The Wednesday Lecture Wednesday 14th April 2021
Guest Speaker: Tai Shani
The prominent themes that appear throughout this artists research and work consist of exploration of hallucinogens and drug induced trance language. Although I have never experienced this state of mind or created work conveying these themes I most definitely find surrealist art fascinating, so to hear from an artist who concerns herself with looking into her subconsciousness and creating work responding to it interests me highly. Prior to this lecture I had not come across this artist, but since I have enjoyed this session I will work to familiarise myself with her and the artwork she has produced. This Wednesday we were introduced to British artist Tai Shani who works with an assortment of materials and mediums ranging from video works, installation pieces and recently due to the covid outbreak painting.
To begin with Shani reveals that she found the previous year difficult like many of us as it has affected not only her artistic career but her emotional state. However when discussing the change she has experienced during the lockdown she did disclose that she experienced some positive aspects she would not have been able to endure without the restrictions. Her creative practice has mostly been impacted by the circumstances, but not in a negative way, in fact she revealed that it enabled her to work independently and to create freely without the constant judgement and criticism. She talks about the intimate transmission between her thoughts and her practice, that she had the opportunity to listen to her thoughts and act on them, rather than dismissing them. Being alone and left to her thoughts and subconsciousness motivated her to create artwork. Something that surprised me when Shani was talking to us was the opportunity she was met with, her neighbours whilst they were away towards the beginning of the pandemic gave her permission to make use of their space in their house whilst it was vacant, so she temporarily turned it into a studio. She also stated that this rare situation inspired her to take up painting which she has previously had no interest in. At a rapid pace she was producing abstract watercolour paintings ranging in size and density of composition responding to her immediate thoughts and feelings, reinforcing this change in embracing her unconscious decisions and mindset. I find the communication between the conscious and the unconscious mind quite interesting when it comes to visualising the process with art, so to hear from Shani that this is what she began to do due to this change in her life engrossed me. She describes the duration of her paintings as an “incredible fulfilling experience” as it was one of those rare moments where it was just her and her media, welcoming her thoughts and painting on impulse. Therefore creating work that perhaps had no meaning or intentions as they were purely created from improvisation and emotions, pursuing an act of expression from herself through her watercolour paintings. What she most appreciated from this stage was the factor that she didn't have to explain what she was doing to anyone and the paintings she was rapidly producing had no reason to them, they were in fact just unconscious responses to her mindset. When painting the artist illustrates to us that this act allowed her to create a unique language for herself, comparing this to a revelation of oneself which I find compelling.
The first artistic project that the artist presented to us was her contribution to the project “Transmissions” which she worked to create. The project reinforced the importance of the internet and that crucial role it plays in contextualising visual arts. The artist reveals for inspiration for this work she looked to the televisual context, gathering influence from her interest in the visualisation of different genres through the tv, stating that this really appeals to her. So this wide variation that can be distributed visually through television screens influenced Shani to get involved with working with 128 artists to create a programme. The statistics of the work revealed that it required sixteen hours of programming and playing out over fourteen episodes throughout the first season. What stood out to Shani the most during this experience was the warmth from the artists, talking about how pleased and surprised she was with the overall positive response she received from so many artistic individuals. This resulted in a lot of mixed episodes and very visual art pieces. I find the aspect of paying an artist to create an episode on whatever suits them very interesting, as they have that creative freedom to express themselves that is rare to come across in their career, it's not that often you will get paid to create something entirely based off of you unconsciousness, the conventional focal point is how it will be perceived by others and is measured by statistics, rather than the art behind it. I would say an advantage of working with the media that concerns itself with online distribution is that it enables the main host to connect with other artists quickly and easily, and this pandemic has really encouraged this involvement through technology. So to create work that entirely bases its production and reception online is quite significant. It's current and easily accessible for various audience members, it's modern, and most importantly it is a means of the artist responding to the environment around her. With this lockdown many have been forced to stay at home and work remotely, transcending our normalities and forcing this reliability on technology. However Tai Shani rather than see faults in this change has encouraged the alternative pace and worked to produce work within the mainstream limelight, appealing to a wider audience and engaging with much more artists.
I found this guest speaker amiable as she presented her artwork as well as her research and experiences confidently and enthusiastically, throughout the session engaging with the online format and talking in depth about her creations. What I appreciated the most was the research and analysis of her work, for example when discussing the programme project she created a slide full of the statistics of the work, which I think is of high significance, and it further contextualises the art. Due to the positive presentation of the context from the guest speaker I thoroughly enjoyed the lecture. I would certainly say that this artist and the means in which she is producing artwork is significant within the wider society as she is responding to current circumstances that are affecting everyone on a broader scale, the work she is producing is modern and important because she is reinforcing that despite the dwelling measures we are faced with there is opportunity to still work and create art. I did not ask any questions during this session, furthermore If I were to have the chance to ask then I would inquire about her watercolour paintings she produced at the beginning of the pandemic last year. This is because she skimmed past the images of her paintings, I would have liked to have seen more of them, but other than that I found this session really interesting. I also appreciate the contemporary response and I can most definitely apply this similar lens and mindset when it comes to producing and presenting artwork of my own. Obviously because of the pandemic normal teaching and learning has changed, entirely depending on online delivery of education. So seeing this artist adjust and proceed to create radical artwork has influenced me and reassured me, enabling me to reference this session when it comes to applying my work to technology.