CONNIE HOPE

lead by Tina Jenkins.

Last weeks exhibition at RSA was curated by two external experts of their craft. Hannah Wallis and Ishmail De Niro.

The art block is somewhat segmented into a bauhaus style architecture and organisation that has since posed problems, I have been endeavouring to answer for myself and practice. I discussed this personal transition in my viva presentation which was part of my formative assessment.

Hannah scoped the space with grace and efficiency. It was a pleasure to watch her work with such a large and disparate set of artworks in such a minimal amount of time. There was no sense of haste, but after a brief questioning of each of the exhibiting artists Hannah consulted her yellow sticky notes and got to work. Within 3 hours, the studio 3 working space was transformed into a dynamic cube on the receiving end of our reimagined realities.

I planned to exhibit 3 pieces in their WIP state. This was an informed decision since I am floating between spatial considerations and display formats for my sculptures as unfinished articles. Hannah and I confirmed that the 3 objects would be placed apart for the exhibition. The reason for this was to test their validity as individual objects. It was noted by my peers in this critique that the works were perhaps only identifiably connected because they knew me personally and were aware that the pieces were my own. This is problematic because in a professional art environment, my personal ‘style’ or technique would remain somewhat anonymous. And so, I need to work on further connecting the pieces even if I display them metres apart. Below, are documentational images of the works shown at Reimagined Realities.

Before exhibiting, I found it challenging to photograph the three separate works in a cluster formation. So, I was more focused on furthering their individual qualities. Now, its clear that, if i want my ‘installation vision’ to be realised, I must explore ways of splicing the three works together in such a way that will deliver the aesthetic message i am trying to convey.

Highlights of this discussion revolved around the success of the expansion of the piece formally known as Sculpted Sentients; the human esque form that now bares a rock hard protruding belly, cracking like ancient stone at multiple locations, like some sort of ossified almost grown fetus is ready to break out.

Another suggestion reminded me not to forget the three dimensionality of the ‘wheel piece’. Although the focal point of this work rested in the detail of the numerous miniature punctures in the top left of the plastic pie, it seems I had forgotten that those very holes lead to the other side. I had not taken into consideration all of the textures and formalities of the readymade.

Tina Jenkins suggested I look into Matthew Barney, specifically his epic Cray Master Sculpture series. For their unusual tactile and animalistic qualities resembled what I am trying to emulate through sporadic deep fried pig noses and crusty remains of previous works slathered onto the she-thing with tile adhesive.