A Very Covid Art World / Update

Since the implemented lockdown and Covid-19 measures haven't been great, everyone has been trying to adjust and settle into this new unprecedented situation. Most students, especially creatives, had to abandon work and many have fled back home to their families. Degree shows have been cancelled and university work is moving to an online format. Health scares and worries about family and friends are continuous as figures and facts are thrown around on a day to day basis by the news outlets. An absolutely devastating time. However, a lot of people are using this situation to do things they normally wouldn't or have been meaning to do, I myself have finished my website and am FINALLY uploading to an art instagram which I probably would have NEVER ended up doing if I didn't do it during uni time. As well as that, people are creating new and exciting work- something I am STRUGGLING to do, and exercising also something I am struggling even more to do. I'm trying not to beat myself up about it but I just want to get the necessary work done for uni as I had my heart so set on what I was working on for the degree show. BUT one last good thing I want to add - the world is actually healing. All the pressure from extinction rebellion and how close they were to losing the fight against deadly rising temperature levels has been eased for just a moment, letting everything slowly heal! Let's hope people realise, and doesn't send the world back to the way it was following the end of lockdown.

In these times I have been pondering on what the art world will really be like in society once we are all introduced back to work and other institutions. I predict that there will be in influx of Covid, lockdown, and quarantine related art. Other creatives, such as musicians, that work in a non-physical format are a bit more readily accessible with streaming, which has already seen a vast rise. I have seen sooo many my friends release incredible work and there is more on the way. I think artists who make work that should be experienced or seen in a gallery space will hold off from showing the world, continually learning and changing the work as the lockdown changes and we keep re-settling. I think it will however be very difficult to get a job in the art sector, things like communal studios and art galleries won't reopen, a lot of retail/commercially sold art places may lose their shop fronts.

So, we might not be able to see art in the flesh for a really long time and when galleries do open they will be playing catch up with all the shows they had organised prior. There will also be a very sceptical weariness about life, everyone being more aware of health and social distancing, a lot of artists may choose to not do shows. Even to the finest detail of videos that require headphones and how germs can spread through art that is semi-interactive. One thing, I have been researching a lot is art prizes, such as the WOON Sculpture and Painting Prize 2020. Art prizes are definitely something that creatives will be researching on the internet whilst at home and there may be a vast increase of applicants. I think this stems from uncertainty for students who may be leaving uni and could get the chance of winning such a fabulous opportunity to show work, make work, work with artists etc as their first step into the big wide world. If only I could stop looking at my phone and getting distracted from sending my bloody application!!!! So yes, a very weird and very Covid related art world we are probably going to step into.

Lynda Benglis: Freedom and Control

I also have noticed some uncanny resemblances between my work and the work of Linda Benglis. Benglis uses a variety of materials - sometimes cast, sometimes poured, to create similar viscous organic-looking forms. The forms appear thick and heavy, creating the illusion of mass. In Hills and Clouds (2020), Benglis utilises polyurethane (polyurethane foam is basically expanding foam - however like I have explored in the work of Dan Lam, it is a specific type that expands less and has less limitations, making it more workable but still forms uncontrollably). I really would love to look into this for my next series of work, especially as she has added phosphorescent pigment to the foam, making it glow in the dark! but for the degree show I will stick to my normal expanding foam. The use of the phosphorescent pigment is so interesting as with the change of light it can make some areas of the work appear as though they are floating- frozen in time- much like my last series of work. Benglis even talks about this 'frozen gesture' being so beautiful to her.

Hills and clouds (2020)

Metal Work: More Sculptures

Thinking about how it wouldn't take too long to apply the expanding foam forms to my main sculpture, or to weld the supports for it to be up high (if I choose to display it free standing), I have started thinking about making some smaller sculptures to go around it too. These will mimic the same materials and relative sizes of the original fence, but will appear even more distorted. Hyper extended, warped and also featuring expanding forms and tarmac resin in areas to give each piece it's own uniqueness. See the diagrams below:

1) This piece would lay flat on the floor, the larger of the 4, its' bars hyperextended, flowing and interlocking/crossing. I will be able to bend these bars, which are square shaped, using forces and tools to form each twist and turn round. I would need to do the bending before welding the four bars to the horizontal pieces.

2) I am undecided about this small work, it either could be bent to rock / free stand using the vertical bars, or the shape could be hung from the space (if I choose the hang all the works and go in the low ceiling space), perhaps rotating continuously on a motor. The horizontal bars which are rectangular shaped will be welded using a TIG welder, using applied heat to the surface of the metal and then hammering and/or bending it around something for the metal to be warped accordingly. Then using a spot welder the bars will be joined together.

3) This sculpture I am going to have free standing the 'correct' way up, perhaps balancing on a lump of tarmac wedged underneath one end. The tarmac placement in the drawings is just a work in progress - I want to be more intuitive with the applied materials, directing but still giving them freedom to produce surprising elements within the work.

4) Similar to the others, but just containing one bar could be interesting. You can see how I have drawn it, this one is a little different to the others as there appears to be obvious shapes created in the middle pole.

Above is my experiment with finding the right metal and sizes in the metal workshop that can be ordered, as well as testing out how hard the process of manipulating each piece would be. I want it to take the exact appearance of the original fence piece. In terms of process, I used a TIG welder to warp the bottom piece and just bent the other piece around solid objects using force. Both were welded together using a spot welder. Next step is ordering the poles, perhaps completing the large fence at the same time as these works.