virtues.....

I was so pleased with my recent posting at my main (public) blog site that I thought I'd bring it here pretty much unaltered.....
 

In a past post at art & etc, and here I shared a recent 'fiery' book work that dealt with the seven deadly sins - and lest everyone think I'm falling into a sea of sin I thought I'd share the 'other half' of my most recent work.....

The seven cardinal virtues*.....

This work features another (matching) set of Encyclopaedia Brittanica, hand cut paper letters, dirt, moss and lichens (gathered from the property here at Sams Creek) - again it is an ephemeral piece, it was set up, photographed then the moss was re-established in and around my garden.

Just like the vice work previously mentioned, this piece started out very differently from where it finished. Originally I thought that this piece would feature 'carved'/ cut lettering into the encyclopaedia page edges, (just as I had done initially with vices) but I changed my mind after all that time spent cutting 'vices' and I shelved this work along with the vices......waiting for the 'solution' to materialise

After I set 'vices' ablaze I knew that virtues would be a very different creature - it took a while for me to arrive at the solution - but I knew that I wanted it to 'speak' of the virtue of soil......

So I decided to cover all the page edges in yummy sams creek soil.... I thought about seeding this with grasses or the like, but I wanted to allude to something else...... so I set about gathering moss and lichens from some of my special sams creek places...

Moss and lichens are simple organisms - (and so it is easy to think of them as innocents) but their simplicity hides some of their amazing characteristics. Moss as most folk know, can only exist in moist conditions, yet many are remarkably resilient to desertification (and if they indeed do dry out, many can be 'brought back to life' with a liberal application of water). Lichens on the other hand are not really plants (and they certainly aren't animals!) - they are found in some of the most inhospitable environments - and so when I imagine the future, where most other life-forms may be fried by climate change, maybe the little lichen will live on..... but then it's important to also remember that lichens glean all of their nutrients from the air - so they are particularly vulnerable to pollutants..... Perhaps it is better to think of moss and lichens as the harbingers of environmental truth.....

and anyway I like lichens, and moss, with its moist, delicious, green fecundity is just a delight to behold! But as much as I like moss and lichens - many people find them pesky..... moss on pavers is not so much fun...

Suffice to say, depending on where you are coming from, moss and lichens may be considered either good or bad.....


and I like to think this mirrors ideas about information and 'knowledge'...

* Seven Cardinal Virtues (with English translation)

Patientia - PatienceTemperentia - TemperanceHumanitas - KindnessIndustria - DiligenceHumilitas - HumilityCastitas - ChastityCaritas - Charity

Each one of the seven cardinal virtues is meant to counteract one of the seven deadly sins - so patience conquers wrath, charity defeats greed, temperance beats gluttony, humility wins over pride, kindness overcomes envy, and of course chastity whacks lust......

...

more binding....

Just before heading off to the symposium I started preparing pages for another long and large coptic bound booklet - this time created from the entire set of childcraft annuals..... which will be arranged according to spine colour, of course.....

vices (the seven deadly sins)

Towards the end of last year I began meticulously cut/carving a set of Encyclopaedia Brittanica. My idea was to carve the seven deadly sins* into the set.

It took months of hard labour to get all seven words completed (these are not laser cut, but are created very slowly by hand) - the first step was to create calligraphic lettering - this was transfered to the encyclopaedia volumes and then the words were carefully cut with a scalpel, a few pages at a time - after the initial cutting, the page edges are then sanded.... (have you ever sanded the edge of a page? crazy!)

I completed the cutting/carving late last year and (hoe-hum) was less than thrilled the results of all that effort..... I felt that the end result didn't capture anything other than my clever technique......


so after a few months hiatus (the cut volumes languishing on my studio bookshelves) I knew what needed to be done.....

they needed to be set on FIRE!!!!!

NOW they encapsulated the idea of SIN.......

and given that I had been thinking about Dante's Inferno and the Nine Circles of Hell (many of which neatly overlap with the seven deadly sins....) AND my previous fiery works I'm surprised that I hadn't considered this action much earlier...... I think perhaps I needed to distance myself from all the labour - to divest it of preciousness in order to do what was 'right' for the work.....


When I set fire to the set I was primarily thinking about (hopefully) capturing a few great shots - and that these would then become the work (as in prior fire/book pieces - the documentation ended up becoming the artwork - not the ephemeral sculpture/ interaction) I was in for a second surprise with this piece - as I found I really like the smelly, charred remains of the books....

I'd love to see these installed, at some later stage, in a pristine white interior - no doubt releasing a little of their knowing sin (and ash-dust pages) to all and sundry.....






* the seven 'deadly' sins rendered here in Latin (with english translations) are:

ira (wrath)
luxuria (lust)
gula (gluttony)
avaritia (avarice/greed)
invidia (envy)
socordia (sloth)
superbia (pride)

you will no doubt notice that only 4 of these are visible in the pics shown - that's because the first three on the list are carved into the top or head of the books.

fire and water....

Books and water and fire......

... has always seemed like a good combination...... fire and water have opposing qualities that I'm keen for my work to allude to...

the recent rain events created the perfect (temporary) environment to create water works (these 2 shots represent my picks from an extensive ph0tographic session - but as I learned in previous 'fire' works - editing is integral to my process).

I enjoy how these complement my previous 'codex incendium' tower (or vertical) fire books - the reflection of fire books in water is definitely worth the effort of construction and setting ablaze.






(I have blogged a little about this on my public site. I've also used another from this series as my new blog header)

winter symposium and home again

Over the last week I've been down to my uni (gippsland) campus and back again - a 1300+ km round trip - but one that essentially I only need to make once a year - for the annual winter symposium

For the last four years I've been making the pilgrimage - initially as a Master of Visual Arts student - and now for the first time as Master of Fine Arts creature. I've come to really enjoy the time spent with fellow students - and getting to know the monash teaching staff is a bonus!

This year I got to spend some quality time with my new supervisor - susan purdy - and I've got to say I couldn't be happier with our pairing. Her work is incredible and her gentle manner is ever supportive and insightful. I hope we get to remain together for the duration of my project!


The main reason for heading off south for four days is to present and 'speak to' your work - and I felt both nervous and excited to be showing off what I've been up to (this was the work's first real audience) - so over the next bit I'll be posting some of the works shown and give a little of the commentary (some said during my presentation - some that evolved from the following group discussion - and some that I've until now kept to myself) - I've already posted some pics of recent work - and a short post about the fun had over on my general blog

the new book of knowledge

* I was quietly pleased with the way this piece worked out - I think its one of my most successful photographs (primarily from a technical point of view) and I'm happy that the results reflected my intentions..... the unusual colour and name of this set of encyclopaedias (the new book of knowledge) made them perfect for the piece.... I love how the book reflection is jagged (a light wind and fast shutter speed combination) and way the light hits the top and sides of the books and creates the jagged white line in the water on the right. As I explained at gippsland - I am predominantly interested in using photography to document my ephemeral work - so although I'm using a DSLR, I'm uninterested in photoshop fiddling after the fact...... I believe my photographs need to stand 'as they are' (so I don't do retouching) lest something of the experience or truth of the works be lost......

decisions....

One of the (many) things that has cropped up since making the decision to include a blog as part of my research project has been - just when to post what....... I seem to be unsure about the act of simple posting - (the sort of thing that I do at my main blog - the sort of thing that drives blogs really - where posts work almost like a journal or conversation amongst friends..... with just a little editing..... )

in a remnant puddle of the disappearing waterway

I opened an encyclopaedia science year book to an entry on photosynthesis....

and then set the pages on fire.....

Here, I have felt a compulsion or the perceived necessity to include a commentary or background.... and as such I have avoided posting things until I have the time or inclination to do just that - to add all the extraneous bits..... but this seem sadly not in keeping with either the spirit of a blog - or indeed the manner that visual art production occurs.....

What's more I've been holding over some works completed whilst profiling other things - so that whilst this may help to show how a thread of my working/research is progressing - the work in my posts appears non-sequentially..... (arguably, however, this is just what happens when curating an exhibition..... the order that work is completed may be of little or indeed no consequence to the overall ordering of work in a space..... but here in blog-land I'm wondering if working with the time-stamping might not be useful...)


So I'm going to try something else.... I'm going to see what happens when I post in a more random, rambling manner..... oh it might all become a dreadful scatty mess! and I'm sure that it will not approach the 'rigour' required of academic reporting... but perhaps it may do something else.... it may yield something closer to the actual unfolding of art-making/research/writing and conversational blogging.... and through this process the blog may be a tool or method as well as a product or form...


and anyway - I'm posting all my highly researched and edited formal written pieces in here..... they can always be a touch stone for the more rigorous aspects of written work.....

back to the creek

Recent rain has meant the creeks are flowing again in the area.... and one little stream here at the sams creek property only runs for a few days after very heavy rain (which means it can be years in between appearances). Last week was one of those rare times - so it was time to take an encyclopaedia out for a walk.....

or rather, for a dunk in the soon-to-be-gone-again stream....


(naturally the page is opened to the entry on the water cycle)