day 18

This is the latest piece i've been working on. Encased the metal tubing in the gelatine, pouring vinegar into the central reservoir and finally adding iron rust filings. Thinking about containing potentials in spaces; degradation revealing a delicacy and highlighting a vulnerability within such a strong, crude substance like the metal.













































Analysis is allowed when the pace or process of something is slowed or captured at a particular moment. Where do we see this in life? What might people use this 'relationship' for? Preserving a moment... preserve... jam. Jam is a domestic example where nature's engagement ceases to have control and man takes on a leading role by encapsulating the fruit in gelatine. In doing so, we can observe a delay or ultimate break down of something.

Started exploring the logistics of this material as something to work with in my theme of degradation and the concept of natural environment meeting the man made.

day 15

In search of finding some kind of resolution with my concepts in the environment surrounding me, i looked at streetscapes: a common ground associated with pollutant fumes. The gradual erosion of the iron in these lamposts were visually interesting and gave me a launchpad for further research. They demonstrated an almost organic growth and detachment from their industrial routes... ground for exploration.

















Advanced Higher Chemistry is finally of use... Wanted to start 'culturing' some of my own growth, realising potential in dormant materials. Salt solutions were grown, forming crytalline structures. This idea of generation of the crystals from their origin in the solution: regression and degradation of which demonstrating that i was now in charge of an equilibrium of forms.
























Been having some difficulty in focusing/concentrating on a particular avenue in my work to follow at the moment. Enjoyed experimanting with materials and conducting methodical trials to see the way in which natural Vs industrial materials interact. My work space is bordering on looking like a science lab at the moment... but i think there is some potential with some of the works i've been producing, although identifying them at this point is proving 'difficult'.

Writing down my thoughts and thus establishing a train of thought has always been my way of working out of a situation like the one im facing just now. So here goes:

"fragments of past decoration"
Felt this was a strong statement to help explain my focus. Im interested in the byproducts of degradation and thus generation of substances meeting. Fusion creates conflict and ultimate breakdown. Products of such meetings could include rust, debris, rocks, crystals, etc. These organic products correlate well with the fine equilibrium that meets and challenges all substances everyday. My initial interest in the meeting of nature's clouds with man's industrial pollutants in the air might seem distance but its precisely the fragility of such a situation that im trying to contextualise in my work.



"could the world end in disintegration and dispersal?"

A quote from the work of George Onwin:
"... in an illiimitable extensity and compromised of marine and other natural fragments, it transcends the contingency of experience to engage with the vast, ineluctable continuum of space and time."

I've looked at the work of Joseph Beuys in my Site-Place-Context project and revisiting his work has helped. I particulary appreciated his use of multiples to act as vehicles for communication of what they are, their origins; confirming their identity and thus justifying their presence?

My interpretations of his works deem them as studies of phenomena. The concept of an allotropy, a definition im familiar with from studying chemistry, fits here. Basically, the same formula yet takes several different forms. So could it be said that "material allotropy" is tension found between idea and solidity.

It is this tension that i wish to introduce or converse with in the dialogue of my work. Physical tension brings about texture reminiscent of disintegration and perhaps will lead to regeneration?













Everything is part of a process. Understanding, arguably, can be found in allocating its position relevant to other elements of the sequence it's part of. Is presented work the beginning of a sequence?











The point of crystallisation, denoting the reaction of materials, has particulary interested me. It has this "air of decay" and yet it speaks of this newness... the realisation of an unknown potential. The insubstantial has become substantial through my intervention. To me, this brings forward connotations of death and rebirth, transformation and loss.











Experiments have evolved using salt solutions. This seemingly ordinary substance brings connotations of wealth, fertilisation and perservation. Perservation is maintaining a delicate balance and is usually found in giving longevity to nature's products. Interesting to explore the visual response in storing/preserving objects not requiring this. What would metal, for example, to respond to in this situation? Does it degrade rather than maintain?




















So... points of interest to continue with:

1. visuals of destruction and regeneration
2. visuals of texture through these processes
3. the addition of substances to possibly affect new superficial textures?
4. chemical change
5. revealing of unchanged layers of a material superficially tarnished by change

Ultimately, im seeking to anlayse and scrutinise patterns of natural phenomena.

day 12

Becoming interested in growth and the way chemistry can culture 'organic' growth from un-natural substances/objects. This has led to creating new surfaces, contrasting the man made with the natural.

day 10

I've been exploring the various textures/visuals that metals can produce. Zinc plate (from printing dept) is extremely maliable and has been creating delicate pools of material that i've been working into. Looking at the 'journey' of the rust 'film' that old metals take on... soaked sheets of tissue with vinegar and, as it diffuses through the paper, it take the rust with it. Interested at the patterns and delicacies made. Possible avenues to explore there.

Also been 'growing' salt solutions on sheets of steel... the marks/forms being made when subjected to a strong heat source are very organic... really like how this reinforces my interest in the way in which man and nature correspond.

Now looking at 3 additional artists to inform my experimentations:

Glen Onwin
(apologies being directed to the eca webpage... please just look at the photo of Onwin's work at the bottom of the page...)

Ilana Halperin
visied GOMA yesterday and connected with this image...this is what got me to research Halperin...


Bob Bingham
"Current work has shifted to focus on the expanded landscape within the cityscape: public parks, gardens and building grounds. This research explores the 'event' of entering and moving through the natural environment with an emphasis on boundaries, traffic paths and invented natural elements that unfold with time. The primary intention is to create a situation for an aesthetic experience; a place to contemplate the relationship between the natural and built environment."
This statement by Bingham really connected with me. Great inspiration found in his words and concepts... will definately progress with this now in mind.

Day 7

Think I made a bit of progess today... thinking about treating the metal surfaces with acid/vinegar/lemon juice/salt solutions. Want to see how the surface responds to the new material... does it deform? Degradation realises a new potential or quality in a material... exciting to see this new product and in a way 'celebrate' the creation or begin to understand components/structures involved. Interesting to analyse the way forms come together and make a new one - one that perhaps is a breakdown of its origin.

Day 6

Lots of thinking as to where this project theme is going: trying to keep it as broad as possible to allow for expansion in many areas. My paper journal has become a space for me to jot down ideas as, and when, they come to me.
Want to persist with the clouds, studying the sky: analysing nature meeting the skyline of industry. The impact that the residues of man's production; pollution in fumes and buildings cause the atmosphere to react and respond - a fragility is formed. I want to create a conversation in my work that looks at this dialogue. Could we call it destruction? Degradation? Defense? Collaboration?

I have been posing myself questions on this topic as i've been researching it: are clouds the beautiful creations of nature that we think? Or, do they now constitute the impact of pollution? Are they more man than nature? Interesting to use the particle make up of these forms... break them down to what they are, and therefore realise their origins. Origins allow us to define. Cycles are an important concept to explore. The cyclical formation and break down of clouds as well as the creation and destruction of pollutants should be considered. Clouds form from water, they rise, collect more water, alter in shape and make-up, their weight eventually causing them to disintegrate and break down: they loose themselves in the atmosphere. Essentially they are going through a complex process. Disruption occurs when man interferes: dialogue is commenting on this impact.

Politicians are now asking us to seriously be aware of the danger and threat of global warming. There is no longer a plea for this topic to be heard. Now it is fuel for a political canon by many leaders in the upcoming general election. A slogan, i think could be quite appropriate, would be:
"We need to freeze global warming."
Consideration point: the need to freeze its progress or impact. Want to explore the way in which raw/natural materials/structures, beginning with a 'crude' make-up can be literally broken down into a fragile existence... or not? Want to look at 'breaking through surfaces... analysing/consider materials at their subatomic/particle level.
The Ozone Layer is a delicate one. It is odd to note that Ozone, the chemical molecule: O3, is infact a very harmful toxin/poison. It is a creation of nature, acting as a barrier to the harmful UV rays of the Sun.

Penetrating a delicate/fragile entity.

Although it has been heavily documented that large areas of it have been destroyed by pollution, it is now being recorded that areas of the layer are regenerating itself. Interesting to follow this regeneration... reflect it back in my work.
How has man alleviated some of the damage? The production of biodegradable materials... a concept borrowed from nature.

Watching the sun set on a clear evening, the progress of clouds and their changing formations can be monitored by the colour alterations taking place on their contours. Thus, we can track progress of a dialogue: the concept of monitoring change is potentially an interesting one. I want to explore this in my work: create superficial tags on materials as they change. The byproducts of melting, destroying, creating and superimposing them on something... powders placed to show movement etc.

Decided to begin my process of research to demonstrate my thinking through metal. To me, it represents an uncomprehensible strength, ideal to undergo experimentation of degradation. I want to penetrate its qualities: discover flaws, make new visual and physical attributes. I want to emphasise that man can control and harm his environment, both intentionally and subconsciously.

Soft and textured, the clouds of the sky are ethereal: a place that man has always had an obsession about being part of; space exploration etc. However, man's wish to dominate his environment remains and so might we have to retain our dominating role and observe the layers of nature from above?

The process of touching - touching the clouds with our hands - touching nature with man's dirty, 'polluting hands' - can nature ever evade the 'tinging' of man's presence? Our environment constantly receives the products of degradation onto new surfaces. Consideration point: taking rust, the byproduct of acid rain on iron structures, and placing it on new surface. ie using degredation itself as a medium? Can I highlight the effect of man through this relocation?



These sculptures that I made in the metal workshop helped me make my thoughts visual. To me, they demonstrate, via the plastic insulation, the way in which man, and un-natural materials, consume and cloak nature. The delicacy of the wire projects a needed delicacy.



Spent quite a while trying to work out how to do this but, after teaching myself how to take videos on my camera, I set myself up a youtube account and am now able to post moving pictures to demonstrate my thoughts. Very pleased! The above piece was a simple trial. I was trying to show progression of one material into another; the way materials create their own unique path; the difficulty of transmitting themselves from one to the next. I want to explore this idea of infiltration in my development, possibly looking at how a material creates a network of components and penetrates another. Perhaps try a strong acid on metal and see how it could eat away and destroy the surface? Elements of control etc. For it is through degradation of a material e.g. crusting, rusting, fragility, break down (from acid rain or pollutant fumes?) that a seemingly new growth or change in texture and strength of the original material happens.

What might happen when we house these harmful substances/materials inside another material that has form, e.g. a particular gas/liquid inside a balloon? How does the balloon respond? Does it deform? Is it penetrated? This example allows examination/scrutiny of the concept of global warming being a product of man reacting with nature. Is it possible to create a situation where these two meet?

Day 3

In the library just now. Spent the morning on the hunt for scraps of metal to use for project and in the workshop in the afternoon learning how to solder. Big thanks to Derek for helping me carry my scrap up the hill to the school... much appreciated!

Managed to acquire a large amount of copper wire that had been stripped out of a car engine as well as an old 3m extention cable I'm able to strip for the copper wiring from the electricals.

Really enjoyed being in the workshop because it was only through the learning process that I began to see other potentials in the materials. Instead of just salvaging the copper, I decided to retain the colourful plastic coatings of the flex. It gave the little experimental models I'm making another reference to the conflict of man Vs nature. Things consuming one another; the dominating nature of man's products on the delicate existence of natural forms. Photos and links to follow...

Day 2

Deciding to focus on clouds, the atmosphere; the fragility of nature meeting the harmful forces of man and industry in the sky. Possible current topical issues could include global warming and climate change? Wanting to experiment with the degradation and delicate breakdown of substances from external sources - linking this to the destruction, or alledged rehabilitation, of the protective ozone layer. Want to start dialogues of diffusion: diffusion of colour, material, positioning, forms, particles, shapes, liquids etc.

As is probably evident, there is alot of random thinking at the moment, but I think it's best to get the thoughts out into the open. More has been written in my learning journal and notebook for ease of reference.

Hopefully will be spending most of tomorrow in the metal workshop. Want to do some copper wire soldering and experiment with various techniques and materials. Through these processes, hopefully more ideas should appear.

Follow thislink to my Flickr site to look at a selection of my photos that I've chosen to post up. Includes, skies, holiday pictures with these themes, work by David Smith I've seen in NY and a beautiful piece of sculpture in Argentina. (interested in its craft and construction)

Photos of possible interest/use

Always been fascinated with the colours of the sky and the way in which the sea reflects and magnifies this.



Maybe look at the diffusive quality of water and air; the impact of colours/dyes on materials. Bring in knowledge of chromatography, a chemical separating process?

Day 1

It's day 1 of the project and, being the computer novice that I am, I'm just testing things out on my blogger site. Have a few ideas/themes that I might start experimenting with materials with tomorrow. Spent a bit of this afternoon having a look in the Sculpture section of the library and just picked out various books that caught my interest and see what they were like.

I'm going to try to post up some websites that I have been looking at in relation to these artists/works so I can further my research/process. So, the following is my list along with websites I've been looking at:

Anthony Gormley
Guardian article Possibly make links with my experience of medicine last year?

Simon Periton













Having looked at some of Periton's work, it reminded me of the intricate qualities that paper can take on when manipulated. Maybe look at making delicate of materials that are considered crude?

Robert Rauschenberg
"You begin with the possibilities of the material."
I want to almost search for what the material can offer. Discover potentials like flexibility, colours, etc.

Marc Quinn
Really like the traditional values with modernistic approach. Consider mixing not just medias but concepts to evoke responses?

David Smith
Guggenheim Museum, NY 2006 Visited this exhibition on holiday and loved it - particularly his smaller works. Definately want to work with metal and probably best to work at a smaller scale. Experimenting with coloured powders on the metal with directed lighting?

Jasper Johns

Richard Wilson
My proposal of a theme that looks at the discourse between the clouds and atmosphere with industries structures and products could allow the relationship between industrial materials (like metal) and natural phenomena (like light or water) to be examined. I really one of his works called: One Piece at a Time, where hundreds of suspended car mechanical components are dropped on the floor of a warehouse floor systematically at intervals. The intial spectacle is beautiful, but the final piece: a recording of all th pieces dropping, is even better. Have never really considered doing a sound piece but it could possibly analyse my theme better? Not sure.

RW: A fresh bunch of flowers was seen as a performance piece without performers, where these tributes were emerging as the ice melted, of course, there was a moment when the whole thing collapsed and there was what looked like seaweed everywhere. Accompanying that piece, which was the Slow Event, was the Fast Event which was not quite a Gamelan show but a three minute hard hit with pyros, drums and sculptural sound effects. I've known Anne and Paul since 1976 and it's always been an incredibly rewarding experience working with them because they have always been creative and active in their own areas and it's developed out of a genuine friendship. Paul-in answer to an invitation from the London Musicians Collective to take part in a festival just said to me and Anne "Do you fancy doing this with me?". I have a boat on the river and we went out on it to work out some ideas and we all got excited about the same things.



Ice could be a good medium to use for, as Wilson says, it provides a spontaneous transient quality. Performance could be an element to explore.. whether that be in real time materials or videoing of an event being played.

I've said before in an interview; what better way to deal with the idea of transformation than to deal with a material that has been through it's own transformation? Oil is also very much a material of our century. It has a strange wealth which is recognised- wars have been fought over it. I was also interested in using a material which was so anti sculpture, a material which you could be arrested and fined for if you poured it down the drain. It had all those environmentally unfriendly connotations. It brought me right back to the perfect solution of making a piece of work which is almost invisible, this connected on from the aluminium pieces except that in this case the room was the mould and the liquid remained liquid.
It was a totally psychological experience: I watched some people go into that room and walk halfway up the corridor and grab the sides - they thought the floor had gone. They got oil on them - but that described to me an inefficiency between the eye and the brain - like when you're on a train and the train next to you moves off and you think your moving, then you glance at the platform and see that you're not. Another thing about 20;50 was that, for it's time, it seemed to touch on it's immediate past: Op Art, Land Art, Field Painting, Installation - so many of those other "isms" from the sixties and early seventies were suddenly pulled together.

Tony Oursler
This atist's work reminded me of a work that I saw at the GSA degree show last year by Heather Brown. She did very similar pieces on eyes projected onto pink latex balloons. Oursler talks about media introjection... this concept of disruption to cause change or possible harm to the existing environment interests me.



Works partly made by hand and by video/projection allow them to estabish themselves on two different levels. There is a definate sense of interaction and yet there is a distancing of sorts. Strange... but this combination is very compatible. I would like to attempt to use this combination of techniques in my work perhaps.


Vera Rohm
"...a practical demonstration of the interweaving of light and shadow across the curved volumes of the built forms. The scientific purpose of this astonishing observatory is not forgotten, but its built mass is explored in terms of striking details, disorientating points of view abd effects of tonal equilibrium."
Rohm's most recent works, Integration, are a series of wooden scaffold like simple structures, where the beams have been stressed and broken to make splintered ends. These forms then seemlessly ajoin to glass/perspex beams of the same dimensions: beautiful. Ideas of poetry, transparency, endurance and merging come together in this work. 'Fertile' materials are used to create interior divisions. Again, I want to see through and around and inside materials: treating them and altering them to do so. Stripping them to their essential components.

Soft Sculpture and Other Soft Art Forms
"The artist began to explore the quality of the material and to allow this quality to become the expression of the piece. At the beginning, the pieces assumed sculptural dimension, but they were, for the most part, two-dimensional concepts with the addition of depth."
I am always attracted to textural surfaces as they interact on both physical and visual levels. Sometimes I find it challengingt= to bring an idea from a 2D to 3D status but I am aiming to explore 3D works for my final work... I hope.
Work by Kenneth weedman particularly interests me. His fluid use of materials to convey concept is intriguing. I want my work to flow and so the play of movement and progress should be evident in the materials. Wire, rope, cable, rubber, latex?

Alberto Burri









Getting back to the textural qualities of materials. Like the weave of the fabric... making links to stitching, bringing edges together: medical link with suturing? Welding of metal is the same concept. Want to break materials down and build them up again?