Experimentation – Page 11 – HYPNOTIC REPETITION

28th Nov 201827th Jun 2019

Waiting For Something To Happen.

I have made further progress with proposals for the last two seconds: 7 & 8.

While layering image transfers and varnishing surfaces in-between with watered down PVA glue, I have developed the idea of continuously applying 60 layers of related imagery onto the surface while thoroughly documenting each stage. Some intervals are going to be, perhaps, developed further through the use of video and blending.

I have also recently received a bizarre and laconic sound message. The idea is to use this recording as audio track to support those experimentations.

Photographing the work below was not easy. I had to experiment with several lighting techniques, while documenting the work in progress in the photographic studio.

There are some contact sheets below, which visualise the entire process.

60 seconds equals 60 layers – only 1 minute of waiting. Waiting is used as a metaphor here. The person who is waiting and trapped in the sphere of dreams and hopes is very predictable and safe. Action and response are much more dangerous. They both require bravery and facing failure and disappointment. They require ideas and energy.

Waiting is the new state of being. Waiting for something to happen and change life for better. Waiting, which is passive and effortless, withdrawn; dreaming about change.

On the other hand, waiting can be associated with emotional destress and boredom. This, in turn, can lead to a life of crime and deviation. When one waits for too long, greed becomes the only option and the ultimate desire.

7&8 2 7&8 1

7&8.jpg

26th Nov 201827th Jun 2019

Seconds 7 & 8.

I have tried to document the process of developing a set of recent painting ideas for seconds 7 and 8. I have experimented with layering and using a large number of glazes, robbings and image transfers. The main focus is on the revealing and distracting the surface in order to achieve an incredible depth to the hue of colours, which sound with harmonious melody. I will continue to update this post as new developments take place in terms of making progress with the act of painting and discussing my concepts further, using video manipulations and editing.

21st Nov 201827th Jun 2019

Waiting For A Bit of Colour

The initial consideration for the first six seconds:

Second Refinement.

Oil and encaustic on board, superimposed with photographs.

First Refinement.

Transfers onto mirror card.

Primary Sources.

Man asleep in a chair on the beach. Burned bus.

Both photographs were taken outside Les Cayes in the South West of Haiti.

14th Nov 201827th Jun 2019

More No Than Yes

I am trying to embrace the true meaning of messages in the voice recordings below, while looking at still images; staring at them, staring, staring…

Why Are You Coming Back So Soon

I Am Thinking About It

I Know It Is A Very Good Project

More No Than Yes

Just The Usual Stuff

It Is A Cultural Thing

I Am Really Confused

10th Nov 201814th Nov 2018

60 Seconds of Waiting For Something To Happen.

Following a considerable amount of research and critical analysis of my own experimentation, I have slowly started to develop a deeper understanding of my creative intentions. My focus is firmly placed on uncertainties of tomorrow in the context of waiting for change. Time is a very important factor in the proposed intervention. My thinking has been extended by Samuel Beckett’s ‘Waiting for Godot’, supported by considerations of several scientific and philosophical theories of being and perception of time space. I am interested in visualising a period of 60 seconds of waiting for something to happen and change.

60 Seconds are insignificant yet, simultaneously they are also a metaphorical milestone in the context of measuring time: 60 seconds becomes one minute, 60 minutes create one hour.

The plan is to create a series of 60 painting explorations inspired by research from my travels and observations of what people are waiting for, their cravings, dreams and desires. I plan to superimpose my painterly interpretations with photographic and, perhaps video pieces, before transferring them onto mirror card. This process creates a very important element to my project. It evokes the feeling of ambiguity and unreality. The reflective surface forces the viewer to see his own reflection in the context of the broader work. It provokes a deeper reflection on the nature of uncertainties, their meaning, importance and hierarchy. It proposes the question of what is important and what is insignificant? It also reinforces what cannot be ignored as you see your own reflection in the problem.

Reflective surface has been widely investigated by a British artist Anish Kapoor through his ‘Blood Mirror’ series.

Stainless steel and lacquer
198.5×198.5×46 cm

My obsession with measuring time space comes from the earlier discussed artist Roman Opałka and his ‘Counted Paintings’.

Carte de Voyage Detail (2875545 - 2878714), 1965

Roman Opalka

Carte de Voyage Detail (2875545 – 2878714),

1965, Medium:Works on paper, Ink on paper

Size:33 x 24 cm. (13 x 9.4 in.)

I am also looking at Marc Quinn and his piece titled

No Visible Means of Escape IV, 1996

Justine Khamara – Orbital Spin Trick #2, 2103

Justine KHAMARA. 'Looping #3' 2014 (detail)

Self-shredding image by Banksy, “Love Is in the Bin,” , 2018

Rehearsal for shredding Girl with Balloon

Finally, I have recently read a novel titled “Hunger” by a Norvegian writer called Knut Hamsun. Throughout the book, there is an overwehelming sense of total isolation accompanied by craving for food and stomach pains. THe experience is vivid and almost real.

The project aims to interpret 60 Seconds of waiting in anticipation of a change in the context of broad ranging uncertainties of the future.

Can the presence last forever

Will anything ever change?

Will this process have a positive impact on life?

Will my perception of existence continue to deteriorate, while making reality more and more miserable and unsustainable?

My work will be continuously updated and adjusted in the light of new discoveries and research findings until it becomes a comprehensive and holistic appraisal of human uncertainties of the future in the context of my observations and responses.

The initial experimentations are below :

First Second:

Second Second

scanner@sharp.local_20181109_114705_001

Third Second

scanner@sharp.local_20181109_114620_001.jpg

Fourth Second

scanner@sharp.local_20181109_114546_001

9th Nov 201810th Nov 2018

Revisiting And Extending Existing Ideas

Dreaming About Light. A piece of video experimentation titled ‘Lights coming on and off’, has references to general problems with electricity supply in the provinces and constant, long term power cuts in the capital of Port au Prince. This idea has been inspired by the Turner Prize winning piece by Martin Creed “The lights going on and off 2000”.

Martin Creed The lights going on and off

The use of black and white in the piece echoes racial issues in Haiti and its history of slavery, colonialisation and abuse. What remains is the patchines and unpredictablity of power and light

Time has always been of essence in my investigation. Therefore, I have decided to revisit some of my previous experimentations. These contradictory statements have been inspired by the thinking of Bruce Nauman.

The narrator simultaneously reads that she has time and has no time. This has been refined in the following two videos in order to develop my creative intentions further. The avoidance of direct eye contact is also of significance. It implies that the narrator is looking up to something, searching for for help from above, perhaps from the sky. This has also references to long days, which are wasted while waiting for help; for something to happen and change in their lives.

7th Nov 201813th Nov 2018

Good Morning Sir!

Following the receipt of a chain of messages, I have started to manipulate and interweave my current painterly work with What’sApp text. The flushing of neon like message mimic the disturbance of my reflections.

goodmorningsir

4th Nov 201825th Feb 2020

Continuously Asking for Help

I am constantly bombarded with messages for help. This has led me to want to embed some of those into my painterly backgrounds to create a clash between the impact of colour in response to the beauty of Haiti and desperate plea for help in broken English sent via digital media.

The time taken for the message to become apparent contradicts the immediacy of the need and how instant the process of sending a message is.

It takes a long time to sink in.

The question remains the same: how do I respond? What is the impact of the message on me and my consciousness; it is definitely unsettling, disturbing and leaves a dilemma. I am unable to help them all. How do I help and select potential recipients.

This is how a sudden message can interfere and disturb the focus on painting. The shift is noticeable and reflects the change in thinking processes.

Following the guilt and frustration with not being able to respond in a constructive way, the painting regains its importance. However, this is a cyclic process; absolutely vivid and flashing at times – therefore, overwhelming all other feelings.

I finally feel that I am “getting” somewhere. The painting, the message, the flashes, the vividness, the cyclic re: occurrence.

Ultimate refinement.

Development pieces:

17th Oct 201825th Feb 2020

Map of Time

Handful of Painterly Dust.

painting turning into dust — Encaustic and oil on primed board, projection of hand, mixed media, PVA and sand.

Everything will turn into dust, including my painterly desires and uncertainties.

This is especially true, when re evaluating the hierarchy of needs in reflection to my experiences in Haiti.

Hand gesture tries to stop a painterly process of expression and is gradually replaced by emptyness. The hole shaped as a silhouette of a wine glass, is marked with the anxieties of the past, which have turned into dust.

Map of Progress

I have created the above map of progress to try to find out, where my research journey has taken me so far. It should help me to get things in focus. It has also allowed me to write a list of activities, which I need to finish before moving on with additional lines of enquiry, as follows:

1. Explore references to the designs of Mr Jones watch – I need and I wantI

2. ‘I have time’ video needs to be completed and edited

3. ‘Paintings and Mirror’ video needs to be extended.

4. I have created a range of food videos and should include them in my records.

5. Check and complete a range of reflective accounts, which are currently in a note form.

6. Isolate the element of questioning, while considering the following :
What am I doing?
How can I develop it?
What is the next step?

7. Update references with research into:
Time
Chance
Change
Uncertainty

I have designed the following Map of Time.

I have time for I have no time for

I have time to I have no time to

This video has just been updated. I am trying to deal with self-reflection in the mirror and the gradual replacement of focus from painting onto reflected image and vice versa.

Refinement 2.

Refinement 1. Please, observe the inside of the mirror.

Dreaming About A Kettle

Dreaming About Bread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS9jxboXNuU

16th Oct 201825th Feb 2020

There Is No Time!

MAP – the arrow of time.

The thermodynamic arrow of time
The cosmological arrow of time
The quantum arrow of time
The perpetual arrow of time
The psychological arrow of time

The arrow of Time (entropy).

The second law of thermodynamics states that in case of systems, which are isolated, their entropy can only increase. It cannot ever decrease. Therefore, measuring entropy is a way of differentiating between the past and the future. It allows us to comprehend, what is already behind and what is yet to occur.

I plan to experiment with this idea and design a map of time with references to different levels of certainty. Will anxieties of the past become much more obvious in the future?

What would happen, if I contradicted Machian’s theories of dynamics and quantum geometrodynamic perspective by stating that there was no time! (Butterfield, 2001)

Does it mean that my experimentation with moving image should develop and progress, therefore stop? Should my work remain still? Is stopping time the answer to all uncertainties of the future? The list of questions could easily flow.

In the context of the potential to save money in Haiti, time as concept is irrelevant. There is simply not enough income to put anything aside. There are not enough resources to sustain life. Therefore, dreaming about purchasing unnecessary objects and the associated frustration of wasting time to be able to save ‘nothing’ is a morally unsound torture.

I propose to experiment with images, which indicate desire to possess “something”, something physical. There is, however, absolutely no potential or chance for this dream to come true and materialise. Everything is suspended in the sphere of wishes and imagination. The time has already stopped there.

The dream of owing a kettle becomes more and more vivid, but it never gets a chance to materialise itself and become real. It gets ‘stuck’ somewhere in the sphere of imagination, between needs and desires. The most disturbing is the fact that when you expect it to fully form and appear to be real, the film challenges the predictability of the narrative by stopping the kettle in the process of appearing.

Staring at a grey wall deadpan, day and night. This is all that what is left. Human suffering has no impact. We have seen this all before.

“Underlying this chamber is a number of allusions to recent Polish history – the ramp at the entrance to the Ghetto in Warsaw, or the trucks which took Jews away to the camps of Treblinka or Auschwitz, for example. By entering the dark space, visitors place considerable trust in the organisation, something that could also be seen in relation to the recent risks often taken by immigrants travelling. Balka intends to provide an experience for visitors which is both personal and collective, creating a range of sensory and emotional experiences through sound, contrasting light and shade, individual experience and awareness of others, perhaps provoking feelings of apprehension, excitement or intrigue.”

(THE UNILEVER SERIES: MIROSLAW BALKA: HOW IT IS

16th Oct 20189th Nov 2018

Uncertain Nature of Possessions

Image result for art michael landy his destroys Landy stands in front of the exhaustive catalogue of 7,227 of his belongings – in the end,all that remained was his blue boiler suit (Credit: Michael Landy/Parisa Taghizadeh)

“The ultimate irony of Break Down (title) is that, as soon as it ends (the process of distraction of all own belongings), Landy will have turned himself into the ideal consumer – a man who needs to be sold new underwear, pyjamas, shoes, toothbrush, hairbrush. ”

(Dormet, 2001)

Refinements of earlier expertimentation.

The documentary narrative evidences the meaning of time, which is necessary to save money to purchase goods, such as lamps and TV sets. The “goods appear and disappear” silently without any impact on life and the surroundings. Are they therefore necessary? What is their purpose and function? Is life fulfiled by a meaningless process of collecting objects? Why cannot we exist without them?

“Is Break Down about the transience of consumer goods?

ML: Yes, many consumer objects have an in-built, compulsory obsolescence. Companies don’t want their goods to last long and that determines what materials they use. People have also generally become less able to understand how things work: objects have become much more complex. People are no longer able to maintain them properly, let alone repair them themselves.”

“Stallabrass, 2001”

Initial experimentation with the uncertain nature of physical possessions in the context of time and necessity.

12th Oct 201825th Feb 2020

Dreaming About A Watch.

“Reversing the arrow of time was possible for the quantum particles because they were correlated — their properties were linked in a way that isn’t possible for larger objects, a relationship akin to quantum entanglement but not as strong. This correlation means that the particles share some information. In thermodynamics, information has physical significance”

(Conover, 2016, p. 10)

Philosophers generally agree that time is continuous as it does not stop and start or reverse. It has also a direction and a form of order. Therefore, time is progressive and sequential, from past to present; from present to future. Time is also defined by its objective – the arrow of time indicates progression in only one direction – forward.

Therefore, with regards to income in Haiti, it should be possible to safe sufficient amount of money to purchase goods, which are desired and needed. The only obstacle is …the time required for this.

Do I have sufficient time? Is is too long to save? Can I wait? How much time do I need to save enough to purchase a wrist watch?

I am dreaming about a watch

A watch is something you have as a necessity. It is not commonly regarded as a luxury object. Here, the aspirations are much grander, such as cars, houses, nights out and jewellery. Therefore, the focus is on non-essential items rather than every day “things” we take for granted.

This visual consideration was inspired by a boy in a town called Jacmel. He continuously made visual references to my basic, inexpensive watch and indicated how impressed he was with the idea of “knowing the time”.

Time, as a concept, has become a very important part of my thinking. Therefore, if requires more contextual analysis and investigation to understand its significance in different contexts.