Design totality

I cannot make up my mind whether I should be blogging weekly or more frequently. Often I’m exposed to things, my head starts swirling and then I’m not sure where I am.

Anyway… picking up from last week, reading Mr Bauman further, his chapter ‘individualism’ sets up a kind of dystopia; one that hadn’t been anticipated it seems, as we were more focused on the nightmare of not having choice, being controlled and directed by some omnipotent designer (Orwell’s big brother being a prime example). Bauman’s nightmare however leaves us (humanity) in a state of perpetual anxiety. Being in charge of ones destiny, is a heavy responsibility.

Last week I came across a blog entry by Kevin Buist, using examples from art and design to discuss the difference between the two. His first entry uses a piece (I’m vaguely familiar with) by Felix Gonzales Torres ‘perfect Lovers’ – it’s definitely worth a read… Buist is attempting to discuss the subject over several entries but his current conclusion poses the making of the problems and the solving of problems as the distinction - artists making rather than solving hmmm - design he reckons has utopian ambitions…

The observations by both of these writers ricocheted around my head for days. Heading back into the studio brought that longstanding dilemma of ‘usefulness’ back into my head - It’s been an unsettling week…

Dandelion t-shirt design 2006

I don’t know, I still think I have utopian ideals and struggle with the reality of others. I suppose I've been trying to escape from that by retreating back into the studio. What’s left though, in that space is a circle/sphere, not just the ones I’m currently making, but things I’ve made before. That sphere is a totality and I suppose I’ve been regarding ‘Black’ in the same manner…

Thinking?

Well I was probably looking for a bit of therapy, although I know it’s a bad word when connected to making ‘Art” oh well… Thing is you never really stop thinking do ya? It’s the kinds of thoughts... So I've cracked on with the chain mail, my mind has been travelling forward, leaving some disappointment with my proposal for the show. There is always a level of expectation, which can be destructive when making something – I hate that.

I think I’ve been getting confused… or maybe I need to clarify further between these ideas of unstable structure and anti structure. At the end of last year (and perhaps this was more related to an emotional state) vulnerability seemed to be a prevailing property of the unstable structure - it seemed brittle and fractured. I can only put this down initially to working with solid materials, and my relationship to a sculptural tradition, which has always been rather tense.

The soft fluid structures in my drawings however are an elastic entity, essentially the original blob idea, which introduced itself to me back in 2004. Surely this elastic structure must have more strength?

Studio floor this week

Continuing to read Zygmunt Bauman (‘Liquid Modernity’ this time) has left me feeling ambivalent. He makes me feel embarrassed for being an ‘identity seeker’ since he puts it as an unsatisfying quest; everything is fluid; everything is moving the search never ends, goals are never achieved. As I’m writing this I’m thinking of a huge expanse of water and a shipwreck, its contents carried away by the current. You can imagine the rest...

What Black what?

I thought a lot about the wetness (featured object in progress 11.05.10), but I think I was scarred of mess. I don’t like mess really - I appreciate it as apart of process, but I’m a ‘neat’ person. I like things to hold together well and smoothly. Maybe that’s why the spot or circle appealed to me, that continuous smooth surface.

Thinking sculpturally though - through the object, surface wasn’t enough. I’ve made a few skins in the past, bags actually; but they were always filled with other objects, a collection of components.

B.I.T 2000

But what black? For a while there it was becoming a bit of a ‘black history’ lesson. Black: A history of a colour by Michel Pastoureau, was specifically located in the Western European story. I found the history of materials (dyes and inks) very informative, there were also other things I found intriguing...

Saint Maurice

But anyway coming back to this ‘wetness’ - got me thinking about liquidity. I’ve been reading some stuff by Sociologist Zygmunt Bauman over the last couple of years. I spent quite a bit of time with ‘Community: Seeking security in an insecure world’ while working on the Dandelion project. It was revelatory in terms of thinking more analytically about the subject generally, but also in relation to my own associations and relationships. Recently I picked up ‘Identity: conversations with Benedetto Vecchi’, Bauman uses the term ‘liquid modernity’ to explain a condition that keeps our socio political, cultural, professional and sexual identities continuously in a state of flux….