Exhibiting the work of another student, Thursday, February 20th, 9AM to 3:30PM
An exhibition where a student presents another student's work.
Purpose is not to make the obvious selection - courtesy of the artist - and then trying to position that, in whatever way.
One explores the work of the other; what happens, in the work, what is being looked for, what is found herein, what is shown. As well as what is hidden - willingly or unwillingly, what is behind the horizon.
Next, exploring why you choose what you've chosen. What is the correct space, environment (and why) to place the artist's work, or fragments of it, and your position to it, in the world. How do you agitate a work, or what could be a work. How a work can 'work', in its imcompleteness, doubt or failure.
To see this, and to show it, is the mission.
My articulation of Isabels practice resulted in an installation of two of her paintings, as well as photo documentation of this and an A3 sketch book I found in her studio. I was applying my own ideas and interests in combination with the themes and ideas discussed with Isabel in her studio. The outcome felt like a reversal of authorship and became a heightened critique on both of our working methods. At first I made a selection of five paintings that I liked, I didn't know much about these works individually that I chose, just a general understanding of the main concerns and techniques in her practice. She explained that her painting had progressively evolved from figurative, landscape work to a more abstract handling of these compositional colours and motifs. There were recurrences that seemed to be representational of the medium itself. She would also rework the paintings, being able to fluidly return to them and conceal detailed areas with blocks of paint.
Working with these material distinctions of positive and negative space seen in the compositions, I was arranging the canvases to have a similar effect. The two works I chose to instal were trying to resemble or suggest the various juxtapositions that could be derived in her practice. The physicality of the canvases was used to reiterate Isabels working methods; resting one canvas on top of the other, unfixed, to hide part of the image, and also to imply movability and indeterminacy. I found it interesting to work with these ideas of material deception with my own ideas of deception through documentation. The two works were selected because of their complementary colours and comparable subject matter and proportions. The small canvas acted as an adjustment layer hovering over this larger composition; scanning over it to reveal embedded data. The images I produced were an observation of an act of interpretation (or misinterpretation), they shouldn't be trusted. They are second hand translations that exist separately to what they might resemble.
