HALYCON TOMBSTONES
Halcyon Tombstones #1 2020,
Plaster, cement, bible pages, gold foil and embroidery cotton, thread, chain and glow in the dark gravel.
120 x
230 x 85 cm
Halcyon Tombstones #1 2020, Detail
Halcyon Tombstones #3 2020,
Plaster, ink, acrylic paint, railway sleepers, glow in the
dark gravel
145 x 150 x 35 cm
HALCYON TOMBSTONES
My work explores the tension
between the non-linguistic linear quality of objects and impermanence. This relates to our fleeting imprint left
behind as we plough through life accumulating experiences. In the process of recognizing this past tense
of happier idyllic days, the powdery essence of the plaster has solidified into
these abstract tombstones representing a graveyard of the intangible. Through
my artistic process I am discovering a fascination for the liquidity of memory
being poured out as an expression of lifeforce, time solidified and captured
into form. They become tombs forgotten
in a subterranean territory speaking through their textural surfaces and
imprints.
Through the exploration of the
materials I hope to express my recognition of the halcyon days that leave a memory
trail in the subconscious. Packaged away
unrecognizable yet still vibrant enough to represent that nostalgic freedom we
cannot return to. Technology is being
used to assault our senses with warnings on every YouTube replay, constant pop
ups and Giant LED Billboards touting Cov-!d directives as we drive on highways. This has subversively made sneezing and
coughing in public an addition to the list of the seven deadly sins. The newly enforced germ and touch paranoia
taints every interaction with a guilt that was not even an issue prior to 2020. There is something intangibly distinct about
a moment in time that is shared collectively as an experience of hardship in
its various personal formats and these works were birthed throughout this
unique period.
The tombstones contain memories of a carefree
and often careless past which will never be resurrected but necessary to be
contemplated in a space beyond the mundane shallows of techno culture. These abstract monuments of memory
encapsulated in the tombstones may stir an interaction via the immaterial
qualities such as the rust which hint at the inevitable journey into entropy.
The abstractions that haunt these works are
investigations of the many traces that run like hieroglyphs and riddles across
the surface of the neglected senses of touch and smell. Our human range of experience if forced to be
shrunk into a digital dimension of sanitized audio-visual finger tapping
spectatorship may create an impoverished version of social connectivity and
human consciousness. The use of
abstraction in my work points to a time prior to cyberspace when symbols had a
slowness and a readiness for contemplation.
Remembering a time when the art of waiting was not such a novelty due to
of the slower pace of the early 19th century telegraph and print
communications.
Fragility and shortness of life contrasts
with the permanency of my made structures until the eventual decay where beauty
can be found in the meandering array of random marks, stress fractures and
other imperfections.
WHY
My intention of these works is to serve as a
warning bell like the Emperor with no clothes, blind to his condition. This
work relates to the human experience with digital information shaping our
contemporary culture into directives that idolize fast, efficient, slickly
produced images and the latest technology.
Like the naked Emperor, the next generation will not even notice what is
missing because of the slow erosion of the value, respect, emotion, and honour
in face to face communication. As author
Nicholas Carr mentions in his book “What the internet is doing to our Brains” the
theory of Descartes: ‘brain as machine metaphor was further reinforced by the
arrival of the digital computer – a “thinking machine”…scientists and
philosophers began referring to our brain circuits and even our behaviour , as
being “hardwired”, just like the microscopic circuits etched into the silicon
substrate of a computer chip.’[1] Carr goes on to discuss brain plasticity and
the ability of synapses to be shaped by mental and behavioural effects and if
certain sensorial stimuli such as sight is taken away the other senses become
sharper eg: the visual cortex is deployed for processing information through
the sense of touch instead to sense the Braille.[2] Therefore, I have explored
textures and colour through my sculptures attempting to reverse the
reservations about touching the artwork, the sculpture experience is presented
as a tactile one.
Art may have the ability to fill the gaps
with personal interaction where western culture is lacking in depth of
experience for the individual. New media
theorist Marshall McLuhan points out that “as an intensification and extension
of the visual function, the phonetic alphabet diminishes the role of the other
senses of sound and touch and taste in any literate culture…Phonetic culture
endows men with the means of repressing their feelings and emotions when
engaged in action…To act without reacting, without involvement is the peculiar
advantage of western literate man.”[3] The eastern cultures of
China and India with their use of ideograms ‘enables them to retain a rich
store of inclusive perception in depth of experience that tends to become
eroded in civilized cultures’.[4] McLuhan illustrates this
with an example from The Ugly American where well-meaning UNESCO workers build
pipes to bring water to tribal homes in an Indian village and they are promptly
told to take them out as the communal fabric had become impoverished because
there were no longer interactions at the local well.[5] Perhaps the water pipes
can be equated to the invisible electronic networks of the ‘matrix’ undermining
the social fabric of face to face connection under the guise of a faster
cleaner existence. The role of
contemporary art ‘transforms lived experience into symbolic forms.’[6]. History also has a habit of repeating and
there have always been collective hardships such as war, disease, and pandemics. There is nothing new under the sun[7] and if we do not have a
way to share our wisdom it is often lost, and human resilience remains unformed.
The sheer inundation of
information & cultural scope provided by the digital age has brought in a
keener sense of social justice, ecological issues and awareness of inequalities
yet this virtual connectedness is a form of isolation, a reduction of the
sensorial experience of culture for the individual. I aim to create a tactile contemplative
experience with these sculptures as a proverbial type of “local well” gathering
just as when new wine poured into an old wine skin bursts the assigned Halcyon
Tombstone title mentally directs the viewer to consider the death of something and
its nostalgic aftermath.
Whereas you
do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your
life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.[8]
HOW
My process began with
experimental assemblages making use of found materials from my garage and
artefacts inherited from my 91-year-old Aunty’s home clean out. Exploration of the
concept to create for the sheer impulse without pressure, like an accidental
tourist or a spontaneous wild night out, became my modus operandi.
My
first cement sculpture with my attempt at embedding photos, toys, wire, and
material remnants fell short of my expectations. Out of frustration I buried it in a fresh
pour of apricot coloured plaster. This
first mistake ended up becoming my first flesh coloured tombstone wrapped in
fluorescent bricklayers’ string and ribbon.
I discovered this by turning the sculpture on its flip side and found
the texture of the packing tape on the inside of the box created a beautiful
fusion of shiny plastic texture which I repeated and made a series of ten
abstract sculptures.
Another element of exploration
was to investigate the repurposing of inherited objects and installation
strategies to convey a solidification of time and memory. Stripping the meaning and usefulness of the
relic was included the action of repurposing and creating permanent structures,
in fact the cement and plaster will probably outlast many generations of human
flesh. It raises some questions in the
process of making these sculptures; Does this create timelessness or eventual
trash and how long can it last especially in an exhibition space? Will a digital representation ever suffice in
replacing the tactile experience of being in situ?
The decision to use Cement
& Plaster was a means to recreate but also to bury and move on with its
very action leaving the vapor trails of colour and layering. Making something new out of remnant bricolage
became a ritual of transformation. My practice-based
research into the materials became a priority although at times I did not know
why I was dipping remnant lengths of yarn into fragrant candle wax or rusty
pegs into inky plaster. The casting and
uncovering of the poured plaster came with an excitement akin to unwrapping a
new toy with each reveal of the cardboard mould. An extra detail to production
was to uncover subtle texture and remove loose debris utilising tools such as a
dry paint brush, small flat head screwdriver and hammer to selectively chip
away at the plaster.
An aim for making without a striving
for meaning was a key element and the exploration of abstract modes served to
express my ideas regardless. Intuitive methods
were employed through experimenting with the use of various cardboard box moulds
from my online deliveries during the Cov-!d isolation, ancient items from Aunty’s
kitchen, ink, pigment, acrylic paint mixed into plaster, jewellery, old rope, fabric remnants, book pages,
odd ribbons, rusty chains, packing tape and bubble wrap. I developed an ability to scan my environment
and make use of the available materials with a vision for increasing
scale.
Suffering a bout of insomnia
proved I could not go on until I had a concept and direction. My friend had given me feedback on one of my
first sculptures stating that it looked like a tombstone which sparked the idea
for my theme. This one comment was
important in conveying how interaction and feedback is vital to the shaping the
direction of the final work and to avoid working in a solitary fashion.
References
Carr, N., 2011. What
the Internet is doing to our Brains The Shallows. 3rd ed. New York,
N.Y.: W.W. Norton.
Drucker, J. (2006). Sweet
dreams. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, p.xi- xviii.
Flew, T. (2008). New
media An Introduction. 3rd ed. Melbourne: Oxford University Press,
pp.21-90.
Hayford, J., Chappell, P. and
Ulmer, K., 2002. New Spirit-Filled Life Bible. Nashville: Thomas
Nelson, p.1749,843.
McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding
media: The extensions of man. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw hill Book Company.
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