Today was about finishing touches, where I figured out what was the matter with the sound with Neil in the morning, sorted out the rest of the cables, re-hung a piece that was slightly too low, white tape anything branded/wires poking out, and a general tidy up. However, Neil and I found that the projectors were unfortunately still getting hot, and didn’t want to risk anything going wrong for my show. Therefore, we decided to get a jig-saw and cut out a large rectangular shape for the fan, and that should solve the heat problem. We tested this to make absolute sure it wasn’t a hazard, and it worked! I just sanded them down and painted again, and they were good to go. While I had the paint out, I decided to paint the mirror plates white too so that they looked flat and floating against the wall.
This is how it looks finished and playing;
I’m so pleased with how it has turned out, and although many problems arose, I’m still happy I went for it. I think it will really benefit my work having them projected this way, and will hopefully come through as successful pieces in my presentation.
Tensions were high as the degree show build is soon coming to an end, but I felt like I concluded a successful day. I did, however, encounter a few problems, but resolved them with the help of Neil Pedder and quick thinking. I was able to take a few pictures in the morning of the projections, which was motivation to get as much done as possible today to see everything in action tomorrow.
I made my space safe from people tripping over cables by putting rubber strips down that covered the entire cables. This has sufficiently now made it a risk-free zone and has also made its overall presentation look much more professional.
My projectors were overheating and were switching off because of this. Therefore, I drilled through six extra holes around the fans, enabling air to get into those areas more freely. I still need to test if this will sufficiently work tomorrow, the last build day. This took several attempts, as I though at the beginning perhaps two extra holes would be enough. I had time to test this out, and found that it was not the case. Therefore, I drilled in some more, sanded and painted them, and set everything up ready to be tested tomorrow morning.
I gave everything a tidy-up before I left to save me having to do a lot tomorrow before the deadline.
I recently made a blog post through the medium of Welsh about my Diffusion Internship. This was for CSAD to use on their blog to let other students know about the opportunities Cardiff has to offer. I was then posted on the page, giving a little snippet of what I had written, which is always great publicity.
I re-posted this on my fine art instagram, enabling me to further reach people in the Cardiff art scene, which will hopefully let people know that I am an active member in the art scene, and willing to take on great opportunities.
Today was my last day with Diffusion and my internship, which was rather bittersweet because I’ll miss everyone who I’ve come to know over this experience, but I’m also very keen to get on with my own work. I started the day by processing each feedback form visitors filled out from every venue onto ChimpMail, and added them to Diffusion and Ffotogallery’s mailing list for future events and news. This took me a while to do, because I had to do it on both Diffusion and Ffotogallery’s profiles.
I then helped tidy the area in Turner House, starting with the larger objects and tools, transferring them all to the basement, after labelling and boxing everything we could.
I then helped assemble tables for the debrief meeting tomorrow, which I won’t be able to attend due to university deadlines in a few days. I also set up the tea urn, teas and coffees, then that was my last day done at Turner House.
Today I had a thorough plan of what I aimed to complete. I first started with putting in my frame plates into my pieces, ready to hang on the walls once most of everything else was done. This went rather smoothly, as I was careful not to pierce to the other side of the board, and made sure nothing was squished in the process.
I then proceeded to sort my plinths so that the cables at the bottom had holes to go through, and not make the plinth unsteady. I marked out where I anticipated they’d need to go through, basing it on where I’ll be sorting them with Neil on Thursday. I used a saw to cut out triangular shapes, which worked perfectly. I also made sure to sand them down, and will paint them when I do my final touch-ups and tidy.
I then put them to the test, and was able to mark out exactly where my pieces were going to go on the wall. However, doing this, I encountered a problem; the projectors overheated after about twenty minutes and switched off, even with the ventilation they were getting from the back being exposed. I’ll have to ask Neil for his opinion on Thursday.
I did get a chance to film a few aspects of the piece after I adjusted the pieces on the walls to fit the projection, which was exciting to finally see!
The goal of my film and instillation will be to shine a light on the fetishisation of women’s bodies through food, thus makes our bodies objects to be consumed. These transformations, however, are very plainly failures, and they don’t end looking like sexual body parts at all, inducing the sense that this is another unattainable standard for women.
The work I will have chosen to display will help morph my film of transforming my body into fetishised foods even further, inducing the grotesque nature of it. The projected film will be projected from numerous projectors on top of plinths and onto numerous MDF boards. My original plan was to have them all in different positions, as seen below;
However, during the build, I made the decision to have them all exactly the same, as to not distract the audience from what I want to show, which are my projections;
I hung the pieces around eye-level, so that people can directly watch the projections. This meant that the plinths were built to be around 4ft tall, and spaced correctly so that the hanging pieces are all projected onto like TV screens.
I originally planned to only show three pieces, however after research, I changed my mind and displayed four. This was for aesthetic and practical reasons, which were to be able to have more leeway to have breaks in the films to keep the audience engaged with 1/2 films playing at the same time, while two others showed flashbacks (such as images, very sudden videos, etc) and colour blocks of the foods.
The film itself is a series of performances I’ve documented, and are heavily inspired by ORLAN’s body modifications, Cindy Sherman’s “Grotesque Series” of food and photography, and Rachel Maclean’s “Make Me Up” film. They share a grisly theme to their work, which I believe I’ve captured by using mashed up food on my body in my performances. The idea of being a woman who fails at attaining expectations put onto her comes from Vanessa Beecroft’s work, who explores how women are mortal and simply aren’t made to be like dolls.
The curation of my piece has also come from numerous artists and exhibitions I have visited. I recently went to Paul Eastwood’s “Dyfodiaith” exhibition and performance, who used sound very effectively, by having the musicians, narrator, and singers all stood around the screening of the film. The semi-permanent exhibition of the film also had a similar effect, as the speakers were spread around the projection. My aim is to create a similar effect, as I’ve used narration and food sounds in my films. This will be done with speakers coming from all media players, creating an atmosphere of the sounds.
Other exhibitions I’ve researched, like Shin il Kim’s piece “Active Anesthesia”, shows how the artist seeks to shake viewers out of a passive, anesthetised state into one that inspires active engagement with their surroundings. These blocks of colours really inspired my decision to have projections onto the pieces of colour blocks to split up the films nicely, by not having too much playing at the same time. They will also be useful to give the audience a chance to took at the relief paintings closely.
Achim Hatzius’ piece, “Speculations on Anonymous Materials”, also lead me to change my mind about only displaying 3 projections. I was always taught to display things in three because of the aesthetic of it, and it would have also been a great link to femininity, as witches always “come in threes”. However, I really enjoy the four projections from Hatzius piece, and it would also give me more room to experiment with the projections themselves. I did not, however, think the projector holders would suit my work at all, as my theme revolves around the unattainable standards women face. Plinths have worked much better to put the projectors into, as plinths are often used to display figures of traditional ideal women in museums and exhibitions. They also link to my references to Ovid’s myth of Pygmalion in my film. I ensured that these plinths were built to a high standard, mimicking a gallery’s plinth used for this purpose.
It was all then left to sorting my films for each projector and finalising curation aspects of my piece, such as choosing which of the relief paintings I’ll be using. The six I had to choose from were a variation of different fruits – some resembles grotesque versions of the body more, and some looked more life-like, and one was a plain board I was considering using for flashbacks.
The final six
My final thoughts were that I even wanted the flashbacks to morph as they are projected onto these boards, and felt that the more 3D/relief fruits did this the best. The different positioning of the objects will be interesting to watch with different films, and I did bare this in mind while I was choosing my films, swapping USBs around and seeing what worked more effectively.
The final four
I find it much easier to know what’s going on with my work by writing everything down in simple diagrams. I did this by drawing quick sketches of the boards I have chosen with names of the films I plan on showing onto them below the diagram. I then made a time-frame of what would happen in all of the films, taking into consideration of what was happening on all projectors at the same time. I planned this out so that no two film with me speaking would clash, and the only sounds that did were sound effects, which would only emphasise the grotesque sounds. There are also periods of flashbacks, images, and colour blocks to help with this. They all last 10 minutes, which also helped me in keeping track with each USB and what was shown on them.
Diagram/plan
List of films
Diagram/plan
Diagram/plan
Diagram/plan
I then decided to label each USB and will also label each media player to help me figure things out much quickly when I’m setting up. Each 10 minute film is now on the USBs ready to try out on the projectors this afternoon.
When I set everything up, numerous problems came up; I found that only one film would play due to the media players not working, overheating projectors switching off, cable health and safety, and speakers playing louder than others. I fixed all of these with the help of our technician, Neil Pedder. I was able to cool down the projectors by drilling in six new holes, and was able to safe-proof my exhibition to a high standard. The speakers were due to the levels my films were edited on, therefore worked on them and tried them out again the next day, resolving all issues that came up.
I didn’t get as much done today as I’d hoped to, as I couldn’t get my hands on a drill over the weekend, therefore I’ll have to wait until Tuesday when the campus is open again. However, I did sort out where exactly my pieces will be on the wall by measuring exactly where the plinths would be positioned (68cm gap between all). I marked all areas with masking tape, which will offer a guide in case anything is moved. I also made sure that all projections on the walls measured the same as the boards, so that they fit perfectly on top and make the pieces look like screens rather than obviously look projected onto.
I managed to get a lot done today, including all of the rest of the painting (mainly touch-ups), cleaning and scrubbing the floors, and placing most of the equipment inside the plinths.
I began the floor cleaning in sections, working my way around the plinths to make sure I didn’t create any marks with the browned water. Most of the paint was impossible to get off, but I did improve its state, and is looking much better than it previously did.
I also placed the plinths to about where I’ll be wanting them for the show. This lead to starting to carefully place everything inside. However, I did find out that the amplifiers didn’t fit inside, which is a shame, as I was really hoping they would. I also found that I forgot to cut holes into the bottom for the wires to come through and not disturb the plinth by making it wobbly, which is something I’ll have to quickly sort out next week with a tutor’s guidance. However, for now, I have a good idea of where the pieces will be placed, and will start drafting them out on the walls tomorrow.
I also signed up to invigilating during my lunch break for when the show starts for 4 shifts, which will certainly help towards my professional development.
Tomorrow will be for placing the plinths in correct positions, placing masking tape where needed to remember the positioning if they’re moved. I’ll be calculating this by measuring the length of the room, which I quickly did today before having to leave the building. It measures 4 meters and 80cm, and will have to include all of the plinths, which are 35cm in width X 4. This means that I’ll have to subtract 140cm from the room measurement and divide by 5 spaces. This means that there should be roughly 68cm gap between all spaces.
This wasn’t meant to be the last day uninstalling Shift, but we all pulled together and worked hard to get everything done ahead of schedule. We first added a new layer of paint onto the once black walls, pillars, and made sure that the floors were cleared of objects like screws or nails. We then started to take everything out of the Bootlegger Apartment box that was built, which was the last instalment left from Diffusion. We individually wrapped every object as they were from the Soviet Era and were extremely delicate. We did this by using bubble-wrap and masking tape, and were all individually labelled and put into sectioned boxes. We then unscrewed the walls and structure. Thankfully, Shift wanted to keep all the wood, therefore we only had to stack them up. We then loaded the van to Turner House with everything that was left, including books, tea urn, chairs, etc. This was the final thing needed to do, and I’ll be extremely sad to leave Shift and to have seen it all come down, but I’m happy to now fully concentrate on my own degree show build.
I wanted to concentrate on getting most of the painting done today, including the plinths and walls. In order to do this, I needed to sand the filler down I had used in the morning in preparation for a smoother surface to paint on. The nails I had found under the paint on the walls slowed this process down, as the sanding I did had resurfaced them. This meant that I had to take my time to get them out, but this was difficult due to how deep they all were.
I also had the help of my first year helper, Sadie Mansfield, which was great because she painted a few plinths while I painted my walls, then I helped her finish off the plinths. This meant that the only painting I had left was the touch-ups.
However, I was pleased that I was able to do all of this in a day, which will certainly help me crack on with the curation of the piece next week.
saratrouble 