Ideas, Links & Research

I am so grateful to be working with Jean Marie again - It has been 5 years since Transart, and hence 5 years since I really spent time in this deep research and analysis of my practice. I feel it is the perfect amount of time to do it all again and to throw everything into a giant mixing bowl, shake it and see what comes out. I feel like I need to find a new direction and to experiment with a new methodology and/or materials. I am even considering the possibility stepping away from drawing and finding a new process all together. Who knows. At this stage I am happy just to go down the rabbit hole of research and see where I end up.

The following content contains the links, suggestions and artists that came up in my conversation with Jean Marie when we met on the 18th September 2023.

Nancy Holt’s book, Inside Outside - I have ordered this book along with the others books listed below. I have always had a love hate relationship with the land artists. I love that they found a new way of approaching their art practice, well outside of the gallery system, however, I find a lot of the land art of the 1970’s extremely destructive and invasive rather than working harmoniously within the landscape or adding to the landscape in a way that helps it regenerate or grow. However, Nancy Holt and Michelle Stuart seemed to have a different approach to that of their male counterparts.

Michelle Stuart

In amongst all my notes I had scribbled the following statement down while in conversation with Jean Marie- “Invisibility of History” and then the question: “How does that translate to the self portrait piece I made with ash?" I can’t remember in what context this statement was used within our conversation or if it was a book title so I googled it thinking it was a book. Instead I found this book: Invisibility: The Science and History of How Not to Be Seen. In a world that seems obsessed with being seen, this title was intriguing for me.

Written by Optical Physicist Greg Gbur, who specializes in Classical Coherence Theory, this book explains how in 2006 two researcher proved theoretically that invisibility was possible. This then led fellow researchers down a twisted path of making invisibility a very real possibility. Just when I thought the world of quantum physics couldn’t get any more surreal,

“In this book, optical physicist Gregory J. Gbur traces the science of invisibility from its sci-fi origins in the nineteenth-century writings of authors such as H. G. Wells and Fitz James O'Brien to modern stealth technology, invisibility cloaks, and metamaterials. He explores the history of invisibility and its science and technology connections, including the discovery of the electromagnetic spectrum, the development of the atomic model, and quantum theory. He shows how invisibility has moved from fiction to reality, and he questions the hidden paths that lie ahead for researchers. This is not only the story of invisibility but also the story of humankind's understanding of the nature of light itself.”

Needless to say I am now patiently awaiting this little treasure in the mail. Considering my long fascination with light, this seems like the perfect book. In the mean time there is a quick summary of the book in the following article: Link

Side note, Gbur has also written a book called, Falling Felines and Fundamental Physics - which I’ve added to my wish list.

Jean Marie also told me about a great exhibition called Apollo’s Muse - however when I looked that up I found out that Apollo’s Muse is also an exclusive members club in Mayfair, London. If I was a writer I’d write a murder mystery in this setting - it seems kind of perfect for such a story.

In response to my recent work, Jean Marie said that the work moves back and forth between the body and and the celestial body. From this idea it was suggested to have a look at the Jeanne Liotta film, Observando El Cielo.

Seven years of celestial field recordings gathered from the chaos of the cosmos and inscribed onto 16mm film from various locations upon this turning tripod Earth. This work is neither a metaphor nor a symbol, but is feeling towards a fact in the mist of perception, which time flows through. Natural VLF radio recordings of the magnetosphere in action allow the universe to speak for itself. The Sublime is Now. Amor Fati! Jeanne Liotta

Also look at: Cornelia Parker. Especially her Bullet Drawings:

*Bullet Drawing,* lead wiring, H 42 x W 42 x D 21 cm, ©Cornelia Parker

Watch the film Nostalgia for Light by director director Patricio Guzman.

A documentary about two different searches conducted in the Chilean Atacama Desert: one by astronomers looking for answers about the history of the cosmos, and one by women looking for the remains of loved ones killed by Pinochet's regime.

Read the book, Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End, by Atul Gawande.

Look at the work of Agnes Denes - particularly her art work titled, Wheatfield (see below)

*Wheatfield - A Confrontation: Battery Park Landfill, Downtown Manhattan - with Agnes Denes Standing in the Field*
©1982 Agnes Denes

*The Crystal Fort/Glass Fortress - Masterplan: Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie"*
Part of the Fort Asperen Project, this is an original design for a full size fortress made of glass to be built along the Waterlinie as a major tourist attraction to create revenues for the reclamation plans laid out in the 25-year master plan created by the artist. Projected size 120'x120'x60'. Archival digital image from original rendering.
©2001 Agnes Denes

Questions to consider:

How do you connect what you do with your research?
Have you considered adding ash to paint?
Why does the blackest black pigment matter?
Look into colour theory in relation to light and black.