiry.

Attached are some photos of the bucket. It measures 320mm deep with a diameter of 290mm. As you will see from the photos it has a rounded bottom and is galvanised. I want to preserve the outside vintage paint finish but to add a reflective mirrored surface to the inside so I would think chrome is the best option. From the little of the process as I understand it when chrome reflects back on itself, it has a 'copper' hue which can be rectified with a purple-tinted lacquer? As an artwork it will be displayed for short periods (8 hours max) filled with water and with a goldfish swimming in it - is the finish going to stand up to this? If you think this can be done, I am in Birmingham in a couple of weeks time so I can bring the bucket to you.

Thanks for your help.

Speak soon - David