non-linear exploration/week 3 conclusion

This week:

Tuesday - 1.5 hours researching artists for influence post, 1 hour blogging, 0.5 hours reading the article Seth gave me, 0.5 hours hanging more inspiration in my studio.

Thursday - 2 hours making a small collage/assemblage, 1 hour reading and researching, 1 hour reading the class blog, as well as taking a look at other students' blogs, 0.5 hours blogging.

What I accomplished/discovered/encountered:

This week I've spent time looking into other artists and doing some reading. The class blog had a post about Dario Robleto's incredibly collage/assemblage work. I really appreciated his intricate layers as well as the unexpected details such as dust from bones, or melted vinyl records. The multiplicity of meaning and deeper concept is beautiful.

The chapter Seth gave me, "Tradition and the Individual Memory," was another fantastic resource for me this week. The text explores Christian Sanderson, a man who was "not simply a collector, [but a] compulsive memorialist - an individual who seemingly felt a need to turn every object he came into contact with to the task of remembering." I very much connected with this story because I find myself holding on to things which really just serve the purpose of remembering. When my grandmother passed away this year, my mother began to empty her house and toss out old useless things. I found myself extremely upset over the loss of newspapers, jewelry, clothes, kitchen utensils - I really didn't want to see anything go. Every little object was a piece of my grandmother, pieces I was losing. It's incredible to feel the connection between objects and human relationships - it really is quite powerful.

I was also sent a great website, which reviewed "A Permutational Unfolding" by Eve Andree Laramee. She filled a gallery space with artifacts from the 19th century. With no wall text, one reads the contents of the room...unfolding visual clues. I loved Laramee's idea of non-linear exploration. I plan to incorporate that idea when making my own installation.

What comes next:

After presenting my first three-dimensional experimentation this coming Tuesday (image to come), I plan to build my "library" of materials and objects. The first step towards my project will have to be finding a photograph which excites and which I can build a collection off of. I'm sure I will have to start with a few photographs - perhaps many - in order to find the story which best suits my ideas and ambitions.