With the Beastie series, I found that I liked to create visual narratives....I started with one picture which I felt epitmoised a feeling (not a whole story) and once I'd finished that picture, I looked at it, tried to see it from a different angle, and wondered what would happen next....at some point, usually within a day or so, I would feel like I knew what hapened next and I drew that image, then I'd start the process again and in this way I built a whole world around the central character Beastie.
I worked on three series since 2008 when I re-started to make pictures again and each series went through a similar process....the symbology developed and the techniques developed somewhat, but at some point I found it difficult to know how to continue. Hence recognising the need from some external input at Slade summer school. Partly I was blaming my lack of technical skill, partly I felt I wanted to move on and didn't know how to.
Following my two weeks of drawing into painting, I was given the opportunity to assist on Laura Medler's and John Hilliard's photography workshops at theend of August. Despite the fact that I'm not a photographer, I leapt at the opportunity as I saw it as the perfect chance to see how real artists work and learn anything I could about their practice.
Needless to say, I was very nervous, I had no idea what to expect, and wasn't sure that I would understand or appreciate the work so I decided to try and prepare as much as possible.
Laura's workshop was first, and this is about that workshop.
I started off looking at Laura's photos on her website. Immediately, I liked the look of her images. The first I saw were deliciously lush gardens with women on swings. The images were distorted somehow and gave the impression of falling and were somehow reminiscent of magic and myths and childhood. Once in Laura's workshop, we had the opportunity to see a chronology of work which she produced and understand how she got there which I'll talk about later.
One of the other pictures which stood out for me in Laura's website was an image entitled 'still isodorable'. Firstly it jumped out because it was quite different from some of the rest of her work and I was interested in the fect that it was about another artist (Isodora Duncan), secondly, at school I attended dance classes and had been compared to Isodora but didn't really know much about her and never bothered to find out...But the synchronicity was so enjoyable that I decided to pursue it further and try and find out more about her.
Some stand out stuff about Isodora Duncan (for me!)
- She lived with her lover Paris Singer for a while at Oldway Mansion - just down the road from wher I grew up
- When I googled 'Isodora Duncan Devon' the website for Guy's Cliffe holiday flats comes up at the top of the list...this is where my husband was living when I first met him
- Despite being 'blousey' or older and embarrassing the public of her day by having a sexual appetite, she was still an excellent dancer who changed people's views of dance irrevocably
- Her signature dance moves were often prolonged stillness withonly small movements - as suggested in Laura's images
Obviously there's masses more about her which is fascinating, and I felt like I came to the workshop with some source material, which if a bit cheeky (would Laura be irriatated by my developing work derived from her ideas?), was at least really interesting for me. I felt like a detective....or perhaps that was just that google also threw up loads of links to Agatha Christie whenever I googled.
Needless to say, there wasn't really any time to develop the work I wanted to while helping out on the workshop, we were learning new techniques and didn't have masses of time to develop work from them, but I could and perhaps will in the not too distant future.
Laura's approach to photograhy is firstly and necessarily analogue, it is technique or materials based...wheras I work from an image or idea with what materials I use to produce it being secondary, Laura like an intrepid explorer has taken the photographic technique and explored the options and limits of her own unique technique and this has helped her to formulate imagery who's narrative or symbolic content has its roots in the experience of the material process. I don't think I'm quite able to do it justice, but can only encorage you to take a look. It all makes sense and it still looks great!
I think that what really attracts me to her work is the internal logic. The work hints at grand themes without being airy fairy; there is a strong sense of the symbolic and is quite 'readable'. The work also seems to reference Laura's personal experiences and sense of place in her world and therefore has a sense of integrity which is very refreshiong....you don't feel like you're being given a dose of bullshit! and I think that the work is quite conceptual and (yet...because some people hate conceptual work) I think it works it it's on right, tilting the viewer towards interpretation but without requiring the viewer to know about x y and z in advance, finally, I like the fact that the work is clearly a female view of the world without being painfully political or feminist or angst ridden, this was really refreshing and I found myself hoping to find more work like this to look at! ....For this reason I think that Laura's work is very very clever and I feel really priveliged to have worked with her.
Sandra Smith told me when she gave me the opportunity to assist Laura that she thought I would resonate with her approach... It feels a bit stalkerish to say so, but I would say that I really felt a sense of affinity and I really hope to have the chance to follow her carrer.
The participants of the workshop were all attending Slade's foundation programme. The background and skills was very varied and in order to build up the group, the first day explored photograms.
On the following day time was taken up with some distractions - having to attend a meeting, participants dropping in and out and trying to convey the technique which Laura uses generally. The afternoon gave everyone the chance to stage an image/event and then try the process out for themselves.
The final day consisted of learning how to develop black and white film and then creating contact sheets with the intent of producing enlargements if desired.
I think that each student got results which is good, but it occurred to me that one of the downsides of a foundation is that one experiences a very wide range of distractions and also perhaps an overload of input without the time to develop what you produce. Also, the broad range of student needs is very challenging for any tutor and groups can be swayed off course by the dynamics of powerful individuals.
Really valuable tips from Laura about making art-work
- Work and keep working even when you totally hate what it is you are producing - starting to work after a gap is very very hard
- Most artists struggle with how to continue to work, especially after producing really good work - it can be hard to follow it up
- When you work, you don't have to produced 'finished pieces' or ;real artwork'. the process of engaging with you material or technique throws up ideas and content as you progress
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