For the first time in October and November, I took part in a workshop with OCA called - Keeping up Momentum - Something Missing? with Hayley Lock.
In a large zoom group, we were presented with various works and the concepts of artists about the absence of something.
The works and approaches that we analyzed included basically everything.
... the physical absence of everything... and the presentation of it all and nothing.
Yves Klein, in the Void Room (Raum der Leere), Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, January 1961 [online] At: https://kiameku.tumblr.com/post/26216403274/yves-klein-in-the-void-room-raum-der-leere/amp (Accessed 07.12.2022)
The absence of composition and figurativeness as such and its presence in some new form.
Kazimir Malevich, Black Square, 1915, oil on linen, 79.5 x 79.5 cm, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. [online] At: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Square_(painting)#/media/File:Kazimir_Malevich,_1915,_Black_Suprematic_Square,_oil_on_linen_canvas,_79.5_x_79.5_cm,_Tretyakov_Gallery,_Moscow.jpg (Accessed 07.12.2022)
A representation of what is, but we do not see it. Endowing this invisible with such qualities that it begins to manifest itself.
Hans Haacke, Condensation Cube, 19 A representation of what is, but we do not see it. Endowing this invisible with such qualities that it begins to manifest itself.63-1968 Sculpture, 76 x 76 x 76 cm [online] At: https://www.macba.cat/en/art-artists/artists/haacke-hans/condensation-cube (Accessed 07.12.2022)
Light presentation.
Martin Creed, Work No. 227: The lights going on and off, 2001 [online] At: https://www.wikiart.org/en/martin-creed/work-no-227-the-lights-going-on-and-off-2001 (Accessed 07.12.2022)
Representation of human perception, and communication at the sensory level.
Marina Abramović, “The Artist is Present,” 2010, Museum of Modern Art, New York, March 9–May 31, 2010 Andrew Russeth, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons [online] At: https://www.goethe.de/prj/sti/en/kur/22960677.html (Accessed 07.12.2022)
Perception through the representation of opposites. If there is something, how to understand what is not? Black or white, Something or nothing.
Hiroshi Sugimoto Tyrrhenian Sea, Conca, 1994 [online] At: https://www.artribune.com/report/2015/04/hiroshi-sugimoto-batte-il-tempo-a-modena/attachment/hiroshi-sugimoto-tyrrhenian-sea-conca-1994-courtesy-lartista/ (Accessed 07.12.2022)
The positive and negative perception of objects in space. Space around and in between.
Silke Otto-Knapp, Land and Sea, (2019) [online] At: https://autre.love/journal/2019/3/7/silke-otto-knapp-presents-land-and-sea-regen-projects-in-los-angeles (Accessed 07.12.2022)
A cast or something casted.
Olafur Elliason, The presence of absence (Nuup Kangerlua, 24 September 2015 #1), 2016 neugerriemschneider, Berlin, 2016 Photo: Jens Ziehe [online] At: https://olafureliasson.net/archive/exhibition/EXH102457/the-presence-of-absence (Accessed 07.12.2022)
Fill in or remove, forgotten or displaced.
Doris Salcedo, Installation at 8th International Istanbul Biennial, 2003. [online] At: https://gwarlingo.com/2012/artist-doris-salcedo-i-began-to-conceive-of-works-based-on-nothing/ (Accessed 07.12.2022)
forgotten and the displaced.
Sophie Calle, What Do You See?, 2013. © Sophie Calle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris; courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York [online] At: https://aperture.org/editorial/what-do-you-see/ (Accessed 07.12.2022)
Marks and Traces
Marcel Broodthaers, Un Coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard (A throw of the dice will never abolish chance), 1969 Artist’s book, offset lithograph on transparent paper, 12 3/4 × 9 13/16 in | 32.4 × 24.9 cm [online] At: https://www.artsy.net/show/museum-of-modern-art-marcel-broodthaers-a-retrospective?sort=partner_show_position (Accessed 07.12.2022)
You are, or you are becoming.
Kerry James Marshall, A portrait of the artist as a shadow of his former self, 1980 [online] At: https://nataal.com/kerry-james-marshall (Accessed 07.12.2022)
How much is for being something and how much is not to be?
Roni Horn, Gold Field, 1980-82 [online] At: https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/14665 (Accessed 07.12.2022)
It is transformed or original. What is missing is an unstable form. Is it presented in time-space? Absent at what point - in the present or the future?
Felix Gonzalez-Torres, "Untitled" (Golden), 1995 [online] At: https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/14665 (Accessed 07.12.2022)
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Our first meeting with the group was short. Everyone was very tight and closed at first, but all of a sudden my fellow students started getting involved, opening up and sharing their stories.
We've got a task. We were invited to explore this topic in-depth and create something that we will have to present within 7 minutes to all participants online as one group.
At the second meeting, we had to decide where we are going and what we are doing. I can say that these joint discussions and meetings have become the most productive for me. Because it was amazing to see how different artists - sculptor, photographer, performer and painter- can express themselves and combine different directions. Unfortunately, one girl stopped taking part in our meetings and we continued to work with three people.
We agreed that by the appointed time everyone should make something and present it so that we decide how we will present it.
Unfortunately, I had absolutely no idea about our topic. There are many things and people I no longer have and I miss a lot, but I don’t know how and where to start...
Unfortunately, my husband's father died just at that time. And over time, I noticed that his wife, my husband's mother, began to sound different. When my father-in-law was alive, all the phrases and words that my mother-in-law uttered while talking to me seemed to be deaf.
Like that:
Even talking to me, she seemed to be talking to him too, because he was always there in one room or in the next one. But after he was gone, the mother-in-law began to sound long and, as it were, into the void.
And I understood what to do. I immediately remembered that I had amazing two metal rods. After the test, I realized that I was not mistaken. They sounded great.
Now the question was how to fix it and where ...
And now all the materials just started to fit one to the other.
In the beginning, I wanted to finish the construction itself so as not to lose the sound, but I was sure about the colour at the beginning.
The colour had to be cheerful and positive as the two really enjoyed every moment and the sunny day. They built their family for a long time and hard, but everything paid off safely with four happy children who supported them until the last days.
Therefore, I used simple, bold and rough boards, and screwed them to the walls of the frame, translating these feelings into a difficult but joyful life.
When he was there, her words sounded short, deaf, and specific, as if she was talking only to him. When he was gone, the sound of her words became sonorous, long and infinite. Her spoken phrase is no longer ending with him, but remains and spreads in space. It seems that we hear the end of the sound, but it just becomes everywhere.
I was also interested in the fact that in order to create this sound, you need someone who will produce it. So in reality, one more person is needed for communication, if it is not there, it will simply be silent.
At the next meeting with our OCA group, everyone showed their part. Sculpture, photographs and the unifying element of the words. We no longer had much time to adapt the presentation itself - I was confused by the transitions and connections of visual images. I imagined the presentation itself, too, as a separate work.
draft video:
But we had a different task and at this stage, we took everything possible, as it seems to me.
In the course of our work, we discussed along the way many artists who inspired us, it was inspiring to see how a photographer and a performer work. I noticed that we feel mistakes and good moments in the same way. If some frame or colour was out of the general theme, we all paid attention to it and tried to fix it.
The result is this video. As I said, it seems to me that my sculpture does not fit into the overall tone of the presentation, it would be possible to work out the colour spots of transitions and connections, but there was no time.
I find it especially good how Amna connected our thoughts into words, while not saying directly what exactly the viewer should think. And of course, the combination of my metallic sound and the singing of Amna's deceased mother just gives me goosebumps.
And at the end, the combination of the traditional music of Pakistan, this metallic ringing and the sound of glitch create some kind of cosmic atmosphere. During the presentation, someone commented that this sound of metal is nothing more than a Remembrance bell.
I never heard about it. After a long search on Google, I realized that apparently such a bell really was in ancient cultures and served to call the souls of the dead and help them transport them to heaven in the sanctuary. Such a kind of symbol is expressed in sounds for communication with the dead. And I also found a large number of commercial offers for the production of an individual bell as a souvenir).
And someone else commented that my orange colour is the healing colour.
It turns out that involuntarily and unconsciously I recreated many contextual connotations about death, sadness, longing and recovery without even knowing it. Or does it mean that these elements in a similar situation are common to many?
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