Recently in the studio, I’ve been playing with ways to apply and develop cyanotype fluid using expressive drawing and ink. The compositions are a bit busy at the moment, but interesting combinations. Looking forward to refining and experimenting some more on a bigger scale.
Update on the progress of Sarah Gonnet’s play that will feature my monologue: ‘Mapping the Terrain: After Maya Deren’.
It has been an exciting few days. We held auditions on Saturday, and I have been spending some time planning out the two workshops which will be run during the R+D week. Hearing the monologues we used as audition pieces, read a number of times, made me realise again how powerful the writing we […]
The exhibition Surface Work (11 April – 16 June 2018 at the Victoria Miro, Mayfair) was a rich feast, with abstract work by more than 50 artists, all women, from five continents, spanning every decade between 1918 and 2018.
I knew of some of the artists who have “shaped and transformed, and continue to influence and expand, the language and definition of abstract painting”: Helen Frankenthaler, Yayoi Kusama, Lee Krasner, Agnes Martin, Mira Schendel, Gillian Ayres to name a few, but the majority were new to me, and it was revelatory to ‘discover’ so many artists who had been there for years, producing fantastic work in obscurity.
The exhibition gave me the opportunity to see work I had only seen small reproductions of in books such as one of Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Nets. Kusama began painting the Nets in the early sixties shortly after she moved to New York, living in poverty until she began to sell work through a dealer. I love the intensity and repetition of the repeating loops that seem to expand and contract like a murmuration. There is a tension between a random and systematic aesthetic. Apparently, Kusama would paint the Nets for uninterrupted sessions of 40 to 50 hours as a way to channel and contain her mania. She has repeatedly revisited and expanded this body of work throughout her career.
Infinity Net (HNBKY) made in 2012
Kusama with early ‘Infinity Net’ paintings in her New York studio, 1961
Also immersed in the tradition of the sublime is Loie Hollowell’s work. Link Lingam (yellow, green, blue, purple, pink) 2018, has an intriguing undulating surface that folds into the design giving it a sculptural element.
Jessica Warboys’ large canvases are ‘painted’ by the sea shifting and scattering mineral pigments into them. The coast and landscape are a source of inspiration and influence for Warboys, who draws upon pagan history and folklore in her films and performances. She had a solo exhibition at Tate St Ives recently that included Hill of Dreams, a film that draws from Welsh fantasy writer Arthur Machen’s book of the same name.
See here for the online catalogue with overview of every artist.
I’ve avoided having an easel in my studio so far. It depends what kind of work you are doing, but when I first got the space, I wanted to be free to experiment, to make a mess, to be unrestricted. I like to be able to crouch beside the work, to move around it, to pin stuff up and take it down. Having floor space means space to work bigger and freer, to try out a combination of mediums.
I saw this same joy in the children this week when, by chance, the tables had been removed from the room we use for art and storytelling. This meant space to work bigger and bolder, to try out new ideas. It was entirely natural for them to spread out, alone or in small groups and begin creating with very little prompting from me. I am there to suggest, to oversee, to offer encouragement. To provide safe boundaries and make sure they have the materials. I try to say YES to their ideas, or if something isn’t possible, to find an alternative. We have our central story and characters to fall back on for ideas, but this has expanded into the children’s own stories in mini books they are illustrating.
One boy likes to stand on a chair and tell us an installment of his own story each week. Before the end of the session, everyone gets a chance to share with the group what they have been working on. Most of the group have come back term after term, and there is a comradeship, a familiarity they can fall into. Each term someone may leave, and someone new comes bringing fresh ideas and inspiration.
![20180522_163456[1]](https://sarahjfeatherstone.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/20180522_1634561.jpg?w=387&h=374 "20180522_163456[1]")
![20180508_175348[1]](https://sarahjfeatherstone.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/20180508_1753481.jpg?w=281&h=374 "20180508_175348[1]")
This week, one boy squeezed out paint combinations, and made these ‘portals’ by rotating a plate on top of the paint.
![20180522_174705[1]](https://sarahjfeatherstone.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/20180522_1747051.jpg?w=420&h=342)
![20180522_174641[1]](https://sarahjfeatherstone.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/20180522_1746411.jpg?w=426&h=618)
![20180522_174636[1]](https://sarahjfeatherstone.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/20180522_1746361.jpg?w=572&h=440)
Experiments in negative.
