The Wednesday Lecture: Artists on the MA presenting their work
Wednesday 3rd February 2021 Willow Fisher
For this Wednesday guest lecture we will be looking at artwork from MA students, we will be seeing work from Gary Finnegan, Linda Jane James, Coz Ahmet, and Abbie Bradshaw. Hopefully by the end of this session I hope to have a more in depth understanding of further artistic practice if I choose to progress to MA. This guest lecture will be helpful as it is giving us an insight to the experience and enabling us to see what to expect.
Linda James is a visual artist currently studying her second year of MA fine art. She reveals that throughout her studies she has been presented with the opportunities to work in different environments, for example she's worked within schools enabling children to be introduced to new and exciting art forms. Prior to her artistic career direction Linda was an accountant fairly intrigued by the industry and the economy. She indicates that at present time she is still interested in these modern topics and tries to apply these whilst being a multidisciplinary artist. As an artist she told us that she has re-engaged herself with technology and that through this personal development aims to make change to the industry and environment through her artwork. She talks about a stark recognition of the narrative that is crisis and change but has identified that it is not progressing. Describing it has stuck she hopes to raise awareness of these impending issues that affect all and through this make a difference. The artist implied to us her passion when it comes to working with the language of the environment. In her artistic practice she revealed that her aspirational focal point is to gradually introduce the business world into her natural world, as well as her home (she lives in Wales) she has identified that her indicated goal is to combine these two narratives together through her artwork. Various materials are used as well as images for Linda’s artworks, she layers materials and images with sound that results in the production of multifunctional sound pieces. She made a suggestion that when occupying materials to work with she tends to find waste to incorporate into her art pieces, further strengthening that narrative and allowing her to return to basics, which she described as grounding her practice. Applying herself into this approach the artist is engaging not only herself but also the materials into conversation, re-establishing herself and orchestrating her practice so that it is returning to nature. In doing this she is altering the way we and herself are perceiving the themes and issues, proposing an alternative narrative cultivated by herself.
The artist lives in Wales and reveals that her home is situated close to a hill, this she feels inspires her as for her recent work she has chosen to work with this ideology of home and nature as it is .Reinforcing its relevance to her and her lifestyle, therefore they complement each other. For this practice Linda began to identify with the land, thinking like the hill and in doing so visualising it with materials and sounds. This influenced her to work with water through her associations with the water and the hill, she felt a sense of familiarity with the natural resources surrounding her. When discussing her previous lifestyle she revealed that she didn't quite enjoy the modernism of it, for example the reliance on technology and the higher power of all things man made rather than natural order. Working on computers a lot in her previous job as an accountant she regards it as being unhealthy and having significant impacts on her mental and physical health. However due to the current pandemic she has seen that she has had to resort back to technology and working on computers, this change has enabled her to pause and rethink as well as revaluate her art practice. She created a website that challenges the conventionalities of the platform and engages in conversation, she found this to be a very prominent aspect of her practice as it formulated this organic space for her where various narratives are implemented which she finds interesting. The artist presented to us some examples of her sound pieces, “Ode with the Land” and “Ode to the muddy puddle” The sounds aim to complement the materials Linda stated. I don't really find sound pieces that interesting or influential, I do however have different views on visual art like short films. But I find that sound pieces purely produced to identify with an inanimate subject or material to be too odd for me, I find it hard to resonate with and find an understanding with because to me it's just too exaggerated and generated from the artist's imagination. I don't really understand this artist's preferred style of producing art pieces.
Gary Finnegan since progressing from studying BA to MA has produced a wide variety of collaborative artwork. He primarily produces sound pieces but throughout his studies has explored performance art and formulating installation pieces. The artist indicated that his interests has enabled him to create short films, he presented to us an example of his video work that I would describe as being quite eerie with emphasis on the non diegetic sound to reinforce the dark tone of the visuals. To further establish this more daunting atmosphere in his film he limited his colour palette to a restrictive scheme consisting of monochrome colours black and white. I would say that in his work is a prominence of light and shadows. For my independent practice I am currently working on I am exploring shadows and light through their impact on the human body and faces so I think I could refer back to this artist from this guest lecture for future influence.
Coz Ahmet revealed to us that after he had completed his BA of fine art he felt confident in himself to challenge his artistic mindset and rethink his practice. Prominent themes that this artist works with in his work consist of the body and really exploring the properties and qualities of materials, combining the two together in pieces to express the impact on one another. To begin with in his practice Ahmet started off with sculpture work making the focal point fragmentation of the body, through doing this he recognised the significance of the materials to not only him but to his concepts. They were crucial to each other in order to indicate meaning. He identified that using these varying materials he could reveal more about the human body conceptually, he stated to us that he recognised them to be reflective of human skin. Therefore after he made this personal acknowledgement he began to incorporate unconventional materials into his practice, for his sculptures he preferred to use domesticated items like pipes for example. From this the artist developed this unique understanding further by establishing that he wanted to distort the body, this idea became a fascination for Ahmet as it would enable him to explore the materials even more. He told us that his focus for this concept was distortion of the human body to a stage where it appears unrecognisable. To put this idea into practice the artist began to work with Sellotape for his sculpting, he acknowledged this as being an interpretation of the shedding of skin. The aspect of breaking down the body appealed to him most because for him it was an avenue to enable him to respond to the materials' qualities, full exploration and experimentation. Ahmet revealed that he worked collaboratively with another artist on this guest lecture called Abbie Bradshaw, he pointed out that this area in his life he identified as being a pivotal point in his practice, as it introduced him to performance. Since then he has welcomed performance into his art practice and embraced the difference and change. An example of work he presented to us was called “Sensing the in-between” 2020. He also did another performance which he called “Curious being” which was also concerned with the human body, the focal point of this piece was establishing the removal of the body. He insisted that the work was about the artist disappearing into his work, with the use of a blanket that he hid under. He described how he was enclosed within this dense material which enabled him to blend in with his surroundings. Something that Ahmet recounted from this experience was his own development, as it encouraged him to rely on the terrain, comparing it to a game of trust. He recalled this project as an act of disappearing into art, I prefer to look at his work concerning the embodiment of himself into his art. I find that more interesting than his more conceptual performance pieces. The concept of an artist positioning themselves into their work only for them to gradually disappear I find exceptional, I read it as the art taking control and becoming more prominent than the artist themselves. It's something I haven't seen before but would like to look at in the future perhaps.
The last guest artist to speak was Abbie Bradshaw, I immediately saw similarities in her artwork to the previous speaker Ahmet which was nice because it was making that unconscious link between the two and really establishing that when studying MA there are no limitations. Her practice mainly consists of performance art. Since graduating from LJMU in 2018 she has been working independently as a performance artist working frequently with local and international artists. She presented to us one of her performance pieces an untitled piece of work which showcased her collaboration with Jon Edgly. This piece explored the visibility, absence and presence of the body, concerning yourself with working with the idea of disappearing to make yourself visible. Although I understand this piece of work I don't really find her other performance pieces that appealing, for me they are too far fetched and just strange to be considering taking an interest in.
I have found this lecture interesting as it has introduced me to the capabilities of different artists on the course. It has demonstrated to me that you aren't restricted with your practice and you really do have full control over your ideas and how you orchestrate them. I may not have liked some of the artists stylisation of preferred ways of working but I still found this session significant in giving me an insight into the possible future of my studies.