Working with Paverpol Piece

 

This is the completion of the test piece using the Paverpol fabric hardener.  I have explained it's use in an earlier post.  These two images detail how the work was then painted after the paverpol had hardened the fabric.  The paverpol rendered the fabric extremely hard and it accepted the acrylic paint very readily.  This test piece shows what the product is capable of but I don't know if its something that would actually want to use.

 

 

 

 

 

Assignment 2 - Revised Artist's Statement

At the beginning of Painting 3, I had outlined my interest in both textiles and painting as a combined approach.  The impetus was originally the shirt industry in my home town and the thousands of women who worked within that industry for over 120 years and how it had shaped the history and culture of this city.

I've realised that during the course of this assignment though that it's the nature of fabric itself and the stories that are spoken through the metaphor of fabric and thread that are at the core of that 'thing' that makes me want to make art.  I'm interested in the domestic, the work that women did/do and what was created in that doing.  I should clarify that I'm not interested in the decorative or pretty.  How to resolve a number of issues?  Textiles as an expression of women - a secondary 'lesser' art form - painting as masculine - an art form, along with sculpture,  that had primacy over all others, at one stage.

The warp and weft of fabric sent me in the direction of grids and networks and then onto lace. I looked at many artists who have incorporated the grid in their work and noted some scholarly writing on this subject - particularly that of Rosalind Krauss.

I'm not a fan of lace per se and its cosy connotations of doilies and so forth.  I've looked at many artists who use lace as part of a conceptual language in a radical way and I'm curious about how it can work with painting - either physically in paint or the idea of using the spaces in between that lace creates. 

In reading 'The Subversive Stich' which I mention in this blog, I was interested in how 1970's feminists had first rejected and abhorred the practice of embroidery and how they had then taken embroidery and used it towards their own ends.  Judy Chicago's 'The Dinner Party' and Tracey Emin's 'Tent', comes to mind.

The investigations into materiality for this assignment have made me realise that there is a strong feminist element developing in this work - it may not be visualised yet but it is there.

I have asked myself the question 'Why am I on a painting degree when I'm so interested in textiles?'

If I'm honest, one reason is that painting is still regarded as a 'higher' art form over textiles. Another reason is that it is challenging to work at combining and therefore 'elevating' textiles (and by association, women) to the same level as painting.  It may be that I let go of some preconcieved notions that I must have some form of fabric/textile in each painting.  It may be that I have grasped at textiles because underlying all this is that maybe I am a closet feminist waiting to emerge!

A2- Copper Support Tests

I've overpainted the blue acrylic squares with varying thicknesses of oil paint.  The acrylic paint scrapes off very easily as I guessed it would do.  Any work in acrylic paint would have to be sealed with suitable protection.  I'll wait to see what happens with the oil paint when it's dry.

A2 - Testing Paint on Copper Sheet

I'm testing both oil paint and acrylic paint on copper.  The blue squares are acrylic and the rest are oil.  I've chosen copper as an alternative support to canvas.  Once dry, I will try a variety of processes such as sanding, scraping, overpainting etc to see how this support responds.

Experimental Art v Art Experiments

STUDIES IN MATERIAL THINKING http://www.materialthinking.org ISSN: 1177-6234 Auckland University of Technology First published in April 2007, Auckland, New Zealand. Copyright © Studies in Material Thinking and the author.

 

 

 

There is a school of thought that holds that art is, by definition, experimental. “In the relevant sense of ‘experimental’ (and using the relevant word ‘art’) there is no other sort”, says Donald Brook1.

 

Certainly, one of the few generalizations that may safely be advanced about contemporary art is that it experiments—and not just with its given materials; art is inclined to experiment with anything and everything: “with raw matter or time, relationships amongst people, things and tendencies” as Ross Gibson observes2. As such, art is apt to exceed any institutional designation, confounding expectations about what it is and where it belongs. At this level, its experimentality manifests as a disposition, a drive to question, transgress and reinvent that in turn inflects the particular exploratory processes or “methods” of art making. When we describe art as “experimental”, then, we are often referring not to a formal testing procedure but to the inclination to test social boundaries and conventions; in other words, to contemporary art’s roots in the history of the avant-garde.

 

Another new book.....

A Brush with the Real - Figurative Painting Today

Experimentation with lace crochet

Support: Stretched Canvas 50 x 60 cms.

Materials and Process:  Unbleached calico adhered to stretched canvas with gesso.  Unbleached cotton string crocheted into a grid like network.  I crocheted long chains and then joined them together to create an open network reminiscent of lace.  This piece is really 4 test pieces all on the one canvas.  I found that dipping the crochet in gesso was quite successful - the gesso worked both as a glue to adhere the crochet to the canvas and also to provide a good bite for later layers of paint.  Colour in each piece was kept to a minimum as I'm not yet sure about this.

 

 

Below:  Two pieces of the calico hand stitched together to create a thick seam.  Part of the seam then opens and bulges with cotton string.

Below:  Seam with opening and string.