Reflective summary
​
Within ‘Feral’ George Monbiot expresses an ecological boredom, a yearning for a place of peace, ‘where his mind blew empty’. Unlike SP4A where I would anxiously project context upon my work, my practice explores my own yearning for peace within nature. Through exploring my lived experiences climbing and mountain walking, I have interrogated them through mark making and body-actions. Though my marks can identify as gestural in my performances, shadowing abstract expressionism, the methodical and practiced lines are imbued with my environmental, physical and psychological tensions. Acting as vehicles to reflect upon relations to our environment, climate change, and value of the art object in the context of late capitalism.
Through being uncomfortable climbing, lost within nature, or in front of the camera and audience whilst performing; it is these moments that force me to be present and to grow. The intuitive development of my practice in turn uncovered themes connected to our landscape such as the right to roam, influence of mindset, and the female body.
Though I have continued my exploration into the increasing issue of the climate emergency through the material context of found coffee lids, driven from my CP research into Thomas Hirschhorn’s use of ‘poor materials’. Collections of every day objects have been eclipsed by enduring collections of mark making in ink, chalk, film. Highlighting the embedded values and connotations attached to materials, the overlooked coffee lids value is manipulated and elevated through detailed, romantic drawings of our landscape. Though my drawings are a shadow to Alfred Wainwrights impeccable drawings and maps, the attention to accessibility of our landscape is a theme we share. The organic development of my practice interrogates land accessibility from drawings, mark making and performance that shapes the audience’s involvement with my practice. Subtly disrupting the escapism that is encoded through the drawings or moment of presence.
Whilst the material of found plastic references our own daily consumption and waste, paired with repetitive, minuscule line markings of mountains, together they reference the inseparable relationship between consumption and climate change. Wainwright, George Monbiot, Marina Abramovic and Matthew Barney note this reconnection to nature, this presence of concentration and freedom. Referencing Zen and Chi’j energy, Abramovic states “what is really important is the state of mind from which you do it”. This mindset underpins my performances and mirrors my experiences climbing, in turn influencing my decision to focus upon my body’s journey and marks. Though the role of props and objects have been central since the 1950s in performance artworks, or the theatricality in Matthew Barneys Cremaster Cycle or Drawing Restraint. I have diverged from the literal relation to climbing, instead refining attention to the ephemeral marks from my bodies journey.
Balancing my time between Tate Liverpool and University has refined my time management through using calendars and planners. The confidence developed from representing the gallery in workshops to giving talks, has transferred into my practice in my deeper knowledge of artworks and confidence performing. Alongside this, group crits and feedback from tutors have been invaluable in furthering research and spurring me to improve documentation of work by attending camera and video workshops. Similarly, the freedom of the studio has encouraged organic play, processing and reflecting upon my work and the audiences engagement with it. Collaborating with my peers for group shows, such as Bankleys open call, not only forced me to be critical in my works relations to others in a space, but beginning to present performances with audiences.