Masters in Contemporary Fine Art

Digital tools

I don’t use any digital post processing tools in my photographic work, no, by digital tools I’m talking about my website – yes, this website I’m currently writing this blog on.

Of course it’s a key part of my overall presentational strategy as an artist. Somewhere to present what I choose to show to the world – or at least that small part of the world who has a look. And of course I encourage that, the looking that is, through more digital means – social media tools, particularly my active Twitter and Facebook accounts but also through loads of other sites and applications – it’s a long list.

Even so of course this particular target audience for my work is already segmented, notably by whether of not you’re an internet and social media user.

However it has another more practice-based use for me as an artist. It has forced me to think carefully about my artist statement (more on that here) and to ensure it’s always up to date.

Most excitingly though, preparing the portfolio section meant I had to carefully pick through and decide on what I wanted to present from over 6000 images. All sorts of reflection ensued. Who am I as an artist? How do I organise and categorise my work? What do I call it? How do I describe it?

But that’s not all. Of course I make new work all the time. And the portfolio set up I have in place allows me to upload and change what I present at will, in a matter of minutes. I can direct an audience to a particular piece or type of work. I can have private galleries of work in progress for select viewers only. I can change the emphasis as my practice changes.

I haven’t even mentioned the blog embedded in my website yet – that’s in another blog post (of course!)

So it really is a tool. An artist tool I use for planning, articulating, organising, reflecting, presenting, updating…

A strategy for presenting work in progress?

I’ve been thinking hard, maybe too hard, about presentational strategies. This is the title of my current Masters module to be assessed in a couple of seemingly short weeks’ time.

And I’m wavering. Is what I want to present really a sort of an exhibition? I thought it was but now I’m not so sure. Is it more like an open studios scenario? Well it is and it isn’t.

What I’m really interested in is being open about the fact what I have to present is work in process. In fact a lot of the work is really all about process. So I’m thinking about how I communicate those facts in a subtle and appropriate way and I’m not sure I’ve cracked it yet.

I’m presenting work in progress made in a particular space back in that space, so that’s another very definite consideration on how I present it. And it’s not just any space – it’s my studio space and building.

So the thinking, the questioning, the wracking of brains and searching of heart continues full steam ahead! Any thoughts as usual gratefully received.

The joy of artist statements

Last week I was thinking about sketchbooks as saviours, but this week I’m thinking about artist statements.

I can get a measure of how the process of crafting an artist statement is dear to all artists’ hearts by the call I put out on Twitter a few weeks ago asking for any examples of great or interesting statements. A sparse few replies pinged back simply bemoaning the difficulty of getting it right.

I had a pressing deadline to draft a new one I could live with for a little while for my new website launch. Desperate times – pulling teeth comes to mind.

So why is it so hard? Maybe because if we could express what we’re doing, what we’re striving for, what our concerns and passions are in words we’d be writers rather than visual artists?

In any case the thinking is good, the head scratching, the heart searching, the questioning – and as I mentioned, I’m all about the questioning at the moment…

Anyway, my artist statement is absolutely a work in progress, a first draft, a starting point and will get an overhaul as soon as this MA module is over and I’m thinking a monthly health check there onwards.

How does your artist statement look? Does it do the job for you?

Sketchbooks as saviours

So this week I’ve been engrossed in ideas for my next MA module assessment – Presentational Strategies.

Poring through my sketchbooks I realised as I do every time I do this in a focussed way, what an absolutely amazing resource they are.

I have a serious sketchbook habit. Those things are heaving under the weight of all types of research and thinking. And my sketchbook pile is less a pile, more a mountain.

And in them are answers, experiments, journeys, tests, ideas aplenty, but perhaps most important of all – more questions. Since I’m all about the questions at the moment – this really appeals.

I now have huge lists of ideas and thoughts to chew over. And next week I’ll be taking these into the studio and I’m excited. More on that, er, next week!

We Are Here?

We Are Here? is a piece I made specifically for our interim MA group show in April. I took very quick secretive shots of everyone’s individual university studio spaces early one morning and used these to make a 3D piece bringing a piece of each of us and our shared MA studios into the gallery space in a quite quiet and subtle way.

This piece and the presentational strategy for it went hand in hand including consideration of audience, purpose and presentational context since the invited audience for the work mostly consisted of family, friends and personal contacts of the group of artists showing.

I wanted to present work that would include us all as a group and reflect a moment in time when we are all still together. The materials, title and installation strategy used reinforced my presentational strategy of subtlety and inclusion since each photograph was printed on acetate, allowing other work to be seen through and reflected in my piece. In addition each image was literally tied together and the whole piece was purposely hung as high up as possible.

The work was successful in starting to more closely marry form and content within my practice as a whole and the planning and articulation of and post reflection on the work helped shape the first draft of my new artist statement.

An artist, really?

Well it’s done. The shiny new website, the one where I dare to call myself an artist (really) is out and about.

I’m all about the questions at the moment:

So am I an artist, really?

What does writing about my practice mean and how does it impact on my work?

How will I be doing in ten months time when my Masters final show will be happening?

What work will I make next week?

Why so many questions?

When will there be some good juicy answers?

I’ll keep you posted…

(And if you have thoughts I’m on Twitter at http://twitter.com/hollyrowan – do say hi!)

Open Studios

The preview of our MA Contemporary Fine Art Open Studios was a great success last week – and we’re open until 17 June! Come and have a peek at what we’re up to – details here.

9 June 001 9 June 002 9 June 003 9 June 004 9 June 005 9 June 006

MA Contemporary Fine Art – Salford: Open Studios

My MA in Contemporary Fine Art group at Salford University is throwing open its doors – why not come and have a peek at what we’re up to? The private view is Thursday 9 June from 5 until 8pm, all invited and then we’re open from 10 to 17 June, 12 to 4pm. See you there!

FEEDBACK

Abstraction:

Do you, as the artist, feel you are recording your psychological responses or creating striking images? Would this alter the viewers response to your work? Would it alter your own response to the resulting work?

Blur/ Indistinct/ Unsharp:

Blurry images allow the viewer to engage, to use their own imaginations allowing them to interact with the image more readily than if handed everything in a pin sharp image.

Colour:

Is it simply that immediate hit of cheery brightness that people engage with? Is it optical illusion that entertains us? I’m not sure if this is a consequence of ‘nearness, intimacy and respect” or if it is basic response to bright, vivid colour releasing those chemicals that tell us it’s summer and ignite the ‘get up and go’ in us? Not that their’s anything wrong with that.

THE WHAT IFS…

What ifs – verbal presentation notes (Context & Discourse)

The major part of my presentation is a series of blog posts already posted (http://hollyrowanhesson.co.uk/category/macfa/) and I’ve sent everyone the link and invited feedback already. Thanks to everyone who has engaged.

Each post focuses on a contextual theme of particular tension, concern or debate within my practice.

The posts cover making - where it happens, what is needed to make it happen and what I surround myself with. This includes aspects relating to material enquiry, techniques, mechanisms and processes and also propositions, agendas, intentions, methodologies, strategies and habits.

They also cover viewing – where and how work is encountered and viewed and by whom. This includes to what extent viewing is controlled, purposefully or otherwise by myself and the viewing channels and mechanisms used.

Theoretical context is also debated, including but not limited to research into other artists and artistic themes, writing and theory, but also the wider contemporary and cultural context and how these resonate with my own practice.

This process of writing thematically and relatively formally has been helpful for uncovering the range and extent of debates, questions, tensions and problematic areas around my practice, which is not resolved or static but fluid and changing.

In this presentation, however, I wanted to look at all of this from a different starting point and perhaps less formally – using individual pieces of work, or more accurately experiments and tests in making and viewing strategies, as they are not resolved finished works at all.

So – this is a more light-hearted, playful short and swift visually-orientated run through some of my what ifs and my what does it mean thats…

What ifs presentation notes

Colour darkroom Photogram May and June mobile 004 June 11 and 12 049

My studio space – Blipfoto

Work examples

In my studio space – tests and experiments, not resolved pieces of work – would be in sketchbook if they were smaller!

1. Twelve consecutive Blips (photos submitted to Blipfoto, a daily photo journal site – see http://www.blipfoto.com/hollyrowanhesson ). The 12 photos printed. The painted – very roughly, just a feel or general impression – and quickly, thinking about a roughly equivalent to amount of time it took to take, upload and print each photograph.

The 12 paintings are on top of each other. Covered finally with the piece of paper I used to paint them all on.

2. Linked piece – 12 Blips (same as above) printed so can see the journal text as well, as they appear on the Blipfoto site. Then pasted onto canvas and washed over with water.

Concerns/ tensions explored include:

Passing of time – recording, repetition, sequence, habit
Poking fun at social media’s/ my own? self importance
Painting and photography – connections and separations of process, relative importance of them in my practice at this point (see also material enquiry below)
Process as important as oppose to end result/ object
Material enquiry – pasting paper prints of photos onto a painting base, calico
Additional blur and layers (from the processes) – obscuring, manipulating, distorting of reality (whatever that is) as recorded – so blurred photos plus additional blur from washing the paper prints
Impacts of above for viewer
Comment on digital media versus painting

Documentary evidence on Flickr – projection

3. See http://www.flickr.com/photos/hollyrowanhesson/sets/72157626322462489/

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