MA Week 58 - “Changing Lives” : the 9th Manchester Metropolitan University PGR conference

Reflection on “Changing Lives” : the 9^th Manchester Metropolitan University PGR conference, 22^nd February 2017

Getting there and setting up

And so the big day arrived. I wasn't sure if my swollen foot and my stamina would last the day out, but in the event they did. It was an early start but I made it to Manchester in good time. A couple of unexpected problems: the boards were not the tall ones I'd been promised and there were no name labels. I worked with what I had although the pieces would have looked better if I could have hung them higher.

 

Feeling quite proud next to my installation

 

Attending some of the talks

There were two viewing and judging phases for the artworks, so I did a bit of mingling and attended some of the talks. I fell into conversation with, and subsequently attended a talk by, a Healthcare Postgraduate Researcher (PGR) called Lorna. She had used phenomenology to generate a methodology to investigate nurses' experiences of the quality of patient care. Her work involved being-ness and what it means "to be". It was fascinating to think that some similar ideas and approaches underpinned both her research and my own. Does the recognition of this open an entry route for interdisciplinary research?

Speaking of interdisciplinary researchers - so was the first keynote speaker, Sam Illingworth, a Science Communication lecturer at MMU. He used one slide for his 40 minute keynote, which was impressive! A former physicist, he realised the need to communicate how science can empower society and to interact with people using that "science". He uses poetry and broke into verse several times during the talk. He was hugely engaging and clearly a natural performer. The only thing that grated was his use of the terms "experts" and "non-experts" when talking about co-creating knowledge (the latest research buzzphrase, evidently). The “experts” are the scientists, e.g. researching flooding, and the “non-experts” are the people who experience whatever the experts are investigating, e.g. having their houses flooded. To my mind it's the other way round.

Some of the lightning talks (3 minutes and one slide to explain your research) were interesting. Most of them had too much information on the slide in my humble opinion. The one that won had a picture of a water lily and a message about happiness. The research was about pain management and trying to restore happiness. Well thought out and accessible.

I also attended one of the sessions of talks in the afternoon and learnt variously about the North West’s early motor clubs, the role of public libraries in delivering life long learning activities, and the novel “Fight Club”. Such an incredible variety of research and all really interesting, particularly the Libraries talk.

 

Meeting others: engaging with other attendees

After Lorna’s talk in the morning I went back to my installation. I was right at the back of the artists’ area and I felt like it was the worst position, but there was little I could do about it. I would have liked much more footfall round the exhibition. My main aims were (a) to invite people comment on what they saw in the pieces, and (b) to canvass opinion about whether the paintings and the prints worked together or were too disparate.

 

Looking down on the exhibition space
My installation was right at the back, near the red framework

 

My first conversation was with Kathryn, a Manchester-based artist who is interested in Psychogeography. She picked up on the fact that the paintings formed a map, which I was pleased about, and commented that the prints had a kind of texture, like fabric, and that they looked like they could be unpicked. Another conversation, with Chloe, a sports science PGR, provided another viewpoint. She thought of the paintings as a journey; the map might depict a physical journey, which is responded to via the colours of the painting at the higher level, and then by the "tiles" at the most detailed level. So plenty of food for thought from those two conversations.

Both Kathryn and Chloe thought the paintings and prints worked fine together, as did Philippa, a fashion PGR who was exhibiting next to me and who is investigating the gendering of clothing.

I had a long conversation with a PGR called Jennie from MMU who is also using psychogeographical techniques, but responding via poetry rather than visual means. It was fantastic to speak to someone who “got” what I was trying to do and who did something similar but using a different genre to create outcomes.

Mohammad is a pharmacology PGR at Aston University. I struggled to explain my process and my research to him; I think he expected the map in the paintings to be literal and wasn’t clear why it wasn’t. It made me realise what an Arty/Psychogeographical bubble I’ve got myself into! A learning point. I was gratified, though, that a physical science student like him made the effort to visit the art exhibition.

The main part of my installation that people were drawn to were the tiles. I hung back from my display a bit and saw an international student have a good look at them, and another touch them. There is something tactile about the tiles and this is definitely an area to take forward.

 

Meeting others: talking with other artists

It felt like it was a really nice group of artists exhibiting – twelve in all - and everyone seemed to be showing something quite different. A few of the others had more interactive exhibits than mine, and these generated more interest amongst the attendees. I could see why - being able to do or handle or experience something is probably more interesting than looking at something.

One of the artists, Stacey, is using art to interact with dementia patients in care homes. She has been making and collecting a series of objects to open up conversations with such people and has also created a wallpaper backdrop, intended to simulate a familiar lounge environment. Her installation effectively formed a pop-up front room and I sat there with her for a while, which was lovely and calm.

Another artist, Lin, was doing something with the sentience of plants. Her installation was interactive and very popular. A designer called Sean from the University of Huddersfield is investigating ways of simplifying and extending Braille, and invited everyone to write their name in Braille.

"Ann" in Braille

 

 One of the most interesting conversations was with Howard, who is investigating the gentrification of Elephant & Castle in London using drawing. He is using processes of mark making and erasure to depict the palimpsest of uses of the area. His work is quite psychogeographically based. We had both found it difficult to do text based research (reading/writing) alongside visually creative work. There seemed to be some real similarities in our work and our approaches, which is probably why this particular conversation was so interesting.

Summary of feedback and reflections

• It was a long, tiring day but interesting and useful
• Take everything I need to put up the work, including laminated abstracts
• I need to be much clearer in my explanation of my processes and outcomes for non-artist audiences – “escape the bubble” of my own specialisms
• Lots of researchers are interested in place/space/psychogeography- this is good!
• Think about doing something more interactive next time??
• The tiles were the most successful part of my installation 
• The paintings and the prints work fine together and there is no tension about exhibiting two different media side by side

 

 

MA Weeks 57 & 58 - Finalising the Mabgate abstracts

Reflection on the past few days, 20^th February 2017

I had the equivalent of four days, spread over five, to produce the finalised pieces, which experience told me would be adequate, although in the end it was quite a squeeze.

As I mentioned in this Week 56 blogpost , when I looked at the sketches again, it was immediately clear that they were too complex and fractured to work up into finished pieces. The first job was therefore to simplify them. I'd expected this to take a couple of hours but it took all Wednesday afternoon. I had stretched and gessoed the two sheets of paper, so I was working over two separate boards on two mixed-media paintings that should combine to one piece. I decided to risk putting the simplified design straight onto the gessoed paper but hadn't realised how well the paper would take the graphite - in other words, it was more or less impossible to erase. The shapes I produced in the reworked design were not as pleasing as the originals, but given the time constraints and the graphite issue, I had to go with them. In retrospect I should have drawn the new design onto tracing paper in the exact size I wanted. Sketching onto gessoed paper is not an option! A learning point.

Design drawn onto paper on board

 

In contrast, on Thursday afternoon, the first layer of paint went on well. I was impressed how well the paper took the paint. I worked with the acrylics (both System 3 and Liquitex Basics) straight from the tube. I decided to work the earth and red-based colours from top left to bottom right, from light to dark and back. The blue and green-based colours went from top right to bottom left and from dark to light and back. It was (for me) an ambitious experiment in handling colour and balance. I started at the top left with neutral colours and worked from there.

 

First layer of paint

In essence the colours worked out for themselves where they would go, which was unexpected and welcome. I painted quite a lot of the top panel before attempting the bottom panel. This necessitated quite a bit of walking round both panels in an attempt to get some kind of balance and composition. The idea of looking at a piece in 360 degrees was something I learnt when doing the four pylon pieces last Summer.

 

Masked shapes, experimentations with tiles and letters

On Friday I added some shapes in masking fluid and in white acrylic, with a view to overpainting in the second layer. The idea was to add further shapes over the second layer of paint to go under a third layer. However, when I added the second layer on Saturday, the colour took much more deeply than I'd expected and a third layer simply wasn't going to work. I therefore added further shapes and simply scraped some paint over these areas. In the end I decided to paint the roads white. I did toy with the idea of putting some charcoal and/or grey into the final coat but I got to the point where I felt that I was possibly saying, "oh look, I thought of doing this too!" rather than it adding to the piece.

On Friday I also tested the idea of adding some small squares in a kind of “tile” pattern. The “tiles” are cut from a print of the Mabgate office building (see this week 51 blogpost) and a picture of the City of Mabgate pub photocopied onto acetate. They are therefore all monochrome black and white, but show very different tones, and the acetate and paper show different textures.  This all seemed fine and I expected it to take half a day to stick them on. However, when I came to do it on the Sunday, it took most of the day. The curves of the roads were quite difficult to work round. It also became apparent as I applied the tiles that this part of the painting was probably really a work in its own right, despite me testing it. As I was under time pressure, there was little else I could do but persevere.

 

Gluing the tiles to the painting

On Friday I’d also experimented with placing some of the letters that I’d lasercut the previous week onto the paintings. I found it quite inconclusive as I didn’t know whether the manilla or the grey worked better. I’d tried the letters cut from the acetate photocopy of the Mabgate pub, but they didn’t look right. However, once I’d got some pieces of the same image as part of the “tiles” on the Sunday, they seemed to work best so I used these.

 

The pieces in their final state on Sunday night, ready to be cut off the boards

I’m not really sure whether I like the outcomes or not. There are areas where I really like the colour – there is a kind of luminosity – but the tiles really need to be in a piece of their own. I did learn a lot about colour and paint, though. However, there isn’t enough complexity in the layering. I should have used more shapes and more letters. I’m also unsure about the roads being white. But I achieved what I’d set out to do, which was to produce some work based on the methodology I’d developed through my dissertation, of a size and format commensurate with the journey I would have to make over the Pennines and the area I was going to display them in. The ideas have also come a long way since their original concept. I will submit these pieces as part of my portfolio. They are finalised, although not necessarily “finished” – there is a lot of reflection to do about how to develop the ideas from here.

Monday got quite pressed for time too. I ended up having to cut the mounts for the prints by hand (with a lot of help from Nick). Having learnt how to make them in Illustrator, I'd cut them on the laser at college at lunchtime, but they'd burnt. Having tried it on two different cutters, it was clear that someone had been messing with the settings, but both technicians were teaching so I just had to leave it (and waste about £3 in mountboard - grr).

MA Week 56 - London, and moving on with the Mabgate abstracts

Reflection on the past week, 14^th February 2017

 

Mabgate abstracts

February has continued to be positive. I had another tutorial last Thursday and Sharon and I discussed the Mabgate sketches. I was struggling with the composition as the colours were falling too “half and half” but Sharon suggested I do 1/3 to 2/3 ratio of the colours in each of the two pieces. This made sense to me and is what I am intending to pursue. We also talked about the need for “quiet” and busy places in the paintings. Some of what is in the sketches is far too busy but even allowing for this I can see the need for “quiet” areas. 

We also talked at some length about whether the roads should be sharp or not, the use of different thicknesses of paint, and the possibilities of using the stencil of the word “self” (laser cut last week) with masking fluid to produce layering within the paint. Also the possibility of depicting your thoughts from the walk, or what you want to share. A lot of conceptual and practical food for thought. 

Today I laser cut some further lettering, once again including the word ”self”, and also “hope”, inspired by Hope Road which adjoins Mabgate. I’ve cut these out of card, some grey paper, and a manilla envelope. I also cut some out of a photo of the City of Mabgate Inn that I’d copied onto acetate. I found the choice of “hope” and “self” quite positive. I’ll use this lettering in the final pieces. 

Self, self, self

 

I’ve also looked again at the sketches and while they still bear some resemblance to the actual map of the area, they are too complex for what I’m trying to use them for and they fracture the space too much – even though I want to portray fragmentation, since time is fragmented by the act of walking, and the area itself is fragmented in its use, and its users and is likely to become more so with the advent of gentrification. I will therefore simplify them before I start on the finished versions tomorrow. 

Testing ideas on the sketch

I’ve also found another print amongst those from last week which isn’t the best ever but which will give me four I can take to MMU.  With the challenge of the painting I don’t think I will make it back into the print room before the conference.

 

London

We spent the weekend in London, something we used to do quite frequently and now do all too rarely. Part of the reason for the visit was to see the Hockney retrospective at Tate Britain and we also managed to fit in the Rauschenberg retrospective at Tate Modern. I’ll write about these separately. On a smaller scale, but equally interesting, were unexpectedly coming across two printmaking exhibitions. 

SouthbankPrintmakers  were exhibiting in the Oxo Building, and what a feast of printmaking - prints of all sizes and techniques and colours. The works by the entrance door were etchings of urban and industrial scenes by the printmaker Melanie Bellis. Seeing works like these (a) gives me something to aspire to and (b) helps me realise that the urban and industrial are not such unusual subjects, which is positive. By very happy coincidence, Melanie was curating the exhibition that day, and she discussed her work with me. She encouraged me to persevere with my etching into a ground and to be unafraid to experiment with smaller plates until I got my bearings with the techniques. I always find it gratifying when established artists are willing to share their time and give insights – it is a real encouragement. Shortly afterwards I found out via Twitter that Melanie has been granted associate membership of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, which was fantastic to hear.

Just around the corner, at the Royal Society of Watercolour Artists’ Bankside Gallery, there was an exhibition of woodcut prints by the Society of Wood Engravers. One of the exhibiting artists, Louise Hayward  was actually doing some demonstrations and I talked to her. Louise’s subject matter is also the urban, in particular, brutalist buildings. I was fascinated to find out that some of her work had been produced by effectively carving into plastic plates, not dissimilar to the type I’d been using for my drypoint etchings. However, they are then (obviously) printed relief rather than intaglio. I really enjoyed seeing the detail and structure of her prints, and once again found inspiration and encouragement by speaking to her.

 

MA Week 55 - a fruitful start to February

Reflection on the past two weeks, 6^th February 2017  

At last, some definite progress to report! First things first, though – I finally got my marks back for my dissertation and I got a very good mark. I was really pleased. My tutor also seemed to “get” what I was trying to say and the way I was trying to say it. That gave me a real boost, which was much-needed, and I felt all my efforts last term had been recognised.

I had a good tutorial towards the end of January which helped to confirm the viability of an idea I’d had, to base an abstract painting on a map of the Mabgate area. Sharon (my tutor) liked some of the marks I’d made, and the plan is to incorporate at least some of these into the painting. There will, hopefully, be the usual method of choosing colours based on what I saw (see this week 46 blogpost for more info on what I actually did see), and incorporating the shapes I encountered into layers within the painting.

I’ve gone for 300gsm cartridge paper which is now stretched and which I’ll gesso to help me use charcoal and graphite on it. I like the acrylic paper but I didn’t think this would work so well if I were to try to use charcoal. We’ll see! This is all a learning curve for me – I’ve only stretched one sheet of paper since I left school – and I was unsure how long to soak this paper for. I’ve not used cartridge paper of this weight, but one of the things I want to do this term is to learn more about paper, so this is a good opportunity to learn something.

I’ve started a sketch of the proposed piece (it’s in two parts) and I feel quite happy with the shapes which are based on the streets. I have experimentation to do with the layering, and the colours I’ve put down so far aren’t right, but that’s the point of making a sketch. I have another tutorial in a couple of days so the next two evenings will be spent applying further colour to the sketch so I can talk this through with Sharon. I feel much happier working with this methodical approach although I am still concerned about time.

Colours in progress

 

I finally managed to get back into the print room last Thursday and I spent a good day in there. I printed the office block that’s being gentrified several times. Susie, one of the technicians, helped me get a better print by packing on top of the paper/plate with tissue paper. I did some experimental inking, some of which worked and some didn’t. I’m not sure where next with this plate but some of the latest prints are OK. These are all on 140 gsm cartridge paper but I’ve been recommended to use Snowdon paper so I will be giving this a try in due course.

 

An experiment that probably didn't work

On Thursday lunchtime I laser cut some shapes that I’d drawn based on the map of the Mabgate area. I also cut out the word “self”. There is a self-storage place next to the gentrifying office block and I kept coming back to the idea of “self”… storing some of yourself, or leaving some of yourself behind perhaps? Then it was back to the print room for an afternoon shift of monoprinting. I used the resists that I’d laser cut and I was quite pleased with the results. I didn’t clean the plate at all during the afternnon and this gave some nice layering. I used cadmium yellow and process cyan (my super favourites). This is because the self-storage place signs are blue and yellow, and also I wanted to get to a green that was reminiscent of the old City of Mabgate pub’s sage green exterior tiles. The colours mixed up to a nice leaf green – not exactly the colour of the tiles, but a nice Spring-like colour for the time of year.

 

self discovery

Using text in the monoprint was probably something that I’d resisted for a long time but I liked the result. I thought it gave a bit more interest to the prints. There were three that will be suitable for use at the MMU PGR conference although the registration could have been better! I think these prints represent a little development step compared to the work I did last Summer and I really want to work with more laser-cut shapes.

 

It was a bit of a downer that the print room was booked for a class on Friday as I’d got my print groove on and would have liked to continue where I left off on Thursday. However, there was a silent crit in class so I joined in with that. I worked with two first-year students, whom I’d not previously met, Diane and Hattie. Their comments were mighty useful. I showed two of the monoprints and two prints of the gentrifying office block. They felt that the colourful prints were reminiscent of nature and the organic, whereas the office block prints were hard and represented the physical. This was insightful for me as I am grappling with how to present the two types of prints together, and this could provide an entry point; the static and the chaotic, perhaps? They also recognised that the monoprints were based on map shapes, which was great! When I explained that the prints were based on the Mabgate area and why I’d used the colours, Hattie immediately mentioned the green tiles of the former pub, which was really encouraging. The only thing they didn’t “get” was the text. Perhaps it needs a bit more thought as to exactly how I deploy it.

 

Crit time: working with Hattie and Diane, enjoying looking at each others' work

It’s been good to be so productive after rather a fallow time. I promised myself February would be fruitful, and so far, so good.