ARTISTIC RESEARCH- DIARY

A DIARY OF ARTISTIC RESEARCH -
over the course of the week, I took notes and jotted down thoughts, which started resembling a diary.  

DAY 1- thoughts on research and textile art
DAY 2- thoughts on textile art + meeting the group and starting production  
DAY 3- production process
DAY 4 - Henie Onstad visit - Abakanowicz exhibition- alone
DAY 5 - Henie Onstad visit - Abakanowicz exhibition -w/ 2yr old child and her friend
SUMMARY OF THOUGHTS

LECTURE ON RESEARH
 Research = Yardstick by which we measure information, usuallay associated with science.- art exemplifies research.artists can define themselves as explorers. Research= a second search, a re-evaluation of what we know, taking us through a journey without a final destination- the landscape is never the same twice. 

- truth is illusive, always changing, so search for truth will be continuous. 

- research is a way of living curiously.- constantly ask yourself: what am I doing? what are others doing? How are they doing it? How am I doing it? How are we doing it together?- artist= see, question, be curious, be different, within the means of what we do that we can be different.

- not about discovery, EXPLORING IS A NEW WAY OF SEEING!

BENTE STRANG
 not easy getting material to work with, that’s why they started with Sisal- this was easy to see something new, easy to construct with as it was harder.- Abakanowicz: ‘what do you want? why do you do this? How can you work to analyse this? I always go to nature, it’s the most logical thing.’ it was a time of solidarity, fun time, fundament for support system for artists. 

 - Abakanowicz wasn’t so political because she wanted to go abroad, she had to take care of her interests. 

- it was natural to work ‘big’ when the materials you are given are ‘big’ (you have a big rope you have to make something ‘big’).- she didn’t do the work alone, since the pieces were so big, she must have had a lot of assistance and strong people. and she had a lot of opportunities from the government which shows how important it is to have their help.


ELISE STORSVEN
when doing public work, there’s always rules: please don’t use red because... please don’t use dark colours because...  have little control over the art when it is handed over. working in smaller, dirtier, problematic spaces and exhibiting in amazing, white big rooms - duality of it. she thinks its a problem, that we should have more problematic spaces to work (and also exhibit in?).

 

ELIN IGLANG
-push limits of materials and techniques of looms to find new possibilities.

Annie Albers - curious and experimental approach to weaving, abstract expressionism, experimenting and crossing threads, weaving for the eye, layering of weavingTextile in dialog with architecture and space


PRODUCTION WITH GROUP
-someone mentioned the movement of fabric, especially when thinking of hanging sheets. someone else liked the playfulness of the idea, playing as children.occasionally asking if it was ok that we would do this or take that direction (’oh sorry I’m encroaching a bit on where you were working, no that’s ok  go right ahead and add to it’). Linn kept saying that whatever she was doing, we (the others) could always add to it if we wanted to.We decided to put it somewhere where people could pass through if they wanted to, so that there would be interaction with the piece. even if people didn’t pass through, they still passed close enough that the fabric would move slightly due to the movement next to it.I brought in the lamp I had borrowed from Kaja for the guardian of the forest project and put it at the top of the bridge, facing downwards. it looked a bit like a sun glowing down, and the light at times felt different when one was inside the maze.


ABAKANOWICZ- HENIE ONSTAD
-We live in times which are extraordinary because of their various forms of aggression. Today new danger exists around us as if everyone were against everyone. Agora should become a symbol, a metaphor about this particular historical moment in which we need each other, in which we want to rely on each other more than ever’ (THIS!!! link to my art practice)


-Reflection on seeing from a children’s perspective:
- seeing objects or recognizable elements in the art
 - no border between physicality and sense (of course those black Abakans 3 metres behind the snake/rope, are its cheeks): might be called imagination.
- empathising with the people they love/relate to (mummy’s favourite, Alma’s favourite, Ida’s favourite, Alba’s favourite). 
see full transcription of recording here.  

ARTISTIC RESEARCH- Process

DAY  1- THOUGHTS ON RESEARCH & TEXTILE ART

THOUGHTS ON  RESEARCH - lecture with Merete Røstad
- Research = Yardstick by which we measure information, usuallay associated with science.
- how does art contribute to knowledge that scientists cannot.
- artists are increasingly encouraged to present their work as research to get funding.
- art exemplifies research.
gap between science and art= anthropology ?
- artists can define themselves as explorers.
- Merete case study: scientists didn’t feel like explorers anymore, the facts were already known before they started the trip. antrhopologists looked at spaces through the eyes of previous generations. Sailors and artist (Merete) were amazed at the changed/ever changing landscape, it was an ongoing exploration, never stopped looking around. (a bit like curious children? seeing the world through children’s eyes).

- which vision of exploration looks at research best ? collaborative effort to sustain life, endless search for truth.
- Research= a second search, a re-evaluation of what we know, taking us through a journey without a final destination



- the landscape is never the same twice.
- truth is illusive, always changing, so search for truth will be continuous.
- research is a way of living curiously.
-pursuit of illusive quality of truth.
- acknowledge what we can never fully process.

-research doesn’t seek to bring out facts and ideas but ensures that marginalized narratives have a voice.
-public spaces= backdrop for narrative research
- textile art= contextualizes research
- research= artistic endeavours
- feminism and artistic research= challenges male dominated artworks. - redefine spaces for artistic expression and where all voices find their place in this tapestry of human experience.
- constantly ask yourself: what am I doing? what are others doing? How are they doing it? How am I doing it? How are we doing it together?

- sustainable researcher
- artist= see, question, be curious, be different, within the means of what we do that we can be different.
- not about discovery, EXPLORING IS A NEW WAY OF SEEING!
THOUGHTS ON TEXTILE ART - with textile artist Bente Strang
- SÅKS - founded on Bauhaus system
               - 1969 a conservative leadership at school
               -a time of socialism, protests, discussion, feminism filling the studies, united the disciplines.
               - 1962 Lausanne Biennale influenced the textile art situation in the 60s. Britt Fuglevåg.
               - exchange scholarships at Academy of Fine arts in Poland where Abakanowicz was a teacher.

- School in Poland = same as Bauhaus system, even more conservative no room for protest and rebellion (it was not visible, underground probably).
- not easy getting material to work with, that’s why they started with Sisal- this was easy to see something new, easy to construct with as it was harder.
- Abakanowicz: ‘what do you want? why do you do this? How can you work to analyse this? I always go to nature, it’s the most logical thing.’
- what did Abakanowicz pass on: she taught intensity, focus on work, you can take a break but keep working, doing art in big sizes, one-to-one method with the part.
-  drawing pencil on pressening - when she was interested in drapes and the themes (drapes associated with feministicness vs the masculinity of the pressening)
- 1974 - negociations with the government - artists wanted money for stipend, paid for having exhibitions, paid for working as artists. (what we have now basically).
- it was a time of solidarity, fun time, fundament for support system for artists.
- Abakanowicz wasn’t so political because she wanted to go abroad, she had to take care of her interests.
- it was natural to work ‘big’ when the materials you are given are ‘big’ (you have a big rope you have to make something ‘big’).
- she isn’t so good at analyzing space so prefers to work with the ideas.

- indigo sol dyes - interesting intensity (Kokebok for indigosol - a book of all samples she used to hit/get the right colour).
- why was Abakanowicz so influential in Norway? Alf Bø article that ‘imposed’ the view of her work, possibility of scholarship to study abroad (?).
- she didn’t do the work alone, since the pieces were so big, she must have had a lot of assistance and strong people. and she had a lot of opportunities from the government which shows how important it is to have their help.

THOUGHTS ON TEXTILE ART - with textile artist Elise Storsven
-  her experience of the Abakans - sissal isn’t very  nice to touch for small children.
- friends and family to help her put up the work
- group shows are more interesting than solo shows.
-  the people and the places : relies on help but likes to do everything herself.  but hand sewing is nice to do in group :) stitches are  different depending on who does it, know that a lot of people have been involved in it.
- when doing public work, there’s always rules: please don’t use red because... please don’t use dark colours because...  have little control over the art when it is handed over.
- the space makes her work (’it was the space that made me work’).
- ‘transparency’: a work that are meant to see from both sides. thin cotton prepared with rice water.looked like a “D work but had  to walk around (layers of layers in front of each other).
- a place between 2D and 3D - the work in process is very different from the exhibition
- working in smaller, dirtier, problematic spaces and exhibiting in amazing, white big rooms - duality of it. she thinks its a problem, that we should have more problematic spaces to work (and also exhibit in?).

ARTISTIC RESEARCH- Process

DAY  2- THOUGHTS ON TEXTILE ART & MEETING THE GROUP  + STARTING

THOUGHTS ON  TEXTILE ART - lecture with Elin Igland
- crossing textiles with each other in many possible ways to make a sculpture
- push limits of materials and techniques of looms to find new possibilities.
- weaving as sculpture & installations.
- artist, material and techniques of systems to make sculptures with.
- Annie Albers - curious and experimental approach to weaving, abstract expressionism, experimenting and crossing threads, weaving for the eye, layering of weaving
- Lausanne Textile Biennale - to check !
-  standing on the shoulders of giants : Annie Albers, Sheila Hicks, Leonora Tani (make art weaving where you need to think of construction), Claire Zseiser, Else Jiak (discusses what is flat and three dimensional), Eva Hesse...
- Elin and hrer machines and yarn = stories that make  us go where we’re going
- Working with digital Jacquard loom, can control every thread- Holland : machine adapts itself to what the artist wants. it’s usually the other way around.
-TC2 looms : black and white squares
- chaos of the thread : what is natural for the fibre vs the tension of the thread when it is pulled and tightened.
- Textile in dialog with architecture and space
- possibility of weaving as free as possible : as fast as possible, as impulsive as possible and not caring about the result, weaving with whole body.  didn’t use a loom, hanging hooksin the ceiling and had the warp hanging and walked around the room with the weft. bundled loads of nylon fibre to make the weft.

- wool fibre together with nylon fibre: symbiotic relationship.
- work in a process: recycling the fibres, re-using the fibres from the previous exhibition/art pieces.
- contiuous thread throughout her work process: holland place came back years later in her work, the material she uses makes that happen.
- risks of textiles in space- dust, colours change, etc...
- the material has its own language
- process: starting with meeting with the material then getting ideas so then she has to stop and write and read and then go back to weave, etc...



MEETING WITH THE GROUP FOR THE GROUP PROJECT - LINN, ARYS, FREIA, AND ME

- had lunch together, got along well, took it in turns to say what we liked about the lectures so far, what we’re interested in, how we like to work, if we already had any ideas about the project.
- I said that whenever I think of textiles the first thing that comes in my mind is sheets hanging out to dry and playing inside them when I was little, the light that shines through, the shadows of my sisters behind the sheets, etc...
- someone mentioned the movement of fabric, especially when thinking of hanging sheets. someone else liked the playfulness of the idea, playing as children.
- went up to get the material. we had lots of white hospital sheets, rope hemp-like and nylon-like (with colours), some odd organic rope and fabrics hardened by glue and sand (recycling of an other project), and lots of different fabrics.
- we picked the sheets and some rope. picking the material was pretty spontaneous where we each asked the other what they thought and if the other said yes then we would take it.
- we went straight to catedralen to set up, picked the place furthest away from reception, close to the entrance to the auditorium.
- right from the start, the idea of a grid to help us hang things to became apparent, so we started tearing strips of fabric and weaving them together to make a grid. again the work flow was very spontaneous, we each took turns to cut and tear and weave, without so much as asking each other  or planning who was to do what. we each did what we wanted to do within the parametres that we had decided together. we knew a grid needed to be done so we worked together to do it, when there were less strips one of us would get up to make while the others carried on weaving. that sort of thing.
- it took maybe two hours to complete the grid, we hung it up by the entrance of the auditorium, just to see what it would look like, and started hanging things (knotting the fabric onto the grid). here the process became more individual where we each decided to do our own thing, occasionally asking if it was ok that we would do this or take that direction (’oh sorry I’m encroaching a bit on where you were working, no that’s ok  go right ahead and add to it’). Linn kept saying that whatever she was doing, we (the others) could always add to it if we wanted to.



- we ended up with a fairly sculptural hanging piece of white pieces of fabric organised on a grid, to mimic the hanging sheets and playing through them.
- taking it down for the night: because there was going to be a show in the evening in the auditorium we couldn’t leave it up overnight. Again we talked together on how best to take it down and agreed that we would mark each corner of the grid in another coloured fabric, take each corner down and fold the grid on itself, with the hanging fabric inside (so that when we opened it out in the morning, it should have stayed put).
- love the teamwork so far!  

ARTISTIC RESEARCH- Process

DAY  3- PRODUCTION PROCESS OF THE PIECE
- we put up the piece in its final location for the exhibition (right before the bridge in catedralen). Because of health and safety we had to have 1m off the wall for people to pass, so we put it as close to the left side of the wall was possible (when facing the bridge with the reception at the back). We decided to put it somewhere where people could pass through if they wanted to, so that there would be interaction with the piece. even if people didn’t pass through, they still passed close enough that the fabric would move slightly due to the movement next to it.
- we carried on hanging, knotting fabric, adding the hemp-coloured rope here and there.

- By lunch time we felt like we had finished hanging/knotting  and thought we could add colour to it, a little bit. that’s when we brought in the spray bottle and Arys mixed some ochres together to find a colour that would work with the hemp colour of the rope (because everything else was mainly white). we decided to spray paint (using the spray bottle) only the bottom parts of the hanging pieces.  so that it could dry in time for the exhibition opening two hours later, but also because we really liked the white of the hanging pieces of fabric, it harks back to that picture of hanging white sheets.
- we also had to try to not wet/paint the flour too much.
- we ended up with a maze of tied/knotted hanging strips of fabric, randomly sculptured into something. the idea was not for people to get stuck when they walked through but for them to enter into a bit of an odd world.
- I brought in the lamp I had borrowed from Kaja for the guardian of the forest project and put it at the top of the bridge, facing downwards. it looked a bit like a sun glowing down, and the light at times felt different when one was inside the maze.

- We reached a point where we felt like it was a natural place to stop hanging things and spraying, that the piece was ‘complete’ (As Linn said, it didn’t feel like we were having fun anymore, so then it was time to stop).
- BUT we still had some strips left, and thought they could be fun to have hanging on the side for people to take and hang things out by themselves. So then we had to make a sign, within 10 minutes of the opening.

- Opening : people wanted to play in the space, which is a good sign, and some people also hung/tied some strips to add to the piece. I would say we achieved what we wanted then.

ARTISTIC RESEARCH- Process

DAY  4- HENIE ONSTAD EXHIBITION- 23.11
- I first went to visit the exhibition alone. Recorded my thoughts either on voice recorder or on paper. here’s some thoughts/quotes that particulary stood out:

‘The feeling of how responsible you are, about what you are doing when you are an artist, how difficult this way is, and how much you should control yourself in everything you are doing. And how responsible you are also towards the society, when you have chosen to be an artist. ‘

- ‘The Abakans...’ she stated, ‘... were my escape from categories in art, they could not be classified. Larger than me, they were safe like the hollow trunk of the old willow I could enter as a child in search of hidden secrets’

- ‘I always design the exhibitions in a special way depending on the space I have at my disposal, could you please invite me for some days at your center. After the Malmø opening I really need to know the conditions that my works will have there’. The works have life in a way then, if they need special conditions ?

- ‘We live in times which are extraordinary because of their various forms of aggression. Today new danger exists around us as if everyone were against everyone. Agora should become a symbol, a metaphor about this particular historical moment in which we need each other, in which we want to rely on each other more than ever’ (THIS!!! link to my art practice)

- about sites of contemplation: ‘the artist embarks on a  series of major public sculptures and commissions around the world. She responds to the landscape and historical makeup of each individual site, varying her forms and choices of materials accordingly’.

- ‘With my exhibitions around the world, I wanted to make people aware that my captive country still has a high level old culture contributing to the world heritage, and is at the same time able to speak about the recent reality with the very personal and powerful voice of modern art... I travelled probably more than any other artist. That important was the dialogue with the whole world.’

- about her first solo show in the USA at the Pasadena museum: the larger exhibition space grants Abakanowicz  the opportunity to experiment with the placing of her works,  in relation to each other and to the gallery itself. She also incorporates found objects- such as a large piece of rope procurred from the  local harbour.

- look into the  autobiographical prose poem Portrait x20 ! (narrates her childhood experiences, including her early relationship with nature and the hardship suffered during WW2).

- Abakanowicz begins to envision her works not as discrete objects but rather as environments formed within a given space.

- the work with fibre was instrinsically linked to the way natural, living entities, such as plants, leaves and ourselves, grow and function (...) she explained how she found natural materials and prepared them at home in Warsaw ‘Along the vistula river one could find old, discarded ropes. They had their own history. They became my material. I pulled out thread, washed and dyed them on our gas stove’.

see rest of transcript of recordings here.

ARTISTIC RESEARCH- Process

DAY  5- HENIE ONSTAD EXHIBITION ROUND 2- 26.11

I went back with my 2 year old daughter, two friends of mine and their two year old daughter, to see the exhibition from a different perspective (that of a two year old’s curious mind).

here are some key takeaway moments:
- on the way home around 16.00 looking at the full moon and making the link between the full moon and the Abakans.  
- the snakes (black ropes from one of the Abakans) that are asleep (obviously, they’re not moving) so we have to be quiet.
- the red one has a big long lose.  Alba’s favourite.
- the orange one, mummy’s favourite, looks like a face with big cheeks.
- there are dinosaurs in the black coat, so it’s a bit scary.
- watching the film, and we see Abakanowicz and two other people moving the  Abakans as they are being set up: the Abakans are dancing on themselves.
- about the black Albakan and the ropes: the Abakans are holding the snake (those are the cheeks of the snake).

Reflection on seeing from a children’s perspective:
- seeing recognizable objects or recognizable elements in the art
- no border between physicality and sense (of course those black Abakans 3 metres behind the snake/rope, are its cheeks): might be called imagination.
- empathising with the people they love/relate to (mummy’s favourite, Alma’s favourite, Ida’s favourite, Alba’s favourite).