Little Wenham Church (I visited Suffolk 17-19th August)

These are my own photographs but more information about the history of the church can be found at this website;
www.suffolkchurches.co.uk and www.visitchurches.org.uk;

"All Saints, Little Wenham

Approached along a winding track from the Queen’s Head, the church stands on a knoll by a farmyard. Apart from the later tower with a Tudor brick top and 15th century porch, the unspoilt fabric of flint walls and tiled roofs is 13th century. Important wall paintings with figures and arcading from about 1310 are on the east wall inside, as well as an image of St Christopher opposite the south door. There is a series of Brewse memorials and good woodwork from various periods. A fascinating church in a romantic setting."

I was accompanied to this church by Mrs. Langton who has been kind enough to be my guide to the area that day and was able to get the key to the church, there had apparently been a few other Wenhams visiting the previous day who had also wanted to see inside the church.

13th August: Trip to Little and Great Wenham, Suffolk with my father

These are just some photographs taken whilst having lunch at the local pub 'The Wenham Queen'

HAZLITT THEATRE MAIDSTONE MA EXHIBITION SATURDAY 15TH MAY 2010

Audio and object (readymade) installation, the 2 minute audio is looped and is the transaction that relates to the object on display (what the object is, is withheld from the audience/viewer). The conversation takes place in the Capel/Little Wenham area in Suffolk.

HAZLITT THEATRE MAIDSTONE MA EXHIBITION SATURDAY 15TH MAY 2010

Studio Practice Tutorial

Looking at objects in relation to audio and looking at the scale of the work (audio to be added later), so the top 2 images relate to scale in that the polaroid is of a certain scale and size, quite small and intricate inviting the viewer to lean in and view it, the audio could be on a loudspeaker operating on a timer (this is to be worked on), the image could be placed on a large white walled space and with no indication of the audio until further on the dialogue is played and the viewer is reminded of what they perhaps considered to be an unimportant image, this then links it with the idea of time and memory.

-Reference of sound with the object (How do I sustain this?)

-Creating a wide range of mini projects as opposed to one final piece, I imagine a room somewhat with my work as a kind of collection as the viewer can negotiate and travel around it, choosing which work to look at. (Looking to staging in a room later on in the process)

-Mini bus trip to Little Wenham? Taking objects back there? Putting on an exhibition there?

The third photograph is of an object purchased in the local area, I want the object to remain anonymous and as bought, the vender wrapped the purchase in the brown paper, which now holds the object, my desire is to go back at certain points of the week and purchase items which I hope will wrapped in the same manner and display these objects as 'found' items in a curiosity cabinet kind of way (Perhaps looking into doing this for the Hazlitt theatre?) These objects purchased has audio to go alongside it.

TO DO:

-Work on audio

-Reshoot a video piece in various ways

Tutorial about Dissertation draft but also discussing how my writing will feed into my own interests and help develop my work further...

Understanding more of Relational Aesthetics, perhaps not focus so much on this and read more into Claire Bishop's texts around this area.

QUESTIONS:

-What is the difference between spectator/viewer/audience? Is there one?

-Am I interested in the spectator? and/or produce work for the audience?

-Difference between engaged and looking?

-To what extent is my work inclusive?

-If people that are aware of the work I am trying to do and produce participate in the process are they merely actors or the audience? How do I distinguish this? Are the participants? Explore and explain.

Geography and collecting data of the area/ in perhaps linking to the idea of Actor Network Theory a future idea can be looking at the act of diagraming, in semiotic terms seeing how everything relates to one another and therefore creating this vast diagram of ideas and links and seeing the process and layers involved in what at first is seen as a small part.

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT:

-Places to visit of interest in the area, where and what do I want to visit that can be classed as important to the town and its history (i.e a river/stream that was the purpose any settlements where made in this area in the first place)

-What activities are going on? (local plays/ village hall meetings/what times the shops are open--> can this then be negotiated to open on different occasions to hold special arts events) I shall make sure i remain subjective, by this I mean is this a whole village event or merely a part of it and when it comes to documentation what do I look for?

-Stay in the area (linking back to my work in the 3rd year, to emerse myself more in the areas by staying in cheap B&B's and hotels, talk to the local guesthouse owners about the area, local knowledge etc),

-Camp there set up a tent??

Start working towards producing work/ an outcome for the Hazlitt Theatre exhibition

I shall be producing work relating to the project I am working on at the moment, so the work I produce could consist of sculptural objects in which a spotlight is upon them in a vitrine/ shelf like space and/or a film that is part of the showreel in the cinema area of the theatre. It shall not be technically demanding so there should not be any difficulties as such, the deadline for the show or rather when the show takes place is 13-15th May 2010.

Letter

Letter written to the owner of the Little Wenham Hall, indicating my desire to visit.

Rough Edit of Film/Video

This Video piece the original is approximately 3 minutes long, this is a short segment to give the general idea of the work. As the focus in the piece, I have taken the place of the computerised voice of the Sat Nav system adding a human element to the instructions to reach the place of Wenham in Suffolk. This was filmed rough to give a general idea within the reading of the instructions it is noticable I have a cold, again reinforcing the idea of a human element. I have to ensure I don't get too self-concious about certain work. The Video itself was shot using a mini dv camcorder, the light is too severe in the background and the family/domestic setting off the piece suits the nature of the piece. The sound quality is something that would also need to be addressed. Do I reshot and possibly lose some of the charm of the original or to I try to work with what I have? I have a leaning to the latter suggestion and will work on the audio and quality of the piece.

Also looking into how I start/end a film piece and look into editing in more detail.

Little Wenham Hall / Castellated Hall

Working on new project ideas

The Polaroid is a good tool of documentation, reducing this product to a digital media adds a layered aspect to the images. I felt it was important for me to return to the idea of the map as the initial place I discovered the places associated with my surname and therefore made me determined to associate myself with this place in a completely arbitrary way. It almost becomes unimportant the fact the second photograph in unfocused and the exact the location appears to be almost hidden, a fact that it is up to myself to establish something about/in the town rather then mere documentation.

I had felt up to this point that I had allowed myself to become overwhelmed with the numerous possiblities of what could do within this project; it isn't a fact or to the best of my knowledge any members of my family came from this area but perhaps this is where my surname originated? A person's surname is indicative to their own identity and gives a sense of belonging to something outside of themselves, without this sounding too contrived.

It is now about moving forwards and creating a respectable body of work. A mass production of work then look at how they relate, the core of this project is in respects a 'joke', a self referential one and it is important to acknowledge and let it feed into my work rather then take myself too seriously.

Ideas:

- Work with an architect to redesign town

- Engage with town / embed myself there

- Let Wenham reshape me, stay there emerse myself there (Join Women's Institute ?)

- Imagining of the place without actually going there

- Tours of the place (gathered information from secondary sources 'Fake' Tours)

- Tours relating to the history of the place (Pyschogeography)

- Audio Tours (Janet Cardiff)

- What does it mean to travel the 2 hours to have the same conversation with the same person (i.e local butcher/baker/paperboy etc) on the same day each week to make them think you are local?

- Robert Smithson ' Spiral Jetty' and one artists re-discovering of Spiral Jetty

Wenham Map

This map indicates the location of Little Wenham / Greater Wenham, etc in Suffolk, England

Research for New Project

Godfrey, Tony (1998) 'Conceptual Art'

Bruce Nauman 'Walking in an Exaggerated Manner'

Research into MA Project

Looking at the relationship between artist and location.

Sol LeWitt:

Keith Arnatt:

Research into Project Proposal

Bourriaud, Nicolas (2002) 'Relational Aesthetics' France:Les Presses du reel.

Questions asked:

"How are these apparently elusive works to be decoded, be they process-related or behavioural by ceasing to take shelter behind the sixties art history." (pg.7 introduction)

Artists:

"Vanessa Beecroft dresses some twenty women in the same way, complete with a red wig, and the visitor merely gets a glimpse of them through the doorway." (pg.8)

Is it sculpture? Is it installation? A performance? Social Activism? (questions asked in relation to Rirkrit Tiravanija's work produced for Aperto 93.

Fluxus : described as intermedia

How to occupy a gallery?

"relational" artists

Issues outlined in 'performance works'

Felix Gonzalez-Torres 'Untitled (Blue Mirror)' Endless posters that can be taken away by the visiting public.

Research into Project Proposal

Editor Ferguson,Russell (1998) 'Out of Actions: between performance and the object, 1949-1979'

Great Britain :Thames and Hudson

Paul Schimmel ' Leap into the Void: Performance and the Object'

"Actions performed with the goal of producing objects gave rise to the execution of performative actions whose primary goal was the process of creation rather then the production of objects, which gave rise to the creation of performances that often involved audience participation."

(pg.17)

(Spatial concepts)

Research into Project Proposal

Edited by. Donna De Salvo (2005) 'Open Systems: Rethinking Art c.1970' London:Tate Publishing

"...there is something especially intriguing about the late 1960s and early 1970s. Perhaps the impulse to revisit this period is one of nostalgia for its artistic innovations and redefinition of the art object." (De Salvo 2005:11)

"Building upon the structures and systems of Fluxus, Neo-concretism, Minimalism and Conceptualism, all of the artists included here are linked by their use of a generative or repetitive system as a way of redefining the work of art, the self and the nature of representation,"

(De Salvo 2005:11)

(Period of opening up the object to the world)

Artists:

- Sol LeWitt 'Buried Cube'

"Were LeWitt's concerns close to Smithson's own exploration of 'site' and 'non-site'? Maybe we should see the work as a performance, as the act of burial itself, in which case it is not its location that counts so much as its duration." (pg.28)

Joseph Kosuth : Chair works "But a piece of text is still an image" (Boris Groys, pg.56)

"Art documentation is by definition not art. It merely refers to art..." (Groys, pg.56)

-John Baldessari 'Trying to Photograph a Ball so it that it is in the centre of the Picture'

-Richard Long ' A Line made by Walking'

-Martha Rosler

Essay tutorial | Structuring

Relating to the work I am producing at the moment;

1) Layers, trace of film / film as object / tangible quality of analogue over digital

2) Analogue to Digital, etc (The 'Real' / Lossless quality)

3) Evidence of others in the film, original filmmakers?

4) Different technologies used to view films

Interested in the making, the process. The immediate experience created by film. Looking at artists' practice or a particular art piece. Having a dialogue with a theorist.

Baudrillard? - The 'simulcra' and 'hyperreal'??

I would like to introduce the work of Stan Brakhage whose work relates to the surface of the film itself, etc.

Research:

- Powerhub filmmakers (Guy Sherwin, etc)

- Rosalind Krauss 'A voyage on the sea...post-media condition'

- Nicky Hamlyn 'Film Art Phenomena'

- Malcolm Le Grice